Wanted to go to NMH but it’s 3 hours each way for us. My daughter ran JV for Hotchkiss and did pretty well. Only lost to kids from A and E and those schools always have great runners. She’s a senior, so sadly her XC days are over.
I hope you’re warm now, @buuzn03. Congrats to your son for competing, and to his sister for braving the cold to support him!
Yesterday was the last match of GK1’s high school career. As a 4-year varsity starter, she has played every single set of every single match. Taking off the school jersey was emotional. (Well there are the playoffs, 1 to 3 matches tops, depending how far they go.)
So here are GoatMama’s 4-year NEPSAC varsity volleyball awards, given for integrity, camaraderie, and overall niceness (home team not included 
):
Coach’s Award: Andover
Team’s Award: Exeter
Honorable mention: Middlesex and NMH
Congrats to all athletes and coaches for their hard work!
Those are emotional moments, @GoatMama! I suspect there will be more games to watch in your future but that last BS one is bittersweet.
Congratulations to GK1!
@Temperantia congrats to your daughter! It was definitely a Philips’ show & her being able to crack in between both teams is amazing!
@GoatMama I did similar mental awards yesterday during the meet and awards…my sportsmanship award went to Loomis Chaffee. I was thoroughly impressed with the way they carried themselves and supported/congratulated other runners/teams.
Yep, club tryouts today and next week. College spiritwear has been ordered too! 
Same color family, @GoatMama! 
Congrats on the bittersweet milestones but much to look forward to!
Two red and two yellow cards to Loomis (including the team coach and the team captain) at the NEPSAC volleyball semifinals against Hopkins today. SMH. I’ve seen confrontational coaches, but Coach Dryerson is in a league by himself, and is dragging his players along, too.
Good luck to Hopkins and Exeter at the finals tomorrow!
Wow. Thanks for that feedback @GoatMama I guess the sportsmanship isn’t consistent school wide.
?
Yeah they should send those XC runners over to the VB gym ? But seriously, in team sports I think the coach sets the tone. The team’s playing style simply reflects the coach’s personality and values.
Good reading…
https://amp-theatlantic-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/600751/
In case you missed this article in The Atlantic…
I kind of get why parents are going crazy these days though. How many news stories can we hear about under employed college graduates?? Or that for the first time in American history, the next generation is projected to be less well off than their parents. It has become a scary time to raise kids. Both because scariness has been whipped up by the media and because the economy is changing from when we were kids.
I guess I should not have told my son to make sure he got his studying done and not to help everyone else so that he had no time to do his own work. EEK!
Kindness was our priority (and played heavily into school choice). And if you want your kid to be kind, it really helps if they are in an environment where kindness is valued and encouraged (and modeled by adults!) (And FWIW, when people around you are kind, it’s less scary to take risks and try new things, so yeah, there was also some self-interest in choosing a school for its culture of kindness.)
I related to the part of the article about toughness. You are really fighting an uphill battle against societal norms when your son is a sensitive soul. He will regularly be told to ignore, or better yet, ignore those feelings that might give rise to kindness out of empathy. And the world needs more people who are kind, not fewer!
Thanks for sharing that article, Golfgr8.
FWIW, I think “kindness” (or some variant of it) is a key component in my calculus of “fit” WRT BS. I agree with the author’s POV that we tend to over-focus on achievement — sometimes to the neglect of fostering other less-tangible qualities.
Which is why I’m always sour on the “Little Johnny is smart and must go to smart high school to realize his/my dream of him going to smart college so he can be a successful adult.” mindset. I’m exaggerating here for effect, but you know what I mean.
I have been, and still am, of the POV that kids who are going to get into [INSERT YOUR FAVORITE SELECTIVE COLLEGE HERE] are going to get into that school regardless of where they go to high school. And I also feel that 98% of the smart kids in the high school pool will be well served by ANY of the BS mentioned here on CC, not just 6 of the most selective. And I’m going to keep saying these things as long as I am active on CC.
So then, what criteria are you using to assemble a possible “apply to” list? To choose a school on how it cultivates kindness is certainly no worse a guide than what its college matric list looks like — and to my mind, arguably better/wiser in the long run.
So important to look at how the staff treat each other when visiting. And do kids look at each other and say hello, hold doors? That’s just the basics. How are kids celebrated. This can be found on facebook and on the website. Are there articles about kids doing good things in their communities as well as athletic and academic achievements? Does the school have outreach programs?
Agree, that kids are going to “land” where they belong. Part of their BS experience IMO should be learning to be a member of the larger community. How did they make X school a better place. It’s usually little things like making an international student understand something, listening rather than speaking and putting someone else’s needs before your own. Kindness (and thinking of others first) really is the central part of being a good person.
Our daughter crossed a school off of our list because our otherwise lovely tour guides didn’t make eye contact, greet, or otherwise acknowledge the custodial staff we walked by – even as we traipsed in tracking mud from a rainy day into a building lobby they had just mopped. In contrast, the tour guide at the very next BS we visited knew the names of all the kitchen, groundskeeping, and custodial staff who crossed our path – and they knew hers and greeted her warmly!
You know you’ve been here too long when your kid receives an invite to his five-year BS class reunion. Unbelievable.
@Choatiemom right there with you- our son had his already back in May! 6 of the 8 boys that graduated from his dorm attended and all stayed at my house for the weekend (thank gosh I was away on a business trip)! They had a blast!
FWIW, we had a similar experience to @CaliMex at a school. We crossed it off the list. Sometimes you just are set off by something you notice. Friendliness of kids and people saying hi to each other - also respect for staff and interactions were something we noticed. It’s not just a school, it is people. It’s also going to be your kiddo’s home for 4 years (or about).
@Golfgr8 Also, how teachers interact with parents is important.
At one open house, a teacher gave two very different talks about the same program, one to our kid ( US kid) and another to an international student. Was completely political and anti-(X-don’t want to mention as it was political). Was also wearing various bracelets with their political sentiments on them. Turned us off completely. Not their politics but their lack of transparency and open mindedness.
Kid thought indoctrination was going to be the order of the day. Hey, if they are talking this way about the art program what is history going to be like? Didn’t apply.
Facing the first Thanksgiving ever without our son. Very painful. He’ll be home for Christmas, though. Counting the days.