Published June 18, 2010

Yesterday I wrote about the ongoing and annoying debate about which high school in Boston is the oldest in the country. I thought I settled the debate, which is really a matter of semantics, but reporter David Boeri is still putting up with “the ankle biters.” Here is his screed:

Having had enough of the ankle biters from “Sumus Primi,” aka Boston Latin, who have continually accused me of inaccurate and, worse still, irresponsible reporting in my reference to Boston English as the “oldest public high school” in the country, yesterday afternoon I decided to pull the trigger.

I called the superintendent of schools, Carol Johnson.

For some reason, being the first public school in the country isn’t enough for some of the (school motto) “We Are First” crowd at Boston Latin. They claim ownership of the title first public high school, as well. It’s with no small sense of entitlement that they embrace their motto Sumus Primi.

Twice before they’d put me to the test. That’s why I pulled the trigger.  Through her spokesperson, the superintendent  states that it is both the position and policy of the Boston Public Schools that English IS the first public high school in Boston and the first in the country.

For written confirmation, go to Boston Schools, BPS Facts, No. 17, published February 25, 2010, and you’ll see English posted as “the first public high school” and Boston Latin as “the first public school.”

To help drive a stake into the heart of the vampire that won’t die, I also obtained a statement from a member of the Boston School Committee — Mary Tamer, a proud graduate from Boston Latin — reaffirming the fact that English High is indeed the first public high school in Boston and the country.

From now on the dead-enders can deal with the superintendent, the school committee, and official policy. I’m done. Almost.

Thanks to the endless history submitted to me by the development director for the alumni of the “Sumus Primi” school, I have now discovered that for two years during the Revolutionary War Boston Latin was actually closed: “War’s begun and school’s done.”

And because it was closed, Roxbury Latin, which began a few years after Boston Latin  in 1645 can make its own competing claim. Though it’s a private school, Roxbury Latin claims to be the longest continuing school in the country. How this goes over at the country’s first public school, I can only imagine.

Let me close with a stanza from America’s oldest public high school:

Shall they stream of learning wide,
Through the ages grandly glide,
Ever thy sons pride,
English High, our English High

The English High School is the oldest public high school in America. Full stop.