Ask any of Proctor’s Social Science teachers about Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and they will eagerly offer an explanation of social contracts and the rationale for forming communities around agreed upon rules and structures in order to preserve life and liberty. Whenever we join a community (nation, state, town, school, church, service club, or otherwise), we voluntarily sacrifice some of our individual freedoms because we believe the benefits gained from living in community outweigh the cost of forgone individual rights. Each of us makes this same decision when we join the Proctor community.

Proctor's mission statement serves as a guide in our quest to educate a diverse body of students for the 21st century. While mission statements do not vary much between schools, the manner in which a school goes about achieving its mission varies dramatically. Over the past five years, our faculty has collaborated to develop an outcome statement (The Profile of a Proctor Graduate) and a curriculum guide (Proctor’s Characteristics of Good Teaching) to further inform our educational model. These declarative statements serve as our mission in action, and provide a constant reminder of who we are and who we desire to be as we shape the collective experiences of our students in the classroom, in our advisories, on the athletic field, in the art studio, and in the dormitory.

On Saturday June 25, we were reminded of how dangerous fire can be when flames broke out in the Thoreau House barn just before 3:00 pm and engulfed the rest of the building within minutes. The Andover Fire and Rescue squad was on scene within minutes, but the barn structure was already fully involved. With the help of fourteen other fire departments, crews were finally able to subdue the blaze by early evening.

Too often we fail to share gratitude for others at the time they directly impact our lives. Parents can certainly relate to this. When was the last time your child thanked you for driving them to the dentist or for buying and making dinner each night? Children and adults, alike, simply expect certain actions from others because the actions fall within that person’s job description or role. This habit of inadvertently taking others for granted is not a malicious one, but rather an unfortunate reality we all face as we rush through life.

Each year the Proctor community evolves as students graduate and faculty and staff move on to retirement or new careers. At the end of June, three long-time members of the Proctor community will enter a well-deserved retirement. Marie Montivirdi, Lida Beaudoin, Ed Barkowski represent a combined 96 years of institutional memory and incredible service to the school. They have impacted thousands of lives during their careers, and today we celebrate their immense contributions to the Proctor community! 

Each week in our Parent Page newsletter, we profile a faculty or staff member in order to help our internal community get to know each other on a different level. This week's Parent Page will feature a profile on Brooks Bicknell '77 that we thought we would share on The Buzz as well! Check out other Faculty/Staff profiles on our past Parent Pages HERE! 

During most professional development days, guest speakers come to campus and present new information for us, as teachers, to then bring back to our classrooms. Today, Proctor’s faculty took a bold step to rethink professional development by turning internally to our own faculty to share the work we are doing in our classrooms.

Ten years ago, Chuck Will composed a comprehensive History of Proctor, including blog posts, archival photographs, and videos. This Proctor History 101 has proven invaluable to our institutional memory and is worth a read HERE. Today, we take a look back at perhaps the most transformative years in Proctor’s history through an interview with David Fowler who served as Head of School from 1971-1995, our first installment of Proctor History 202!