Click here to watch the video presentation.

John Hoy visits with Northrup Frye, Toronto

Within his foundational essay “On Fairy-Stories” J.R.R. Tolkien isolates Faërie, the Perilous Realm or Shadowy Marches wherein fairies discover their being, and he describes three faces by which fairy-stories may be recognized: the Mystical, the Magical, and the Mirror (looking toward the Supernatural, Nature or Mankind). Myself being a backward and doubtful being, skeptical at the best of times, arrogant when it serves, I nevertheless allow Tolkien’s entrancing spell, releasing my own words, deploying poetic phantoms and a few robotic puzzles. At the same time, applying just a tad more tangibility on a winter’s morning (school has been cancelled), I throw another log on the fire and grip more tightly my shepherd’s plaid—the great Scottish wrap shouldered by actual shepherds and dreamers wandering into and out of antiquity. Any pastoral people off the veldt, steppes or deserts would own such a shawl formed of animal skins or local fabric, and before a later day brought dyes to such homespun these woven wraps carried simple, unfussed colors. This particular morning, the undyed black wool and white wool of the ancient “check”—checkerboard pattern—seems straight out of Faërie, since I readily drift away as I hold it, and scale seems entirely within my control. I am only echoing Tolkien as I note that effect; he has told me this morning in his essay that stories “in the fairy-tale setting…open a door on Other Time, and if we pass through, though only for a moment, we stand outside our own time, outside Time itself, maybe.”[1] But as I turn back from the stove, I find myself confronting the ghost of Robert Burns. Morning coffee helps the effect, but indeed I have slipped into spaces calloused and venerable, back to earlier ages—dust and the canyons carved by actual bookworms, flakes of paper, wood smoke and threads of wool.

I recognize fresh expression of a point I saw years before, the separate powers of blackness and whiteness. Tolkien of course put a set of colors to work in his Lord of the Rings. What is important this morning, as I ponder old stories, is the mythology or public “reality” based in hopes, expectations and convenience. The great philologist (word-origin hero) Tolkien was not sympathetic as people such as publishers found all-too-handy boxes into which they might pack his work. He certainly should be alarmed at my particular views, folded as I am in my black-and-white plaid.

The blackness of Tolkien’s Ring-Wraiths and the overly simple darkness of the Evil Side is simply too gratuitous, and it brings impact, right to today. No matter how cute his hobbits, how levelheaded his wizard, Blackness and its relatives instead might well bring a glorious color of life, warmth and enlightenment—we readers of all interests must continue to remind ourselves. Tolkien may have been naive to imagine he was simply building his own, private new cosmos, but he appears not to have cared who was in and who was left out. Of course, the native South African had been prompted by devastating world wars to narrow his sense of the world itself. I pull up short, an array of wordy powerhouses whispering in the corner, and Martin Luther King, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Ralph Ellison and Robert Burns pull me toward the traditionary True Thomas Rymour.

Actually, Tolkien knew Rymour well, spelling him out as “True Thomas the Rhymer”, meeting more contemporary awarenesses of 1930s Britain. Rymour (let’s call him) had the gift of prophecy in popular European folk songs and stories from the Middle or earlier centuries. A comfort to agrarian folk but co-opted by military strategists to precipitate favored battle outcomes, Rymour like Arthur or Merlin found he had other lives. As I have discovered, he continues to our later day, but in order to recognize his influence it helps to repose with a range of other stories, including those of Arthur, Merlin, Frodo and Gandalf. But the most crucial mythical personality, and another reason that I begin to lose patience with J.R.R. Tolkien no matter his genius, is a more unsettling if more undeniable presence: a striking female figure standing to the side, shouldering her own mantle of magical colors, out of Robert Burns’s poem “The Vision”: Coila.

