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

During this unprecedented time of social separation, we look for opportunities to enable students to come together with others beyond their pandemic-mandated cohorts, to foster community.    This spring, Saint David’s partnered with George Jackson Academy and the Buckley School to host a virtual book club for the schools’ graduating classes. The book club selection, New Kid, is a graphic novel by Jerry Craft that relays the story of a seventh grader’s experiences upon enrolling in a new private school and the variety of challenges moving to a new school present.   The boys in all three schools began their discussions about this book from a similar shared experience: looking forward to graduation and the transition to a new secondary school. As the discussions unfolded in small-group breakout sessions (the boys met three times over two weeks), they delved deeper into their individual feelings and thoughts, and shared their various perspectives. Beginning with similarities ...

Discipline, mentorship, creativity, teamwork, and loyalty are five of the “Ten Commandments of a Chef” that world-renowned, award-winning restaurateur and Chef Daniel Boulud discussed during our Seventh Grade Father/Son event on Wednesday, April 14. For this annual tradition, our boys and their fathers or father figures gather for dinner and to engage with an author who provides insightful, inspiring messages that resonate with the school’s mission. The evening celebrates the very special and vital connection between father, or any paternal influence (granddad, grandmother, family friend) and son at a pivotal moment as our boys prepare to enter their graduating year at Saint David’s. Chef Boulud based his talk on his book Letters to a Young Chef, written to inspire young people interested in pursuing a culinary arts career. The letters advance universal advice on how to successfully pursue one’s passion and purpose. Most important, Chef Boulud encouraged our boys to be optimistic a...

Above: The Nerf microphone ball enables boys learning remotely to hear their classmates well. The pandemic has challenged educators to reinvent and reimagine units of study to keep learning engaging, regardless of how it is delivered. The following article, written for Saint David’s Magazine by our Modern Languages Chair Dr. Victoria Gilbert and Lower School Spanish teacher Flor Berman, addresses how this was done in the Spanish immersion language program at Saint David's. Ms. Berman and Dr. Gilbert, recipient of the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers' Ruth E. Wasley Distinguished Teacher Award, presented on the topic at NYSAIS’s Flexible Classroom Conference last summer. How Spanish Classes Have Bounced Back Resiliency implies an ability to bounce back, but as teachers working with the youngest learners in the school, we would reframe resiliency as the opportunity to reimagine. Whether boys are learning through a face-to-face experience or through the med...

Resilience. If ever there were a community that perfectly demonstrates the ability to adapt, recover, and thrive in the face of mind-numbing challenges, it is ours. Resilience meant not only reimagining school this year to enable all to learn in person, it also meant needing to ensure all boys could continue learning uninterrupted, despite quarantining, underlying illnesses or conditions, or family financial strain caused by the pandemic. When the school announced a strategic desire to provide tuition assistance to current Saint David’s families in need, the parent community, in true Saint David’s fashion, jumped in eager to lead. Unable to host an in-person benefit this year, the Parents Association chose to make our tuition support objective the focus of their fundraising efforts and so C.O.R.E. (Community, Optimism, Resilience, Endurance) Emergency Aid Fund was born. C.O.R.E. Chair Cindy Wagner and her te...

"The best way out is always through." —Robert Frost As I write, a February blizzard is barreling up the coast, burying streets and sidewalks under piles of snow. We needed this. It points to eliciting good from bad, courage from fear, resilience. We have been dealing with the adversity of Covid-19 for a year now. It has not been an easy journey for any of us, but I am grateful for the way the Saint David’s community has come together and risen to the challenge. The exceptional professionalism of the faculty and staff, the unwavering support of our parent body, and the optimism of our boys exemplify the courage that times like these demand.    We are in the middle of that marathon I mentioned at the beginning of the school year—the end is somewhat in sight but now our muscles ache, we feel thirsty and tired, it’s painful, and even though we see the end it still feels a long way off. Wouldn’t it just be easier to quit now? Call it a day? . . . No, never. The...

Dr. Derrick Gay conducting session on names with kindergartners, via Zoom. In the storied pages of our nation’s history, I’m not sure there will be many that will equal the ones we are living through now, which makes the strategic work we have been doing around building and cultivating a more inclusive, respectful community for the past several years, all the more important. Ut viri boni sint , "that they be good men" is at the heart of our Saint David's School mission. We seek continually, in a spirit of friendship, kindness, and acceptance, to cultivate a culture of respect around difference of all kinds. If we want our boys to aspire to be good men, good people, they must learn to respect themselves and the people who are alike and different from them. Never has this been more vital than it is today. Technological progress has increased human interdependence the world over and yet many would argue we remain increasingly divided, isolated, and separated. To counter thi...

Saint David's - What a night! Our school’s Advent Service of Lessons and Carols was broadcast for the first time virtually yesterday evening, enabling us to invite our extended community and friends. More than 525 devices were regularly tuned in, far exceeding the in-person capacity at St. Thomas More, and representing well over 1,000 parents, students, alumni, parents of alumni, faculty and staff and other community members who gathered together virtually for one of our school’s most treasured Christmas traditions.  For those who missed the service or would like to view it again, it is available at www.saintdavids.org/lessonsandcarols2020 Covid–19 protocols necessitated a change in format. Instead of the entire Glee Club, the evening featured soloists, small groups of singers, and instrumentalists; and of course, it needed to be virtual. However, the experience retained its impact: beautiful, moving, and demonstrative of the true spirit of the season. Heartfelt gratitude to the bo...