Issue link: https://trevordayschool.uberflip.com/i/1519579
In Central Park, somewhere under the bridle path at the foot of the steps to the reservoir, there is a time capsule buried by my 6th-grade Trevor class some 40 years ago. As far as I know, we never retrieved the capsule—a frozen moment capturing what was important in the lives of some 36 New York City kids of the '70s and '80s. Occasionally, I wonder what we, the Class of 1985, thought might be worthy of singling out and saving for posterity. I look back on myself during that time as a different being altogether from who I am today. As if this other me were in that capsule. But the connections are plain. My first day at Trevor (then The Day School) in 1976 was in Ms. Monjo's classroom. I joined my new classmates at a table, making colorful designs with Cuisenaire rods. I didn't know I was learning math. Shortly afterward, during show- and-tell I brought in a large jar of rock salt (shrugging emoji). After snack time (apple juice and graham crackers), I ate the entire jar of rock salt (again, shrugging emoji). During afternoon meeting, I stood at the front of the class and threw up all over the rug. Ms. Monjo immediately came and comforted me, which is what I most remember about her. Ms. Monjo was a place of refuge. She made me feel safe and welcome and valuable. I didn't know I was learning compassion. Between then and now, I became a lawyer, I married my best friend and we have found ourselves the parents of three amazing young boys: Wyeth (nine), Emmett (seven), and Jack ("four and three-quarters"). My spouse is known around Trevor as Ms. Wu. She came to Trevor on East 90th Street as a Kindergarten teacher in 2010. I don't believe I had stepped foot in that building since 1985, though in the late '90s, I did a MiniTerm stint, teaching about law on West 88th Street. This was through the service program for the Office of the State Attorney General, where I was then working as a new lawyer. Ms. Wu spends a lot of time thinking about how to set up her classroom. Every year, she creates the perfect blank canvas to later fill in with her students' work—a scaffold intentionally designed to open the children's minds, to calm their bodies, and to guide their hearts. So it was with pride, certainly on my part, when in September of 2012, she invited me to see how she had set up her room that year. I stepped into her classroom and was astonished to find myself back in Ms. Monjo's room. I immediately recognized the stained-glass casement windows, the large oak cubbies in the back, the radiators where we melted crayons when nobody was looking. And it suddenly dawned on me how much thought, care, and time Ms. Monjo put into making my first year at The Day School meaningful, powerful, memorable, safe. Alumni Profile Peter Wu-Buchenholz '85, P'33, P'34, P'37 Adjudication Counsel, New York State Division of Human Rights Gretchen and Peter Buchenholz stroll along Manhattan's East River. Michelle and Peter attend A Head's Homecoming TREVOR DAY SCHOOL / 41 INSIDE TREVOR TREVOR TRANSLATES FEATURE AR TICLES ALUMNI