As I note, settled in my Scottish black-and-white plaid, books and phantoms all around me, Coila was the ethereal spirit or voyaging being (aka wight) who suddenly formed in front of the poet when he was most discouraged, winter of early 1785. At that time, Burns was impoverished, desolate, cold, his own plaid was full of holes and he was ready to give up writing songs and poetry and find a paying job. Expressing something of Thomas Rymour, Coila traveled over the seas to manifest in the poet’s cottage, insisting on attention (despite rats and the winter wind) in order that the poet might maintain his central, most personal hopes, that he should trust that his rhyming ought to continue, and that he was in a marvelous place to take up a more “universal plan” which she knew was central to all art and human enterprise. She even braced her argument with mention of Scottish heroes of the past.

As I have come to discover, as James Augustus Henry Murray knew and accepted in a way that perhaps Tolkien would not (another philologist, Murray was primary editor of The Oxford English Dictionary), and others might refuse to imagine—the magical soul Coila was black.

Robert Burns held to myth because of the harsh social realities of his own day, so he had better not go admitting to be anti-British, anti-European, “anti-civilization”. Instead, the quintessential Scotsman stepped along barely known, faintly visualized Shadowy Marches (as Tolkien might identify them); that is, he kept to the edges, among the folk and their naming traditions, many of them desperately poor. As we can now begin to see more fully, visiting spirit Coila was herself a devoted being whose hope for the futures of all (that universal plan) might resonate and shine and, with the necessary help of Burns and his artistic heirs, pull European culture and history out of a long, slow moral decline around race and class, even color, and perhaps even raise up slaves of his day, oppressed African Americans and Anglo-Africans, as well as Africa itself (with some especial shout-out for those from Senegal and Gambia, home turf for the model for Coila), as she reached out and raised up one destitute poet. To understand her full meaning, and just how James A. H. Murray came to know as much as he did, we had better thank black thought leaders of later days for opening white eyes, but we must also rediscover the daring wight True Thomas Rymour and his entrancing power and foresight. Wrapped in the venerable black-and-white of my plaid I may have to pay a visit to the 1936 John Hoy of Ethiopia, to his quaintly jocular journalist creator Robinson MacLean (enthusiast for Emperor Haile Selassie) as well as to MacLean’s fascist adversary Evelyn Waugh—prescient as he spoke for Italy on the eve of World War II. The continuation—that is, details—of this story I call Seeking Phillis, or The Empress Revealed. Another log on the fire, in retirement this morning and down the road, I take them all on.

[1] “On Fairy-Stories”, Tree and Leaf, 32.

The Current Events hosted a delicious bake sale this past Monday. Everyone seemed to be quite hungry, and after the baked good were devoured, Current Events had raised $350 for the Maine ACLU. Thanks everyone for pitching in!

Summer Jobs at Waynflete Flyers Camp!

From February 1 through March 15, Waynflete Flyers Camp 2017 will accept applications for counselor positions at waynfletecamp.campbrainstaff.com. New and returning candidates must complete an applications.

Counselor applicants should be 16 or older. 14 and 15 year olds may complete the application to be considered for volunteer positions. Counselors receive $10.68 hourly for work between June 12 and July 28. Please visit the Waynflete Flyers Camp pages on the website (waynflete.org/camp) for descriptions of the numerous camp programs and the dates they will run.

Send any questions to Rachael Thrash, Director of Enrichment, at .

Waynflete had three successful submissions to the annual Scholastic Writing Awards of Maine for 2017.  Riley Mayes ’18 was a Gold Key recipient, Sydney Sullivan ’20 was a Gold Key and Silver Key recipient, Luna Soley ’18 was awarded a Silver Key, and Leeza Kopaeva ’18 received an Honorable Mention. There were more than 450 submissions in the state and we are so proud of the these four students. Click each name to read their writing piece. You can read more about this prestigious group by clicking here, and a huge congratulations to all the winners!

The Winter Play is coming!

Performances at Waynflete are scheduled for Friday, March 3rd and Saturday, March 4th at 7:00pm and please join us at the One Act Festival: March 11, 1:00 pm Morse High School, Bath, ME.

