Walter Johnson High School
Encyclopedia
Walter Johnson High School (WJHS) is located at 6400 Rock Spring Drive in Bethesda
, an unincorporated region of Montgomery County, Maryland
.
WJHS serves areas in Bethesda and Rockville
, as well as the towns of Garrett Park
and Kensington
.
' baseball pitcher, Walter Johnson
, who resided in a Bethesda
house which still stands just a few miles away from the school on Old Georgetown Road. After retiring from baseball, Walter Johnson became a county commissioner for Montgomery County.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the outer suburbs of Washington were within five minutes' drive of the Beltway
, Walter Johnson was viewed as a "country" or "outer-suburban" school. The school was surrounded by farms and livestock, notably cow herds. Yearbooks indicate that, although at first Walter Johnson's rival high school may have been Richard Montgomery High School
in Rockville, Maryland, as early as 1960 a heated rivalry arose between Walter Johnson and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
in Bethesda, which lasted several decades.
During 1972-73 academic year, "WJ" experimented with a 90-minute mid-day "activity period" in which no formal classes were held and students were encouraged to occupy themselves voluntarily with extracurricular activities, which could include simply socializing or reading a book, as well as organized extracurricular activities. This unstructured approach to education was intended to encourage creativity and individuality. The activity period was cut back to two days a week in subsequent years, and has since been removed entirely.
Despite numerous renovations, the original building still stands. Additional wings have been added to the school on either end and classrooms have been modernized. A new cafeteria was added to the school in 2003, and a student commons area was added in 2009 as a part of a school-wide renovation which took several years. "The Clock," well-known to students, is still in working order and resides in the front hallway above the two golden plaques of the Wildcat and Spartan.
, particularly during the Vietnam Era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the school's environment changed from countryside to that of a major metropolitan suburb.
city"). WJHS was completed in 2010, which will include a 'Student Commons' and a public space for all students. The space was completed in the second phase of the process. A new wing houses new ESOL, English and language rooms that are easily accessible from the rest of the ground floor.
. In 1987, the students of neighboring Charles W. Woodward High School
merged into WJHS and the Woodward building eventually became the new site of Tilden Middle School
in 1991. The students were allowed to vote on the new merged school colors and mascot. The requirement that one school would keep their colors while the other school would keep their mascot. Woodward's "Wild Thing the Wildcat" and WJHS school colors—green and white, won out. Unbeknownst to most WJ alumni, the Wildcat logo was designed by Thomas B. Spande (class of 1990). In January 1994, Spande beat his mother to death with a hammer and was charged with first-degree murder. He was eventually absolved of the crime since he suffered from schizophrenic hallucinations and believed the world was about to end. He is currently an artist in Maryland.
The unofficial mascot of the school is "Mighty Moo", a large brown cow. Early in Walter Johnson's history cows used to roam onto the football fields at various times. As seen in Walter Johnson yearbooks from the 1960s, the Mighty Moo character originated as a painting by an ambitious and very bold WJ student (who shall remain nameless) , who painted a cartoon cow on the brick chimney at the back of the school, overlooking the football field, large enough to be clearly visible from cars passing by on Democracy Boulevard. Making lemons into lemonade, Walter Johnson adopted the cow as its unofficial mascot under the name Mighty Moo. Later yearbooks show that, even as the area became urbanized, the cows remained nearby and continued to graze across Rock Spring Drive from the school, pasturing in the shadows of high-rise office buildings through the late 1970s. Even though the cows are now gone, Mighty Moo remains a mascot of Walter Johnson.
Recently, the "Green Man" and the dancing banana made famous by the "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" video have become unofficial mascots of the school, and are known to show up at sporting events to support the school and rally the student body.
Walter Johnson has recently added an ACES program, which is similar to the APEX program but focuses on science and math instead of English and history. ACES has no admissions test; participation is simply declared, typically before the end of freshmen year.
magazine and was named the 45th best public high school in the nation for 2003.
In 2005 Walter Johnson High School was named 64th best public school by Newsweek
magazine as one of "America's Best High Schools".
The College Board ranked Walter Johnson's AP World History program as the best in the world.
Walter Johnson High School was rated as one of "America's Best High Schools" by Newsweek
magazine and was ranked the 101 for best public high schools in the nation for 2006.
WJHS's "It's Academic
" team won the Washington Area Championship and the mid-Atlantic Super Bowl in 2005 and in 2007. The team has also had several of its members elected to the All-State team, the most successful team at the Panasonic Academic Challenge.
The Walter Johnson Debate Team has been county champion every year since 2003 and was also county champion from 1993-2000. The Forensics Team has been county champion every year since 2001 and achieved either 2nd, 3rd or 4th Place in the County League from 1990 to 2000.
