"rainy day woman"- 5/16/2008

People in New Hampshire simply do not understand humidity. The best way I can explain the humidity in Washington DC is this, when i woke up this morning my hair was flat and after my walk back from Maret, my hair was, let's just say an afro.

But I digress, this morning was my last day "in the field". i spent the morning at Maret, which was enjoyable, suprisingly so. 

I was expecting a uptight school, and the admissions people to be guarded but alas they were far from it. In fact they were the FIRST school to admit they had cliques! which was a HUGE bonus in my book, b/c let's be honest the movie Mean Girls was based on a book written about a particular all girls school in Washington DC which shall remain nameless, so the fact that cliques exist in DC is not exactly a surprise.

My favorite response to one of my questions was this

1)   Do you have a lot of disciplinary problems, how are disciplinary issues handled?

- "Case by case,  our biggest problem is kids who are too “chatty”, we take a counseling rather than punitive approach, we try to educate kids as much so that when they leave they have the right skills, yet we know that growing up means making mistakes."

Another thing that was cool about Maret is that there entire campus ( K-12) is located on one campus, meaning that high schoolers have to handle kindergardeners and visa versa, which leads to a very friendly, open and unique environment.

Tomorrow begins the tricky task of looking back through the immense plethora of information I have collected, sorting through it and starting to actually put together this "brochure"

Until tomorrow

PEACE+LOVE

Abbie

"Self-discovery, generosity of heart, skills of mind."- Thursday May 15th

So this morning was definitely my favorite interview. When i first woke up I can't lie what I really wanted to do was crawl back into bed. Yet the moment i arrived at the Field school, I was wide awake. First off the school is literally drop dead gorgeous. A huge white mansion with winding outdoor staircases, it looks more like a spanish villa on the Mediterranean than a small private school in Washington DC. Upon entering the cozy and colorful admissions office, I chatted with a woman whose son went to Episcopal, so we bonded because I spent three hours bopping around there yesterday. Then I met Will Layman, the director of admissions.

When i first got to DC, I thought GDS would be my favorite school by far, seeing as how I almost left Proctor to come to GDS, yet today changed my mind. I found myself letting my guard down without even realizing it, and talking completely honestly with Will. My favorite thing about Field was the fact that every single kid has to take some form of art every single day. This means that Field is one of those rare schools where cliques really don't exist because as Will said, "everyone's a artist and everyone's a jock." When I asked who was popular, what type of kid, Will responded " well there's the kid who goes up at open mic and everyone's like go for it man!" but also "our valedictorian who went to Harvard, was a vegan, and ate lunch alone under a tree every day."

I have been impressed by all of the schools so far, but Field was the first school to wow me, When Will told me about Fields mission statement, I was literally blown away. Most schools missions statements are lengthy, similar  and quite frankly boring. So last year when Field had to come up with a new mission statement, the admissions crew sat down with thirty different mission statements from all these different schools, yet removed the name of schools and tried to match them all up, yet "there was no difference between say St. Albans, some military school, and that school  in Hippie town California." 

Fields mission statement is small enough to fit on three buttons, " Self Discovery" "Generosity of heart" and "Skills of mind" I mean truly what more can you say?

I even got to keep some buttons, and one of them was tye dye, When i remarked that Field was the ONLY school to give me buttons, Will responded, "stick around a bit longer and we'll give you a tee shirt."

This attitude is what makes field so different from any other private schools in the city, even GDS. Field has a totally open, funky and fun environment that makes you want to hang around and watch the kids in action in their different classes. Field is the kind of school that doesn't produce AP students who go off to Ivy leagues spouting off dates and numbers, instead they produce smart, quirky individuals who are farther on the path to self-discovery than most fifty year olds.

After today, I am truly not sure where I would want to go to school If i had to do high school all over again ( which as much fun as it was, I don't think I could) In one morning Field impressed me so much that after four years of thinking I would have gone to GDS, I now could say easily I would have been a happy camper at either school.

Tomorrow I'm off to Maret- until tomorrow..

Peace+Love

Abbie

"A visual trip back in time" May 14th

Today was quite a day- it has been busy busy busy all day, starting at eight when i began my journey to the other side ( aka-Virginia via the key bridge). When I arrived at Episcopal High School -my first thought, completely honestly, was "where's George?( as in Washington) The school itself looks right out of colonial times, yet I quickly found the people were a bit more modern.