For the past six weeks the Franklin theater has been humming with preparations for a performance of six student – written plays. The evening will open with five ten-minute pieces written by Emma Irvine, Ian Irvine, Bodhi Small, Emily Talpey and Robert Wilson. These plays are also student directed. The second act will feature Jesse Brooks’, THE GREAT BANK ROBBERY (a working title). This play will be our entry for the Maine H.S. – One Act Drama Festival.

A highlight from our rehearsal process was the opportunity to explore some new acting techniques with guest artist Carmen-Maria Mandley. During this playful, high energy workshop we unleashed our inner clowns. We were encouraged to “go big” physically, keep the stakes high, make things “matter more” and work together. The day wrapped up with “The Best, Worst Dance and Clowning Contest”. The reward? Laughter!

We know these skills will be in high demand on stage, in the fast paced, larger than life comedy that is, THE GREAT BANK ROBBERY (a working title).

We are excited to share it all with you!

Every year, the Upper School suspends classes for one day to focus on topics relevant to the grade. This year, Grade Advising Day for Upper School students will focus on building community and strengthening student health and well-being. In the morning, freshman will be involved in group-building activities, sophomores will be involved in service projects in locations around Portland, juniors will collaborate in series of small workshops designed to help them understand the results of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator Test, which they took in mid November. They will explore their preference indicators as they relate to their passage through the college process. At the end of the morning, students will receive a personalized folder with further details about their individual preferences and predilections that will help inform their approach to the college search and application process. Seniors will attend workshops devoted to self-care and personal growth. Self-defense, yoga, healthy cooking and meditation are a sampling of the offerings.

In the afternoon, each group will enjoy lunch together. After lunch, the freshmen will gain skills around how to help a friend, sophomores will attend a presentation focused on compassion and service,  and juniors and seniors will attend a college preparatory presentation by Speak About It, which offers a performance about consent, boundaries, and healthy relationships. After the presentation, students will meet in small groups for further discussions around these topics. All parents are invited to an evening program by Speak About It on Thursday, February 9 at 7:00 pm in the theater.

Students are expected to arrive on campus for Grade Advising day by 8:05 am as usual. All grades will return to campus by 1:45 p.m. in time for classes and other activities starting at 2:00 p.m.

In a show of support, the faculty and staff lined up behind Director Lowell Libby as he delivered the remarks below:

Joined by a sizable contingent of your mentors, I am going to conclude today’s assembly by reflecting on the state of our country in the aftermath of the executive order issued last Friday. Raise your hand if you know to what I am referring. (The vast majority of students raised their hands.) For those of you who don’t know about the order, it banned travel from seven majority Muslim nations to the United States.

Despite significant publicity, there is certainly much that I do not know about this executive order. I don’t know for sure what it was intended to do or how it was intended to work. I don’t know what its long term effects will be or whether or not it will ultimately be ruled legal or constitutional by the courts. There have been massive protests across the country against the ban, but I don’t know if those protests express the viewpoints of a solid majority of Americans or a just a vocal minority. I certainly don’t know what is going to happen next or how history will eventually judge this moment in time.

But I do know that by focusing on seven majority Muslim nations, intended or not, the order invariably reinforces a dangerous idea that has been growing in recent years, which is that people of Muslim faith and especially those who are immigrants are somehow collectively a threat to American safety and American values.

Such damaging stereotypes are deeply troubling because any time a group of individuals is lumped together and labeled as a threat, that is not only profoundly unfair to the innocent but it also creates a justification in the minds of some to lash out against them. We saw that happen tragically last Sunday five hours away in Quebec City when a gunman walked into a Mosque and killed six people and wounded many others while they were praying. We saw it closer to home last Friday afternoon when four Casco Bay High School students were accosted at knifepoint and subjected to racial slurs while waiting for the bus after school. It happened a couple a weeks ago to one of your Muslim classmates when she was stopped on the street by a man who insulted her religion and told her to go back from where she came. That is hate speech. That is wrong.

