At Cate, the Daily Announcements Included a Fashion Show

Our children's school's announcements are delivered by a crackling speaker that says something about a bus and then a word that might be "Thursday." No one has ever danced.

The Blue Ewe is the campus store, and its own web page has the swagger of a brand that knows it is on a runway. "It's not just a campus store…it's a way of life!" It opened in January 2016 in the basement of a dorm and has since moved up to the second floor of Booth Commons, selling everything from school supplies to collectibles, from "a staple Cate sweatshirt to a trendy new pair of workout pants," plus food and cold drinks "for even the pickiest of eaters."

I have never been sold a lifestyle by a gift shop so directly, and I respect it.

Family weekend continued in a similar spirit. Parents sat in the backs of classrooms during Harkness discussions. That evening, at the Golden Box celebration in the chapel, humanities teachers read six pieces by anonymous student writers aloud, and the winners rose from the pews to collect their prizes. Then came the full Wizard of Oz, with a live pit orchestra.

Two years later, the student paper covered an admitted-students revisit day, where an incoming student contrasted Cate's lively assembly with the silence required at his own school, and the head tour guide called the day pretty authentic, except that the food was better than usual.

The food was better than usual. That is the most honest sentence ever printed about a visit day, and every school should have to print it.

We have an assembly at home now. Every morning at 7:40 I stand at the bottom of the stairs and announce the day: lunch money, permission slip, coat. Last week, inspired, I walked the hall like a runway in my old college sweatshirt. The middle one asked if this was a way of life. The youngest asked if there was a store. There is not. There is a bowl of change by the door, and she has already found it.