Proctor Academy - Proctor 101

During the school year, this site provides spontaneous vignettes from real time school life. With the slow days of summer upon us, let's tell the Proctor story in more traditional fashion, using archived images. This page addresses the school's academic nature. Future installments, starting Wednesday, June 30, will explore experiential programs, school history, arts, athletics, etc.

One of Proctor's many distinctions is its mission to work with an academically diverse cross-section of the college bound population. The 338 boys and girls who attend are bright enough to experience real academic success if they are positive and motivated. So attitude is everything.

Students actually get rewarded if they seek extra help, and systems are structured to provide opportunities for success in college prep courses ranging from Introduction to Literature to Advanced Placement Physics. The faculty/student ratio is 1 to 4.5, and teachers are encouraged to forge informal and impactful relationships with kids.

The entire school meets regularly for open-forum assemblies at which anyone can say anything s/he wishes. A non-adversarial ethos is permitted by a set of structures that seem generally commonsense.

The question is not "Are you smart enough?" It is "Are you motivated enough, when challenged and supported?"

The most popular school T-shirt reads, "Attitude Is Everything."

The concept of diversity as a strength includes differences as measured by achievement test scores and styles of learning.

Students learn to self-advocate in an environment that rewards participation and extra help.

Hands-on learning and student involvement in academic activity are favored teaching styles.

The curriculum is college prep, and graduates go on to great schools, but a pervasive understandiing exists that we are preparing for lives of quality and continued learning.

The school defines itself in human terms, with small dorm houses, advisor groups that average 4 or 5 students, and classes that average 11.

The arts, including a large selection of manual arts (like boat building and woodshop)...

...are broadbased as electives throughout the curriculum.

This is a student-centered school that has attracted teachers who relish informal, non-adversarial relationships with teenagers.