"Once, Phillips Andover Academy in the northern suburbs of Boston was a stronghold of the Republican establishment. Its list of prestigious graduates includes George Herbert Walker Bush, class of 1942, and his son, George W. Bush, 1964.

In the presidential contest of 1948, the students reflected their parents: In a mock election, 73 percent voted for Republican Thomas Dewey, and 12 percent voted for Democrat Harry S. Truman. Four years later, the student body voted overwhelmingly for Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower over Democrat Adlai Stevenson, 75 percent to 25 percent.

But in 2000, only 27 percent of Andover students backed Republican alumnus Bush. Al Gore won decisively with 59 percent, while Ralph Nader picked up a respectable 17 percent, for a combined 76 percent going to the Democratic and Green Party candidates.

Andover Academy has changed, reflecting national political trends. Instead of the children of the nation's GOP corporate leaders, the school now educates the children of a professional, and largely Democratic, elite.

History teacher Anthony Rotundol said the students 'tend to come from households that are more liberal than the voting public in general .... They tend, by and large, to come from the social groups that are most likely to support the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. The predominant class of the place and the predominant tone of the place is the kind of educated upper middle class.'

At the new Andover, no longer a male-only school, there is the Academy Gay/Straight Alliance, which holds an 'annual festival of rainbow colors, drag dancing, and open discussion ... to celebrate the gay and lesbian community.' The Brace Center for Gender Studies examines 'the complex issues related to gender, including sexuality, race and ethnicity.' The Office of Community and Multicultural Development is 'committed to raising awareness and encouraging sensitivity to differences of culture, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, and geographical origin' " (Thomas B. Edsall, The Washington Post, March 26, 2001).