And when one group is singled out like that, other vulnerable populations start to worry. Right now I know that some of you are feeling afraid for your own safety and for the safety and well being of your family and friends. As a school we obviously do not control world, national, or even local events, but we do control how we respond to them. Anyone of you who is feeling vulnerable right now should know that as a community, we all bear witness to your worries and stand solidly with you. You are loved and valued. Your lives definitely do matter. You are all at home at Waynflete.

Waynflete is made whole by drawing strength from the diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, experiences, and viewpoints that we each bring to school every day. I firmly believe that our country will transcend its current state of turmoil, distress, and division when we learn as a nation to do the same.

Until that time comes, know that your faculty, administrators, and staff are ready to support you in all of the ways that we can.

Thank you for listening.

Waynflete’s US Science Olympiad team was one of 71 teams from around the country to compete at MIT’s 4th annual Science Olympiad tournament on Saturday, January 21st in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The team worked in pairs to compete in 23 science and engineering events covering all manner of topics. Highlights from our trip (beside the sauna at the hotel) included our impressive finishes in Hydrogeology (Althea Sellers and Grace Bramley-Simmons), Disease Detectives (Grace and Sophia Mayone), and Game On (Sophia and Grace again!). Senior Grace Bramley-Simmons was the team’s MVP!

Other strong finishes included Astronomy (Althea and Willson Moore), Helicopters (Emily Tabb and Callie Banksmith), and Towers (Althea and Willson again!). The Helicopters team had quite the weekend—their original helicopter got sucked into an air vent while practicing at Waynflete, and they reconstructed it and had an excellent finish!

Honorable mentions go to Optics (Nick Wagg and Sophia), Robot Arm (Tim Clifford and Nick), and Write It Do It (Althea and Charlotte Rhoads). Other members of team were Elisabeth Lualdi (‘17) and juniors Luna Soley, Nick Hagler, Shuhao Liu, Molly McNutt, and Dorrie Pinchbeck.

The Upper School Theater Program will be producing a play this spring based on your stories, experiences, and feelings, with a particular focus on identity. View the letter that was recently sent to the Waynflete community.

Sitting in the auditorium for the Martin Luther King Jr. assembly, the students were all gathered as a community to join and listen to Abukar, who graduated from Waynflete in 2013 and is now a senior at Colby College. As the former Poet Laureate at Waynflete, he began the assembly by reading a poem he had written about identity, entitled, Who Am I? His poem, linked here, explores the layers of complexity in each person’s identity. He then told us of his experiences at Waynflete and how he learned that each person has their own special and unique values helping him learn how to respect other’s differences. He said it is important to take a moment to step into one another’s shoes, hear what they say and understand why they see the world as they do.

Later Abukar spoke of his internship this past summer at MPBN and how he was tested when covering a Trump rally. Abukar, as an East African Muslim immigrant, grew up with many different values than the people he met at the rally. In a way, covering the rally as a journalist was a test of how he could handle people of different beliefs. Abukar emphasized that finding the balance point of saying one’s own opinion without offending others and listening is crucial to learning.

A video of his full talk is linked here.

Prior to Abukar speaking, the Upper School chorus sang Blowing in the Wind, a song that Peter, Paul, and Mary sang before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech in 1963. In addition, Lindsay Kaplan and Juanita Nichols, members of the faculty Diversity and Equity Committee, announced that the winner of the annual Spirit of MLK award was Riley Mayes ‘18. Her winning essay is linked here.

For me personally sitting as an audience member, I took away the feeling of community versus myself. I’ve never really taken the time to acknowledge this as a big part of it, but I realized that they are equally important. Abukar’s experience through learning about himself through the eyes of others and finding out about the hate in the world was truly a wake-up call for me. His experience opened my eyes to see that there is always more than one perspective. We sometimes choose single-mindedness instead of opening ourselves up, making ourselves vulnerable to see the different views of our world. I think the misinterpretations and ignorance of each other are what creates conflict. Lives and perspectives would be transformed if people stood in another’s shoes for even a day. If we came together, no matter our opinions, and listened to others’ needs, the world would change for the better. Society is growing and we need to notice it’s changing and do what we can to make our lives and the future become better.

