In Boston a couple of weeks back, as a break in the conference action–the annual meeting of The Association of Boarding Schools–Michael and I went cross-town, over the Charles, and down to Bertucci’s on Harvard Square, there to meet a handful of CdeP’s most recent grads. Over pizza and salad, Leeah (Northeastern), Trevor (MIT), Steffi (Harvard), and David (Tufts)–each of whom had been an advisee or English student of either Michael or me–filled us in on their professors and classes, their roommates, potential majors, Thanksgiving just past and holidays on the horizon, and, generally, residential learning life, post-Thach.

“So, what did Thacher teach you well? What did you already know that, maybe, others are still learning?” I asked them.

Here, in their words, the take-aways foremost on their minds.

How to turn off my lights! No one does that the way we did at Thacher.

How to write a good paper.

How to manage my time.

How to have friends of all kinds in the dorm.

How to live with people my age.

How to balance the work and the social.

How to get creative with a salad bar.

 

Let’s hear it for Ojai Mixed Greens!