Suggestions for Choate

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During your first term at Choate, there should be a course called Choate 101. As new students, they may be intimidated by all the courses, people, resources, and opportunities and may not know how to navigate their way through Choate. I envision Choate 101 as a class that is taught by seniors, administrators, teachers, and even alumni. The first week could focus on being at a boarding school for boarders. From personal and sleep hygiene to doing laundry and cleaning their own rooms, there are many things that will be helpful for students who are away from home. Seniors could touch on their time at Choate by sharing about their experiences taking specific classes, getting involved with certain clubs, and more. Administrators like Dr. Curtis can talk about the history of Choate, values of Choate, and their vision for the school. Teachers could talk about their experiences interacting with Choate students and what they expect. For example, in my first month of Choate, I asked my teachers if I could go use the bathroom, not realizing that it was a norm at Choate to leave the classroom at your own discretion. Welcoming alumni could be beneficial in numerous ways. They were once a Choate student, and they had more stories and insights that they could share. More importantly, it is important to show that alumni could have a big impact on the school, and by benefitting from interacting with them, when the students become alumni, they will be more willing to help out the school in any way possible. 

Interdepartmental classes allow students to further dive into disciplines and have a better understanding of the relationship between the disciplines. One of the ideas that I had was an economics + math course. I envision this course to be a 2-term course taught by a statistics teacher, a multivariable calculus teacher, and an economics teacher, working collaboratively. Statistics and statistical programs like R are important skills to have when studying a field within the social science field. There are many empirical studies conducted in the field of economics, and the researchers analyze their data to find its significance, which is often represented by its p-value. Also, many economic models are based on multivariable calculus, especially the partial derivatives. This course would be formatted in that in the first term of the course, the students will take two of the three classes a week with a math teacher and the last class with an economics teacher. In their second term, they’ll take one class with a math teacher and two classes with an economics teacher. They’ll focus on learning math skills that are relevant to studying economics to better understand the field of economics. This will allow students to end their second term with a project which they’ll demonstrate their understanding of these concepts. 

Senior spring has a different impact on different students. Some try to relax and make memories with their friends, while others may focus on diving into things that they didn’t get a chance to spend time on due to the busy nature of being a high school student. I think that senior spring is a perfect time to help students to be prepared for the real world. From learning about personal finance, like credit scores, buying a house, and investing, to stress and time management, there are many things that students could learn to better prepare themselves for adulthood. This course could be taught by any adults in the community, parents, siblings, alumni, and outside speakers who already have experience of being an adult. 

Choate has a very ambitious and curious student body. Although this is good for the classroom environment and the culture of the school, students are often too hard on themselves. This could lead to poor sleep hygiene, absence of stress management, and more. Research done by 

Joëls (2006), Pascoe (2020), and Rudland (2020) show that stress and lack of sleep interfere with learning by negatively affecting memory retention, attentiveness, and motivation. This could also lead to intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts in life. Having someone, a social and emotional adviser, would help to resolve this problem. This adviser, unlike the academic advising system we have, wouldn’t be directly connected to academics at Choate. Also, it would allow students to share what goes on in their lives that they feel they cannot share with their friends, teachers, and even with their parents. Although the school cannot force students to open up about themselves, chatting with these advisers every two to three weeks will significantly improve students’ overall well-being. 

Student clubs have been a significant part of Choate students. Whether it’s writing for The Choate News or going to the Choate Korea Friendship Association, these are ways that students expand their network of friends, destress, and contribute to the community. Although this is very important, focusing on academic clubs would boost learning. Having a community of students who are interested in similar topics will help the students to work together, have productive conversations, and expand their knowledge. This structured time could also be used for working on projects like research or preparing a presentation for other peers in the club. Also, having these academic clubs present in their discipline would be very beneficial for everyone in the community. There are students who want to learn more about the disciplines or want to get involved in certain academic disciplines. These clubs would prepare a short presentation for everyone to talk about some of the coursework that they’ve completed, what the discipline is, and why they enjoy the discipline. This will help to expose more students to the many disciplines we offer but also help with choosing courses. 

Choate does a great job preparing students for their future. Whether it's through courses, bringing outside speakers, and other resources that they offer. However, I want to focus on what goes on in our classes. I think that one of our goals is to build our students to be leaders, thinkers, and innovators with the work ethic, outstanding abilities, integrity, and the heart to make the world a better place. Many of the courses that are offered at Choate's hidden curriculum focuses on building those skills mentioned above. I completely agree, but only taking new freshman and sophomore will allow us to focus on the "busy work" and building the base skills during their freshman and sophomore years. During their junior and senior years, they will be able to take upper level classes that involves researches, debates happening in classes, and working on their own projects rather. As research done by Hulleman (2009) and Palmer (2009) suggests that those "busy work" decreases students' interests in a class setting. 

Winterlude, the 2 - 3 week period between thanksgiving break and winter break, often causes more hardship for winter term classes. Due to the short nature of the period, it is hard to engage in meaningful learning and retain that information through winter break. Having winterlude design to enable students to dive into disciplines that they've never engaged in will help students to broathen their perspective, find new passion, and provide some things that they can share with their families. I envision these "courses" to be taught by faculties, seniors, administrator, and even alumni. Having classes, like bike workshop, intro to magic, and film analysis, could brighten up the overall mood of the school as well as rekindle the joy for learning for everyone in the community.