Moulding minds over the years

Moulding minds over the years
Deccan Herald

It was a generous grant of $3000 from John Baldwin, which started the Baldwin Schools 125 years ago.

A hundred and twenty five years is a long, long time for any institution to be in existence. The Baldwin Girls and Boys schools celebrate this momentous event in December this year 2005 as the schools began way back in 1880, under the name Baldwin High School. In 1882 the founders received a gift of $3000 from John Baldwin in the US, which was used to purchase part of the present property. Begun in the home of Marie Oldham in 2 Alexandra Street, the school later moved to the Methodist Church premises and was meant for the English speaking population. The first principal was Rev Kirk who came from the US. He rented the present premises and began the school with two boarder boys. He was everything rolled into one – barber, cook, teacher and musician and the school grew under his stewardship! Originally called the Methodist Episcopal School the first teacher was a Miss Hill who offered her services as teacher and her younger brother who was the first boarder. In 1884 John Baldwin generously sent another $1000, which helped start the kindergarten classes and the government sanctioned a grant-in-aid for Rs 2,350. By 1886 the school had 125 children on its rolls with 67 boys and 58 girls. In 1888, a building called Rosedale later known as Frazer Hall was rented to accommodate the girl boarders.

Growth

The school grew to a strength of 271 children under the stewardship of Rev Toussaint from 1887 to 1898 and he was instrumental in saving the school as the records say, ”from extinction” in 1896. The motto of the boy’s school is ‘Righteousness and Truth.”

Plague struck Bangalore in 1899 and the school suffered a great setback and was closed at the end of the year in spite of it being the most prosperous year for the school. It was in 1902 under the principalship of Rev Robert who, was an old boy and later a teacher, that the important decision to move the girls out to a separate school was taken. The original school continued under the banner of Baldwin Boys’ High School, as it is today.

It was in 1875 a Miss Urdell Montgomery came to Baldwin High School from the US to take care of the girls boarding and tuitions. In 1903 ‘Woodside’ - a huge building at 90, Richmond Road was purchased as the boarding unit for the girls. It was only in 1905 that the classrooms were built and equipped on the present campus. It was not difficult to divide the school as already the classes were separate for girls and boys. The motto of the girl’s school is “Loyalty and Service.”

Diffficulties

Both schools had their ups and downs especially during the war years. Infact as Rev Soanes who, is a pillar of the Boys School informed me, ”in 1921 the school went through a crisis and was almost shut down with a debt of almost 5 lakhs. The begging bowl went around and with great effort the school was redeemed.”

Today the girl’s school is under the stewardship of Dr Vasanta Edward and the boy’s school under Dr KJN Karunakaran. The girls school has 4,500 girls in 2005 with seven sections for each class. This year the school sent the maximum number of girls for the ICSE exam in any school in the country numbering 300. Today the boy’s school has 2,900 boys with five sections in each class.

A long, long way from 1880, when two little boys constituted the strength of the school, along with John Baldwin, a generous patron from across the seas.