Social Science faculty member Jen Baker shared the following reflection during today's assembly as we prepare to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a community later this weekend. Thank you, Jen, for sharing!

As Proctor students returned campus in Andover, New Hampshire, ten students traveled from Boston to Madrid and then onward to the small city of Segovia in central Spain. Apart from safety-related shifts due to the ongoing pandemic, the core of this off-campus program remains unchanged. Just as they have since the 1970s, host families welcomed a new group of Proctor students to their city and into their homes, providing them with invaluable linguistic and cultural immersion (and life) experiences.

The first year of pandemic life saw us toggle back and forth between in-person and virtual learning. Like so many schools around the world, we quickly realized that while a remote learning experience was still valuable, the intangible ingredient of human connection is the real magic to any learning environment. The same goes for the building of community and our twice a week all-school assembly. 

When I think of the work that we adults do every day, I see the hidden genius parts of it. If you look closely, you will come to understand as I have that other people notice as well, AND we all have different ways of seeing. Seeing, when it is expressed, is called valuing.

Proctor's winter 2022 Ocean Classroom program, aboard the Harvey Gamage in partnership with Sailing Ships Maine, launched today from Charleston, South Carolina. The nine-week journey will finish on March 8, 2022 in Mobile, Alabama as students from both Proctor and the MET High School and Big Picture Learning, both of Providence, RI, explore the historic roots of these two southern ports, and the open waters in between. 

Proctor Academy is thrilled to welcome the work of artist Jozimar Matimano to our exhibit space in the Lovejoy Library from January 5 through the end of May, 2022. A fine art painter from the East Democratic Republic of Congo and now a naturalized American citizen living in Manchester, New Hampshire, Jozi’s work skillfully ranges between joyful, intimate moments and political, economic and identity challenges of daily living. 

Boarding students returned to campus Monday afternoon to PCR tests and an arrival bubble in dorms until the results of those tests come back. It feels a bit like a flashback to winter and spring 2021 when we were an unvaccinated community with the unknowns of COVID-19 swirling around us. Even though we all wanted to avoid a return to bubbled life, it is a necessary step as we keep our ultimate goal in sight: the complete Proctor experience this winter. 

The past year was about as busy as a year can get for a school: a transition in leadership amidst navigating a global pandemic for a second consecutive year served as a backdrop for many of the normal highlights of the school year. As we look back at the ten most viewed blog posts of 2021, we remember just how dynamic life at Proctor is! Enjoy this window into the top ten posts of 2021!