NMH Magazine : Winter 2004

Experiencing Ninth Grade

It’s been three years in the planning—now the NMH Ninth-Grade Experience is on its trial run. The program is specifically tailored to meet the needs of younger students. How well is it working?

Picture yourself at 14, far from home, at an unfamiliar boarding school. You’re among the youngest of 1,028 students, and you don’t know your way around the campus. Oh, and by the way, there are two campuses, four miles apart, with buses that run between.

Overwhelmed?

Don’t worry. You’re about to become part of the NMH Ninth-Grade Experience.

The program, which debuted last fall, addresses the particular needs of ninth graders. Hovering on the cusp of adolescence, these younger students need more of just about everything: sleep, study time, nurturing, academic guidance, adult supervision, rules, self confidence. Developmentally, they’re still ducklings.

NMH crafted its program carefully, wanting to establish a model of its kind. Quietly and with pedagogical pride, the program is succeeding. In fact, it’s succeeding so well that it’s becoming a blueprint for the future. In many ways, the ninth-grade experience, with its extra-close-knit community, highly individualized care, and well-honed interdisciplinary curriculum, is a model for NMH in the 21st century.

What makes the ninth-grade experience work? Take 140 students embarking on a steep learning curve and add the following components.

Orientation 
Ninth graders arrive early at NMH for two days of camping, which include canoeing, biking, and games. It’s an intense period of community building during which new students bond with teachers, staff, student leaders, and each other. A few weeks into the term, ninth graders take part in a matriculation program in which they pledge their commitment to uphold NMH values.

Curriculum 
Required courses include Humanities I: Environmental Perspectives, Algebra I: Introductory Physics with Algebra, and Arts Foundations. Each course integrates a number of disciplines: for example, in Humanities, a religious studies teacher and an English teacher collaboratively teach Environmental Perspectives, which focuses on humans’ relationship to the environment. In Arts Foundations, students are exposed to dance, theatre, music, and art. A world-language course is also required. Ninth graders take three afternoon seminars, one each term, in writing, history, and health education. They also might take minor courses, which don’t require homework and run the gamut from Beginning Guitar to Advanced Web Design.

Athletics 
All ninth graders are required to participate in at least one team sport. Choosing from among 20 sports, students learn to hone their physical skills, work with coaches and team members, and represent NMH while competing against athletes at other schools.

Residential life 
Ninth graders live in neighboring student houses on the Northfield campus, creating a community within a community. The boys live in East Hall; girls stay in Weston and the newly renovated Merrill-Keep. Ninth-grade houses   are staffed by faculty members selected to live and work with this age   group. Residents also include student leaders—seniors who serve as mentors—who’ve been selected to live and work with ninth graders. 

Schedule 
Because ninth graders need structure (even if they don’t always want it),    the program keeps them busy throughout the day and evening. They have required minor courses in the afternoon, study hall from 8 to 10, and they must be in bed earlier than older students—which means lights out at 10:30 on weeknights.

Advising 
Each ninth grader has an advisor, called a DL (short for school founder          D. L. Moody), who helps the student navigate schedules, choose courses,   and decide which athletic team to try out for. Ninth-grade DLs are geared to address the needs of younger students. Ninth graders are supported by two deans, who also serve as class parents. Meanwhile, older students who’ve been trained as student leaders, peer educators, peer mediators, or international ambassadors act as role models and advocates for the ninth-grade houses.

Special events 
Throughout the year events are held just for ninth graders, from a ninth-grade matriculation ceremony to class dinners to touch football games. Freshmen climb Northfield Ridge together on Mountain Day and must participate in the Bemis-Forslund Pie Race.

Values 
Like all NMH students, ninth graders are given work jobs—assigned tasks that require about four-and-a-half hours per week. Most first-year students work in dining services, where they learn to wield mops, wash dishes, and perform other duties they may have dodged at home. Ninth graders are encouraged to do volunteer work; they get an introductory dose of it in September on Service Day, when all students take part in service projects such as visiting nursing homes and helping at homeless shelters. All houses participate in service projects during the year.

Roundtable Discussion with 9th graders and 9th grade deans.