They adopted coeducation, multiculturalized their curricula, abandoned dress codes, and generally distanced themselves from the civic-minded condescension that had defined them. But St. Albans hardly wavered from its traditionalism. It is much more like old boarding schools such as Groton than Groton itself is. Chapel is still a twice-weekly requirement. The dress code is rigid.
Coeducation is unimaginable.
And the school unashamedly exhorts service as an obligation of privilege. At every chapel and ceremony, the headmaster drummed into our swelled heads our duty to help those poor benighted souls not fortunate enough to be Albanians. St. Albans imparts its high Episcopal arrogance to a different kind of boy from the WASPs of yore. Of the St. Albans pols, only Sen. John Warner and Bayh are actually Episcopalians. Kerry is Roman Catholic.