Notable alumni=
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SCHOOLS/wjhs/alumni/
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
, an unincorporated region of Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...
.
WJHS serves areas in Bethesda and Rockville
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
, as well as the towns of Garrett Park
Garrett Park, Maryland
Garrett Park is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland. It was named for a former president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, but whether specifically for John Garrett or Robert W. Garrett is a matter of some disagreement between sources. The population was 917 at the 2000 census...
and Kensington
Kensington, Maryland
Kensington is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,873 at the 2000 census. Greater Kensington encompasses the entire 20895 zip code and its population is an order of magnitude larger than that of the town at its center....
.
History
Walter Johnson High School was founded in 1956 as part of the Montgomery County Public School system (MCPS). The school is named in honor of the late Washington SenatorsMinnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
' baseball pitcher, Walter Johnson
Walter Johnson
Walter Perry Johnson , nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Washington Senators...
, who resided in a Bethesda
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
house which still stands just a few miles away from the school on Old Georgetown Road. After retiring from baseball, Walter Johnson became a county commissioner for Montgomery County.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the outer suburbs of Washington were within five minutes' drive of the Beltway
Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)
Interstate 495 is a Interstate Highway that surrounds the United States' capital of Washington, D.C., and its inner suburbs in adjacent Maryland and Virginia. I-495 is widely known as the Capital Beltway or simply the Beltway, especially when the context of Washington, D.C., is clear...
, Walter Johnson was viewed as a "country" or "outer-suburban" school. The school was surrounded by farms and livestock, notably cow herds. Yearbooks indicate that, although at first Walter Johnson's rival high school may have been Richard Montgomery High School
Richard Montgomery High School
Richard Montgomery High School is a secondary public school located in Rockville, Maryland.Richard Montgomery High School is named for Richard Montgomery, an American General who died while attempting to capture the British-held city of Quebec...
in Rockville, Maryland, as early as 1960 a heated rivalry arose between Walter Johnson and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is a Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, public school named for two of the towns it serves along with Kensington and Silver Spring, Maryland. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda, an unincorporated community in Montgomery County...
in Bethesda, which lasted several decades.
During 1972-73 academic year, "WJ" experimented with a 90-minute mid-day "activity period" in which no formal classes were held and students were encouraged to occupy themselves voluntarily with extracurricular activities, which could include simply socializing or reading a book, as well as organized extracurricular activities. This unstructured approach to education was intended to encourage creativity and individuality. The activity period was cut back to two days a week in subsequent years, and has since been removed entirely.
Despite numerous renovations, the original building still stands. Additional wings have been added to the school on either end and classrooms have been modernized. A new cafeteria was added to the school in 2003, and a student commons area was added in 2009 as a part of a school-wide renovation which took several years. "The Clock," well-known to students, is still in working order and resides in the front hallway above the two golden plaques of the Wildcat and Spartan.
Students
Enrollment increased from just a few hundred students in 1956 to 1600 students in 1960 and 2,000 students by 2005. During tremendous growth of the D.C. metropolitan areaBaltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area
The Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area is a combined statistical area consisting of the overlapping labor market region of the cities of Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.. The region includes Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Jefferson County in the Eastern Panhandle of West...
, particularly during the Vietnam Era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the school's environment changed from countryside to that of a major metropolitan suburb.
Modernization
Starting in fall of 2007, 1/3 of WJHS had been placed under construction, replaced by 44 portables (nicknamed the "portablecity"). WJHS was completed in 2010, which will include a 'Student Commons' and a public space for all students. The space was completed in the second phase of the process. A new wing houses new ESOL, English and language rooms that are easily accessible from the rest of the ground floor.
Mascots
When it first opened in 1956, its original mascot was the SpartanSpartan Army
The Spartan army was the military force of Sparta, one of the leading city-states of ancient Greece. The army stood at the centre of the Spartan state, whose citizens' primary obligation was to be good soldiers. Subject to military drill from infancy, the Spartans were one of the most feared...
. In 1987, the students of neighboring Charles W. Woodward High School
Charles W. Woodward High School
Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville, Maryland opened in 1966. Two decades later in 1987 the high school merged into Walter Johnson High School. Today, the building is occupied by Tilden Middle School.The school was named after Judge Charles W...
merged into WJHS and the Woodward building eventually became the new site of Tilden Middle School
Tilden Middle School
Tilden Middle School is a public middle school for students in grades 6, 7 and 8 located in Rockville, Maryland. Students who attend Tilden are from the feeder elementary schools Farmland, Garrett Park and Luxmanor...
in 1991. The students were allowed to vote on the new merged school colors and mascot. The requirement that one school would keep their colors while the other school would keep their mascot. Woodward's "Wild Thing the Wildcat" and WJHS school colors—green and white, won out. Unbeknownst to most WJ alumni, the Wildcat logo was designed by Thomas B. Spande (class of 1990). In January 1994, Spande beat his mother to death with a hammer and was charged with first-degree murder. He was eventually absolved of the crime since he suffered from schizophrenic hallucinations and believed the world was about to end. He is currently an artist in Maryland.
