Buz Morison's College-Level Neuroscience requires students to wrestle with complex questions as they explore how a living brain gives rise to a conscious mind, creating space for uncertainty, allowing them to develop confidence in their own thinking.

For the last twenty-five years, Proctor has led the way in understanding how to teach health and well-being to its students. We enter an exciting new chapter of this work under the leadership of Dr. Nancy Turkington. 

Gathered in the Wilkins Meeting House as the culmination of their term-long off-campus program, Ocean Classroom students returned to campus this week to share nine weeks of intensive academic work and lived experience at sea.

The final weeks of the fall term brought the Proctor community together to witness student learning across disciplines – from the Fall Term Art Show and music performances to Innovation Night presentations.

What began around kitchen tables in faculty apartments nearly ninety years ago has evolved into a nationally recognized model where Learning Specialists teach students not just content, but how to learn – cultivating metacognitive awareness, executive functioning skills, and the belief that with the right support and strategies, they can find success in whatever they put their minds to.

AP Language students analyzed Frederick Douglass's life through a permanent English Department exhibition, connecting their summer reading to visual rhetoric in ways that deepened their understanding of argument, research, and the power of images.

Director of College Counseling Mike Koenig's reminder that "College-level courses are equivalent in rigor to AP courses" reflects Proctor's fundamental belief that academic rigor takes many forms, and that support and challenge are not opposing forces but create a positive feedback loop.

Each young person works to establish an island of competence on which they can stand. We see this in children of all ages - they flock to activities where they find success, and in that success, they begin to form their identities. Read more in today's blog! 

As the year concludes, it seems important to consolidate the most important elements of our conversation. Brain scientists would indict us for failing to review what we have learned.