Crossing the Finish Line in Upper Schools

As we head into the final term of the school year, we talked to Melanie Brintnall, Curriculum Manager for New Regions, to find out what our scholars in our middle schools and high schools can expect in the fourth quarter. There are a lot of parallels to the last quarter experiences of our lower schools with a few nuances that are unique to upper school life. You can read more about the fourth quarter at our lower schools here: Finishing Strong in Our Lower Schools.

We talked with Melanie about seasons of the school year in the article, Entering the Second Lap. “As we move towards summer, there is just something natural about the feeling of life and there is this tendency to slow down for change, even if the activities of each day are still moving forward. It is a time to savor the year that they are in. It comes with this idea that they are going to have this changing of the guard…they are in the last days of their current experiences with their set of teachers and classes. “

Closure seems to be an underlying theme of the quarter, especially for our high school seniors. As seniors, they are feeling the gravity of the final weeks of their high school experience. They have just returned from their Senior Trip and will soon be finishing up their Senior Thesis Defenses, with graduation just weeks away. Many seniors may begin to feel the dreaded Senioritis during this term, if they haven’t already exhibited symptoms earlier in the year. “I think we can acknowledge that it is really hard, when you see the end in sight, to have the same motivation that you did at the beginning,” said Brintnall. Stay tuned for an upcoming article that specifically details what our seniors are feeling during this momentous capstone quarter.

This final quarter has a rhythm that seems to ebb and flow between more celebratory and reflective times in contrast with the rigors of finals and buttoning up academics for the year. “In a lot of ways, the pace of learning is happening on par with the other quarters, which isn’t typical of other schools, and yet the pace of the fourth quarter still feels a bit different. There are different things going on. There are intermittent elements of leisure that naturally arise in the fourth quarter in between the rigor of some of the testing,” said Brintnall.

“There is the joy and freedom of the upcoming summer paired with the loss of the good that only happens in this particular time and place. The only antidote to any passage of time is to really be present in the current moment and the current task at hand. It is so easy to get wrapped up in future plans or in bemoaning that we are leaving a time behind. Being intentionally present in the moment, whether today is an awards ceremony and it is time to celebrate, or if today is studying for a Latin Final and you are going through notecards for the umpteenth time, which just feels kind of exhausting at this point.”

The introduction of final exams in the upper schools is something new for middle schoolers who may find this added end-of-the-semester task very stressful. “There is really something powerful about the task of studying and synthesizing all the things that you have learned over the course of the semester that solidifies learning in a way that nothing else can. Especially in middle school, it is great practice for what is to come later in high school,” said Brintnall. “It is a very big undertaking for a middle schooler or even a high schooler, but it is a meaningful one. In completing a final exam, there is something celebratory about it. There is labor that bears fruit in the course of studying for those things.”

Brintnall explained these final exams can be more than just academic. “In high school, they have had more practice with it. Many students will study with their friends, and it becomes a time when academics and community can really come together. It is not just about the academic closure, it is also about the pursuing of virtue in community. That full communal pursuit takes place all the way through to when the last bell rings on the last day of school.”

It is during this final term that our scholars discover the fullness of being a member of this educational community pursuing virtue, both intellectual and moral, together throughout the journey of the school year. Brintnall added, “Every grade level has its own particular joys and things that are really unique to it.  This is a time to dwell on that and enjoy this time for what it is, knowing that change is on the horizon.”

“This is the time when all of your hard work from the year can pay off most,” said Mac Esau, Executive Director of Upper Schools in Arizona. “Finish strong!”

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