Scholarly appraisal Several scholars have discussed Peabody's Groton, principally in the context of
college admissions. In
The Chosen (2005),
Jerome Karabel writes that the idea of student merit and achievement that Peabody cultivated at Groton—specifically, the elevation of character and physical accomplishments alongside academic excellence—forms the basis of the modern-day American college admissions system. Karabel argues that Harvard president
A. Lawrence Lowell used extracurricular achievements and unquantifiable character assessments, which typically favored students at upper-class private schools like Groton, to
limit the number of Jewish students at Harvard while still maintaining the illusion of merit-based admissions. In
The Big Test (1999),
Nicholas Lemann agrees that Peabody prioritized leadership and character over "intellectual brilliance and artistic creativity," but primarily traces Peabody's influence through his students
Henry Chauncey (the Harvard dean who popularized the use of standardized testing in college admissions) and to a lesser extent
Henry Murray (the Harvard professor who created the
Thematic Apperception Test). In his telling, Chauncey (a former scholarship student at Groton) wanted to use scientific tests of intellectual capacity to find talented "diamond in the rough" students who had not had the benefit of a Groton education, but also hoped to complement the
Scholastic Aptitude Test with other tests that could quantify virtues that Peabody prized, such as persistence and judgment.
Assessment at Groton At Groton, Peabody was a respected but divisive figure. He tried to treat his students like family, but his emphasis on social conformity alienated many students who did not fit into the mold of a "Groton boy." He encouraged some of the latter students to withdraw from the school, although
Dean Acheson's mother flatly rejected the idea, replying that "I didn't send Dean here to have you make a 'Groton boy' out of him. I sent him here to be educated." Several of his nonconformist students, like Acheson,
Sumner Welles, and
Robert McCormick (who did in fact leave Groton), nonetheless went on to distinguished careers. Franklin Roosevelt said of Peabody, "As long as I live his influence will mean more to me than that of any other people next to my father and mother"; In Roosevelt's fourth inaugural address, delivered two months after Peabody's death, he quoted Peabody's dictum that "the trend of civilization is forever upward." (Ironically, Peabody had voted for
Herbert Hoover in the
1932 election; however, he also publicly defended Roosevelt when Groton alumni criticized the
New Deal's progressive policies.)
Newbold Morris said that the two Americans he admired most were Peabody and
Fiorello La Guardia. On the other hand,
Louis Auchincloss harbored a lifelong ambivalence for Peabody, writing that "[t]o my young eyes, and I imagine to most, he seemed to bestride the world like a colossus, but in retrospect I see him more as a
David engaged in the seemingly hopeless struggle of preserving some degree of spirituality from the
Goliath of materialism that re-invaded the school with each new form of prosperous youngsters." A thirteen-year-old
Averell Harriman said, “You know he would be an awful bully if he wasn’t such a terrible Christian”; later in life, he told
Arthur Schlesinger that "the only recipe for success is to be unhappy at Groton." Robert McCormick bitterly resented Peabody and his prize classmate Franklin Roosevelt; near the end of his life his
Chicago Tribune was still running headlines like "Blame Groton for Pro-British Attitude in U.S."
Oliver La Farge wrote—in 1945, a quarter-century after graduating—that he still had nightmares of Peabody's Groton. ==References==