Three Berkshire School students are asked:

“Are you going to miss it [your Berkshire experiences upon graduation]?

Three Berkshire School students all answered, “yes.”

In this tour of Berkshire School‘s campus (Sheffield, Massachusetts), thee BA students (two seniors, 1 PG) speak about the boarding school advantages of an engaged and supportive faculty. Chris (PG) appreciates being pushed through the personal nature of the small classes. And in a similar vein, Barrett (day student) speaks about the connection between interested teachers and intense academics.

Hockey and Basketball provide competitive athletic experiences at Berkshire with all varsity teams in these two sports regularly at the top of the standings. Students interested in learning a sport or trying something new have a range of offerings from recreational to varsity in many sports.

Berkshire students attend class six days a week with Saturday nights and Sundays offering on campus social and residential activities and off campus trips.

When asked why Berkshire has been a great place for each of them each offered a personal take.

Chris said: “it [Berkshire] really pushed me to succeed.” Barrett appreciates the sense of purpose and community motivation. Lucy appreciates the close-knit community.

That’s boarding school.

Additional resources:

Berkshire School - www.berkshireschool.org

I call attention to a story on Cate School that I wrote this morning on the WBSA’s blog (Cate School To Study Adolescent and Young Adult Hearts).

It’s just too interesting and important to miss.

Briefly, Cate students will participate in a long term study designed to provide data and insight into “a cost-effective protocol for detecting heart abnormalities among young people.” CS

Wade Ransom, Cate athletic director is co-investigator of The Cate Study and Dr. Joseph Ilvento, will serve as the principal investigator.

Working in MIT’s Infinite Hallway last Sunday, seventeen St. Mark’s students and their teacher, Dr. James Tanton, folded 53,000 feet of toilet paper in half thirteen times.

The secured five feet long and two and ½ feet high made up of 8,129 layers paper tower will be put on display at St. Mark’s.

Why, You Ask?

Origami has all sorts of practical and modeling applications in math. I would quickly be out of my league if I tried to begin explaining how origami and math fit/work together.

To get an idea of the kind of thinking and mathematics we’re talking about, take a look at the Wikipedia entry “Mathematics of Paper Folding,” and at Tom Hull’s “Origami Mathematics.”

Additional resources:

Boarding schools in Massachusetts (MA)
www.stmarkschool.org

That is what is so interesting about boarding schools like ours; powerful, lifelong friendships are forged quickly and within a short period of time, young people find themselves surrounded by positive peers with similar aspirations.  The bonds that tie them are already strong and it is only December!

As the students look forward to the end of term and to getting back to some quality time with their families, it is often with some reservation, as they will also miss the day-to-day contact with their new boarding school friends.

At Brentwood College School, the boarding houses will end their term with special house Christmas dinners and the exchanging of ‘Secret Santa’ presents.  They will then return to their families filled with stories of new relationships, new experiences and new opportunities.  It is at these times when parents fully realize the richness of the boarding school experience and the very special gift that they have given their children.

Photo credit: Falling Sky via Creative Commons

We’ve been grinding for months. We’ve made it through the longest part of the school year without a major break (September to Thanksgiving) and now many of us will enter the final exam crunch next week- for students taking exams and faculty grading and writing comments.

We’re tired.

Here’s a fun video that that Trinity-Pawling School sent me back in the fall that helps me keep in mind the optimism with which every school year begins and, that sometimes, we have to fight to hold on to during the short slow winter.

The other day I was watching a documentary on the making of the Maserati luxury car in Italy.  I was fascinated with the love, care, devotion and commitment to excellence.  The hands-on approach to every aspect of its implementation is meticulous, from its design to its assembly, and exemplifies commitment to excellence.  This is the same kind of devotion and commitment that boarding schools have toward their students.  You get what you pay for.

In many ways, though the homestay experience (staying with a local family and attending a public high school) offers a good experience for students; comparing it to the boarding school experience would be as foolhardy as comparing the driving experience between a Volkswagen van and a Maserati.  Each have their purpose and serve it well, but let us be honest, they are two completely different conversations.

Consider a homestay experience at a typical public school.  The bell rings at 3 pm and school is over.  The place empties.  Extracurricular options are limited and becoming even scarcer.  Overcrowded classrooms are the norm and the general purpose of the experience is to work on some English and taste a bit of the local culture.

Now consider a school like my school (www.brentwood.bc.ca).  60% of the teachers live on the campus (such is their commitment to the philosophy of educating young people).  23 professional music, dance and art teachers come to campus to teach their craft.  Most coaches of our teams are former national, Olympic, university or professional athletes.  Extracurricular activities are offered 6 afternoons a week from 2 pm until 6 pm (and longer if needed).  The facilities are modern, high-tech and of university-standard.  Students are cared for in a safe environment by people committed to them; as well, access to nurses, doctors, and counselors are available around the clock.  The boarding school experience is rich, rewarding and powerful.  Lives are changed, life-long friends are established and students will accomplish all of this at the same time as receiving a world-class education in the classroom.

Maserati or Volkswagen van?  Two completely different experiences.  However, surprisingly a boarding school may be more affordable then you may think. Contact Admissionsquest or other sites that offer boarding school information to learn more.  Canadian or American boarding schools, I guarantee the experience will be priceless.

Photo credit: papurojugarpool via Creative Commons

And, if, like us, you have some relatives in the region who live at the end of a long dirt road, you heard stories about tree limbs taking down power, and phone lines, and the generator coming on.

