Spring term always starts slowly, with mud and unwanted snow, and accelerates continuously to the end in early June. This is the first day of classes, and several inches of cold rain are falling on a saturated campus. A peculiar quality to the start of each ten-week trimester is the return of thirty-something students who have just completed a term in Proctor-in-Spain or France, Costa Rica or traveling through the Southwest and Mexico on Mountain Classroom. Their presence brings a refreshing newness to the community as we get down to work.

This is fine for those of us who have been here all winter, but for the returnees--who have spent the past ten weeks immersed in dramatic, experiential education 24/7--the transition back to dorm life and full days of classes can be tough.

They're used to a kind of holistic learning that we can only try to mimic in U.S. history or algebra 2.

Most students, by the time they graduate, take advantage of one off-campus term, and experience this transition a single time. Consider, however, Ian Barton (pictured below working on the restoration of an 18-foot catboat recently donated to the school.)

Ian attended Proctor in Aix-en-Provence, France in the fall of 2003, attended the new program in Guanacaste, Costa Rica this fall, and went out west this winter on Mountain Classroom! Below, another Ian (at right) seems to be adjusting OK to his return from a term in Segovia, Spain, (but don't ask his chem teacher...).