There are a handful of ways the culture of a private pre-K and kindergarten program might seem a little different to families used to public education. One thing that gives families pause when they tour our campus is seeing pre-K and kindergarten students (5-year-olds and younger) following a dress code. When you’re used to seeing children...
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Each new school year brings with it feelings of excitement mixed with anxiety, opportunity coupled with trepidation. Boys see so many possibilities, yet they often feel overwhelmed. Fessenden offers an incredibly rich experience for students. During elementary and middle school years, boys pass through a variety of particularly uncertain and vulnerable moments in their development,...
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When you’re a gifted middle school athlete stuck in an area where there are few opportunities to compete at the highest levels, life can seem agonizing. You may have the fastest serve in town (among 11-year-olds, anyway) but before you can really test your mettle against elite competition, you have to wait two or three...
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Parenting advice columnist Melinda Wenner Moyer writes in Slate: “I’ve avoided talking about race with my kids mainly because I’ve thought that racial bias is learned by direct instruction and imitation—and that if I don’t talk about race or act in explicitly racist ways, my kids won’t pick up prejudices. My sources told me that...
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After your son starts junior boarding school, you may not hear from him every day. You won’t always be there to make sure he does his homework, tidies up his room, or brushes his teeth. For a parent, it can be nerve-wracking. Yet, while many parents go to great lengths to make sure their sons...
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Male teachers are a rarity in American elementary schools, in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten education, especially. According to data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the more than 600,000 preschool and kindergarten teachers in the U.S. in 2014, less than three percent were men. So, as a male kindergarten teacher, Fessenden’s Keith Fortier...
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Are your son’s middle school classes uninspiring? Is his homework just so much drudgery through which to suffer? When classwork is too easy, many gifted students disengage. They coast on their natural abilities, acing their exams but failing to develop the intellectual habits that will sustain them when they reach the greater academic challenges of...
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When visiting families see the new playground at The Fessenden School, one thing stands out right away: It doesn’t look anything like a playground—not the ones they grew up with, anyway. Fessenden’s playground has no slides, swings, or monkey bars. In fact, it has nothing you would recognize as traditional playground equipment. “A traditional playground...
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Some people are born leaders. They take control of difficult situations with confidence. They inspire others naturally. And it all seems to come so easily. But research has shown that the leadership abilities that appear to be inborn traits can actually be developed and nurtured during childhood: Researcher Carl Brungardt found in 1997 that leadership...
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Whether your son is starting kindergarten at 5 or 6, that fateful day will be here faster than you think. You know you’ll never be truly prepared to let him go but you want to make sure he’s ready. Kindergarten brings with it all kinds of new experiences, expectations, and interactions for your son. It’s...
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