David O'Halloran, Headmaster - Saint David's School, New York City

I would like to share the following article, which is featured in the current issue of Saint David's Magazine. In it, John C. Dearie '95 provides lessons learned from the introduction of television to critically examine the impact of social media today, especially with respect to kindnes s.  After hearing that kindness would be the school year’s theme, I immediately began thinking about possible Chapel Talks which would capture the theme and connect it to the boys’ daily lives. Seeking inspiration, I began scouring my “go to source” for all things content and information: the Internet. Once online, I found a video, a TikTok video to be precise. I watched it several times. The video was hosted by @Julian de Medeiros. Now, to qualify. I have not fact checked the video or done a deep dive on the host’s background. But, the content of the video itself is what is most important here. He spoke of the author Tolstoy and his take on kindness. After a number of views, I took a proverbia

The eighth grade's annual Italian Study Tour - 10 days exploring Assisi, Florence, and Rome - is a longstanding capstone experience for our graduating class and their teachers. The trip, which takes place each year during the two weeks prior to spring break, provides the opportunity for our boys to visit in-situ the actual paintings, sculpture, and architectural sites they have studied all year in their art history class. At each site, they deepen their understanding through reflective journaling and sketching what they see. This year, our flight landed in Rome on Tuesday morning, March 5. The day was a beauty. We headed straight to the medieval city of Assisi, for a visit to the Basilica of Saint Francis. The setting of this beautiful village against the Umbrian hillside is breathtaking, humbling, and inspiring. We concluded our Assisi visit with lunch at Enoteca San Pietro, the first of several delicious meals we would share over the next ten days. The Study Tour continued with f

A key element of the Teaching Boys Initiative includes Saint David’s collaboration with leading scholars in the education of boys. This year, the school launched its visiting scholars program, welcoming psychologist Dr. Michael Reichert , one of the world’s leading experts on boys’ education. Dr. Reichert has been working in small groups with our faculty around a relational teaching framework for boys, and has been the featured speaker at events for our parents, faculty, and prospective families. Saint David’s Magazine sat down with Dr. Reichert to discuss his research and experience at the school. In your workshops with our faculty, what has impressed you; what observations have you made? Two things: one is that your headmaster, both intellectually and spiritually, already recognizes the powerful role that relationship plays in helping boys grow and become their best selves. Having already established that relationship is at the center of what differentiates Saint David’s School; the

Kindness and leadership aren't often expressed together. Too often in our culture kindness is conflated with softness, weakness - when, in fact, the opposite is true. To be kind is to be brave - to tell a hard truth if it is the right thing to do, to sacrifice and go beyond oneself in considering others' needs, to respect and honor differences among all people while recognizing our common humanity. I often say that character is the true work of a school, it's why we do school. In this post, I would like to focus on three snapshots of "leading with kindness" at Saint David's. Motivational speaker Ben Hartranft was diagnosed with autism when he was a child. At a young age he was told that he would probably never read or write. But the kindness of others and his openness to life proved them wrong. Ben recently visited Saint David's to share with our second graders and their seventh grade buddies how kindness and inclusion from others shaped his life and ena

On Friday, parents, faculty, and staff came together some 620 strong for a magical, festive, sold-out PA Benefit --"Raising Sails"-- in celebration of our mission and one another. As benefit chairs Caroline Bouckaert and Maria Welch reminded us, ours is a community that appreciates that raising "good men" goes beyond academics, to "harnessing each boy's will to do good." The Saint David's bond is formed through our shared values; paramount among those is kindness. Inspired by their loving parents and caring teachers, our boys set sail each day at 12 East 89th Street to learn and to live lives of purpose, led always by our gentle guidance in kindness and the call to be good. The good lies at the heart of all that we do in our four pillars, whether the academic, arts, athletics or spirituality. It has been said that a sailor cannot see north, but knows the needle can. The metaphorical sails we raise within our boys capture the winds of time and allow

To the entire 2024 Carnegie Hall team: This past Sunday afternoon on 57th Street was one for the ages! Carrying through an ambitious program for the Festival of Orchestras--beautifully executed by all--Saint David's Philharmonic Ensemble proved to be in quintessential form! The performance was simply outstanding. In representing our school with such distinction, our aesthetic (blue blazers and red ties) was as crisp and clean as our musical substance (on-point and confident) with the finale, Schifrin's Mission Impossible , providing the exclamation point. This achievement was not by accident or chance; but rather, it was the result of exceptional teaching, detailed planning, great patience, sustained practice, and superb skill. As shared by our maestro, Director Philip Hough, "This event was a great team effort and huge accomplishment for our boys. They played with passion and finesse in true Saint David's style!...Special thanks to our Chair Jeff Moore for organizing