Focusing, Close Looking, and Contemplation

We are now officially a quarter into the 21st century -- living in a fast-paced, always-changing and complex world. It is also an age of ubiquitous distractions, with information, messaging, and stimuli coming at us seemingly nonstop by byte and swipe. Great schools however, are often counter-cultural. The shared strong values our school community celebrates this school year spring from the classical and theological virtues -- prudence, temperance, courage, justice, faith, hope, and charity -- which all require us to slow down and fully engage in order to lead productive and fulfilling lives. Throughout our program, we seek for our boys to discover the necessity and reward of focusing, close looking, and contemplation.

Three recent examples come to mind.

"How does this painting make you feel?" 

This question was asked by a second grader about Sonia Delaunay's orphism piece Prismes Electriques during a recent culminating event for parents and faculty at the Guggenheim Museum, which also included an exhibit of the boys' original artworks in the Museum's Rotunda. The boys, confident and well prepared, were asking us the same questions posed to them during this study -- a three-month collaboration that occurred at the museum under the guidance of a museum educator and the boys' Saint David's art teachers. When our boys in second grade participate in our longstanding partnership with the Guggenheim museum for a unit on art, they recognize the importance of concentrated close looking. They not only learn about the art, but they ask questions and analyze what they see -- taking the time to look closely and consider deeply. They also create their own original pieces inspired by what they learn from the museum educators and their Saint David's art teachers. They confidently present their findings during a museum event when they act as guides for their parents, faculty, staff and first graders.

"And there it is, a circle!" 

This was the excitement expressed by a fifth-grade boy who, with his partner, successfully met his challenge in a science/STEAM class to design and build a motorized machine that could perform a specific task. In this case, it was to travel in a perfect circle. This unit blends artistic design, with critical inquiry and the engineering cycle, and exemplifies the inquiry-based grounding of our program. The very nature of engineering, with its iterative process of creating, testing, and revising, requires concentration, patience, and commitment.

"I really enjoyed researching the deeper meaning of the artwork and seeing how it reflected the artist's personal experience and the historical context. It was like putting together pieces of a puzzle. I learned that you can't really understand a piece of art unless you understand the artist's perspective on life." 

This is from the winner of the 2024 NBS Lectures, a culminating Eighth Grade Art History project that involves demonstration of acumen in the critical analysis of art, oral presentation skill, and technical/artistic design. Boys address questions about art's purpose and meaning; about the various elements that go into a masterwork of art and how these, taken together, convey a message, feeling, or theme. Through this process, they dive into the artist and work they have selected, exploring how the message of the piece aligns with the background of the artist and the historical context during the time it was created.

Saint David's program is rooted in the classical concept of balance. Our boys develop proficiency across academics (the first among equals), the arts, and athletics, while always considering the moral or spiritual dimension of their actions and achievements. Their signature experiences leverage the value we place on our boys being well-rounded, which enables them to use multiple entry points and pathways to discover who they are and what they love.