Yet More Boarding School stuff
Dec. 9th, 2010 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseThe Boarding school day.
The days were structured.
Chapel or Home Room (some days it was one, some days the other. It wasn't a choice between them.) was at 8:15. The cafeteria opened at 7:00 and closed at 8:00 for boarding students who wanted breakfast. The hall doors opened at either 6:00 or 6:30 so that the girls who wanted to go out running or who had early morning team practices (not many of those, but I think the LaCrosse or Field Hockey team had them occasionally, possibly as punishment) could run.
My roommates got up every morning at 6:00 spent at least half an hour in the shower (the shower room was down the hall; there were three pie shaped shower groups of six stalls each + three bathtubs in there) and then came back to the room to dry their hair. I was awakened most days by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band or Frampton Comes Alive played at 11 so it could be heard over their blow-dryers.
The first class after chapel was at 8:45, and we changed classes an hour later with about fifteen minutes to get from one class to another. We had several buildings, a basement level, and the gym which was about 1/8 of a mile from the closest classroom, so we needed the time. At some point between 11 and 2 we'd get half an hour to an hour for lunch depending on our specific class schedule. The last class of the day ended around 4:00 and extra-curriculars which ranged from sports teams to acting classes began then.
Boarders had to sign out from their halls personally -- occasionally, I'd sign-out for another girl if we were going somewhere together. All of us had distinctive ways of doing our initials, but I could imitate one or two of my friends fairly accurately and they could do mine. It was rare though. I often went places on my own, so I signed myself out then. I know my roommates used to sign out for each other even when they didn't know where the other was going. By the way, this was only if we left the campus. The campus was big enough, that I often just hung out on the quad or in the library and rarely saw anyone else, especially my freshman year.
Extracurriculars were a privilege. If your GPA went below 2.5, you weren't allowed to continue them. No grade could be below 2.0 while you were participating in extracurriculars either.
Dinner, for which we were required to wear skirts, was at six p.m. Sunday through Thursday. Every two weeks we were assigned to a new table of six people or to be a server. Everyone had at least one shift a trimester. Dinner was three courses: soup or salad, meat and two vegetables, and dessert. Milk (whole or skim), water, and usually orange or apple juice were the drink options.
After dinner, we had study hall from 7:15 to 9:00 pm. Freshmen were in groups in the library which met in rooms with glass walls. No talking was permitted, and a prefect or the teacher on duty that night (several of our teachers had houses or apartments on campus as part of their compensation. In return for their living space, they had a table at dinner -- one adult to five boarders -- and proctored study hall a couple of nights a month. One teacher was also a housecounselor, so he and his wife missed out on study hall duty.) might choose to sit in the room if the Freshmen got fractious. Sophomores were assigned carrels for the year. Juniors whose grade point average was under 2.0 were assigned to workspaces in other parts of the library. Juniors with higher averages were permitted to study in their rooms. Seniors could also study in their rooms.
The hall was locked at 10 pm after a head count to make certain everyone was on hall. (The dormitories were the two stories on top of the classrooms in the three main buildings. Each story was its own hall, and the halls were alarmed and locked individually.) We were not allowed to sleep other than in our own rooms during the week. Lights out for Freshman was at 10:00, for Sophomores at 10:30, Juniors at 11:00. Seniors had to turn off the television and leave the common room at midnight, but they technically had no lights out requirement.
Weekends were a little different. There were activities for boarders who didn't have invitations (Freshmen got three overnights a trimester -- two of which could be combined into a weekend. If it wasn't with your family, then there had to be a written invitation from the adult present and written permission from the boarder's parents to accept the invitation. Each year you stayed you got another one or two overnights per trimester. A boarder who missed a detention could have her overnight privilege rescinded.) which were most of us. They included group trips to the local mall, occasional movies at movie theaters, and movies shown in one of the parlors. I first saw Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame one Friday evening in a parlor.
We still had to sign out on the weekends, but we could sign out until curfew as long as the school knew where we were going to be. Curfews were the same as our lights out times during the week with seniors needing to be in by midnight.
