Throughout 1998, the extended Milton community celebrated a rich and colorful 200-year history. Milton's Bicentennial marked the Academy's charter, given in 1798 under the Massachusetts land-grant policy. It bequeathed to the school a responsibility to "open the way for all the people to a higher order of education than the common schools can supply" (Richard Hale, Milton Academy, 1948). Milton was established as a coeducational day school, and preparation for college was the primary goal of the school's program.

Just after the school's centennial, reacting to a marked increase in the interest of separate education for young women, the Academy was divided into separate schools. For many years, the Milton Academy Boys' School and Girls' School maintained separate faculties, facilities and student bodies. Today, Milton has returned to its coeducational roots.

Academic standards, facilities, endowment resources, curricular and extra-curricular offerings, the size of the faculty and student body, summer programs, admissions applications and annual giving -- nearly all facets of the Academy's activities have strengthened and expanded during the school's second century. Milton has consciously diversified its student and faculty community, a crucial element of living and learning.

Today, both young people and adults at Milton cite the diversity of the school community as a crucial element of living and learning. Students and faculty who are here, as varied and exciting as they are, attract others who want to learn and to teach in an environment this stimulating. One of Milton's strengths is that the school offers the benefits of a boarding school and a day school. The full involvement of both of these student populations in the life of the school enhances and broadens the experience of each of the respective groups. Both boarding students and day students lead and participate in all aspects of School life.

How we attain our goals is what distinguishes Milton Academy from other institutions. Believing that a vital and effective community is built on the self-confidence and respect of individuals, we do our best to foster an atmosphere of intellectual freedom, to avoid standardized solutions to problems, and to encourage initiative and the open exchange of ideas. Doing so demands considerable energy. Teaching and learning at Milton Academy are active processes, encouraged and supported by common respect for the intelligence, talents and potential of each member of the school.

Milton's goal is to prepare our graduates to enjoy a love of learning throughout their lives, to recognize "a purpose higher than ourselves," and, in the language of our centuries-old motto, "Dare to be true."