All boys. All boarding. Grades 9-12.
Panel of Teachers Remembers September 11
A panel of Woodberry Forest School faculty members shared perspectives on the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, during an all-school assembly held in Bowman Gray Auditorium on September 14, 2017.
History teacher Tony Watson, who has studied and written extensively on Islam and the Middle East, helped put the attacks in historical context. He called the attacks a "hinge moment in US history" and listed ways it impacted subsequent policies and events. Those included the passage of the Patriot Act, engagement in the Iraq War, the destabilization of the Middle East, and the establishment of the Homeland Security Department.
Kristyn Wilson, who serves as a Kenan-Lewis Fellow, talked about the portrayal of the attacks in literature, a topic she researched for her senior thesis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "After the attacks, most western authors began to emphasize human power and vulnerability." This, she noted, was a departure from previous literary trends that portrayed human existence as meaningless, and "began to be looked at as a solution to global problems."
Daquan Daly, who teaches science, witnessed the attacks through the window of his elementary school classroom. He recalls his teacher taking a phone call and then turning to look out the window. "We all turned and saw the tower with smoke coming out of it," Daquan said. "It was a defining moment; everyone remembers what they were doing at that moment."
English teacher Marc Hogan was on the Woodberry Forest campus during the attacks. "Tuesday, September 11, 2001, was the day old boys arrived back to school," he recalled. Despite the grounding of all flights, only two students were unable to return to campus on time. "That night during opening convocation," Marc said, " the headmaster, Dr. Dennis Campbell, talked about the events. He said we would carry on, go through our routine, and not give in to these acts. Woodberry had class next day."
Woodberry Forest School is an exceptional private school community for high school boys in grades nine through twelve. It is one of the top boarding schools in the United States and one of the only all-boys, all-boarding schools in the country.
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Woodberry Forest admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, and national or ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs. The school is authorized under federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.