At 8:45 I got to sit down the with the  director of admissions, Emily Atkinson, we quickly bonded after we discovered that she had graduated only a few years before my sister at Deerfield ( a boarding school in MA). She answered all of my questions, and we even got into some issues that are relevant at prep schools that I hadn't included in my questionnaire..(eating disorders, depression..etc.) 

The next step on my journey was a tour of school given by not one but THREE little freshman, I use the word little simply to define age, as all three of them were bigger than me. They showed me around the school, and took me into one of the girls dorms ( Episcopal is a all-boarding school btw). Interestingly enough all the dorms have locks with codes as do the dorm rooms ( maybe something PA should look into to avoid all the theft..)

After the tour, the three kids sat down obligingly while I harassed them some and asked them the questions from my questionnaire. Much the same as GDS the answers from Emily matched pretty well with the answers from the three kids.

Then I met Phil's brother Peter, and he took me over to meet the asst. head of academics, and she also answered a lot of my questions from my questionnaire, the influx of information was nice, and I just wish I had had a tape recorder with me, because I simply could not type everything fast enough.

Finally I got a chance to sit down on a outside porch and talk with Peter about the school, his experience with private schools and of course his brother. His love for the school and for education was evident, and i was inspired by his idea that the kids at Episcopal should utilize DC as a resource. Every Wednesday about 90% of the school goes off campus, usually into the city to museums, the mall..etc.

I loved Episcopal because it is the type of place where your first impression is proved wrong. When i first arrived I was prepared for a uptight, strict boarding school based solely on appearances, yet what I found was a place that was incredibly warm and welcoming, where everyone says hi to each other and smiles. 

It's amusing that the 2 schools i have visited so far are on opposite sides of the spectrum. GDS is super liberal, whereas Episcopal, though progressive, is still a fairly traditional institution. Though both schools are academically demanding, and attract "well-rounded kids"

When i got home, I wrote a brief review of the school, which I will expand on more. After lunch, it was off to Sheridan to have a meeting with Margie (my sponsor) we sat down for 45 minutes or so and talked about private schools, high school, her job and of course my project.

My favorite line of the day indeed came from Margie, she is the assistant director of admissions and financial aid at Sheridan, and when we broached the topic of diversity, her face lit up as she described Sheridan's open and caring environment, and then she declared,

" My favorite class is the third grade, it looks like the United Nations!"

So tomorrow I am off to Field to meet with Will Layman and hopefully a student or two, until next time..

Peace+Love

Abbie

"All in the family"-May 13th

Today was a nice day, I didn't have any schools to see, so i got a chance to stay home and continue working on my paper. If my paper were to be compared to a person, then I am 3/4-a whole way done with the skeleton, meaning all the paragraphs have some stuff in them, but now they need to be "fleshed out" more. 

The main accomplishment of my day was i got a chance to talk with my dad, who has been a headmaster  of private schools for 25 years, and got to ask him questions I have always wondered about, and this was only the beginning, I plan on harassing him every night for the rest of the time he is here, though I believe he is unaware of this lovely fact..

YES I finally figured out how to get things from word onto my blog, so here is part one of my interview with my dad, who is currently the head of Sheridan school, a small k-8 private school in DC...

Me: “ Being a parent of three kids, who have all attended private schools, 2 in DC, what would be your advice to a parent entering into the world of private school?”

Rand: “ Tuition actually doesn’t pay for the tuition of the child, somethinhg like fourteen percent of the education that is not covered by the tuition, so you have to realize that you will be asked to give to annual giving, potentially capital campaign, but You will be asked to contribute.”

 

Me: “ Knowing what You know about all the different private high schools in DC and after sending hundreds of kids to these schools, if You were an eighth grader where would You want to go, and if You had a child  about to go into high school where would You want them to?

Rand: “ GDS for both.”

Me: “ Tell me about the curriculum at Sheridan.”

