27 min read

French Pedagogy at Waring

By Maureen Gedney on Oct 13, 2023 2:15:12 PM

Collaboration and immersion in a diverse community: Waring School, where “oui” means “us,” all of us.


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15 min read

Waring Classrooms are Everywhere: Endterm, Camping Trip and beyond.

By Edith Fouser on Oct 13, 2023 2:10:41 PM

I was thirteen years old, about to walk backwards off a granite cliff. It was my first Endterm at the Waring School, where I was finishing my eighth-grade year, and my science teacher and my French teacher had brought a group of us to New Hampshire’s White Mountains to see what we could learn from camping and rock-climbing. I was strapped into a webbing harness, clipped by a carabiner to a sturdy climbing rope, on an anchor built by our resident professional, a man we students knew as “Camper Dave.”

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7 min read

Robotics Teams' Commitment to Educational Equity, Home and Abroad

By Wolfpack Machina on Dec 2, 2022 9:20:19 AM


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8 min read

Wolfpack Machina: Top Four in the World

By Becky Schaeffer on Apr 29, 2022 10:32:29 AM

  Wheeling out the robot.  
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3 min read

Owen Cooper Wins Dean's List Finalist at FTC MA Championship

By Francis Schaeffer on Mar 28, 2022 2:11:23 PM

 
On Saturday, March 5, Wolfpack Machina won the Inspire Award, the top prize, at the Massachusetts FIRST Tech Challenge Championships and qualified to compete in the FIRST Championships, also known as Robotics Worlds, which will take place in Houston TX from April 19-23.  
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4 min read

Waring School's "Wolfpack Machina" is Looking Ahead to the World Robotics Championships after Winning Massachusetts FIRST Tech Challenge Championships

By Francis Schaeffer on Mar 18, 2022 10:06:38 AM

On Saturday, March 5 Wolfpack Machina won the Inspire Award, the top prize, at the Massachusetts FIRST Tech Challenge Championships and qualified to compete in the FIRST Championships, also known as Robotics Worlds, which will take place in Houston TX from April 19-23.  
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36 min read

Convocation Speeches, 2021

By Laura Bitler on Sep 30, 2021 10:57:10 AM

New students were welcomed into the Waring community during a Convocation Ceremony on Saturday, September 25.

What does it mean to be a part of the Waring community? Take a look at this year's Convocation Speeches to learn what it means to members of Waring's senior class, faculty, administration, trustees, and parents. 

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3 min read

Faculty Grant Program Funds Flying Lessons for Anna Marie Smith

By Anna Marie Smith on Sep 3, 2021 11:08:34 AM

I had the honor of receiving funds from the Waring School faculty grant program to continue my flying lessons. Therefore, I’d like to share a bit about the role that flying plays in my life. For me, the real thrill of flying is landing the plane. Taking off and flying around is fairly straightforward. Looking down on familiar landscapes offers a new perspective on terrain that I know well. Directing this craft is like driving a car, a tractor, a bike, a boat. And, I’ve always enjoyed driving. I’ll happily get in my car and drive 12 hours to my grandmother’s house in OH. The joyful journey consistently offers news experiences. When I first started flying (controlling the aircraft from the pilot’s seat myself), it was a bit scary. I’ve been flying since I was little, but that was different. Both of my parents had their private pilot certifications at one point. My uncle flew, my cousins too. Therefore, my brother and I used to attend airshows and ride co-pilot with someone fairly often. I’ve always thought of the desire to be up in the clouds to be in my blood. That, however, doesn’t mean this study has been easy for me. Once I learned the capabilities of a plane, I slowly pushed myself to bank more steeply in turns and fine-tune my heading and altitude. What has always challenged me is the landings. 
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3 min read

Waring Robotics Wins Award at Maryland Technical Invitational (MTI)

By Francis Schaeffer on Aug 3, 2021 1:40:41 PM

Waring's own "Wolfpack Machina" did very well at the Maryland Technical Invitational (MTI), the last, and most important, FTC tournament of this season.  With FTC World's cancelled this year, all the top teams in the US applied to be invited to MTI.  The best 32 teams were accepted, Wolfpack among them.  We were one of the only rookie teams at the event.  
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1 min read

Waring's Intermediate French Class Studied a Book on the Black Presence in Canada and Met with the Authors!

By Marianne Durand on May 25, 2021 10:04:58 AM

 
Topics: French
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2 min read

MA State First Tech Challenge (FTC) Championships 2021

By Francis Schaeffer on May 24, 2021 12:17:17 PM

Waring is thrilled to announce that both their two First Tech Challenge (FTC) teams Lupine robotics and Wolfpack Machina emerged winners at the MA State FTC Championships!

