While most of us are on Spring Break, the Admission Office is busily preparing to mail decisions to 400 applicants. On the assumption that many of those who receive good news will be checking out the website, I am recycling several past Corners that speak to the mission of the school and the make up of the community. The page that follows first appeared on October 28.
For our first 125 years, the influences that shaped Proctor included Classicism, Mann, Dewey and Unitarianism. Thirty-five years ago, new institutions impacted our mission and philosophy, including Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School. Increasingly, Proctor's commitment to experiential education attracted teachers who were alumni/ae of those outdoor, adventure-based programs. The influence of this process is pervasive. Mountain Classroom instructor Kayden Will (pictured below, right) is a NOLS instructor.
One result is that Proctor attracts some students specifically due to experiential offerings both on- and off-campus.
The Proctor Mountaineering Club encountered snow on a recent ascent of Mt. Washington.
Some of our most attractive programs, including Ocean Classroom and Costa Rica, were born out of an existing predisposition for dramatic immersion. Proctor kids sent the following from the beach in Tamarindo.
They visit active volcanoes, monitor turtle hatchings and study jungle ecology.
No one knows how a Larix laricina, or tamarack tree, came to grow east of Maxwell Savage Hall. Also known as a larch, this deciduous conifer is common to wetlands and peat bogs. Biology students consider this venerable specimen prior to a field trip to a local bog.
The field trip analyzes the ecology of a high-acid, former lake, now featuring floating mats of spaghnum, sedge, cotton grass, pitcher plants and hundreds of tamaracks, with bright yellow needles ready to drop.
Three National Outdoor Leadership School instructors arrived in a bus Friday, its diesel engine fueled by vegetable oil, its batteries charged by photo-voltaic cells. They are training student leaders, sitting in on classes and promoting experiential education. And so, the cross-pollination of influences continues to shape this community.
