Each year, young people join the Proctor community as new students of varying ages. For the 131 students walking into our classrooms for the first time this week, it is the start of an academic journey that will span up to four years on this rural New Hampshire campus; a journey that will shape and mold their very being. It will be a journey that challenges them to think outside the box,
to stand up for what they believe in, while at the same time embracing new ideas. It will be a journey that hopefully brings them off-campus to study, learn, and explore a new culture, and it will be a journey that is intensely focused on this community right here at home.
As students embark on this academic process, they have choices to make. While much of the ninth and tenth grade curriculum is composed of required courses, the breadth of Proctor's academic curriculum is expansive, as no student could ever take all the courses offered during their time at Proctor.
The academic curriculum remains largely in tact from year to year, however, new classes are added to the each fall in order to best utilize the talents of our diverse faculty and to meet student demand. Some courses are the brainchild of faculty whose passions inspire them to offer a particular area of study. Heidi Johnson's new genetics class offered to sophomores, juniors, and seniors as a science elective will not only review basic genetics covered in biology, but will explore the increasingly complicated repercussions of genetic engineering. For example, is it ethical to genetically modify human embryos to avoid certain abnormalities?
For the first time Josh Norris is offering an Advanced Math course in Engineering capitalizing on his professional training as an engineer. Throughout the term, students will explore various physics principles in preparation for their final project: calculating the exact trajectory, altitude, and flight pattern of a rocket they are building.
Proctor's
Advanced Placement curriculum evolves each year, as well. Last year in the Social Science office, Phil Goodnow offered AP Human Geography for the first time, while this year I am teaching AP Economics, a course students asked to be offered last spring and subsequently over-enrolled this fall.
The willingness of Proctor to adjust course offerings each year based on student demand and desired content coverage is representative of the overall academic journey each student will take during his or her time at Proctor. No academic path is direct, perfectly planned without the ability to be altered, just as our curriculum remains adaptable. Each student will be required to focus on certain content deemed essential to our mission, however, incredible freedom of exploration is granted to students beyond those core requirements.
As one of my advisees commented last spring as we planned his schedule for the fall of his junior year, "I have always wanted to take a voice class, now I can finally do that!" I never knew this student had a passion for singing, but he has complemented his AP courses with a singing course offered by
vocal music director Kris Johnson and just recently played at his first open mic night at a local venue. His academic journey continues to evolve right alongside his sense of self.
We hope that every student has this moment (or many moments) at some point in his or her Proctor career. A moment where the content, ideas, and actions prompted in the classroom begin to shape a person's life outside of the classroom.