The unofficial mascot of the school is "Mighty Moo", a large brown cow. Early in Walter Johnson's history cows used to roam onto the football fields at various times. As seen in Walter Johnson yearbooks from the 1960s, the Mighty Moo character originated as a painting by an ambitious and very bold WJ student (who shall remain nameless) , who painted a cartoon cow on the brick chimney at the back of the school, overlooking the football field, large enough to be clearly visible from cars passing by on Democracy Boulevard. Making lemons into lemonade, Walter Johnson adopted the cow as its unofficial mascot under the name Mighty Moo. Later yearbooks show that, even as the area became urbanized, the cows remained nearby and continued to graze across Rock Spring Drive from the school, pasturing in the shadows of high-rise office buildings through the late 1970s. Even though the cows are now gone, Mighty Moo remains a mascot of Walter Johnson.
Recently, the "Green Man" and the dancing banana made famous by the "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" video have become unofficial mascots of the school, and are known to show up at sporting events to support the school and rally the student body.
Curriculum
Walter Johnson’s signature program, Advanced Placement Experience, is in its ninth year. The APEX Scholars Program is designed to be a highly competitive four-year course of study. Prospective students apply during their eighth grade year, and are notified of their admission in the early spring prior to their ninth grade year. The application process includes making a list of activities, getting 4 teacher recommendations, and taking an essay test. The program offers a select group of students a comprehensive curriculum combining accelerated honors and intensive advanced placement level coursework.Walter Johnson has recently added an ACES program, which is similar to the APEX program but focuses on science and math instead of English and history. ACES has no admissions test; participation is simply declared, typically before the end of freshmen year.
Academic
Walter Johnson High School was rated as one of "America's Best High Schools" by NewsweekNewsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine and was named the 45th best public high school in the nation for 2003.
In 2005 Walter Johnson High School was named 64th best public school by Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine as one of "America's Best High Schools".
The College Board ranked Walter Johnson's AP World History program as the best in the world.
Walter Johnson High School was rated as one of "America's Best High Schools" by Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine and was ranked the 101 for best public high schools in the nation for 2006.
WJHS's "It's Academic
It's Academic
It's Academic is a televised academic quiz competition for high school students, currently airing on two NBC affiliates in Washington, D.C. and Central Virginia and one CBS affiliate Baltimore, Maryland . The show has been on the air since October 7, 1961, making it the longest...
" team won the Washington Area Championship and the mid-Atlantic Super Bowl in 2005 and in 2007. The team has also had several of its members elected to the All-State team, the most successful team at the Panasonic Academic Challenge.
The Walter Johnson Debate Team has been county champion every year since 2003 and was also county champion from 1993-2000. The Forensics Team has been county champion every year since 2001 and achieved either 2nd, 3rd or 4th Place in the County League from 1990 to 2000.
Athletic
All tournaments and finals are conducted by the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA).Cross Country
- Maryland Class 3A State Champions (Girls) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
- Maryland Class 4A State Champions (Boys) 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
Crew
- WN4 Maryland State Champions 2010
- WV4 WMIRA Champions 2010, 2011
- WJV4 WMIRA Champions 2011
- WN8 WMIRA Champions 2011
- MN4 WMIRA Champions 2011
- Women's top 4's team WMIRA Championships 2011
- WV4 Stotesbury semi-finalists 2010, 2011
- WV4 SRAA Nationals semi-finalists 2010
Soccer
- Maryland Class A State Champions 1978
- Maryland Class 3A State Champions 2000
- Maryland Class 4A State Champions 2006
- Girls - Montgomery County Champions 1995, 1998
Football
WJ's top rival is Churchill High School. Walter Johnson won the Bi-County Championship (the athletic league formed by the high schools of Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties) during the fall season of 1962. "The Washington Post" ranked the Spartans the number one football team in the DC metropolitan area that year. In the 1970's The Spartans did not do well, but in 1980, they had a successful season with a 6-4 record. This was the last winning season for the team as The Spartans. During the 1998 season the team, then known as the Wildcats, managed to have an 8 game win streak. Ending the season at 8-2, it was the school's best season win total. They ranked 7th in the Metro D.C. area for that year. In 2010, as they ended their season, 6-4, one win away from making the playoffs.Tennis
- Maryland State Champions Mixed Doubles 2003, 2004, 2005
- Maryland State Champions Girls Doubles 2003,2007, 2008, 2009
- 2006 Division & County Team Champions
Notable alumni=
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SCHOOLS/wjhs/alumni/
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