From Hilltop to Home

Two admission Revisit Days, the 10th Annual Day of Giving, an alumnus and now practicing architect delivering an excellent Society of Skeptics talk, classes, lots of victories over the Peddie School in spring competitions and 106 Blair students performing on the most renowned stage in the world. Just a typical spring week at Blair!

I write to you from a snow-covered campus following three action-packed weeks of winter at Blair. The temperature warmed this weekend to a balmy 33 degrees, which was a welcome relief from the subzero temperatures we have endured the last couple of weeks. Our students have been resilient in the face of the frosty weather, and I especially tip my hat to those students from typically warm climates. When a student from Florida asked me how long this was going to last, I responded that it was only 40 degrees and snowing in [northern] Florida at the time, and he quickly replied, “That’s 38 degrees warmer than it is in Blairstown, Mr. Pagotto!”

“Stretching beyond familiar limits doesn’t always feel good, but growing and learning—the keys to school and much of life—can’t happen any other way.”
—Lisa Damour, psychologist & author

These words are from an article entitled “How to Help Teenagers Embrace Stress” that I read several years ago. In the vast sea of opinion pieces on the topic of stress and anxiety among teenagers, I found this piece particularly relevant. It speaks to the positive role that stress can play in the lives of kids and the usefulness of stress if managed well.

We are now into the second month of school, having completed two community weekends and the “long” weekend, and it’s hard to believe we have passed the midsemester mark. We have been so fortunate to have the most spectacular fall weather I can recall, and it has been wonderful to see many parents and family members on the sidelines of games cheering on the Buccaneers. Blair athletes “won the day” for our first MAPL Saturday against the Hun School of Princeton, and we’re looking ahead to Mercersburg, Hill, Lawrenceville and then Peddie for the upcoming Saturdays.

I have a vivid memory from about five years ago when our son, Will, started kindergarten. I asked him how his first day was, and he replied, “It was fine. The most annoying-est part was that the principal kept talking to us, so we couldn’t have recess.” He was 6, so I overlooked the poor grammar/tense/word invention and focused on the implicit message in his response: In all the necessary opening-of-school communications, reminders, protocols, rules, dorm meetings, School Meetings and so on, don’t forget the fun [Dad]! Don’t cut into recess.