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

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 ...