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

On February 5, 1951, one teacher welcomed four young boys through the black doors of a new  independent elementary school's single building at 12 East 89th Street in New York City. Today, Saint David's School welcomes more than 400 boys each day to a campus comprising six contiguous buildings and more than130 faculty and staff. The week of February 2, 2026, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of that first school day.  Colorful balloons set the stage on Monday for a festive Founders’ Week that featured celebratory activities for everyone: an all-grades anniversary trivia competition – (Congratulations to J.S.’26 whose knowledge of Saint David’s history earned him an 8/10 score.), anniversary t-shirt, poster-size all-school photo, Saint David’s Birthday Cake at lunch, and a custom cookie to close out the week.  And, our anchor events  –  the 75th Jubilee celebratory mass and Parents Association’s Excelsior Benefit – were testaments to the deep bonds that unite our...

In our continuing efforts through the Teaching Boys Initiative at Saint David's School ™ , one of our visiting scholars, Dr. Ric Campbell, engages in ongoing reflective practice with our faculty. Below, Dr. Campbell shares an example of a freewriting initiative that was born from the collaboration between literature teacher Jamie MacNeille and history teacher Drew Burton, who sought to address forms of student engagement in their respective disciplines.  WRITING and THINKING:  A Learning Community Engaged in the Knowledge-Making Practices of the Disciplines “Whoa, this freewriting is really helpful !” The above quote by a sixth-grade literature student captures a revelatory moment; he has discovered the wealth of ideas at the end of his pen as he writes to describe what he is noticing in the novel the class is reading and discovers that what he notices leads to questions, and that those questions, in turn, lead to bigger ideas. “All there is to thinking is seeing something not...

Our faculty are doing groundbreaking work leveraging our new professional development model, the Teaching Boys Initiative at Saint David’s School™ (TBI) to enhance their teaching, optimize our boys’ engagement and learning, and continue their professional growth as lifelong learners. In so doing, we ensure the use of mission-driven, evidence-based tools and strategies in the classroom.  At last Friday’s PA Meeting, Director of Teaching and Learning Jamie MacNeille, TBI Visiting Scholar Ric Campbell, Research Coordinator Tori Gilbert, and Director of Supervision and Evaluation Nora Sundar were joined by seven faculty members across disciplines and grades (Jarrett Culotta, Sophie Firestein, Leslie Geary, Frankie White Levin, Kevin Neylon, Cathy O’Neill, and Kate Samuels ), who have engaged in reflective practice within the three branches of TBI: Onboarding/Mentoring, Supervision and Evaluation, and Research Programs, which all operate under our common, customized professional develop...

On any given school day, along the East 90th Street Ferry Pier you may see a group of 12- and 13-year-old boys from Saint David’s with their teachers, using professional tools to carefully monitor and measure oysters and water quality. Working in partnership with the Billion Oyster Project, they are citizen scientists helping to restore the oyster population in New York Harbor. The boys will return to their science labs and use their new knowledge and understanding about water quality to construct water tanks. They also take this knowledge with them on a three-day trip to the Pocono Environmental Education Center, where they conduct field work in the mountains, comparing the water quality of streams with that of the East River.  These learning experiences, outside of a classroom setting, allow boys to engage in real-world work, ask real-world questions, and be part of real-world solutions. They are an ideal way to reach and teach boys. Because boys are active. They learn best by do...

A teacher noticed that a boy seemed a bit off, so he approached him and inquired if anything was on his mind. The boy confided that earlier, when arguing about an issue with a classmate, he had not been respectful of his peer’s views. Instead, he had belittled them. When the teacher asked this boy how that had made him feel and what he could do to make it better, the boy replied, “Not good,” and “I can go back to him, apologize, and let him know that even if I don’t agree with him, he has a right to his views, and I respect them.”   Raising and educating the next generation of boys who aspire to be good men is an exercise in optimism. As educators and parents, we are in the “business of hope." Future oriented, we are always thinking about how best to educate boys not for yesterday, but for today and tomorrow. For tomorrow’s world, we know our boys will need not only to master the three Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) but also several Cs - those skills that rest entirely withi...

A Saint David’s seventh grader stands before a group of his peers in Chapel. He talks about an "Agent for the Good" he has researched—someone, often courageous, who has had a positive impact on others. In this particular case, it is the World War II Hero Desmond Doss, who saw the importance of “fighting” for his country but refused to carry a weapon or kill an enemy soldier in combat because of his deeply held convictions. The seventh grader connects Doss' legacy serving as a medic and saving the lives of his comrades and his enemy with something personal from his own life and with a value drawn from our school's mission. There is no rustling in the pews. The boys reflect on the message of this Chapel and how it might be applied to their own lives. Every boy in this quiet space is connected, bonded with his schoolmates, and feels a part of something bigger than himself. He knows too, that one day, he will be that boy.  The power of spirituality.  It is no secret that ...