For years, I’ve been claiming that the lack of shelf life is the key to a blog post’s authenticity. Now I have to write a post that has a very long shelf life, because it is the last.
Chuck’s Corner is finishing with considerable buzz in the independent school/communications industries. I want to thank inbound marketing guru Brendan Schneider for his recent podcast interview of me on his esteemed blog, SchneiderB. And I thank Jay Goulart, who--along with Travis Warren '91 at Whipplehill--was instrumental to launching this crazy thing 15 years ago, for his tribute on his NewSci blog.
This site has accomplished several things over the years. For the parents of students from hundreds or thousands of miles away, it provided a window into current conditions…. a sense of place.
A blog like this is unrivaled for branding a school, as everyday happenings are presented to illuminate great truths about Proctor's style, methodologies and approaches to teaching and learning.
Chuck's Corner also entertained people with highly diverse relations to the school with insights into life with positive adolescents.
This--conveying the special, non-adversarial ethos and spirit of the community--has been my great joy.
Transparency is a risk for schools. It’s safer to control messaging and stick to tried-and-true themes of “academic excellence” and “close faculty-student relationships.” I am grateful to this school--leadership, faculty and students--for the willingness to be authentic!
I was interviewed by CASE Currents magazine Senior Editor Theresa Walker the other day, and she finished by asking, “How would you like to be remembered?” I had never considered this, but I’ll stick with my response: I’d like to be remembered as someone who was grateful for the opportunity to work with great kids, and grateful to Proctor Academy for allowing teenagers to be teenagers, and not wish that they were something else.
It
truly has been real!
