A Peek Into A Whittall Night

26 April 2022Lucca P, Whittall ‘22

It is almost certain that there is something going on in a boarding house, at any given time, when sharing a home with fifty other teenagers. From the early morning wake ups by the juniors heading down to Crooks Hall for breakfast, to the late night EDM “shower fiestas” as described by our Assistant Houseparent Ms Rogers, living in a boarding house requires patient duty staff.

On Mondays, the tone of the week is set by the one-and-only Mr Carr, whose mantra is to have not one squeak of noise in the first hour of prep. Reminding me of this, Mr Carr enjoys “the house resembling a morgue” during the first hour of prep.

Tuesday nights are led by the enthusiasm of Mr Bryant who loves talking about stocks, or the ridiculousness of non-fungible tokens. TCH, or Mr Collis Handford takes charge of Wednesday nights, with boys Grades 9-12 usually looking for help on their English assignment. Thursdays we Whittall boys are graced with the puns and jokes of Mr Miller. Friday’s or Saturday’s, our favorite big brother, Mr Langer, is in the house – cooking up a storm in the kitchen or on the barbecue.

Prep is always productive in Whittall and our duty staff keep it interesting. With a wide range of knowledge on different subjects, our duty staff are able to assist us on tasks and answer our questions.

Not only the duty staff though, one of the best perks of living with fifty boys is that we are all able to feed off of each other’s strengths, and collectively build on our weaknesses when collaborating during prep. Fabian H, Whittall ‘22, is one who is always keen to help others, especially where he excels in mathematics & physics. Fabian told me, “Helping others with their assignments when I can is great because I feel like I am also learning and polishing my skills.” Lucas Maj, Whittall ‘23 was “working on a project for my AP Computer Science 12” and found that using the whiteboards upstairs made it easier to “solve the logic problems faster.”

Our Houseparent, Mr Gage, rewards the boys in the house with pizza after prep on Tuesday’s so long as we had a productive week. Saturdays, Mr Gage removes these conditions as there is no weekend without a barbecue in Whittall. With lots of burgers, comes a dirty grill, which probably would never be cleaned if it weren’t for those who failed to clean their rooms for Saturday morning #1 inspection.

Lucca P, Whittall ‘22

Where Students Choose To Be