"The Webb Schools Blog"
Don’t Become the Difficult Parent
The college placement office is one of the quiet, but most important support pieces of a boarding school education. Boarding school college placement offices, and the students they support, benefit from a bounty of resources and experiences. A boarding school college placement office works full-time; works with a very healthy (read low) officer to student [...]
Read MoreWhat Will You Do With Your Child’s Moment in Time?
I recently took at peak in the door of the Hall of Life in our (The Webb Schools’) Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. Its renovation is nearing its end but I just couldn’t resist a look. Without divulging the details of what will certainly be a glorious new exhibit hall, I will say that I [...]
Read MoreWaiting for Your Private School Admission Decision: Lessons from the College Placement Office
Hector Martinez, The Webb Schools‘ (Claremont, CA) college guidance director, has posted a nice piece at Webblogs (The Waiting Game). Although, he’s speaking to seniors and their parents in the throes of the college admission process, some of comments apply to families working through the boarding school admission process. His high notes: No one likes to [...]
Read MoreLest We Forget Our Teenagers Are Children
We have a wonderful tradition at Webb, just prior to our students leaving for winter holiday. Our boys line the walkways to the girls’ dormitories with candles in preparation for an evening of caroling, hot chocolate and, of course, Santa Clause (actually one of our revered venerable teachers but, then, no one is telling). They [...]
Read MoreA Pendulum Too Far: Is it time to pay attention to boys education?
Lisa Wolfe published a thoughtful musing on the current state of boys education over at The Daily Beast, “Boys’ Self Esteem Problems.” She begins, interestingly, with a question posited by a colleague of mine about 20 years ago. We had been sitting through faculty meetings, over a few years, with topic-after-topic, idea-after-idea, and speaker-after-speaker covering [...]
Read MoreEngaged Faculty: The Not So Secret Formula of Boarding School Success
I remember those very large classes in high school where anonymity was more common than notoriety. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my high school – it was large, noisy, and just plain fun. But it was so easy to cruise by being in the middle where most of us lived. No, I am not [...]
Read MoreBoarding Schools: Don’t Rank Them, Understand Them
The fall admission season has opened and admission directors everywhere are facing the same questions – the most enduring of which is the “Where is your school ranked?” We all respond with the same mantra: There is no such thing as official rankings of U.S. independent schools, boarding or day. Our schools have not participated [...]
Read MoreThe Webb Schools Use Parent Webinar To Address Teen Risks
Parent-School meetings gone modern- The Webb Schools in Claremont, CA and Campus Outreach Services are in their third year of using webinars to address teen challenges and issues with parents. The webinar format works well for boarding schools with their dispersed parent bodies. Campus Outreach Services brings expertise in teen issues; parents bring their questions [...]
Read MoreEight Questions to Help Families Get to the Heart of How a School Works With Students
Families visiting AdmissionsQuest refer continually to our library of articles and resources regarding the private school admission process. With cyclical admission calendars, good tried and true references and advice stand the tests of time. Fresh views and new insight prove hard to come by in the routine of admission cycles. We’ve got some fresh views [...]
Read MoreThoughts from a Boarding School Business Office
Boarding school business and financial officers work in the shadows of their academic counterparts. Often their offices are remotely located away from a school’s academic, athletic, and residential life offices reinforcing an implied separateness between the school’s educational mission and monetary realities. With the past couple of years pushing boarding school dollars & sense into [...]
Read MoreStudents at The Webb Schools Experience Thoreau by Disconnecting, Slowing, and Simplifying Their Lives
Students at The Webb Schools (Claremont, CA), in Dr. Gail Lewis’ American Literature class, recently set aside their technology to gain experience and insight into Thoreau’s arguments regarding the transcendent nature of a simple life. Dr. Lewis asked her students to disconnect for 36 hours- not long, but long enough to feel the withdrawal when you’re used [...]
Read MoreDr. Leonard Sax Makes the Case For Single Gender Public Schools in Toronto
We’ve observed a couple of situations where the research of Dr. Leonard Sax underlies school organization and philosophy- The Webb Schools (The Webb Schools’ Distinctive Coed Environment) and Memphis public schools’ introduction of single gender public schools (Boys and Girls Education in a Public School Setting). Sax will visit Toronto this week to make the [...]
Read MoreSelecting a Private School: It’s not easy nor should it be
After fielding questions from a caller inquiring about our school (The Webb Schools), it is inevitable that I get: “So, where can I find your ranking among other boarding schools?” Happens all the time. Much to their dismay, I have to tell them that there is no such thing and happily so. Yes, there have [...]
Read MoreAn Admission Director’s Perspective on Athletics
I spent 20 years of my 32+ yrs. in education coaching 12-18 yr old students in cross country and track and field. I still believe it was the happiest time of my life as there is nothing more satisfying than to see youngsters challenge themselves in sport and learn the enormous lessons that can be [...]
Read MoreA Couple of Quick Items to Start the Day
If you haven’t checked out the Carnival of College Admission (AQ hosted an edition a couple of weeks ago), I encourage you to visit Eric Perron’s blog at Dreamstrategy where he’s hosting the 11th edition of the Carnival: Carnival of College Admission – A College Information Dream… A Dream Strategy that is! Eric featured [...]
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