The Headmasters Papers by Richard A. Hawley

same—even weighed the same—when Meg lifted me out of my undergraduate pallor. I might remind you, too, that I am quite old, more the Barry Fitzgerald than the Bing Crosby in the Wells School saga. But again, I appreciate your concern. I will spruce and fatten up over the break. Who wants to be bad PR? Who wants to be pitiful? Not me. Although it might be effective to look a little beaten up in court when Mrs. Stone brings forth her venomous accusations.
    I will keep in touch, Bill. I hope all of the Truaxes have a glorious holiday.
    Best,
    John
    13 November
    MEMO to All Faculty
Re: Term Exams
    You will find attached the final version of the term-exam schedule we discussed at Friday’s meeting. Unless there are excessive makeups, this schedule should allow ample time for exams to be graded before the holiday, which I sincerely hope is dedicated to well-deserved rest and diversion.
    I would rather fuss about this too much than to commit the other mistake. Please make a special effort to proctor these exams carefully.
    1.    Do not leave exam copies on the copying machines or in wastepaper baskets.
    2.    Do not allow boys to bring in anything but sharp pencils to the exam rooms (exceptions: art history, and Horney’s history electives, for which special arrangements have been made).
    3.     Patrol  the exam room, don’t merely watch.
    4.    Take attendance as soon as boys are seated and quiet; report absentees to Marge at once.
    5.    Do not make individual arrangements for make-up exams. Refer tardy or ill boys to proctor of the day (posted).
    6.    Please be on hand at least fifteen minutes before exam is scheduled to begin.
    It seems we lose a boy or two every year to cheating. Perhaps this is inevitable, but I hope not. Let’s at least avoid fanning the flames of temptation. The better we monitor these exams, the easier it becomes to do so.
    Thanks in advance for your care.
    J.O.G.
    15 November 19—
    DRAFT of “Overview” to
“Wells: the Next Ten Years . . .”
    A consideration of the next ten years of Wells School as a preliminary step to planning its longer-range future requires at least a cursory review of the school’s history. We are not founding a school; we are attempting to be thoughtful custodians of what has been faithfully established at Wells over the past one hundred and six years. As we look to our future direction, we must be kept mindful that we are already on a course. We may choose to alter that course, but we would be unwise to abandon it without a careful assessment of where we have been and to what effect.
    Wells was founded as a school for “boys of demonstrated promise who aspire to university training or for training in the practical arts.” The founders also included in the school charter that “lessons of character, manliness, and Christian virtue” were to be undertaken in tandem with a program of “liberal arts and sciences.” Although the student body has since grown from twenty-five to nearly four hundred boys, Wells has never significantly departed from these initial aims.
    We are still a school for boys of demonstrated promise. One of a remaining handful of well-established boys’ schools in the country, we carry on the traditions of male fellowship intended by the founders. While the current climate of opinion about the role of the sexes and their presumed interrelationship is tumultuous, and the social consensus about “a man’s place” and “a woman’s place” is no longer what it was when the school was chartered, a new social consensus has not yet emerged. While Wells School has increased significantly its coeducational functions, exchanges, and joint activities over the past fifteen years, its faculty and trustees and students have determined that a boys’ school is still a satisfactory, and in a few respects superior, setting for assessing