In the following entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative blog series, Saint David's Director of Music and Master Teacher Jeffrey Moore explores how participating in performances and productions build transformative competencies, transmit values, and inspire boys to excel. Jose Antonio Abreu, one of the leading educators in classical music and the founder of El Sistema said this: “Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it can unite an entire community and express sublime feelings.”¹ At Saint David’s School, performance begins in the very first years. Each class, from Pre-K through Eighth Grade, presents their work to an audience of peers and parents, whether it is a story, a skit, a play, a lecture, or a musical presentation. But the increasing complexity and demands on our boys to push themselves to another level is the key to their development and succes...
During this exciting first week of Saint David's 75th year, I would like to share excerpts from my opening letter that delve into our school-year theme, "Excel." A great education from a great school not only trains a boy in reason, virtue, and prudence but instills within him the notion that he must first learn to govern himself before he seeks to influence or govern others. The enlightened classical tradition that informs our program offers an educational vision rooted in truth, beauty, and goodness; in language and logic; and the value of memory and imagination. It believes that a boy is not a vessel to be filled, a problem to be managed, or a consumer to be monetized, but rather a mind, body, heart, and soul (a whole human) to be cultivated and shaped. It seeks to help a boy find balance in his life—at Saint David’s, that’s defined across the academic, aesthetic, athletic, and spiritual—and it recognizes that education at its core is a life-long journey of self-disco...