A huge thank you from Waynflete Dream Factory to everyone who supported our 50/50 raffle last night at the triple-header basketball games against St. Doms! We made just over $300—that’s enough for a dolphin cruise and a helicopter ride, or 2 nights in a hotel, or several dinners… the possibilities are endless. This money will go directly towards making a dream of a chronically ill Maine child come true. So, thank you!

Also, a special thank you to those of you who helped sell the tickets. You were friendly, you encouraged reluctant sweaty basketball players to buy tickets, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

Above: Lexi Epstein ’17, Mollie Stone ’18, Charlotte Rhoads ’18, Sydney Sullivan ’20 selling tickets at the game

Cooper Chap and Will Nelligan ’16 presenting their dug out canoe

Senior Projects are an exciting opportunity for seniors because they are given a month off from regular classes at school to delve into an existing passion or an opportunity to learn something new. Instead of attending school daily, seniors spend 25 hours a week on their projects for a total of 100 hours. Students start their immersion into Senior Projects on May 8, 2017 and end with a presentation on June 2, 2017. Here is a link to the timeline for developing senior project proposals and for executing the project itself.   

Rowan Price ’14

The Projects are completely proposed by students and submitted to the Senior Project Committee for review. Students must propose a project that falls under one or more of the following categories: visual or performing arts, academics enrichment, apprenticeship and trade, health and well being, and community service. The review process is intended to ensure academic richness in each senior project and that a qualified supervisor is committed to helping the student(s) for each project. Students may need to spend time revising their proposal based on feedback from the committee in order to have optimal time spent during the 25 hours a week.

Teachers hope that by the time seniors finish their Waynflete journey, they feel in control of their own education and have the opportunity to create a lasting experience that stays with them for the rest of their lives. Examples of past projects that fit the criteria of a memorable experience are: volunteering at a local elementary school, hiking mountains or parts of the Appalachian Trail, learning a new instrument, building something from scratch (a canoe, a yurt, benches), researching something important to the individual, and many, many more.

Here is a link to a Senior Project Sampler from 2014.

Maya Hamilton ’16 with her homestay family

Here is a link to an article written by Maya Hamilton ’16 about her experiences in a homestay program with a Rwandan family in Portland.

Brave 9th Graders recently took the to the stage for our annual Poetry Out Loud assembly. Read on for poem describing the experience, and be sure to check out the video at the bottom!

Reflection on a Recent Upper School Assembly by John W. Hoy

It may be odd to imagine “poem” as a verb (you poem, I poem, somebody
poems), but it sort of makes sense. Perhaps an English teacher ought to know better,
but I have been altered….by an Upper School assembly.

Some might state,
Poetry Out Loud really ought to be sedate and serious, a formal place
(until the words, those rocketed souls, begin to
laugh and play and pace.)

Who knew? That words would move on their own with maybe half a grip on earth,
but— still, even so, despite that, and yet, with practice—words absolutely do begin
to poem…
(words amble off awkwardly, student performers worry,
chase after them)

One half of words build from rock. But dreams dig, too, in forest leaves
and pine straw, snuffling out a last-spring’s wombat wrapper, until one word
(bamboo) squints aloft, sighing here (rill), sighting over there (senseless), or
some new-found downtown (a curve of gold), a phrase finds flavor (an ant
drag), and a new, high-flying plan motivates
(like a petrel on the sea) or otherwise ambulates away
over redbrickcityscapes, joining even more outrageous
schemes.

