This year, students were overly eager for a Head of School Day. Students looked to dining hall menus, homework schedules, and various other “hints” as indicators of the much-awaited day off. When hypotheses were disproved, cries of outrage rang through the dining hall. Some students ambushed Dr. Curtis and posted a video to Facebook in a last ditch attempt to sway her decision, but the effort proved fruitless. One week later on February 20, whispers of plans to storm the Manse in the event of a normal school day spread from bubble to bubble at Sunday dinner.

When a video clip on DAnet of Dr. Curtis, clad in a pith helmet, announced the day off that night, it was accompanied by a sense of victory rather than gratitude. We have come to view this reprieve from daily Deerfield stress as a right. Let’s remember that Head of School days are a privilege, a gift, and beggars can’t be choosers.

AG, FR, SW, GM, EK, YN, LW, AYC