<p>I'll be keeping my ear to the ground for echolocation of CC Smith parents this weekend! (With much collective gratefulness to the college that has been so good to our respective D's...)</p>
<p>We're here! Arrived Thursday. Helped d. pick out final gifts for her graduate school recommenders. Went to Easthampton to pick up gift for her made for me by a Quaker calligrapher Mary Teichman (look her up on-line - she's GREAT!). Went to the bacalaurette at the chapel. Ate at Taipei & Tokyo.</p>
<p>Today - she has to CLEAN HER ROOM! (Smith hasn't helped in the least in that regard). Then we are going to visit the National Yiddish Book Center. </p>
<p>Four years - sigh. I honestly find it difficult to imagine that, value for dollar, she could have received a better education absolutely anywhere. Next fall, off to Princeton. She found out that most of the other students joining her already have M.A.'s, so obviously between Smith and herself, they must have done something right (she is the only student they accepted in her field.)</p>
<p>Pesto, look for me at graduation tomorrow. Today was like a marathon, with 10-11 events crammed between 9:15am and 9:15pm. Something I did not expect to be so affected by was the Ivy Day parade of the Alumnae. The "main" groups were from 1998, 1983, 1958, and 1943. But there was a fair contingent marching under "1776," a potpourri of all the other years. The devotion to Smith all these years later and the respect & affection returned was just touching. </p>
<p>Saw Mini twice, finally met Ellen. Have met about 10 of D's profs between yesterday and today.</p>
<p>I agree with Pesto & Mini about a college that has been so good to our D's, value for dollar, etc.</p>
<p>Awww. I hope that means that the parents will continue to post here, even though their daughters have moved on to their careers and graduate education.</p>
<p>I second Mwfn. Congratulations to parents and daughters, and PLEASE stay around to share, counsel and comment. We need you.</p>
<p>Congrats to all the new graduates and their parents!</p>
<p>I hope The Dad won't be annoyed with me, but being humble, he left an important detail out of his post. His D is graduating summa cum laude!</p>
<p>Hope everyone had an amazing commencement weekend, from Ivy Day to the diploma circle!</p>
<p>Home again. Managed to stuff four years' worth of accumulated possessions plus three humans into our little Prius.</p>
<p>Mini and TheDad: I was happy finally to match faces with CC identities at least for your daughters, but I'm afraid I never saw you guys. Your D's have set amazingly high standards of brilliance and accomplishment for Smith students -- I expect they will be up at that podium in the Quad some years from now, delivering commencement addresses to future generations of students.</p>
<p>mwfn et al: I at least will be around for another year on the Smith CC forum as my daughter has been accepted to a Masters program at Smith next year. I'll get to do graduation all over again a year from now!</p>
<p>Ivy Day was exquisite from beginning to end -- thanks to the weather -- but I think what impressed me most was the genuine affection for my daughter that we sensed among the faculty members we talked to in two different departments. I know students at every top college rave about their professors' accessibility and approachability, but I think there is something special about the professors at Smith and their commitment to teaching. When I was in college at a certain Ivy that shall remain unnamed, I certainly never got to know my professors -- or had the sense that they knew and cared about me -- to the degree I have seen at Smith between my D and her professors.</p>
<p>Smith's Commencement speaker this year was Margaret Edson -- a Smith alum, author of "Wit," and devoted kindergarten teacher -- and I hope her speech will be made available on-line because she captured the essence of teaching better than anyone I've heard on the subject, and while she herself teaches kindergarten (where it all begins), her acute observations about the chemistry that happens in a classroom, and about the love that is its source, are true of the profession no matter how old the student.</p>
<p>What a lovely post! I enjoyed reading it.</p>
<p>Thank you for taking the time to post that, Pesto!</p>
<p>(I was especially delighted to learn from a retired Smith physics prof who is a Friend that Edson is a fellow Quaker.)</p>
<p>It looks like the speech is up online. :)</p>
<p>Smith</a> College: Commencement</p>
<p>I'll have to watch the video later, but the transcript was lovely on its own!</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads-up, IA. I'd like to pass the speech along to the teachers I know.</p>
<p>I'll echo Pesto's post about the genuine affection between students and the profs. Between Thursday and Friday we went to three different departmental receptions (Government, Math, Econ) and the sense of connection was incredible. A couple of days ago, I was relating this to a current prof at UCLA and he said that he had a similar experience as an undergrad at Carleton and he'd recommend the LAC for almost everyone...and he <em>teaches</em> at UCLA.</p>
<p>Cattv, not so much my humility as my D's sense of privacy but no worries...she and you are good.</p>