Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-04-04


built. His father was a doctor in
a poor county of Kentucky in the
orse-and-buggy days. The faith
er died when Mr.. Banfield was q
boy. His older brother became q
salesman for Certainteed Prod
ucts at Cumberland, Md. Paul'S
mother went there to keep house
for the brother and Paul went to
Cumberland High School for the
first two years.
Although he weighed only 1876
pounds he was such an outstand-
ing end that he got . football
scholarship at st. Johns, Annap-
oils. He spent one year in the
preparatory school and then en-
tered the college. Those were
the World War I years and st.
Johns enrolment was swollen by
the Students Army Training
Corps. There were Is elevens
out at the start Of practice and
Paul was on the 18th team. BY
the first game he was playing on
the varsity.
Enlisted in Army.
His college work was interrupt
ed briefly by enlistment in the
Army. He was at Camp Lee
when the Armistice was signed.
He went back to st. Johns.
Mr.. Banfield had majored in
science at st. Johns because he
wanted to be a doctor.
What kind of marks did he
have?
DO we have to go into that?"
he asks with a groan.
I'VE re-valuated ourselves
here some time ago." he says.
i sent to st. Johns for my
marks. 1t was quite a blow to
me. For 80 years I had been
building myself up as quite a
student. The truth was my
marks weren't very good"
One graduated Mr.. Banfield
still wanted to be a doctor but
he wanted to get married. He
got a chance to coach the foot
ball team and teach English at
Dewitt School, which specializes
in preparing boys for the United
States Military and Naval
Academies.
He Married at %.
The Banfields have no chill
dren but they have had a pa
rental influence on nearly 1000
boys.
He took courses in English
literature, the Elizabethan
period. under Prof. Robert Boil
we'll at night at George WASH
ington University. During two
summers he took courses in edu-
cation at Harvard. He became
principal of the Emerson Insti-
tute, now defunct. And he did
some tutoring at the Madeira
School. It was Miss Madeira
tMrs. David Wing who en-
couraged him to start a school
of his own.
Landon School was started in
the fall of 1929 in the triangular
mansion facing Massachusetts
avenue in the apex of Twenty
second street and Florida avenue
N. w. There were Is pupils, and
the grades ranged from kinder
garten to fourth-year high school.
BY Christmas the money was
gone. But somehow or other in
those early days he was always
able to obtain enough money to
keep the school going.
twenty-five years does not
make a school an old one. But
these have been exciting years
that give traditions to any school
that has existed through them.
There are II gold stars, signify
ing death in the service. on the
plaque at the school listing the
names of the 284 boys who served
in World War II. The head
master himself served.
AS to comparison between the
public schools and private schools
OF his type, Mr.. Banf1eld re-
duces the difference to the ratio
of pupils to teacher. A private
school teacher with a class of
20 can do much better than a
public school teached with so
Mr.. Banfield once had the OPP
portunity of championing the
private schools in discussion
with DR.. James B. Conant, then
president of Harvard, who has
said that private schools are di-
visive and not helpful in the
matter of achieving democracy.
I was at meeting of the IN
dependent School Association in
Cambridge" he says, and
Francis Parkman, headmaster of
St Marks, got DR.. Conant to
como over for a discussion