T he L og thelog@taboracademy.org
Tabor Academy’s Student Newspaper Volume 93, Number 1
October 2018
This Year’s Dress Expectations What's new this year everything from 'Business Casual' to 'Aacdemic Mondays' by Jack Marshall and Harper McKerrow
In Life At Tabor, the dress expectations state that every Monday is a “best first impression day,” meaning that the expectation of dress will be more strict than that of the rest of the week. The handbook states, “On academic Mondays, there is an enhanced level of dress expected during the academic day. This day is guided by the subjective response to the personal question: “‘What would I wear if I were interviewing for the job, scholarship opportunity or college acceptance of my dreams, before a group of people I had never met before?’”
Tabor has had a dress code for more than a century, and The Log wanted to investigate how the change was carried out. In an interview, Mr. Quirk summed up the decision-making: “The nature of the decision dictates the process through which change happens, who is involved, what the timetable might be. Generally, strategic, long-term decisions happen at the Board level (though I may initiate them), and more tactical decisions (short-term execution) happen at the administrative level (these could be initiated by anyone, and often are). Also, administrative oversight happens at many levels, all the way down to teams and classrooms – where more ‘local’ decisions are often made. In terms of timing of communication, that too is variable.” The dress code decision qualified as both a board and administrative level discussion as it was a large change, one that was finalized in early August, very close to when students would arrive at school. When asked about the timing of the change, Mr. Quirk said, “For the most part, I think this is a reflection of a busy place trying to grow, improve, hold itself to high expectations – but the timing of communication is always an important message of respect for folks, too. As I mentioned, I would have preferred that I found my way to a better time-frame on the dress expectation change – this would have been helpful in some ways – but I thought the opportunity to try it outweighed the timing challenge.”
Despite contrasting opinions on this new change, in both the students and faculty, the most prominent issue regarding this new dress expectation is the question of how it will be defined and how we will hold each other accountable. With upperclassman and faculty members now sporting a more relaxed attire most days of the week, it could be easy for students to undermine the expected daily dress. However, in
Photo by Gary Lawrence
The change has been easy to spot due to the new “business casual” look instead of last year’s “professional” look. Viewpoints on this change differ, to say the least; some faculty liked the old dress expectations and some are set on the new ones. Tabor’s administration and a few faculty members explained how the change was made and what should be expected with the new dress.
order to fulfill Mr. Quirk’s goals with the new attire, student leaders must enforce the full set of requirements upon their peers. If students are still confused about the new dress expectation, even after the all school fashion show, they can find the suggested guidelines for the new dress expectation in the Life At Tabor under their Student Resources tab, on “My TA,” although a somewhat tedious process. (It took three members of The Log staff roughly two minutes each to find the dress expectations on the website.) In response to the new dress expectation, senior Gabby Barresi explains that she likes the new code because ”[she] thinks it holds us to the same standards” and allows her to have a little more freedom in the morning to choose what she wears. Eli Hjerpe ’19, however, explains that he was “surprised” by the new change and “now Mondays are tough” despite being “used to wearing a coat and tie every day.” Because the expectations require a more formal attire only one day a week, it is easy for students to fall into the trend of being lax in their clothing selection. In the end, the new dress allows students to wear a more relaxed look, but requires a more conscientious effort in the morning, forcing each student to think twice before leaving their room in the morning, asking themselves, “Could I be dress-coded for wearing this?”
If the first few weeks of school are any indication, the community has done a pretty decent job of meeting the dress expectations. Still, many students are still struggling to understand the outlined standards or simply do not like the dress. Those students may find that they are in good company: Many share the same questions or thoughts about what the new expectations really expect.
A New Grading Protocol
Taking a look at what this year's rolling grades mean by Owen Sughrue This year, Tabor is implementing a new grading protocol. Rather than having semester or trimester term grades, as Tabor has had in the past, the new protocol displays one grade at the end of the year.
class.” While grades might be hard to get up if they are low, students are working throughout the whole year for a cumulative grade: One low or one high one will not move a grade that much.
To address the concern that grades might be difficult to move up if they are not where a student wishes them to be later in the year, Ms. Marceau knows that’s true but would also add that, “Students now have the whole year for their grade to be determined. The grade now shows an entire year’s worth of grades in a particular
While a cumulative grade might seem intimidating, Ms. Marceau and other teachers believe it will help students. Students can continue to improve throughout the year, and their grade will reflect that.
Ms. Marceau explained that the grading system was motivated by “teachers who felt that the old grading system didn’t show students’ growth fairly over the course of a year.” In the old grading system, students “started fresh” at the beginning of every new trimester. The rolling grade generates only one grade, the final one that appears on the transcript. While there are no trimester grades, students will see progress reports to track their improvement or regression over the course of the year.
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Some teachers and advisors have already explained the new grading system to students, but some students do not know about rolling grade. When asked about the new grading system, Georgia Toland said that she had not heard of it. Gabby Barresi, who had heard about it from another student, says, “Part of me thinks it’s good to have the trimester to reset. But now, the system makes students conscious of how their grades average in the end to form their overall cumulative grade, and might put more effort in the whole year.”
Learning about one of this year’s new faculty members, p. 3. Sustainability at Tabor, p. 3.