The evolution of universal education in the United States occurred when we were an agrarian society. To enable children to support parents on their farms (and avoid the stifling heat of summer,) the school year gravitated to a September to June calendar. Today, that calendar has an inadvertent outcome: we begin with warmth, endure six or seven months of cold, and finish with a return to summer heat.

 

Whatever warmth we enjoyed in September is long forgotten today. Instead, we enter the final days of the year with conditions that feel completely novel. Everything feels different today, and--coincidentally--we are finishing.

 

Library hours are extended, and we're cranking through final exams, yet the campus has a relaxed, sultry ambience.

 



Ryan appears to have slipped out of dress code....



We're hanging outdoors for what seems like the first time. We're actually seeking shade!

 




The Blackwater River beckons on hot afternoons.




It is not the heat of day that drew students to Elbow Pond this morning at 6:30; it is tradition, for this is Polar Swim, and these kids were taking the plunge through a hole in the ice four months ago. Hardly "Polar" today, the water temperature is close to 70F.

 

For a veteran, senior Polar Swimmer, this is a rite of passage. Chris's (right, front) next dip in Elbow Pond will probably come at his fifth reunion, in June, 2015.