As the Proctor community nears the end of the final week of classes, it may seem that energy on campus is at its lowest as students and faculty focus on their academic work in preparations for exams. However, a tradition of rivalry, school spirit, and athletic competition, stretching back over forty years approaches rapidly, and with it one of the most anticipated days of the Fall Term: Holderness Day 2020!
Temperatures in the 70s, sunshine, and blue skies have been a gift to our students and faculty as we enter the home stretch of the Fall Term. We soak up every moment of these extra days of meals and classes outside and our final practices before Holderness Weekend knowing well this weather won't last. We encourage each other to live in the moment, to suck the marrow out of each day, not knowing what the next will bring in this COVID-19 laden world.
Proctor’s Ocean Classroom program has made its way to Cumberland Island, Georgia as they prepare for the long open sea voyage to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands in the coming week. Unsettled weather in the Atlantic has delayed Roseway’s departure for this 13 day open water voyage, but the students and program are committed to making this experience happen. Read more from the past week on Ocean Classroom in the student journal entries below and enjoy a few video clips from the past week.
Of Proctor’s competitive athletic teams, one, in particular, has stood out this year for their success and palpable camaraderie: Varsity Field Hockey. The team of 16 girls has been dominating the Lakes Region League over the last four weeks with an undefeated, 4-0 season.
Today we voted. We voted because we have been granted the right to do so under the representative democracy designed by America’s founding fathers nearly 250 years ago. Every four years, like clockwork, through times of war and economic hardship and domestic unrest, citizens gather in their communities to vote for President of the United States and other offices. As we step behind the red and white curtain in the gym at Andover Elementary Middle School to cast our vote, we are reminded that our voice is powerful and that our voice matters.
Not all schools could run a program like Ocean Classroom in the midst of a global pandemic, but when Ocean Classroom director Brooks Bicknell ‘77 proposed a plan to run the program this fall, members of the Proctor’s COVID-19 Task Force rallied to find a way to safely quarantine both students and crew prior to launching the nine week, term-long voyage. The schooner Roseway and its intrepid student crew are now seven weeks into their journey down the eastern seaboard, and having the most abnormally, normal Fall Term of anyone at Proctor. Read more from the past week’s Ship’s Log below!
Sometimes a good, sensible essay can settle the mind. Well-crafted sentences with their musicality, their soothing rhythms, and their carefully selected words are almost akin to deep breathing exercises - or baseball games. Meditative. Centering. Moving at their own, requisite pace. This week, as we seem to hurtle towards next week’s presidential elections, I have found it helpful to turn to EB White now that the MLB season is over. His pieces are measured, precise in their totality. Sane. As the Dodgers vanquished the Rays this week, it was not hard to imagine EB White appreciating the games. Today, two volumes of his collected works sit on my desk, so much linguistic sanity. A double header’s worth of pieces.
Before the addition of the Strength and Conditioning program, run by Craig Leaman and Ross Young, out of season athletes lacked an official structure to train for their primary sport while out of season. However, with the renovation to the Farrell Field House in 2019 and construction of a new fitness center and functional turf strip in the gym, opportunities abound for out of season athletes to hone their skills specific to their sport. Due to COVID-19, NEPSAC rules have allowed for increased contact with out of season athletes and coaches this fall. Proctor's focus has been on twice weekly strength and conditioning sessions for winter sport athletes in addition to twice weekly practices.