We had taxi passes which could get us anywhere we needed in town. During the day, we could take one alone, but not at night as I discovered when I had a ticket to see a concert at one of the big local theaters. It never occurred to me to ask permission in advance because I'd been going to the Kennedy Center on my own since I was eleven. The powers that be decided to allow it, but in the future, I had to get either advanced permission or a friend to attend with me.
I also went to restaurants with friends -- usually the foreign exchange students -- which also flummoxed the staff. I was apparently the first boarder ever to do so without it being a date or a large birthday party.
If there were more than three students who wanted to do something on a weekend evening, a van could be reserved which held up to twelve passengers. This was how we went to the mall or on a large birthday party adventure.
One of my greatest extracurriculars during my sophomore year was Singers. The large group was the Chorus and about half of us were selected to do more sophisticated music and be in the Singers. I made it in on my first try, which was rare. Wednesday nights were for the chorus, which meant I missed study hall that evening. Singers met on two other evenings. There were also school plays, which were afternoons for the most part and then evenings for about two weeks and got us excused from study hall. Had I stayed as a junior or senior, I might also have missed study hall for Model United Nations, Russian or Chinese class, and at least two advanced science classes that met with our brother school.
Mixers were held with boys schools from a tri-state area, and we also occasionally went to boys schools ourselves. Really, it was more likely for the boys to come to us.
If it wasn't freezing out, I would walk four times around the quad between leaving study hall/singers/rehearsal before coming into the dorms. I learned early on, that it was forbidden. I also learned early on that if I talked to my house counselor like an actual human being, I could get away with certain things. I slept better if I walked. My roommates and I were less likely to kill each other if I stayed out of their way by taking a walk. Four times around the quad was a mile, and especially in the spring time, it kept me sane. So, the house counselor allowed it even though it was forbidden. *G*
Unlike my roommates, I'd take my shower at night. The shower rooms were usually deserted, which gave me the privacy and I never ran out of hot water which occasionally happened in the mornings.
And then, the next day around 7 a.m., I'd hear Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band with the volume turned up to 11.
The days were structured.
Chapel or Home Room (some days it was one, some days the other. It wasn't a choice between them.) was at 8:15. The cafeteria opened at 7:00 and closed at 8:00 for boarding students who wanted breakfast. The hall doors opened at either 6:00 or 6:30 so that the girls who wanted to go out running or who had early morning team practices (not many of those, but I think the LaCrosse or Field Hockey team had them occasionally, possibly as punishment) could run.
My roommates got up every morning at 6:00 spent at least half an hour in the shower (the shower room was down the hall; there were three pie shaped shower groups of six stalls each + three bathtubs in there) and then came back to the room to dry their hair. I was awakened most days by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band or Frampton Comes Alive played at 11 so it could be heard over their blow-dryers.
The first class after chapel was at 8:45, and we changed classes an hour later with about fifteen minutes to get from one class to another. We had several buildings, a basement level, and the gym which was about 1/8 of a mile from the closest classroom, so we needed the time. At some point between 11 and 2 we'd get half an hour to an hour for lunch depending on our specific class schedule. The last class of the day ended around 4:00 and extra-curriculars which ranged from sports teams to acting classes began then.
Boarders had to sign out from their halls personally -- occasionally, I'd sign-out for another girl if we were going somewhere together. All of us had distinctive ways of doing our initials, but I could imitate one or two of my friends fairly accurately and they could do mine. It was rare though. I often went places on my own, so I signed myself out then. I know my roommates used to sign out for each other even when they didn't know where the other was going. By the way, this was only if we left the campus. The campus was big enough, that I often just hung out on the quad or in the library and rarely saw anyone else, especially my freshman year.
Extracurriculars were a privilege. If your GPA went below 2.5, you weren't allowed to continue them. No grade could be below 2.0 while you were participating in extracurriculars either.
Dinner, for which we were required to wear skirts, was at six p.m. Sunday through Thursday. Every two weeks we were assigned to a new table of six people or to be a server. Everyone had at least one shift a trimester. Dinner was three courses: soup or salad, meat and two vegetables, and dessert. Milk (whole or skim), water, and usually orange or apple juice were the drink options.
