Hey @panpacific , have I mentioned how much I enjoy your posts? Thanks for your honesty in weighing in on CC.
I don’t know anything about Mr. Palfrey “knowing the pain”, but I can add, getting back to @zixzax 's original post, that his first major initiative, when he became head of school, was to build the schools new Wellness Center. The Wellness Center deliberately integrated the school’s Infirmary and Counseling Center to provide a holistic and state-of-the-art locale for serving the well being of the students. They have sleeping pods and yoga classes and nurses and mental health professionals. Mr. Palfrey and the Wellness Center Director want to destigmatize a student’s need for balance.
The Center is beautiful and sports a Zen-inspired garden in the back.
And, as you mentioned, last year Mr. Palfrey initiated a sleeping “competition” for a month. He tracked his sleeping and students had the chance to track theirs, too. They had a gift card raffles, and I think over a 100 students participated. The idea was to transform sleep behaviors so that students would not persistently brag or complain about chronic sleep deprivation.
My CallieKid maybe pulled one or two all-nighters in her Andover career, but she averaged 6 or more hours of sleep over the vast majority of her tenure. And she always took six courses. She is an athlete and recognized that sleep deprivation degraded her athlete performance. She is also pretty good at time management.
Being in a competitive boarding school can and does cause strain to its students, but I just can’t imagine a better or more healthy place than Andover. Have I mentioned their revamped cafeteria fare? As the CallieKid would refer to it: “It’s Amaze Balls”. 