Learning from the college scandal

What the scandal highlights is the irrational frenzy around college admission, and my real concern is that we may be forgetting what high school is for. A few days after the scandal broke, I had dinner with fellow alumni from my high school alma mater, Northfield Mount Hermon, a boarding school in Massachusetts. There were 10 of us, all graduates from the ’70s when the school went through a merger, and not once during that four-hour gathering did “Varsity Blues” cross our lips.

 

Instead we spoke about what the school meant to us.

 

We remembered British English teacher Elizabeth Buckmaster – Bucky – reading from Shakespeare, brandishing a sword. We recalled AP English teacher Jack Baldwin reciting Death Be Not Proud, without his dog-eared and tattered anthology of poetry. We fondly recalled our work jobs, although when we were performing them, we often considered them drudgery. NMH has a more than century-old work program. Students have to spend the equivalent of a class period on a job in the community – in the kitchen, cleaning, gardening, filing in an office – all designed to teach students to take responsibility for their community. We spoke proudly of the diversity of the student body on our rural New England campus. And one indelible image kept coming to my mind: that of my ninth-grade Spanish teacher, Marta Maristany, who would, between drilling verb conjugations, tell us about fleeing Cuba, tears welling up in her eyes.

 

I don't want to bore you with all of my stories. The point is, I remember a host of life-shaping experiences and moments and a shared intellectual endeavor between passionate and demanding teachers and curious and engaged (most of the time) students. What I do not recall is anything resembling today’s suffocating fixation on the college process. In the ’70s, there was no such thing as the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the colleges. We worried about college admission, but not enough to sit for the SAT and ACT tests more than twice. Even more to the point: college admission was far less competitive way back then. Or at least it felt that way.

 

The world has changed, and we have to help our kids adjust.

 

High school should be a time of adventure, exploration, skill building, critical thinking and friendships that might just last a lifetime. Playing for your school team; participating in athletics and the arts; building community on your own campus. Helping your school be better. Caring for one another.

 

Perhaps this scandal can serve as a wake-up call. We all love our kids and it is natural that we would only want the very best for them. We look around and see what everyone else is doing, and it is hard not to get drawn into the frenzy. Let’s make sure that by pursuing what we think is best for our kids, we are not inadvertently placing so much emphasis on the destination that we lose sight of the journey. We cannot allow our kids to miss out on the joy that comes with learning at a place like Ransom Everglades that has so very much good to offer. Students who genuinely want an education will seek it out and grab hold, often with little regard for the name or prestige of an institution. Our kids are amazing, and they will excel wherever they land.

 
Penny Townsend
Head of School
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