The best classroom experiences are often rooted in an essential question on which inquiry, questioning, research, and arguments can be built. As educators at Proctor, the students we serve inform our institutional “essential questions” that form the foundation of our work. How might off-campus study abroad programs create life-changing experiences for our students? How might advisor/student relationships establish baseline trust that unlocks learning for our students? How might a community of diverse learners enhance the learning environment for all students?
This last question has been central to our faculty professional development over the last twelve months. During the 2024-2025 school year, Interim Head of School Steve Wilkins wrote a blog series focused on Learning and the Brain (read the amazing series of posts HERE), and as a full-faculty we read Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education by Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher during the summer of 2025 to better understand how the adolescent brain learns and how this, in turn, must inform our teaching.
This essential question of understanding how a diverse learning population enhances the overall learning environment at Proctor has long served as a fundamental pillar of Proctor. As THIS blog post further explains, Proctor’s commitment to understanding and serving diverse learners dates back nearly a century, when Samuel Orton partnered with Proctor teacher Lyle Farrell to design a remedial reading program for young men (Proctor was all-boys then!) who were struggling with dyslexia. Throughout much of the 20th century, dyslexia was viewed as a disability at schools around the United States. At Proctor, both then and now, we see the genius in our dyslexic students and work to build foundational reading skills in our students, while unlocking the remarkable gifts that each student possesses.
The New Yorker recently published THIS long-form piece by David Owen titled “Dyslexia and the Reading Wars.” Owen explores the disconnect between scientific knowledge and classroom practice in American literacy instruction. Effective, research-based methods for teaching reading have existed for decades, and exist at schools like Proctor who specialize in supporting and challenging young people with language-based learning differences. However, many schools still rely on discredited methods that fail struggling readers. The piece is worth a read, especially if you have a child who has dyslexia.
As we process this article and see the examples of great work happening at Windward School (New York) and Literacy Academy Collective (New York), as well as those remarkable schools like Carroll School and Landmark School in the Boston area, we are reminded that access to resources for students struggling with reading is not guaranteed. Our Proctor students (just like those at Windward, Literacy Academy Collective, Carroll School, and Landmark) are incredibly fortunate to go to school in a place that embraces scientific knowledge about the adolescent brain, reading, and an integrated approach to academic support.
Owen quotes Harvard’s Nadine Gaab, who compares the neural pathways that enable reading ot highways: "Maybe instead of four lanes you have two, or instead of a smooth surface you have a bumpy one." For some students, these highways of reading seem to pave themselves; for others, explicit instruction and methodology build the road. But all students are capable – the difference is in the path, not each student’s potential.
The privilege of having dyslexic students at Proctor enriches the experience of all students and faculty in our classrooms, dorms, teams, off-campus programs, and art studios with their creativity, alternative approach to problem solving, and tenacious perseverance. As we consider how our institutional essential questions might evolve over time, perhaps we think more deeply about the superpowers of dyslexia’s presence in a school community and how we might empower other school communities to embrace learning differences in the same way we seek to do so at Proctor.
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