Rand: “ Well there are three parts to it, A- I decided mainly because I was a parent there needed to be symmetry between the whole nine years, some kind of connection, I had two ideas for the faculty, the one aforementioned, and You wanted eighth grade to be based on current events and global issues- In the book Guns, Germs, Steel by Jared Diamond we found this symmetry, basic premise being where you live influences how you live and people started branching off and trading with each other which led to conflict and war, so we divided up the K-8 social studies curriculum based on the book. An example being, kindergarten studies the six biomes, and first grade studies how you adapt to where You live. At the same time, we decided to go a concept-based curriculum, which basically meant that there were basic concepts that ran through the whole curriculum, such as the idea of power. The third thing we did was to look at the state national standards and we developed a skills matrix based on these standards, that what’s important and unique for Sheridan because a lot of private schools only look internally, whereas we looked to the outside world.”

Me: “ What is something you don’t like about the private schools in DC?”

Rand: “ They can be elitist and too power and money focused, and take themselves VERY seriously.”

Me: “ How do you handle diversity?”

You: “ the easiest answer for me to say is at Sheridan we have established a “responsive classroom model”, which means basically that there be a community rule that governs the classroom, it’s a non-punitive covenant based agreement between the members of the class and the community that helps everyone be treated the same and with respect.”

PEACE + LOVE

abbie

Monday may 12th- "first day in the field"

So after a week of research today was my first day "in the field". This morning at 9 am I went over to GDS and met with Elaine Scott, I got a chance to sit down in her office and talk to her for about 20 minutes, and ask her all the questions on my questionnaire. She then gave me an AMAZING hour and fifteen minute tour of the school, and we talked the entire time through that as well. 

I also got a chance to see my best friend Riley who is a senior at GDS, and ask her the same questions I got to ask Elaine, and the differences in their answers were minimal, which just show the connect between the students and the admin. is small. GDS is a wonderful place filled with students excited to learn and the classrooms are set up in a way where every student's face is visible, so no one can fall through the cracks. In fact from the classes we stopped through, ranging from AP Psychology to evolutionary biology to art to junior "lit" every single student was bright-eyed and talking, and this was first block mind you..

It was really cool to visit another high school as a high school senior and compare and contrast to proctor, it was also nice to visit knowing I was not trying to get in there, so I could be more relaxed and really take in everything Elaine was saying, and fully absorb the school's unique liberal environment.

When i got home I was able to right a reflection of the school, so all the info Elaine told me could be included, which I would love to include on this post, but when i try to copy and paste from word it refuses to go on my blog which ( i'm not going to lie-IS REALLY FRUSTRATING..)

peace+love

Abbie

WEEKLY REFLECTION NUMERO UNO

This week has had the strange quality of both lasting forever and going by too quickly. I can't believe it has already been a week. I am glad this week is over though because straddling senior project work and school work was not exactly fun. Now that My AP's are done, I can totally focus on Senior project. 

I learned that trying to do senior project work and school work is a lot harder than I though it would be, and I need to work on my time management skills. Though the research I did get to do on NAIS and AISGW i liked a lot, and the more I learn and read about independent schools, the more interested I am in them, despite the fact I have only ever gone to Private schools, looking at them from an outsider's perspective is very different. Everything happened pretty much as I expected, except as i said before i was surprised at the challenge of doing two things at once. I will benefit from this week's activities because I got to start some online research for my paper, and have time to set up interviews with all my schools except Sidwell, but I am in the midst of working on that one. 

Sunday has been a very productive day so far. I started my research paper, and finished the intro and am halfway through the first paragraph, I tried to copy and paste it onto my blog, but this will not work for some reason. 

Tomorrow I am off to Georgetown Day School ( GDS) for my first exciting school experience, I am definitely ready to actually visit a school and get some feedback from students, teachers and the admissions people. 

Peace+love

Abbie

DAY NUMERO CINCO

Another exciting beginning to a new day- This morning I spent three hours in the AP US History exam, and when that concluded, I had to rush home and pack for DC. Yet alas when I arrived at the airport, I had missed my flight, was forced to change airlines and fly into (gasp) BWI, so I did not arrive home until about an hour ago. So sadly I truly have nothing new to report on My senior project. I am just glad all the AP's are over, so that I can now fully commit myself to this senior project. Though tonight I did speak with my dad about setting up a meeting with Betsy Downes ( the head of AISGW), and he said it was pretty much a given.

Tomorrow I plan on sitting down, and finally getting to work on my research paper without the distraction of AP classes and school.

Peace+Love

Abbie