Most classes in the upper school consist of around fifteen students. We are used to smaller, closer environments for education and interaction, with teachers who seek genuine, personal connections with their students — a luxury that for many of us will disappear as we head into college and beyond.
If recent stories are any indication, though, we are doing little to take advantage of this luxury right now.
It is a rare quality that this school possesses: students and teachers in Wilson Hall can interact as human beings before interacting as their roles. Conversations in class can often delve into personal lives, such as discussion of upcoming extracurricular events in a student’s schedule, or of recent developments in a teacher’s life.
Find the confidence to engage in difficult conversations, with your peers and friends, but also with your teachers.
However, this mutual comfort sometimes does not extend to the class’s material itself, especially in potentially controversial political and social topics. This spring, find the confidence to engage in difficult conversations, with your peers and friends, but also with your teachers. Take advantage of and extract as many lessons as you can from the intimate community that has been created for us.
Few communities are as special as Haverford. After you leave this place, you may never again be blessed with approachable and relatable educators, who are not only interested in you as students, but as people.
