Issue link: https://trevordayschool.uberflip.com/i/1519579
Ms. Monjo, and the teachers who followed, pushed, pulled, and lifted me up until I could finally hold myself up sometime in the distant future. Lower School was filled with lessons in caring, community, and collaboration, punctuated by crafts and cookies at fall festivals, potato sack races at field days, and ropes courses and rock climbing in Putney, VT. On the other hand, Ms. Hajar, my Middle School homeroom teacher, noted in a 1982 progress report, "Peter has stubbornly resisted efforts to get him to punctuate his stories . . . Peter's favorite types of punctuation are the question mark and quotation marks. He rarely misses an opportunity to use them. Periods he has little use for; same with commas." Middle School was a challenge for me both academically and socially. But dedicated teachers like Ms. Hajar, who also concluded, "I wish I could have Peter for another year just to see him come into his own," helped me along. My mother, Gretchen Buchenholz, was and remains a fierce advocate for all things Right and Just, and, in particular, the rights, well-being, and education of children. She is the founder and executive director of the Association to Benefit Children, a New York–based nonprofit with a mission "to offer every child a life filled with joy and love by creating compassionate programs in urgent response to the needs of New York City's most vulnerable families." When I was two, she wanted me to be in what today might be called an inclusive environment. She wanted me to know that the world is diverse. Unable to find a preschool for me that reflected this, and being a person of action, my mother started her own. Merricat's Castle School became a national model for inclusionary education—a school that serves rich and poor children, "typically developing" children and those who are differently abled, housed children and children without homes. This was the early model for my life. My mother's commitment to an education for her own children, through which we learned to be open, kind, and active members of our community, is why she chose Trevor for me, as well as for my brother, Christopher Buchenholz '80, and my sister, Dawn Buchenholz '88. The importance of having a voice and making a difference was imbued in us from the start. At The Day School, I started to find my voice. But, by my November 1982 progress report, Mr. Klopacz, advised, "Peter's verbal skills are sometimes turned, I am sorry to say, into argumentative behavior both with adults and fellow students. He needs to give the viewpoint of others the attention it deserves." Yet Mr. Klopacz remained "optimistic about Peter's development both intellectually and personally." Maybe this is why I became a lawyer; not because I'm argumentative, but because despite the tumult of my Middle School years, my teachers Peter (left) with classmate Ben McGowan '85 on a field trip to the Bronx Zoo Excerpt from Peter's 1982 progress report 42 / TREVOR MAGAZINE WINTER 2023–24