Teaching Boys
By David O ’ Halloran
As we approached the completion of the $ 75 million Great Expansion — a 45-year dream 12 years in the making — Saint David ’ s began preparing for its next strategic focus . Early on in our thinking , we knew we wanted to turn our institutional attention from building walls back to what happens within those walls — our core mission . Boys are who we teach . Boyhood is what we treasure . “ Between the innocence of boyhood and the dignity of manhood , we find a delightful creature called a boy ... A boy is truth with dirt on its face , beauty with a cut on its finger , wisdom with bubble gum in its hair and the hope of the future with a frog in its pocket .” 1 As we reflected on what we do , we had questions : How do we know what we are doing is the best ? Are we staying current with the best pedagogical practices ? Do we do enough to capture the wisdom of our master teachers and pass it along to the next generation of Saint David ’ s teachers ? How do we keep our program balanced with healthy doses of tradition along with innovation ? And how do we ensure our teachers can grow , thrive , lead , and be recognized in their chosen profession ?
Our newly reimagined , redesigned , and expanded campus on 89th Street took a cast of thousands . An awe-inspiring collection of remarkable talent and unbridled commitment for more than a decade enabled the school to complete its most audacious project since its founding , on time and on budget . It will take that commitment again to answer the questions above and realize our next priority . We want to ensure that the school will never lose sight of what truly defines it : our mission . We aim to continue to balance the education of our boys across our four pillars : the academic , athletic , artistic , and spiritual . Our academic , athletic , and artistic programs are strong . Our boys successfully matriculate to schools that demand much of them academically , athletically , and artistically , and our boys thrive . And we will continue to improve in these areas . The infrastructure to do this is firmly in place . But if we are being honest , many schools are strong in these areas . What distinguishes Saint David ’ s is that we are equally committed to the spiritual — to the development of the character of our boys — one that is informed by faith , shaped by practice , and celebrated by community .
The Importance of Character
It ’ s not enough in the 21st century to be bright , intellectually engaged , physically active and healthy , and aesthetically aware ; our boys also need to be spiritually attuned — people of character , respectful and appreciative of difference , connected to a sense of the greater good and grounded in a strong sense of who they are , what they believe , and why they are here . The education of a boy ’ s character is the whole work of the school . Character is not achieved through divine providence , but through the quality and consistency of what our boys choose to do — their actions . For a boy to thrive in his 21st century world , he must learn to be a man who believes that his highest obligation is not to himself , but to others — to move from viewing the world as all about ‘ me ,’ through one that ’ s all about ‘ you ,’ to a world that ’ s all about ‘ us .’ Today , unfortunately , he is too often surrounded by a popular culture that celebrates the very antithesis of these values . A Saint David ’ s education must focus on teaching boys to think critically , debate intelligently , and act respectfully and responsibly no matter his
8 • Saint David ’ s Magazine
Our teachers are our school ’ s greatest resource . As champions of its mission , the school recognized it must invest even more in its teachers — hence the birth of the Teaching Boys Initiative ( TBI ).