Choosing the appropriate independent school can be mind-boggling. Families wade through reference books, pour over catalogues and pay consultants to assess programs, facilities, faculty qualifications and college placements of graduates. It is ironic that here, at a school with such high definition experiential/academic programs, something as etherial as the ethos or culture distinguishes Proctor as an option.

We can describe programs with great clarity and completion, but we struggle to convey concepts (like egalitarian, inclusive and student-centered) that really count. Whatever it is that visitors experience here, it has some roots in the healthy tension between prizing the individuality of young people while placing them in multiple groupings of differing shapes and sizes.

Known by a first name, living in a dorm with--on average--eleven others, encouraged to grow in a unique manner, we accomplish our best in teams.

Within boundaries that--hopefully--seem common sense, are freedoms too often denied those who want to exercise responsibilities.

In yesterday's whole-school assembly, the students who comprise Peer Outreach (trained student counselors) invited us to come forward and light a candle while expressing a gratitude. In an era when the media bemoans adolescent ethics, dozens of teenagers came forward in front of three hundred peers to say "I am grateful for...."

"...being at a school with my sister...having the opportunity to go on Mountain Classroom...that my mom and dad are coming to Family Weekend together...that people don't know me as Trevor's little brother...that I've got such a great roommate...that I have the teachers I have...."

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