Letter to the Editor

Living through the II Form year—the gate to a new phase of your life, as a high schooler and Lawrentian—can be overwhelming. Freshmen enter the School knowing absolutely nothing about the customs or spirit expected from a Lawrentian, as well as their new classmates and student leaders. Accordingly, it is no surprise that the Lawrenceville school has drawn a clear line between the two student bodies: the II Formers and the others. By dividing the School in this way year after year, II Formers are unable to integrate into the Lawrenceville community truly. To overcome this isolation, breaking boundaries between II Formers and upperformers is necessary to encourage friendships across campus. 

II Formers have their own community space, the Bowl; their own cafeteria, the Tsai Mezzanine; and even their own sports teams, freshman soccer, and freshman basketball. These  80 girls and 80 boys remain trapped in their fishbowl-shaped community for the entire year, dispersing like hatchlings, only leaving their nest into the Circle and Crescent starting from III Form Move-In Day. Partitioning off the freshmen effectively encourages us to bond tightly: spending time with fellow immature II Formers allows us to get accustomed to the School while having the freedom to learn from mistakes. 

However, separating the II Form also means taking away the merits of being enrolled at a school with a massive, diverse, and talented student body: the House system should promote inter-House, inter-Form mixing—some of our most important interactions—just as much as it fosters intra-House connections. From conversations with my prefects, I receive indirect experience about the School, maturing and acclimating to the school. I believe their passion is contagious. If I were to have more conversations with non-prefect seniors about their past experiences at Lawrenceville, I would be able to learn from them as well. Conversations with upperformers mend the gaps in freshmen’s knowledge about the School. More specifically, by talking with upperclassmen about their passions, a II Former might even find a path they want to follow at Lawrenceville, a course they want to take, or even a teacher they want to learn from. Upperformers may be the key to the academic and social resources we need to thrive. 

If I asked Circle or Crescent residents about their Houses, I am confident that the vast majority would confidently assert that their House is the truly best one on campus. However, the II Form is different: instead of beaming with House pride, we are notorious for constant complaints about living on the Bowl. The House Points system is a perfect example of why II Formers lack House spirit: neither Dawes nor Raymond is represented on the Smeeting leaderboard every Thursday. Meant to encourage participation in certain School events, House Points are a tool to stimulate a sense of House pride, which the II Form needs just as much as III, IV, and V Formers. Within a House, two completely unrelated people are bonded as Housemates: why not strengthen this process by allowing II Form Houses to prove their spirit through competing as well? 

After all, strengthening II Form bonds will help freshmen resist the criticism and judgment they face from older Forms. In the eyes of older Forms, II Form may seem childish and clueless: freshman exclusion, in this way, is passive. Upperformers avoid freshmen instead of actively shunning them, stemming from a lack of respect and perhaps a desire to distance themselves from what they once were. Upperformers may avoid II Formers, relishing the power of spurning less senior students. 

With upperformers passively evading II Formers, freshmen learn to do the same as they advance in their Lawrenceville career, believing that their reenacting of their superiors is a way to break away from their naive past selves while compensating for their disadvantages throughout their own freshman year. Students’ being heartless of incoming II Form students generate a vicious cycle of disbenefiting freshmen, defying the motos Lawrentians live by: House, Harkness, and Heart.