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3 min read

49 Students Medal on National French Contest

By Anna Marie Smith on May 10, 2021 2:44:01 PM

The results of Le Grand Concours 2021 are in and impressive! 49 of the 149 Waring students who participated in the National French Contest were named national laureates.
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3 min read

Celebrating Francophone Poetry at Waring and beyond by Marianne Durand and the French Department

By Marianne Durand on Apr 20, 2021 9:32:39 AM

Jean de La Fontaine was born four centuries ago, on July 8, 1621 in Château-Thierry. Inspired by the fabulists of Greco-Latin antiquity, and in particular by Aesop, he wrote more than two hundred and forty Fables, bringing this hitherto minor genre to a degree of accomplishment that remains unequalled. Moralist without being moralistic, La Fontaine uses animals to depict human failings, thus taking a lucid look at human nature and power relationships.

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10 min read

Exploring Islamic Studies at Waring by Michelle Ramadan, Edith Fouser, and Joan Sullivan

By Joan Sullivan on Apr 12, 2021 9:28:33 AM

In the months of January and February, students in Groups 2 and 3 in Monotheism and The Middle East course studied Islamic history and literature. Students read poetry by Sufi poets Rabi’a al-addawiyyah, Rumi, and Hafez, and reflect on the poetry’s mystical themes of divine love, separation, the self, self-annihilation, asceticism, and transcendence. 

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1 min read

Featured Artist of the Week: Keanu Prescod

By Rick Wilson on Feb 22, 2021 2:11:21 PM

The Art Department is pleased to present our first Featured Artist, Keanu Prescod, Class of 2022. Keanu has been working with spray paint as a medium, exploring its myriad possibilities.

Topics: students art
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2 min read

Faculty Conference

By Joan Sullivan on Sep 21, 2020 1:58:30 PM

Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming. 

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3 min read

Not If: How—Lessons Learned in LCHC's Urgent Care Center

By Gallaudet Howard on Jul 20, 2020 8:37:44 AM

A lot of people work two jobs. I’m one of them. During the school year, I work as a high school Humanities teacher at Waring School. During weekends and vacations, I work as a Family Nurse Practitioner in Lynn Community Health Center’s Urgent Care department. I go back and forth, physically and mentally: now I’m a teacher immersed in correcting student essays on Toni Morrison’s Beloved or facilitating a class on the Marias River Massacre, now I’m a nurse practitioner racing to keep up with the press of patients on a winter weekend or listening for the faint wheeze of asthma in a child’s lungs. I love what I do at both jobs, and they teach me constantly about everything from decoding narrative to the value of being still and listening. 

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17 min read

Senior Pieces by Group 1

By Graham Pearsall on Jul 3, 2020 6:29:25 AM

Every spring Waring eighth graders pen fictional—often outlandish and whimsical—tales about members of the senior class. During the final week of school, they share them during All-School Meeting. Check out this year's excellent "Senior Pieces" below (including a special tale about two long-time Waring teachers who announced their retirement this spring).

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4 min read

College Counseling in the Post-Coronavirus World

By Harold Wingood on Apr 30, 2020 2:55:07 PM

The juniors and their families at my school are feeling anxious about how the college application process will unfold next fall. The fact is that no one really knows what the fall will look like. The colleges with which I have had conversations all plan to open as usual in September and expect to host campus visits, group information sessions, tours, and to offer interviews. They also readily acknowledge that in spite of their best efforts to plan for a return to normalcy, no one really knows what our world will look like next fall.

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1 min read

Stuck at Home? Here are 8 Fun Online Activities, Inspired by Waring’s Educational Program

By Graham Pearsall on Mar 25, 2020 2:56:17 PM

A strong sense of togetherness has always defined the Waring community. While we shouldn't share a common space now, we can always share the Waring experience. Below are eight free online resources inspired by our curriculum. Please stay connected and try a few at home.

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2 min read

An Historic Day for Waring - Breaking Ground on New Sustainable School Building

By Tim Bakland on Mar 2, 2020 9:29:59 AM

Monday, February 24, was an historic day for Waring School as we broke ground on our new school building. The journey up to this point has been a community effort, from concept through design, and is worth celebrating. We would never have reached this stage without the generosity of our community, the philanthropy of some 375 donors, and the participation of our students, faculty, trustees, and many others.

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6 min read

Bocce Fever: How I Caught and Spread it!