After dinner, we had study hall from 7:15 to 9:00 pm. Freshmen were in groups in the library which met in rooms with glass walls. No talking was permitted, and a prefect or the teacher on duty that night (several of our teachers had houses or apartments on campus as part of their compensation. In return for their living space, they had a table at dinner -- one adult to five boarders -- and proctored study hall a couple of nights a month. One teacher was also a housecounselor, so he and his wife missed out on study hall duty.) might choose to sit in the room if the Freshmen got fractious. Sophomores were assigned carrels for the year. Juniors whose grade point average was under 2.0 were assigned to workspaces in other parts of the library. Juniors with higher averages were permitted to study in their rooms. Seniors could also study in their rooms.
The hall was locked at 10 pm after a head count to make certain everyone was on hall. (The dormitories were the two stories on top of the classrooms in the three main buildings. Each story was its own hall, and the halls were alarmed and locked individually.) We were not allowed to sleep other than in our own rooms during the week. Lights out for Freshman was at 10:00, for Sophomores at 10:30, Juniors at 11:00. Seniors had to turn off the television and leave the common room at midnight, but they technically had no lights out requirement.
Weekends were a little different. There were activities for boarders who didn't have invitations (Freshmen got three overnights a trimester -- two of which could be combined into a weekend. If it wasn't with your family, then there had to be a written invitation from the adult present and written permission from the boarder's parents to accept the invitation. Each year you stayed you got another one or two overnights per trimester. A boarder who missed a detention could have her overnight privilege rescinded.) which were most of us. They included group trips to the local mall, occasional movies at movie theaters, and movies shown in one of the parlors. I first saw Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame one Friday evening in a parlor.
We still had to sign out on the weekends, but we could sign out until curfew as long as the school knew where we were going to be. Curfews were the same as our lights out times during the week with seniors needing to be in by midnight.
We had taxi passes which could get us anywhere we needed in town. During the day, we could take one alone, but not at night as I discovered when I had a ticket to see a concert at one of the big local theaters. It never occurred to me to ask permission in advance because I'd been going to the Kennedy Center on my own since I was eleven. The powers that be decided to allow it, but in the future, I had to get either advanced permission or a friend to attend with me.
I also went to restaurants with friends -- usually the foreign exchange students -- which also flummoxed the staff. I was apparently the first boarder ever to do so without it being a date or a large birthday party.
If there were more than three students who wanted to do something on a weekend evening, a van could be reserved which held up to twelve passengers. This was how we went to the mall or on a large birthday party adventure.
One of my greatest extracurriculars during my sophomore year was Singers. The large group was the Chorus and about half of us were selected to do more sophisticated music and be in the Singers. I made it in on my first try, which was rare. Wednesday nights were for the chorus, which meant I missed study hall that evening. Singers met on two other evenings. There were also school plays, which were afternoons for the most part and then evenings for about two weeks and got us excused from study hall. Had I stayed as a junior or senior, I might also have missed study hall for Model United Nations, Russian or Chinese class, and at least two advanced science classes that met with our brother school.
Mixers were held with boys schools from a tri-state area, and we also occasionally went to boys schools ourselves. Really, it was more likely for the boys to come to us.
If it wasn't freezing out, I would walk four times around the quad between leaving study hall/singers/rehearsal before coming into the dorms. I learned early on, that it was forbidden. I also learned early on that if I talked to my house counselor like an actual human being, I could get away with certain things. I slept better if I walked. My roommates and I were less likely to kill each other if I stayed out of their way by taking a walk. Four times around the quad was a mile, and especially in the spring time, it kept me sane. So, the house counselor allowed it even though it was forbidden. *G*
Unlike my roommates, I'd take my shower at night. The shower rooms were usually deserted, which gave me the privacy and I never ran out of hot water which occasionally happened in the mornings.
And then, the next day around 7 a.m., I'd hear Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band with the volume turned up to 11.