Finally, after weeks of practice, nervous worry, hesitation, robotic recitation,
stumbles and sudden emails, last minute details, the moment arrives: the
lights flip on, and
A crowd! Lines! Gems!
Training kicks in, pays off, and student speakers ponder,

Just whose
words are these?—so a new owner, now, can let them
wander, let
them go
free…

Was it Maren or was it Jimmy Santiago Baca who soothed,
I will answer, give you directions,
and let you warm yourself by this fire,
rest by this fire, and make you feel safe?

Did Maya T. or Maya A. marvel as
The city
drags itself awake on
subway straps?

Did Sarah or Claude McKay say,
We will seek the quiet hill
Where towers the cotton tree?

Was it Ella? Or was that Suzanne Buffam who called out,
I have left all the sugar out of the pie.
My rage is a kind of domestic rage.
I learned it from my mother
Who learned it from her mother before her?

Did Avis, or did Paul Muldoon see that,
The hedgehog
Shares its secret with no one.
We say, Hedgehog, come out
Of yourself and we will love you?

Was it not Thomas Hardy but Morgan who sung out,
If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh…?

I am sure I heard Thys, not Samuel Taylor Coleridge, point out,
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree….

What more to know, than Sophie brought to us (not Linda Pastan)?
Happiness. I try to hoist it
on my narrow shoulders again—
a knapsack heavy with gold coins.
I stumble around the house,
bump into things.

I walk the path to Emery
and I, for one, am not the same.
It is a richer journey now,
words stretching out beyond the frame.

It is rare to have three accomplished violinists working together on major literature by Antonio Vivaldi and Ernst Toch. They played beautifully for the Middle School, the Lower School and most recently for the EC group where they responded to questions and participated in a short song that the kids with their teacher (Bob) had composed.

It’s 2:30AM and someone is knocking on my door yelling at me to get up. This is crisis session: an invention at the Maine Model UN Conference where they wake up a subset of the students in attendance and present them with a crisis in the inhumanely early hours of the morning. An hour later, I’m arguing with the United States during a unmoderated caucus about their navy stationed around Ukraine and though my heart is pounding from the Red Bull I’ve chugged and I’m exhausted, I’m also exhilarated. This is what I love.

Every year, Waynflete sends the largest delegation of students to MEMUNC. This is because we all love it, three days of living in dorms all together and learning the basics of diplomacy. Model UN is sort of like a roleplay where you get awards if you get really into it. It’s large rooms full of students debating each other, and we tend to only know people by their countries, so during mealtimes it’s not uncommon to hear something along the lines of “seriously, Japan is actually annoying me so much and refusing to compromise on this friendly amendment.” Personally, I love it. For me, the experience is well worth months of studying procedure and doing research, as well as the work of writing the two “Position Papers” required to attend. Clearly it is for everyone else as well.

This is my fourth year of Model UN. Waynflete has led me to the discovery of my passion for diplomacy and international affairs. I look forward to conferences for – and I’m not exaggerating – months. When Ben Mini – our coach – sends out the email announcing a new year of Model UN, my response comes within minutes. Model UN has given me insight into what I want my future career to look like, and taught me so much about negotiation and compromise.

Because Waynflete often sends upwards of forty kids to the Maine conference every year, our team doesn’t go to many other Model UN conferences. However, I went to the Harvard conference last year with a smaller team coached by Debba Curtis and chaperoned by Juanita Nichols, which ignited my passion even more. After the Maine conference last spring, I talked to the USM team that put the conference together to ask if it would be possible to look into joining the collegiate circuit for my senior year and to follow this passion I was discovering.

Waynflete helped me immensely in the achievement of this feat. This past semester, I left school early twice a week to attend a USM class on the United Nations. We attended a conference in Philadelphia, which was my first conference on the collegiate circuit. The experience was so exciting: with over 1300 college students representing countries from every region of the world. Our USM delegation won two awards, our first ever for the team, and had a ton of fun discovering Philadelphia as well. I’m planning to take another course next semester in order to learn about organizing the conferences and work on the staff for the upcoming Maine conference this spring.