By Tim Averill on Jan 17, 2020 9:48:48 AM

In Asbury Park, New Jersey, in  May of 1988, I was part of a group of teachers hired to grade the essay portion of the National Teacher Examination for the Educational Testing Service, the test creation-arm of the College Board. Asbury Park is best known for the Stone Pony, a music venue that hosted New Jersey native, “The Boss,” Bruce Springsteen, and also for its now dilapidated Boardwalk. Asbury Park also has the dubious distinction of being the second most dangerous city in New Jersey.

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5 min read

43 Years Later - What a Viewbook from 1976 Says About Waring School Today

By Graham Pearsall on Nov 7, 2019 12:26:17 PM

One of Waring School’s earliest viewbooks includes the following quote attributed to 16th-century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne. 

It reads, “There is nothing like arousing the children’s interests and affections, their appetite for learning. By whipping them you may give them their pocketful of knowledge, even make of them asses loaded with books. But if learning is to do them any good they must espouse it.”

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3 min read

Project Update - New School Building Progress

By Tim Bakland on Nov 4, 2019 1:44:47 PM

With the prospect of a fully certified Passive House school building now only months away, no one is owning our school building project more than our students themselves. This week in All-School Meeting, several members of the FIRST LEGO Robotics Team, led by Francis Schaeffer and Sarah Carlson-Lier, presented a first run of their upcoming FLL competition material. As part of their stellar work, the team told us about a programming creation of theirs: an “SCC” or “School Carbon Calculator,” a digital module that will allow Waring (and other schools and institutions) to track the energy performance of their buildings. The FLL team has worked closely with Tim Lock, Opal’s principal architect on our passive house project, who is sharing with the team some of the firm’s carefully researched “secret sauce” formulas for energy calculations. This student-driven project is a great example of the new building already becoming a part of who we are and who we aspire to be.

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26 min read

Convocation Speeches, 2019

By Admin on Sep 26, 2019 1:12:37 PM

New students were welcomed into the Waring community during a Convocation Ceremony on Saturday, September 21.

What does it mean to be a part of the Waring community? Take a look at this year's Convocation Speeches to learn what it means to members of Waring's senior class, faculty, administration, trustees, and parents. 

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3 min read

Photographing the Italian Dolomites on a Waring Faculty Grant

By Graham Pearsall on Sep 16, 2019 3:54:04 PM

My photography origin story began on a trans-America road trip in 2014. Over the course of 30 days, a high school friend and I drove more than 10,000 miles from Maine to California and back, visiting a dozen National Parks along the way. 

The back of our car was packed with hiking and camping gear, a cook stove, ice cooler, and a borrowed Canon T3i digital camera. 

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5 min read

Lifelong Learning in Practice

By Becky Schaeffer on Jul 10, 2019 8:25:54 AM

"[The act of watercoloring] made me wonder how this active demonstration would translate to mathematical problem solving and talking through worked out examples this way on a white board." 

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9 min read

Head of School Commencement Remarks, 2019

By Tim Bakland on May 28, 2019 3:35:33 PM

On Frost’s Mending Wall and Knowing the Neighbors

by Timothy Bakland '94, Head of School

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18 min read

In Their Own Words: Waring Eighth Graders Describe Their Trip to Alabama to "See and Feel the Truth of the Civil Rights Era"

By Waring Student on May 2, 2019 10:28:48 AM

*All-School Meeting Transcript - April 19, 2019*

Toni Rose: Social Justice lawyer Bryan Stevenson has said, “You can’t demand truth and reconciliation. You have to demand truth; people have to hear it, and then they have to want to reconcile themselves to that truth.”

Gabe: On March 25, 25 Group 1 students and six chaperones journeyed to Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama to hear, see, and feel the truth of the Civil Rights Era and its ongoing legacy.

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3 min read

Mindfulness and College Counseling

By Harold Wingood on Mar 26, 2019 9:22:55 AM

According to mindful.org, mindfulness “is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.” At Waring School, we promote a mindful approach to college counseling.

Mindfulness, in this context, means being fully engaged in the things that really matter during the college admissions process. We encourage our students to think expansively and to imagine that anything is possible. At the same time, we ask them to identify and then focus on what is truly important to them -- what values define them and which ones are evolving.

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26 min read

Convocation Speeches, 2018

By Admin on Dec 8, 2018 10:38:29 AM

At Convocation on September 22, we warmly welcomed 31 new students to Waring. What does it mean to be a part of Waring? Take a look at this year's Convocation Speeches to learn what it means to members of Waring's senior class, faculty, administration, and parents.

