A Tour and Some History

Our second week in Santiago was full of more exploring and tourist activities, as well as interviews with students, teachers, and alumni. We were finally able to see the Croft School in person and were given a tour by a gracious member of the administration. Though I’ve explained the importance of social aesthetics (as well as attempting to create an elevator pitch length explanation of what it is) every time I’ve told people about my JanPlan and my thesis, I didn’t fully understand how important it was until I was able to see the Croft and examine the campus as I thought through everything I had read about the school, heard from students interviewed, and all that I have learned about elite institutions through classes with Adam and research for my thesis.

Being able to walk the halls and grounds of the Croft allowed me to better picture the experiences of its students, faculty, and staff. Everything from the size of the athletic fields to the signs indicating spaces where younger “pupils” are not allowed to go shaped my understanding of the school. When we first arrived, we went through a large security gate where we gave a security guard our name and the name of the woman we were meeting for our tour. Once it was clear that we were supposed to be there, we were given directions to the Senior School (high school) and walked by an enormous athletic field that extends almost the length of the campus. The Croft School serves students from age 5 to 18, so we got to see different architecture depending on the age of the pupils that area served. We explored the Lower Prep (elementary school) library full of comfortable chairs, big pictures, and a sign reminding the young students that “in the library: we respect each other, we are silent, we take care of books, and WE LOVE READING!!!” The Lower Prep playground featured an etched stone on the ground that marked the play space as a “positive leadership square where friendship begins.” Having the chance to wander the Croft for ourselves allowed us to notice things that students would never have mentioned, like the positive leadership square or the pristinely kept garden in the center of the Senior School. While these things may seem unimportant to a student who sees them everyday, these details make up the campus and together constitute what the Croft is.

We found out that the administrator we were working with is in charge of creating the yearbooks for the school, and we were pleasantly surprised when she offered us copies of recent yearbooks along with other publications by the school. She was what we assumed to be a somewhat unique situation as an alum now working for the school. We were shocked to learn that this assumption was very wrong- that around 40 of the current faculty and staff attended the Croft. This, too, is something that shaped my understanding of the school and its culture.

The other thing that stuck out to me about this second week in Santiago was my realization of the importance of history on my own experience here. Now that I’ve been here for long enough to feel comfortable walking to the grocery store and back without Katrina and her Spanish by my side, I think I’m starting to understand more of the broader cultural norms in the city. For example, when I got here I knew very little about Latin American history, let alone the specifics of the Chilean dictatorship or how Chile’s history impacts so much of what I’m seeing today.

My history lessons started with a tour from one of Katrina’s Chilean friends who she met while abroad last Spring. He gave us a walking tour full of an insider’s perspective on the city and included historical facts as we meandered through neighborhoods. I learned about Pinochet’s predecessor, the bombings on September 11^th (a really bad day in history…), and the inhumanity that occurred during his rule.

Once I began learning about the dictatorship as well as other aspects of Chilean government and history, I realized how pervasive Pinochet’s impacts are. Marks of the dictatorship were everywhere, from our visit to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, which is dedicated to commemorating the time of his rule and its heinous torture, to a stroll through a small neighborhood that ends in a building that was taken over by members of Pinochet’s government and used as a torture center and jail for his opponents. If I were in Santiago solely as a tourist and didn’t take the time to learn more about Chile’s history or didn’t have such great tour guides, I could see myself never realizing how impactful this time of dictatorship was on the country. Just like everything else we’ve seen and done while we’ve been here, this larger context and history will change the way that I examine the Croft and its students.