What makes this progression remarkable is not any single role, but its constancy. At every grade, without exception, a boy is given something to be responsible for so that by the time he graduates, leadership feels less like an achievement than a habit he has practiced for years.
Cultivating Ethical Leaders
In his end-of-year remarks to the faculty, the Headmaster reminded us:“ They [ the boys ] don’ t arrive good men. We form them.” Ethical leadership is not delivered. It is cultivated through relationships, service, discourse, performance, and the steady accumulation of moments when a boy is asked to do the harder, better thing.
The goal is not perfection. It is a young man who lives by the Golden Rule, who loves learning and takes it seriously, who steps forward in the hardest moments, and who understands deeply that leadership is always about the people he is leading. That is what we are building at Saint David’ s. One boy, one year, one choice at a time. •
Service initiatives teach boys that leadership means solving real problems for real people, and that service is not charity but solidarity.
Ali Aoyama is the Assistant Headmaster and Head of Upper School at Saint David’ s School.
20 • Saint David’ s Magazine