Jason Day won the PGA Championship Sunday afternoon with a stellar performance, holding off Jordan Speith down the stretch to claim the title. His journey to PGA champion alongside his coach and caddy, Colin Swatton, has been inspirational. Day’s response when asked the greatest impact Swatton has had on him relates directly to each of us as learners. “What’s rubbed off on me the most is that he’s always kind of questioning, okay, is this right? Is this wrong? Asking questions to the right people. To really be able to be open to learning and growing as a player and as a person, if you don’t do that, you stop getting better.”

As Proctor faculty begin organizing syllabi for the upcoming Fall Term, laying out plans and thinking critically about how technology plays a role in the learning environment they are creating in their courses, we take a few minutes revisit Proctor's philosophy around educational technology.

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.

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.

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.

And just like that graduation is over. Summer is near. Faculty are conducting end of year meetings. Advisors are mailing letters to students recapping the academic year and reviewing grades and teacher comments. Reunion weekend is a few days away -  a time for faculty to reconnect with past students and rekindle the relationships that defined those students high school years.  This time of year reminds us why we work in education, and specifically, why we have chosen to work at Proctor.

Over the past three weeks, more than seventy members of the Class of 2015 took part in Proctor’s Senior Project program. Begun over 25 years ago, this program affords graduating seniors the opportunity to explore an area of passion, vocation, or expertise. Students work very closely with both an on-campus sponsor (usually a faculty/staff member) as well as an off-campus mentor who has significant experience in the chosen field of study.