Exeter
November Events
As you can see from the events page, I have a number of events coming up in November, almost two weeks on the East Coast. And these events are going to require different talks. The Lincoln Group of New York will naturally want to hear about Lincoln and Stanton. The Wheeling Public Library calls for…
Read MoreBoise Mock Trial Nationals
I am in the Boise airport, waiting to board my flight home to California, after attending high school mock trial nationals with the Phillips Exeter mock trial team, which I coach. I am, I must confess, tired and disappointed. You are not sure, as the weekend progress, how you have done, but we thought by…
Read MoreMock Trial
The Phillips Exeter mock trial team has won the New Hampshire state championship; the team will compete at nationals for the fourth time in five years. This year was different, very different, because I live in California not New Hampshire. So I was not able to work with the Exeter students in person, only by…
Read MoreNot from here
I am in California, no longer a resident of New Hampshire, not quite a resident of California yet. I have been thinking a lot about place recently, about how I am never quite in one place. I never seem to be “from here.” I was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as my father started law school…
Read MoreExeter Graduation
Yesterday was graduation day here at the Phillips Exeter Academy. A wonderful, emotional, difficult day. It was a beautiful, sunny day here, and graduation was held on the lawn in front of the main academy building, where the dog Sunny and I have walked so many times. My daughter Lydia—intelligent, beautiful, poised, gracious—was among the…
Read MoreMock Trial Nationals
I have just returned from the national high school mock trial championship, held this year in Madison, Wisconsin. It was an exciting, exhausting, and in the end somewhat disappointing weekend. Most of us traveled Wednesday, arriving in Madison after nine that night. The next morning, at nine, we had our first scrimmage, against a solid…
Read MoreExeter Students
Knowing that I will be in California next school year, knowing that this is probably our last school year here at Phillips Exeter, makes me appreciate Exeter more. Yes the weather is bad, although today is a lovely warm spring day. Yes, we live in a small dormitory apartment, and can hear kids at all…
Read MoreMock Trial Victory
Phillips Exeter has once again won the NH state championship; we are once again headed to the national championships. I cannot claim to be surprised–we were the favorites heading into this weekend’s state competition–but I am so pleased. In December, we formed three teams for the state championship; an A team composed mainly of…
Read MoreDonald B. Cole
Yesterday I attended the memorial service for my history teacher and mentor, Donald Barnard Cole. It was a wonderful service, filled with music and laughter, stories and tears. I learned a great deal about Mr. Cole, and thought I would share here some of my own memories of him. I first got to know Mr.…
Read MoreSkeptical Biographer
One of the great reasons to live where we do is the Phillips Exeter Academy Library. I can WALK to the library, indeed when I walk our dog Sunny, we generally walk to the library and back, just to enjoy the view from there of the Academy Building. I have been known to tie Sunny…
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