Last Friday, we hosted the first of our three Accepted Student Days. Throughout the day, we offered a window into the Proctor community, answering questions, listening, engaging, and connecting with families who listed Proctor as one of their top school choices in the late stages of looking at high schools. Our efforts to share the best of Proctor makes me reflect on a host of important factors in choosing a school, particularly why it is important to remind our accepted students and their families of why they were initially enthralled by Proctor in the first place.
Quite frankly, I am in awe of our Admissions Team for bringing us all to this point where we could make our case. They have knocked themselves out to get ready for these days as they host 155 families over three days; one of our best attended Accepted Student Days in recent memory.
The time together with prospective families feels intimate and celebratory all at once. Indeed, most of the planning for these days of culmination began a year ago when the class of 2026 - the current freshmen class - signed on the dotted line to come to Proctor. Their own Proctor stories began in earnest at that time. It reminds all of us that even when the end appears we are always beginning. Perhaps that is why graduation is a commencement. A beginning and not an end. As the band Chicago might sing, “Only the beginning. Only just the start.”
The most important thing that we can convey to all of our prospective new students and their families is “we got this.” Together. Not in a self-serving or boastful way because at Proctor that is not who we are, that is not our style as a school. In saying that “we’ve got this,” what we are indicating is that we know who we are. In fact, we know ourselves so well that many people at the initial phase believe that perhaps what we have is too good to be true. But in truth, we are always reflecting on our model and looking to improve. The quality of metacognition and meta-critical thinking is nothing new; it is certainly a hallmark for us here at Proctor.
We have a very good understanding of what it means to self-reflect, but what does it show if we get to know ourselves well as a school?
As a matter of course, we know that we are confident and fully equipped and adept to handle a wide variety of learners. Some call this cerebro- or cognitive-diversity. We also have more than 60% our learners who would be classified as neuro-typical. We have all kinds of minds at Proctor. To be sure, what we have seen over the decades that we have been a school focusing on a diverse learning population are families choosing to send their children to Proctor because they know that we will get under the hood of their learning, allowing their children to do the same all while having a fun yet challenging experience in the process. We aim to be one day better, everyday to ensure generations to come of more joyful learners who will critically handle almost any challenge or growth opportunity they encounter. Doing what comes easy does not make us stronger.
At Proctor during these Accepted Student Days, and in front of our guests, our students delight in their learning as they make their way through classes. For instance, imagine being a prospective student stopping by and checking out Gordon Bassett’s metal engineering class that is both a math class and skills-based industrial arts class, seeing Proctor students delving into the mechanical engineering work with their hands, utilizing old and new technology to hone their computational thinking skills. The idea of observing a current Proctor student being able to think through a variety of problems to solve in physical form while also doing the math to make certain that their calculations are done with exacting precision would be thrilling and hard to resist.
When our accepted students make it around to all of the various classrooms, not just Gordon’s, but all they will visit, along with hearing from the students and the coordinators of our on-campus and off-campus opportunities, they get a glimpse of their own future selves. They might see their own focus and joy staring back at them mirrored in the form of our own Proctor students and faculty, seeing how we live and learn everyday. We revel seeing and imagining the delight in our visitors' eyes as we tell them about starting out together on Wilderness Orientation as our metaphor. Just about all of us make it on top of one of the mountain peaks, overlooking the Presidential Mountain Range in the White Mountains. My own delight came when standing atop Mount Willey. With seven students and Hunter Churchill by my side, we took in the view across the late summer variegated range for miles and miles. The clouds made a quilted, sun-drenched patchwork of shade and sun down below us, as we imagined a vision for our time to come in Andover and beyond.
Our collective delight comes from knowing that we are all a part of passing on our unique legacy and educational model onto the next generation of Proctor students and their families during Accepted Student Days, even as some of us - our seniors especially - commence to explore new horizons and mountains ahead.
Brian W. Thomas, Proctor Academy Head of School
Curated Reading and Listening:
One of my favorite poets from Chicagoland is Gwendolyn Brooks. In fact, all of the elementary and junior high schools in my small south suburban Chicagoland city were named after poets; I went to Carl Sandburg School. But when Gwendolyn Brooks’ School opened up less than a few miles away, we were all ecstatic that the great poet would grace our town with her name and physical presence. Her arrival was a revelation. Probably my favorite poem of the great Ms. Brooks is “We Real Cool.” Read it: HERE. Listen: HERE.
