The food gets better, students are told to follow the dress code, teachers start smiling more, the hedges are groomed and the grass cut, and white linens are topped with coffee and donut holes. What do all of these occurrences have in common? They all come about when parents, grandparents, trustees, alumni, or masses of prospective students visit Choate.
In days prior to the arrival of any one of these groups, an announcement urging the student body to watch their language, tuck in their shirt-tails, and be friendly to strangers on the paths occurs. Such an announcement comes in many forms and from many people—whether it is Mr. Stanley at a school meeting or our dorm advisors in house meetings—but the sentiment is largely the same. We need to alter our image and portray our best self to demonstrate that we are a great school.
There are a couple of issues that come with these announcements and the encouraged shift in the school’s image. The first and most important issue has to do with lying. Is it lying to alter our campus physically and culturally to appeal to an outside perspective? In short, yes. When we urge students to change behavior and shift our campus for these visits, Choate’s image becomes just a façade, a false exterior with no truth. When we project this guise, Choate is indirectly stating that our real culture isn’t good enough and we need to temporarily replace it by creating a new one.
The second problem with our temporary change is that it lacks character. A visiting student, parent, or trustee wants to see a genuine Choate in all of its valor and glory, but also its pitfalls and needed improvements. This is a high school; of course some students swear. We serve thousands of meals every day; understandably, some are bad. Choate has a huge campus; obviously we won’t get around to beautifying every square inch. When people come to visit, they don’t want “brochure Choate,” the Choate that you can access with a quick Google search. They want to be engrossed in our culture and understand our imperfect lives for what they are: imperfect.
The façade is understandable: Choate is looking to woo current tuition-payers, alumni-donors, and prospective students, but if we want to impress outsiders, we should work to improve what it means to be part of Choate year-round, not just during Parents’ Weekend. A school that improves its facilities without seeking applause is a school that truly demonstrates its character, and with Choate’s Parents’ Weekend façade, the school is failing to show its character.
I’m not complaining about the donut holes, though if students got the same food the dining hall serves during parents’ weekend, the Choate student body might physically look a little bit different. I’m just advocating for a more authentic Choate to be on display, one where I can walk around campus with only a minimal fear of being accosted for a dress-code violation.
At the end of the day, a few gruff interactions will make the school look even better. I want to go to a school that’s not afraid to print a soft swear-word in its newspaper or show its true self.
Choate is a fantastic school with talented students and faculty who deserve to be recognized and appreciated as they are. There is no need to disingenuously embellish Choate for the sake of placating parents’ fears or in hopes of wooing potential donors. As a community, we have a lot to be proud of, and anyone visiting our campus should be able to experience the raw, unadulterated Choate for what it is, instead of what we think others want to see.
