Skip to main content

Our Mission Continues



As we close out Week Six of our distance learning program, boys and teachers are connecting, teaching, and learning in a quintessentially "Saint David's" way, maintaining the integrity of our program across its four pillars (academics, arts, athletics, spirituality).

I'd like to share a few examples:


Third, fourth and fifth graders were visited by author Jessie Janowitz (The Donut Fix and The Donut King) for an animated, engaging session with Q&A on how to turn a spark into a story.


Eighth graders are continuing to benefit from the school's partnership with the DNA Learning Center. DNALC biologist Jennifer Hackett leads Zoom sessions as the boys extract DNA from leaves for later analysis. Rigorous academic pursuit continues.

Boys in all grades are engaging in push-up challenges for pennies (and lots of dollars) in the "Pennies for Push-Ups" school-wide fundraiser to support Feeding America. Led by the Eighth Grade Student Council and our Athletic Department, the boys' success has been phenomenal. They have shot past their initial $2,500 goal and raised $16,000 for the nonprofit that supports food banks across the country--and they still have a week to go. Working for the greater good continues.

Our eighth graders are also in the final stages of the culminating ARCO project. Each has employed his artistry, imagination, and critical analysis of ideas and issues to create an original piece of artwork that pays homage to a modern artist. The boys will present their work, their rationale, and the project's challenges via video to a panel of judges next week. Appreciation for beauty continues.

Each morning, school opens with an Agent for the Good Chapel Talk delivered by a seventh grader. Our days begin with these well crafted, spiritually uplifting messages around a notable good person, scripture, and our school's mission. Chapel tradition continues--and the entire community can attend virtually.

This is just a snapshot of the myriad ways Saint David's has been committed to our program and mission during these extraordinary times. We're tending to our boys' emotional/social well-being and, through online office hours and our advisory program, making sure the imperative relationship between individual teacher and boy remains strong and continues to flourish.

No one knows what the next months will bring in the Covid-19 crisis. However, I can say with certainty that our school will rise to any challenges and we will meet them head on. Guided always by our mission and values, we will provide our boys the best Saint David's experience possible. Ut viri boni sint.

Popular posts from this blog

"The Wisdom Within" - Building Student Motivation Through Choice

In the third entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative quarterly blog series, Master Teacher Jim Barbieri explores how providing boys with agency to choose builds motivation and enhances learning. BUILDING STUDENT MOTIVATION THROUGH CHOICE By the time I was eight years old, I had become completely absorbed in all things baseball. Living in New York was perfect for a baseball fan; although I was a Mets fan thanks to my idol, Tom Seaver, I was also interested in learning about all the amazing Yankees stars of yore. How could I call myself a baseball fan if I didn’t know the history and records of stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra? I loved collecting baseball cards and reading the career statistics of each player on the back. Looking through my collection one day, I discovered that I shared a birthday with the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. At eight years old, I was crushed to hear the news that he had died tragically in a plane crash while trying to ...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - The Superpower of Performance

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...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - Writing and Thinking

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...
Read more