Matt Anderson, Layout Manager

March 8, 2024

Follow Matt Anderson as he navigates his way through Winsor for a day as part of a student exchange between Winsor and Nobles!

I arrived 15 minutes early for my exclusive day-in-the-life experience at the Winsor School as a male Nobles student. Opting out of prancing through the front doors where swarms of high school girls flooded through, I walked to the nearby Caffè Nero and relaxed.

Timing my entrance, I was greeted at the door by one of my hosts for the day, Annie Fisher, the Editor-in-Chief of the Winsor school newspaper, The Banner. We checked in with the school attendant, Ms. Marshall, where I was informed that the whole school was notified ahead of time that I was coming. Great. 

Annie led me to the senior homeroom where I was introduced to many of her friends. I was struck by the warm and welcoming ambiance the environment had. The large room had lots of couches, chairs, and tables, where everyone could get comfortable as they arrived at school. Their homeroom is different from anything that we have here at Nobles, largely because it is a room exclusively for members of the same grade to assemble and doesn’t share space with other academic features as our Library does. While we do have various places to congregate as a school, to me, they don’t share the same homeyness of Winsor’s homeroom. Whether I fit the bill or not, I already felt like a Winsor student by 8:05 a.m.

For the first class of the day, I joined Annie in Monstrosity and Society with Mr. Murdock. The class, like all others at Winsor, was 75 minutes long, similar to the length of our own periods. My immediate impression of Murdock was that he reminded me of Mr. Baker. Wise, funny, and exuberant, I could tell that his class was taught with his unique MO. The first five minutes of the class were spent chatting and waiting for people to trickle in—a true soft start. The remaining time was spent diving into the intricacies of Beowulf, including the parallels between the hero Beowulf and the monster Grendel. The class was taught with an emphasis on class discussion, which was apparent through its connected and familial atmosphere, reminding me of the discussions in my own English classes at Nobles.

I spent second period with Annie again, but she didn’t have a class. So we went back to the homeroom to hang out and talk, leaving campus for a bit to grab food from Bruegger’s. The ease of walking out of campus, taking one turn, and having a variety of food places available to you is amazing. While Winsor doesn’t have the defined campus that Nobles has, it has the facility to find any place you would want to go to for food or convenience during the school day within a five-minute walking distance. I love Flik and the food they serve up, but Bruegger’s is hard to beat. Returning back to the homeroom, I learned more about the school and its rules and norms from within and soaked in the distinct vibe of an all-girls school hangout spot with juicy gossip. 

The next class of the day I joined Sophia, an Executive Editor of The Banner, in AP Spanish with Señora Bravo. In class, I was asked to do the homework on the spot, which entailed translating and analyzing the message and importance of a historical quote. I stepped up to the challenge, defending my pride and ability as a pupil of Profe Robertson. Bravo said I did well though, if that’s what she actually said (in Spanish). Like all Spanish teachers I have had, Bravo weaponized the entire period in the most time-efficient manner to impress the most knowledge into your brain as possible. The structure of the class was almost identical to that at Nobles, yet it didn’t have any of the fun, highly educational games that I’ve had in my language classes. Must be an AP thing. 

For the last class before lunch, I again joined Sophia in the Intersection of Economics and Politics with Ms. Holland. The subject and content of this class were all new to me, which made the class experience very engaging and interesting. I, with my teammates Sophia and Gris, gave a presentation in front of the class about positive and negative incentives to deal with cheating at schools as part of their study of cost-benefit analysis. To work on the presentation, I needed to log in to the fabled Winsor_Student Wi-Fi. In other words, I had successfully infiltrated the Winsor student body (as if I hadn’t already by going to school there for a day).

Afterward, I had lunch with Annie, but because of the massive Bruegger’s brunch we had, we weren’t hungry and opted to go to a school club. At Winsor, the only time during the day that they have for club meeting time is during lunch, a departure from its similarities with Nobles. We went to the Words Nerds club, where people came with their lunch and did The New York Times games together. Because of the proximity of their cafeteria to their classrooms, they could take their plates and drinks into the class, and bring them back once they’re done. Lunch at Winsor is remarkably different from at Nobles, but the love for NYT games was all the same.

The last class of the day was AP Statistics with Ms. Cowan, shadowing the last leader of The Banner, Suzanne. I was completely out of my element in this class, since I had never studied Stats before. Nevertheless, I was warmly welcomed by Ms. Cowan and the class. Ms. Cowan kindly asked me to introduce myself, which was met with lots of giggles, understandably so—it’s like asking the fish why he’s on land (to be honest, I didn’t really know). During the class, I did my best to absorb what was going on and wrap my head around various statistical concepts to little avail. Another thing to note is that the desk set-up in this class was different from the traditional u-seating in other classes, adding to how different teachers and subjects approach teaching differently. In this class, I was in the middle of a circle of desks where everyone was facing towards me. With that, the day ended at 2:45 p.m., and we went back to the homeroom for a bit to reconvene and tell the girlies students how my day was. All in all, I had lots of fun at Winsor because I was able to go to school in an environment far different from Nobles. Student body aside, the lack of a dress code, the unique ambiance and interactions between the students, and the daily life all intrigued me in their differences from Nobles. I especially enjoyed homeroom and hope to cultivate a similar environment at Nobles. While there was a wide range of reactions to me intruding into their school, I was greeted with hospitality and made many friends. I still didn’t get the full Winsor experience without seeing a The Banner meeting, more classes, or a sports practice, so I guess I might just have to go back again.

(Graphic Credit: Oscar Parkinson)