Groton School life? general boarding school life?

ThacherParent
Sat, 18 Jul 2015 14:17:48 +0000

Boy, good question - and I’m going to riff on it. You’ll have a ton of choices to make when you land at Groton (or any boarding school). There will be all kinds of pressure from different sources: peers, teachers, older students, prefects, administrators, work load etc. And when no one is looking, that’s when it gets really interesting. Can you make good decisions by yourself? Can you see ahead to different possible consequences? This is tough for anyone much less a new teenager.

Should you have any actual free time when you’re a freshman (unlikely), my advice to you is simple, and this applies to any high school kid: give yourself time to think about a decision before blurting out an answer or jumping on a bandwagon. Get used to saying, “let me think about it.” It’s the same reason why it’s smart to read an English paper the next day before you turn it in. You suddenly spot all your errors from the night before because you gave yourself a bit of time to let things percolate. This simple discipline of avoiding snap decisions and practicing thoughtfulness will help you more than you can know.

The only caveat I have to this rule is where kindness is concerned, kindness to other kids who are struggling in one way or another. Let kindness flourish as an instinct. Never wait to be kind and never let any peer, or group of peers, stop or slow your kindness.