One of the aspects of my job I am most thankful for is the excuse to write regularly. I fear I would lose my sense of why I do what I do without a creative outlet that involves writing. While we at Proctor Academy think everyone should read this article, this post is a plea to those directly connected to the Proctor community to take to heart the advice below.
We talk often about the importance of relationships in education. It is perhaps the most difficult quality of a school to articulate through a website or blog. A school’s culture is something so wholly unique, students must be immersed in it to truly appreciate it. At Proctor Academy, we believe the boarding school relationships formed between faculty advisors and students are central to sustaining the school culture that makes Proctor so special.
Every July 4th, thousands of visitors flock to Proctor’s campus in the center of the village to celebrate Independence Day. While last year’s festivities were rained out, cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-70s welcomed crowds from neighboring towns for the annual flea market, parade, raffles, and various local food vendors.
With more than two-thirds of Proctor's student body residing in dormitories, navigating life with a roommate is a reality. While most first year students have never shared a room with anyone other than a sibling, the opportunity for personal growth and the formation of deep friendships makes having a roommate one of the most powerful experiences at Proctor.
Early in his career, former Proctor Academy Head of School Lyle Farrell (1952-1971), worked alongsideDr. Samuel T. Orton, who pioneered the psychometrics and pedagogy of reading disabilities. Farrell would take what he learned from Orton and establish at Proctor the nation's leading tutorial support system for college-bound, dyslexic students in the early 1950s. Through intentional programming aimed at helping young dyslexic boys, the predecessor to Proctor’s Learning Skills program, changed countless lives, many of whom would become benefactors to Proctor because of their life-altering experience at the school.
Proctor's Summer Service trip to Guatemala spent two weeks in La Limonada and Antigua volunteering, learning about Guatemalan culture, and bonding as a group. Katie Ball '17 shared this post on the group's blog. Take time to read her words, you will not be sorry!
A few years ago this article crossed my desk. The message seems to ring as true today as it did when I first read it. The feature study of the article highlighted in the podcast from NPR discusses the work of educational psychologist Jim Stigler's work studying the difference between how different cultures approach the notion of intellectual struggle.
Just two weeks ago we wrote this post on the desire for our graduates to possess Balanced Virtues in their lives. It featured David Brooks and his recent book, The Road to Character. While we never want to highlight one person's views too much, Brooks recently gave Dartmouth’s Commencement address sharing powerful words we just had to pass on to our school community.
