Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-04-04
Banfed London School Founder to Be Honored at Dinner
By George Kennedy

flngIy complain CnaC the ScnOOl-
man is not accorded proper hon.
or. They bark to the days before
the Revolution when a teacher
was a gentleman ipSo facto and
q welcome guest at the great
houses such as WestoYer, where
Philip Fithian, the Princeton tu-
tor, dined every evening at the
elegant table of William Byrd.
But the truth is that no gener-
alton has been more eager than
this one to honor the outStand-
ing educator. That will be dem
onstrated Friday night when
some 500 persons, many with
names known throughout the
Nation, will gather in the Hotel
Statler's Presidential room for a
testimonial dinner to Paul Lam
don Banfield of the Landon
School. Mr.. Banf1eld is the
last person in the world you
would take for a Schoolmaster.
He doesn't smoke a pipe. He
would rather be shot than to be
caught using a broad A. His
conversation is not monotonous,
but his voice is fiat with no ups
and downs. He creates interest
with his own absorption in what
he is saying. His vocabulary is a
collection of simple, useful, ordi-
nary words and he never Iapses
into the technical jargon Of the
educator.
He is broad shouldered man
OF 5 feet 8, weighing about 1870
pounds. The fat lines Of his
wide eyes and straight month
emphasize the horizontal in his
architecture.
His manner Is direct-man to
man. The fathers love it. The
mothers are often intimidated.
until they get to know him.
The dinner this week will
mark the 25th year of his school
which has become Washing
ton institution. He started it
In 1929 when he was % years
old. For the last 20 years it
has been situated on a Bethesda
farm, now surrounded by sub
divisions. With no check-writ-
ing angel to back it, the school
has grown steadily with the
addition of new buildings from
year to year. The physical
plant is now assessed at $780,
600. 1t does not belong to the
founder and headmaSter but to
a non-profit corporation con-
trolled by a board of trustees.
The Landon Course.
At this time of year, mothers
wait anxiously and fathers feign
indifference as to whether their
elght-year-old sons have passed
the test which will admit them
next fall to third grade in the
Landon Lower School. That is
where the Landon course starts.
The school as about $50 STU
dents, of whom 40 are boarders.
The day school rates are $500
year for the lower grades: $7OO
for the high school grades.
Many parents who live on mod
est incomes and stringent bud
gets make considerable sacri-
flee to send their sons to the
school 1t graduates about IS
boys year, all of whom go to
college.
Like all schools of this type,
Landon is strong in the tradi-
ton that battles of the future
are won on the playing fields.
It's football team last fall was
the undefeated champion of the
Interstate Academic League,
group of Washington. Maryland
and Delaware private schools.
It's basketball team won Is
games and lost four. defeating
its local rivals, st. Adams and
Sidwell Friends schools.
During the winter months
bows are kicking the ball about
the soccer field until dusk every
evening. The crack of the bat
rings out in the crisp spring air.
And the school has developed
some first-class tennis players,
something that seldom if ever
happened before in this part of
the country. Gil Bogley was
runner-up in the National
Junior Singles in 1948 and again
in 1949, Don Dell. 16-year-old
vhiz, is National Boys Singles
champion and considered a Da-
Wis Cup possibility.
But as at all schools which
are successful in preparing their
students for college entrance
examinations, the battle of the
books must be won every day by
hard, unremitting study at
home.
When it comes to stimulating
IllC OOSS, MI. od1ll1C1Q OOCSIl
spare the verbal lash. His
method is that of the coach.
His original opportunity to be-
come a teacher was due more to
the fact that he could teach
football than to other qualif1ca-
tions.
A few weeks ago he gave his
sixth form (high school senior
boys a lecture before the entire
student group. They were fail
ing in leadership. he told them.
AS a matter of fact, he contin-
ued. they weren't very good stu
dents. They were depending on
the schools reputation to get
them into college. And the way
some of them we're behaving
when they went downtown in
Bethesda wasn't helping Lam
don'S reputation.
Glass Protests.
The next day the entire sixth
form waited on the headmaSter
as a delegation. Their protest
was that he had excoriated all
of them for the faults of a few.