Most of the time, even these big storms have little affect on the self-contained campuses of New England boarding schools. Essential employees, such as kitchen and maintenance staffs, often live on-campus or nearby in order to keep the schools functioning.

There could be a 2 ft. of snow on the ground but the kitchen wouldn’t miss a meal.

This storm was different in that it had snow volumes coupled with lots of down power lines. Staffing might have been in place but, without power, storm response required some creativity.

Kathryn Boughton of the Litchfiled County Times put together a good piece surveying how the boarding schools in her region responded to the storm. She checked in with Salisbury School, Hotchkiss School, Kent School, South Kent School, The Marvelwood School, The Gunnery, and Taft School.

It sounds like Taft had to assemble the most creative response to the storm. It was Taft’s Parents Weekend and the snowstorm produced some unexpected overnight guests.

“The school did play host to many of those 500 parents more than anticipated, many of whom could not return home or who were staying in hotels that had gone cold. ‘We had parents camping all over the place,’” Julie Reiff explained.(LCT)

Additional resources:

Boarding schools in CT
Boarding schools in New England

Photo credit: dddaag via Creative Commons

Photo credit: The Williston Northampton School

I was very impressed with The Williston Northampton School (a co-ed boarding & day school in Easthampton, MA).

Students were happy, engaged and eager to tell me what they like about Williston and why they chose it over other schools. I felt an energy everywhere, with everyone, I saw and met on campus from, staff, faculty and especially the students!

Common threads I heard were: diversity, academics, athletics, superior college preparation and broadening academic and cultural opportunities through collaboration with the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, U Mass Amherst). Students and faculty utilize this unique learning environment that provides them with daily opportunities to engage and explore outside of the classroom.

I found Williston to be ‘a breath of fresh air’ in all areas from academics, visual and performing arts, athletically with 63 teams and the facilities that are beyond great.

My tour guide was a senior who only had positive comments about her experience at Williston. Of her Williston time, experiences she explained, “Williston gave me the chance to be a leader and have a purpose on the field and in the classroom.” She will be attending Penn next year and playing ice hockey for them – very excited and is ready to have a great senior year.

There are no shortage of opportunities for Williston students to explore new ideas and begin personal discoveries.

Additional resources:

www.williston.com

AQ Educational Consulting

History Night at VVS

Part of every boarding school’s orientation and new school year is connecting new students and faculty to the school’s history, story, and beliefs- bringing everyone into the fold.

Learning to become part of a community larger than oneself is one of boarding school’s great unwritten lessons. Everyone needs to know, internalize, and commit to practice the values that they’ve agreed to live by as members of their school community.

Verde Valley School (Sedona, AZ) takes a lively approach to building their community at the start of each school year; one I’m inclined to like.

VVS consciously brings the school’s past to life using the school’s history, values, and alumni experience to connect new students and faculty to the school’s core values and to those who’ve come before them.

Most schools accomplish binding the community each year, building relationships, and internalizing beliefs through osmosis; students begin participating in, then absorbing, then internalizing the school’s culture.

All those plaques on the chapel wall commemorating those who came before you. Decades, or a couple of hundred years, of graduates, award winners and accomplishments- you get it- maybe.

Refusing to rely on osmosis to communicate school history, values, and culture, VVS establishes the living importance of the community’s shared experiences by coming together for ‘History Night‘ to begin the school year.

‘History Night’ presentations and traditions establish the importance of the VVS endeavor by bringing alumni back to campus to share their stories, experiences, and the ways that they carry the VVS lessons through their adult lives.

Living experience provides a great opportunity to build the community to start the year- bringing everyone- past and present- into an important, shared, and valued experience. Everyone learns about the school’s founding, what the school stands for, what everyone believes, who’s come before them and why it’s all important.

VVS is fortunate to still have community members directly connected to the school’s founding. Leslie Warren Sarn ’61 (daughter of VVS founders, Hamilton and Babs Warren) offered this ‘History Night’ observation of her father’s faith in going west to found a new school:

“What motivated Dad to start a High School? He felt that if young people from different countries work and study together, they might grow to understand and learn that we are all rather alike! We all like a good education. We all like to eat good food. We all want to have good friends and friendships. For example, not all of us have traveled to China, but we can learn from all of you who come from China while you are here at VVS about your parents, your dreams, the food you like and your ideas…..just by being here together in the same classes, in the same dorms, on the same teams, eating together. Some of us may not have been to Russia, but we might learn a few phrases in Russian if we sit in the same class next to someone from Moscow – for example, ‘snayu pa ruskie ochen jarasho!!’ (this means “I speak Russian very well” and is about all I can say!) The world is a big place, but the world can become smaller and more friendly if we learn about each other’s dreams, food tastes, habits and traditions.”(VVS)

VVS continues living and practicing these values every day. A vibrant living past renews VVS every year and keeps everyone’s eyes on the future.

Our students are excited to come to school each day.  They are actively engaged in meaningful activities from sunrise until bedtime.  They are learning to be independent and gaining confidence each and every day.  They are being taught and coached by adults who have passion and commitment.  Others with the same kind of dreams and aspirations surround them 24/7 – it is contagious.

They are happy.

I encourage any student or parent to witness in person what the boarding school difference could mean for them.  I know that you will be amazed.

Photo credit: proctoracademy via Creative Commons