I owe a lot to Waynflete. This is just one instance of the unwavering support the school has provided me in discovering and following my passions academically and beyond. As I enter my last semester of twelve years at Waynflete, I’m trying to soak up everything this school has to offer, and a part of that is recognizing how accommodating the school is to students, and offering my heartfelt gratitude. I can’t thank Waynflete and its incredible teachers enough for everything.

Saxophonist Julian Abbott ’18 represented Waynflete School at the Maine Music Educators Association Jazz All-State Festival this past Thursday through Saturday.  He rehearsed with other top musicians in the All-State Jazz Combo and performed at the public concert on Saturday.  Congrats Julian!

After a spirited competition, congratulations go to the winner of the Waynflete School finals for Poetry Out Loud, Ella Hannaford! Cheers also go to our runner-up, Sarah Acheson-Field! Both Ella and Sarah will now prepare for the Maine regional finals, held at Thornton Academy on February 28th. Should Ella be unable to compete, Sarah will be set to step in. The top five scorers in the regional showdown will continue to the State championship later in the spring.

The process progressing to the School final on January 5th involved multiple stages of preparation, classroom competition and workshops. Each performance at the Waynflete final event was scored by an accuracy judge and three performance judges. Waynflete English teacher Lorry Stillman looked after accuracy. Visiting performance judges for the contest on Thursday were Gary Lawless, Martin Steingesser and Jeri Theriault.

Gary is an owner-manager (with his wife Beth) of Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick as well as a prolific award-winning poet, editor, publisher and educator. Gary was just selected to receive the 2017 Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize, recognizing contribution to public humanities in Maine.

Martin is a former Portland poet laureate, musician, interpreter and translator. In 2006, Martin received the Bill Bonyun Award from the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, recognizing talent as well as professionalism.

Jeri we know well, since she is a former Waynflete writing and literature teacher, but she has long been writing poetry. Her chapbook In the Museum of Surrender won the 2013 Encircle chapbook contest, and she is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee as well as a Fulbright recipient.

Each competitor prepared to deliver two poems split between two rounds of competition. The first round was contained within the drama room for a limited audience of judges and the other competitors. Then, during the Thursday assembly an hour later, after a warm-up poem recited by Martin, the performers brought their poems to life for the Upper School.

Good luck to Ella and Sarah as they prepare for the regional contest!

Having recently started our Upper School career, we noticed many changes in 9th grade compared to last year. We both started at Waynflete in seventh grade, so we got to experience two years of Middle School and the transition to Upper School, but our experiences alone would not answer or complete this essay. We wanted to get feedback from our peers on what they thought of their first year as an Upper School. To do this, we composed an anonymous three question survey, sent it out and then waited for answers from everyone. For the majority of students, the expectation going into 9th grade was that it would be stressful and hectic. They thought that it would be scary and not fun at all, but most of all a hard transition. Some people’s expectations of this year was that it would be challenging, socially and academically.

After asking for everyone’s expectations, our second question was what they thought of it so far. In our experience we have found the homework load is greater, and remembering parts of lessons for assessments to be more demanding than middle school. On the survey, most people said that 9th grade has much more free time than expected. Some people emphasized on the rewarding factors and how they felt that they had learned a great deal this year. In fact, it was nice to discover that we technically get four frees a week, although freshman year one free is taken up by seminar. On frees, most freshmen spend their time doing homework or hanging out with friends, and even sometimes just goofing off. Having experienced the first day of snow at school, a bunch of us borrowed a sled and went down some hills and even down a flight of stairs.

Our last question was addressing the favorite aspects of ninth grade so far. The majority of our classmates answered that their favorite part of 9th grade was Outdoor Experience. OE was a chance for the entire grade to bond, grow closer, and make new friends. Others answered with their favorite classes and activities at school, in which we have a wide range to choose from. Ninth grade has opened our eyes to the many possibilities and choices we have right in front of us. We have come to find it to be tiring at times, yet we have discovered our classmates love the freedom and challenges presented throughout the year.