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Prefirst Perfects Powers of Persuasion

Head of School Dave Farace ’87 held one of his most important meetings of the year on Thursday, December 9. No, it wasn’t with McDonogh’s Board of Trustees, it was with Mary Catherine Irvings’ prefirst class, who came to Farace’s office to discuss some matters about which they are pretty passionate. 

In prefirst, students are learning about persuasive writing and techniques they can use to clearly express their ideas. To practice these skills, they wrote letters to Farace with helpful suggestions on how to improve the McDonogh experience. Their ideas ran the gamut from a dining hall pet to prevent students from becoming bored while waiting in line to efforts to make the campus more environmentally friendly. Each student stood in front of Farace and read their letters with confidence. Farace kept their letters and ensured the students he would carefully consider each one. While he may not be able to enact every measure, he was able to help them with one of their favorite requests by declaring that they could enjoy an extra recess right after the meeting.