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1 min read

Waring School Teaching Pedagogy: the first in a series of articles by our teachers

By Tim Bakland on Dec 8, 2018 10:24:45 AM

Dear Waring Community and Friends,

Just over a year ago, the "Waring Way Study Group" (a task-force of the Board of Trustees) commissioned a series of articles to be written over the course of a few years on elements of teaching pedagogy at Waring School -- how our practices both build off of and inform best practices in the larger world.

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5 min read

Head Of School Journal: Faculty Reflections From Camping Trip 2018

By Tim Bakland on Dec 8, 2018 10:11:51 AM

Dear Waring Community,

We have now just begun our official classes (what most schools would mark as the “start” of year), but we have also just come off a wonderful week at Northwoods Camp in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. This journey into the outdoors is where the Waring year really begins.

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3 min read

Eight Reasons Why Waring Endterm Rocks

By Graham Pearsall on Dec 8, 2018 10:04:09 AM

This spring, Waring students built a skiff, interviewed political candidates, created a video game, wrote novellas, sewed rompers, travelled to Canada, designed theater sets, programmed robots, studied the World Cup, recreated historical photographs, and pondered the good life as part of a three-week Endterm for grades 6-10. The term is intensive, experiential, and often involves off-campus or travel experiences.

What makes it great? Why does it fit Waring’s core philosophy?

In their own words, eight Waring students explain why:
Topics: students Endterm
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1 min read

Celebrating Our Roots; Words and Images Featuring Waring's Founders, Philip and Josée

By Tim Bakland on Dec 8, 2018 9:58:11 AM

From Tim Bakland's remarks at the 2018 Auction: 

In anticipation of this evening’s celebration of Waring’s roots, I had the pleasure of traveling to Tampa, Florida where I spent a day with Philip and Josée, our school’s founders. We spoke at length about the earliest days of the school, La Petite École in Rockport, and then the move here to Beverly.

Topics: History
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10 min read

3/11/18: An Open Letter on Behalf of Independent Schools of New England

By Admin on Dec 7, 2018 7:26:18 PM

An Open Letter on Behalf of Independent Schools of New England, We, the heads of independent schools, comprising 176 schools in the New England region, stand in solidarity with our students and with the families of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The heart of our nation has been broken yet again by another mass shooting at an American school. We offer our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died and are grieving for the loss of life that occurred.
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2 min read

The Brick Wolves: Waring's First Lego League Team by Francis Schaeffer

By Waring Faculty on Dec 7, 2018 7:11:53 PM

On December 9, 2017, Waring’s First Lego League Team, the Brick Wolves, headed off to Revere High School for a day of competition. Fourteen nervous students, two teachers (Erin Thomassen and me), along with several parents, and lots of Lego, traveled south from Waring on a cold, snowy, Saturday.

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5 min read

Catching up with Alumni Athletes, by Mike Kersker

By Mike Kersker on Dec 7, 2018 7:06:21 PM

When students are interested in pursuing their education at Waring School, we often times get questions about sports and the level of competition our students participate in. All members of our community are athletes in some way. One of the many beauties of our school is that we offer the novice athlete opportunities to become members of our sports teams, and under the same umbrella, we graduate some of the most competitive athletes on the Northshore. Our end goal is to create an environment here at Waring where being active in sports and activities transcends any school, institution or work place; where being active becomes a mainstay in our alumni’s lives, creating lifelong habits for good health.

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2 min read

The Duct Tape Network at Waring Downtown, by Sarah Carlson-Lier

By Waring Faculty on Dec 7, 2018 7:00:16 PM

Making and doing has been an integral part of Waring’s approach from the early days of the school when a student’s day might include taking care of the goats, woodworking, baking or typesetting, as well as academic work. The opening of the Waring Industrial Park (WIP) this fall is a natural extension of this original vision of experiential, creative learning and gives students space and tools to work on their own projects, as well as the opportunity to participate in new initiatives such as FIRST LEGO League.

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3 min read

Radium Girls, by Elizabeth Gutterman

By Waring Faculty on Dec 7, 2018 6:53:47 PM

While home in Providence for Rosh Hashanah, I saw an elderly family friend in temple who asked me what I was working on. I told her that we were currently rehearsing Radium Girls, and when I started to tell her about it, she nodded and looked at me intently. Then she teared up. She knew the story, and not because she’d Googled “large cast plays for high school students.”

