<p>Exeter parent of an upper D who is a proctor–she is very proud that Exeter is “the marine corps” of prep schools. when possible athletic recruits come (in her sort) and ask about having to do hard work…she tells them to go to Andover if they want an easy prep school experience. She and her friends didn’t really like that the Saturday morning classes are being reduced…The Exonian letters page also is full of present students who don’t want the Exeter experience to be watered down. </p>
<p>At the same time she LOVES Exeter and wouldn’t ever have wanted to be anywhere else and actually over the holidays bemoaned to me that she only had 18 months left. As an Exeter parent I am so impressed with the students and the teachers. She has grown more than I could have imagined or hoped. Harkness-style education is extraordinary.</p>
<p>No school is for everyone, Lord knows, but if you want the most challenging secondary school experience you can, I hope your kid can chant “WE ARE E-X-E-T-E-R” at the E/A game.</p>
<p>Surprise, surprise… there are a lot of smiley kids at Exeter! They can also be serious, they can frown, they can laugh, they can cry, and they definitely know how to kid around good-naturedly. Don’t just take my word for it. Go sit on one of the hallway benches in Exeter’s Academy Building and enjoy the interactions among the kids as they go from class to class. You’ll see almost everything, but definitely not much reminiscent of Marine Corps discipline! Even better, perhaps, go sit in the Grille Room at lunchtime. By and large, these are primarily very well adjusted, very bright kids enjoying some incredibly enriching educational experiences. If you ask them, many of them will say that Exeter evokes love-hate kinds of feelings. They love being part of a highly talented, kind-hearted group of kids so much like themselves, they greatly enjoy almost all of their teachers, they enjoy growing in their chosen extracurricular domains, they’ll tell you how much more they enjoy the Harkness class format than the traditional classroom experiences they had earlier - and they’ll tell how much and how frequently they HATE the nightly homework burden. At the Harkness table, a kid can’t hide and he/she had better have done their homework. Yes, that part of it can be really tough, but even the kids who go on to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. will tell you that college is relatively easy because of what their Exeter experiences did for their personal growth.</p>
<p>Jeeze, it’s the same here at Exeter High School. My friends graduated from PEA last year and it was just a ****load of work according to them. I think it’s the town, there’s just nothing to do here…</p>
<p>Go outside. Bch is 10 min away. Patuckaway is 15 min away. OR snowshoe/walk/ski/bike the many green/open areas around Exeter. Or Go to the Whites. Ski somewhere. Or buy some crampons and hike the many amazing EASY mountains…Or do Mt. Washington. Just did this with my Exonian AND my 11 yo. </p>
<p>Or Take the train to Boston, or Salem (PEM). North station and 100’s of different worlds are less than 40 min away. </p>
<p>I think what a lot of you have already stated is very true. Exeter is not for everyone, but the child who feels comfortable there will do well there and have a wonderful experience. My son, narrowed his choices down to PA and PEA - Exeter was a clear choice for him - he liked the kids more there - he found them friendlier - probably because he had more in common with them. He was very drawn to a full Harkness education, he is in favor of Saturday classes and wanted to board at a school where most kids stayed at school over the weekends. I know he would have gotten a great education at PA, but he felt more at home at Exeter. I met several families at revisit days who felt just the opposite. PA was an obvious fit for them. My son is a child who likes to be challenged, and even though it may be cool to complain about the workload, he wouldn’t be happy without it. He thrives in an academically intense environment. And to find that there are other kids who feel the same way is a dream come true for him. He just spent Winter Thaw weekend at Exeter and had a great time - he participated in a few of the school social events, but mostly hung out with his friends, rested and relaxed - isn’t that what most kids do on a long weekend?
PS I have seen lots of smiles everytime I have visited Exeter…</p>
<p>This is a very limited, harsh view of Exeter life. As a current student, I can assure you all that Exeter students do have fun, and it is not a rare occurrence. While the article makes some solid points, those students who resort to drug are often those who would have done so in any school. Admittedly, the administration could have a more active role in ensuring “fun” on campus, but there is only so much they can do before it becomes the student’s responsibility to be proactive and look for ways to entertain themselves.</p>
<p>Exeter apparently has been hearing from more than just the author that it is a depressing pressure cooker robbing their students of an enrich social life along with stellar academics. They have decided to end Saturday classes next year to give those kids who are victims of their pressure cooker status obssesed environment.</p>
<p>You’re correct, mountainhiker; prepveteran has something of a history of mounting baseless mini-attacks against Exeter, and maybe just likes to see this negative thread title on page one of the CC discussion list?</p>
<p>Anyway, if you go to the Exeter website, you can download the 2011-12 schedule to see the number of Saturday classes next year. The new schedule is a trial; it’ll be interesting to see where the community comes out at the end of the year (some vacation time is being traded for Saturdays, to keep the total number of class days the same)</p>
<p>Classical Mama: The Exeter student that complained about the School environment actually wrote the article himself, believe it or not, without my mouthing off. It’s true they are reducing Saturday classes hoping to ease the unhappiness due to the pressure cooker environment.</p>
<p>I read the article…and the responses in the following week’s paper by students who disagreed with the original writer. One kid’s opinion in a student newspaper is never (at least at Exeter) reflective of the entire student body. It is true that they are experimenting with reducing Saturday classes to see if it will improve student life. Nothing’s set in stone though. Interestingly, there are many students at Exeter who are in favor of Saturday classes as a way to spread out the work week.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have to agree. Exeter is what it is. Some students thrive in that environment, others don’t but it goes back to fit. I remembered the Saturday classes not being that intrusive and loved having a breather on Wednesday afternoon to get caught up on work and rest. Taft and several other schools have the same system and aren’t labeled pressure cookers. </p>
<p>I have to wonder if it’s more a product of an applicant pool increasingly drawn to the mythology of Hades to IVY and - in some cases - self imposed stress. If anything, I remembered the transition to MIT being easy because the pace was about the same.</p>
<p>Hence we get back to - Picking schools based on fit instead of imagined college entrance benefit might cure some of that.</p>
<p>I’ll be curious to see what happens to with the experiment, though. Saturday classes have always been a long standing part of the culture.</p>
<p>The biggest push for a reduction in Saturday classes comes from the faculty, not the students. I don’t think the move is for the quality of life for the students, but for faculty and their families. That was the impression I left with after talking about the plan with a faculty member in the fall. They are trying to balance the need for students who travel from afar to have longer breaks and the desire of faculty to be able to have an entire weekend off every so often.</p>
<p>The buzz that I hear is that the students are worried that fewer Saturday classes will actually increase the pressure because the teachers will simply require the same amount of work with less class time.</p>
<p>As a parent, I observe that my student does tons of work on Wednesday and Saturday half days because he’s already primed up from the morning classes. Sundays, however, he tends to sleep until noon and has a very sluggish start and throws off his sleep pattern. I would hazard to guess that he is more productive (and happy) with the half days. Of course, my kid does better when he is more scheduled than with huge blocks of free time. </p>
<p>Besides, they aren’t doing away with Saturday classes. From the looks of the draft calendar for next year, it seems that they just moved the Winter term Saturdays to the fall and spring. It doesn’t look like they really eliminated any. Kids at Exeter will still have more class days than their counterparts at SPS, Andover, et al.</p>
:p</p>