Welcome Families
10/27/2008
 Dozens of families are touring the school, experiencing---first hand--the unique option offered here.
The other day, I passed a family getting out of the car at the admission office, as the mother (I guess) muttered, "The students here look awful." I shared this insight with Chris Bartlett '87, but he did not seem to be hurt.
I was stunned by her remark, because--like everybody I know--Proctor students look just the way teenagers should look.
It is true that they're not wearing suits--as she and her husband were wearing--but I wonder if her term "awful" meant "happy," which is a better, and more accurate, descriptor. This is the Triple I student group which educates the community on social and cultural issues.
One of the truths that is invisible to visitors is the loyalty of those who know Proctor intimately, to the school. This reality is proved though enrollment data. The number of current students who are the sons and daughters of alumni/ae is unbelievable, as is the number of siblings enrolled.
To be specific, seventeen current students have Proctor graduates as parents.
This is a school that is so defined in its practices that it may be unattractive to many seeking a traditional, formal, hierarchic prep environment. So be it. But those who buy in to Proctor's definition of education have a tough time looking elsewhere.
Get this: sixty-nine current students have a sibling who is or who has attended Proctor! That number is a shocker.
It suggests that those who like the school, love the school. Here's Sarah McIntyre, an alumna of the Class of 1990, teaching a class with Emma Jones '09, whose brother is a grad (2008), and whose dad, Everett, is an alumnus of the Class of 1957.
The marquee sign over the Meeting House says, "Welcome Families," and it's really a double entendre, because we've apparently been welcoming families for some time. When Ian's (left) dad started as a sophomore at Proctor, in 1976, I started as a history teacher. Rosie's sister is an applicant for the Class of 2013....
A visiting family gains much information on an admission tour. Some realities, however, are elusive to the first-time visitor.
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