Topics: theater faculty
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3 min read

Earth Science at Singing Beach, by John Wigglesworth

By Waring Faculty on Dec 7, 2018 6:00:58 PM

Waring is a school that thrives on the challenge of blending innovation with tradition. The things we do such as, Camping Trip, All-School Meeting, Tutorial, and Soirées are part of our past but equally critical to our future if we are to remain true to our soul and culture as a school. To keep these programs fresh we continually try to think differently about them, cautious of the status quo. All areas of our program are in the constant effort to be innovative with tradition; and one example is the Earth Science Program for Group 1. This fall marks the 15th year of the Singing Beach Project. In that Earth Science helps students understand how the spheres of the land, the ocean, and the atmosphere interact to make our planet function as it does, studying the impact of seasonal weather on the profile of Singing Beach has been a tradition of the Group 1 science for many years. What better place to study to the interaction of land, ocean and weather than the beach?

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32 min read

Convocation Speeches, 2017

By Admin on Dec 7, 2018 5:55:57 PM

Please enjoy these Convocation Speeches and pictures from 2017. The full video of the event is available here:

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1 min read

A Parent's View on Waring's Value Proposition

By Admin on Dec 7, 2018 5:10:25 PM

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Waring Parent, professional magazine editor, John Knowles, who discussed what he sees as Waring's value proposition -- what sets Waring apart from other learning institutions. You can view video excerpts here:

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2 min read

Framing the Waring Experience, by KB Breiseth

By Waring Faculty on Dec 7, 2018 5:02:15 PM

All artists know that it is the limitations that create art. By narrowing our focus, the world, somehow, seems to expand. This is why our students use viewfinders to frame a more digestible piece of the abundance that surrounds them, and why using only black and white can open their eyes and provide access to the visual complexity that gives structure to everything. Limits create challenges, challenges beget creativity, creativity bestows gifts both unpredictable and limitless. These gifts are not always objects or ideas or connections to keep, but they move us forward, propel us towards the next – possibly wondrous – thing. Paradoxically, it is structure that can offer us tremendous freedom.
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1 min read

Maker Mondays

By Admin on Dec 7, 2018 5:00:00 PM

We have started our new pilot schedule - a three week period where we are testing out the addition of some more experiential learning. Part of this is on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday where we have a "focus flex" time, during which students are encouraged to read a book, work with a partner on a project, play chess, or participate in any number of other activities.

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2 min read

All School Activity: Collaborative Drawing & Listening Session

By Admin on Dec 7, 2018 2:04:40 PM

Recently, during the afternoon following Grandparents & Special Friends Day, the students gathered to clean campus after our big event, to talk about the importance of kindness, and partake in an activity that allowed them to explore a type of art they don't often generate.

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3 min read

A Day in the Life

By Waring Alum on Dec 7, 2018 1:59:01 PM

This is a guest post by Caroline Baxter, Waring class of 2000, currently a Senior Project Associate at RAND Corporation in Washington, D.C. Caroline was a classmate of mine, and when I wasn't begging her to play one of her amazing piano compositions, I was marveling at her wit and intellect - something that thanks to the miracle of Facebook I am still able to do daily. Huge thanks to Caroline for letting us in on her high powered life for a day... (Becky Schaeffer '00)

Topics: alumni
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2 min read

#goatscaping

By Admin on Dec 7, 2018 1:48:06 PM

Goatscaping: a green solution to managing poison ivy, invasive plants, tough inclines, stone walls, ledge, and overgrown areas.

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2 min read

On Camping Trip

By Waring Faculty on Dec 7, 2018 10:37:19 AM

From the journal of a faculty member:

And then the first car turns up the driveway and the first kid climbs out, lugging a bag half their size and twice their weight and already forgetting something, probably the sleeping bag, so that a parent has to bang open the Volvo’s tailgate and fish it out and hand it over, slippery and overlarge and already escaping from its carrying case, not unlike the parental heart as the kid joins two, three, four other kids--maybe they met three days ago at their first preseason, maybe this preseason was their last and they’ve been in and out of each others’ business for (can it be?) six years--swirling and eddying up the School steps. And you watch the parents drive away and you hear the voices rise and you remember: oh yes, these people, the ones already scuffing the freshly-varnished floor, the ones making all this noise. These are why.

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1 min read

WaringBlog Landing

By Admin on Dec 7, 2018 10:26:04 AM

Welcome to the new Waring School Blog!

The school year here on campus is well under way. We've come and gone from Camping Trip, our annual Convocation is in the books, and our visit with our professional goatscapers is over (#goatscaping).

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