Signals

Dear Browning Friends,

This issue of the Buzzer contains a wonderful celebration of our graduating seniors. While you’ll find commencement photographs and a listing of students’ college admissions, there’s one thing you won’t find: where each graduate will be heading to school in the fall.

To be sure, there are individual achievements celebrated within this issue—our Certificates of Distinction scholars, some of whom are pictured on the cover, are students who used every opportunity to pursue their academic passions. Through independent inquiry in engineering, data science, the humanities, and the visual arts, they were self-directed in going above and beyond coursework requirements. In addition, our feature story recognizes some of our Middle School leaders. Also sprinkled within these pages, as always, are our students’ achievements in the arts, academics, and sports.

While we would never minimize the well-earned pride a boy feels on gaining acceptance to his first-choice school, college guidance takes into consideration many factors, namely which schools are a best fit. But in today’s society, it’s all too easy to look for the ultimate measure of achievement—after years of an independent school education in the branded sweatshirt a senior will wear into his first year of college. While there’s nothing wrong with a sweatshirt, as educators, we have known for years that College Sweatshirt Day can be a painful and anxiety-provoking day at some schools, for some students, and for a variety of reasons. A matriculation list is not unlike that, with Browning’s stamp of approval behind it.

Despite the recognition that college admissions pressure is damaging to young people’s mental health, particularly among high achievers, there’s no end in sight for the veneration of a small selection of elite colleges and universities. By recognizing individual college choices, matriculation lists unintentionally feed a competitive ethos that can equate self-worth with the institution where a student continues his education.

The old adage that a college acceptance is a “match to be made, not a prize to be won” can seem hollow when students worry about whether their best fit is viewed as good enough to the outside world. Removing our matriculation list may seem like a small drop in the bucket when it comes to lessening student stress, but it aligns our school with what we truly value: the power of community and relationships, and the belief our students’ Browning experience could never be reduced to where they go when they leave the Red Doors behind.

John Botti, Ph.D. Head of School