Each year on Indigenous Peoples Day we pause to recognize the Abenaki people who lived on this beautiful land before European settlers colonized it. We look out from Balanced Rock toward Mount Kearsarge (g’wizawajo in Western Abenaki meaning Rough Mountain) and honor those who first called this valley home.
Ocean Classroom 2020 is making its way along the Connecticut coast toward New York City as we publish this recap of the past week aboard schooner Roseway. For the 21 intrepid sailors who once merely called themselves students, this voyage is teaching them how to live, learn, and work alongside each other unlike any other experience could.
Without the ability for our usual in-person Fall Family Weekend, Proctor’s College Counseling team will host a series of virtual seminars over the next week. Parents of juniors and seniors should keep their eyes out for an email from Director of College Counseling Mike Koenig early next week with additional information.
Autumn in New England sees people from all over the country come for some of the most amazing leaf-peeping opportunities around. And at Proctor, who has a better view of the beautiful foliage than the school’s mountain biking team that gets to cruise through the woods every afternoon! Each year, Proctor’s mountain biking team gains more and more students, this season boasting a whopping thirty-five students.The sheer number of athletes and bikes to maintain may seem overwhelming, especially with the addition of COVID-19 and the protocols that come with it; however, that doesn’t seem to be the case at Proctor where our mountain biking coaches and athletes are having an amazing fall season.
We shared the following communication with our parents last evening, and share here knowing the message others in the Proctor family should read as well.
Proctor's Ocean Classroom 2020 continues to explore the coast of Maine as they enter their third week at sea. A surprise maple syrup drop-off near the Isle of Shoals from Brooks Bicknell '77, Jackson Bicknell '11, and Hunter Churchill '01 on Sunday afternoon provided a rare connection to the outside world for our students. Check out recent Ship's Logs from the schooner Roseway for more updates and read on for reflections from students at sea!
Although Proctor's Admissions Team is unable to host on-campus visits this fall, we would love to connect virtually with families interested in learning more about Proctor. We will offer "Explore Proctor" information sessions throughout October and November for families to learn about all that Proctor has to offer.
Every time language is spoken or written, every time a work of art is created and displayed, it sits within some kind of larger context. My interest this week is in words, how they hang in the air or on the page and how the air is charged around them and depending on the context and who is saying them, the meaning changes. No word, written or spoken, gets to simply float in a vacuum, in a weightless state and the absence of pull. Every word carries with it a definition, or several definitions, and it carries with it a certain connotation that might be relatively neutral and light in weight, but might also be significantly heavy within a context and setting, which leads me to the question, who gets to say what when?
