Biography john kerry swiss boarding school

Success was an expectation for graduates of St. Paul's School when 14-year-old John Kerry entered the school in September 1958.

Biography john kerry swiss boarding school

WASPs still controlled the Wall Street banks and law firms, owned the best summer houses and set a certain tone. The New England church schools taught a duty to serve, by which they really meant rule. Graduates of schools like St.

Paul's could be smug and complacent, or at least they seemed that way to the outside world.

In fact, these schools were possessed by an almost obsessive fear of showing weakness. Borrowing the customs (and snobbery) of English public schools like Eton and Rugby, St.

Paul's meted out cold showers and required stiff upper lips.

Biography john kerry swiss boarding school association

The idea was to instill manliness and Christianity—the school liked to quote Teddy Roosevelt about hitting the line hard but playing fair—but forgiveness and mercy were often missing. The ruling clique, called "the Regs" (for Regular Guys), were a kind of vicious moral and social police.

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