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

Two recent culminating projects at the end of this school year - in the third and eighth grades - exemplify not only our "joyful balance" yearlong theme, but also how boys learn best: through active experiences that engage their attention, sustain their concentration, and result in superior performance. On Nerdy Derby Race Day, as the mini race cars fly down the 50-foot track (generously designed and constructed by a parent of one of our boys), there isn't an inexpressive face in the crowd. Our third graders, wide-eyed, excited, breath-held, wonder if the cars they designed, built, tested, and revised after several runs through the engineering cycle, have what it takes to be crowned the Fastest, Slowest. or King of the Hill.  The third grade Nerdy Derby is an interdisciplinary immersion in math, science, and artistic design. Our boys embrace this no-rules miniatures car building and racing competition. Weeks of collaborating on close observation, data gathering, and drawi...

Community is the human glue that binds us in good times and bad. It is never too early to invest in its cultivation. Even better is when it is worked into the curriculum, paying educational and socio-emotional dividends. Our kindergartners delve into a 360-degree exploration of community. They study themselves, their families, their school, and its surrounding community. On a tour of their school, they are introduced to the various departments, their functions and the "village" of people who "make it happen" for all of us at Saint David's. The boys travel beyond the walls of Saint David's during visits to Central Park, St. Thomas More Church, the Guggenheim, a Fire Station, and a pizza parlor. At each stop, they come to know the people and shared purpose behind the organizations and their contributions to their community. They also master new vocabulary, learn historical facts about the sites they visit, and draw real-world connections to their own lives.  D...

This past week, we celebrated the special relationships of fathers and mothers and those who assume these roles in the lives of our boys, in two of Saint David's traditions: the Seventh Grade Father-Son Book Talk and Dinner, and the Fifth Grade Mother-Son Chapel. Held in the spring of seventh grade just as our boys begin planning the transition to their next school and when their families are engaging in conversations about life and "what comes next," the Father (or father figure)-Son evening features a book talk by an author and focuses on the power of supportive and loving relationships. This year, we warmly welcomed Alum Ben Lindbergh '01, Regis and Georgetown graduate, staff writer for The Ringer and host of the Effectively Wild podcast for FanGraphs, to discuss The Only Rule Is It Has to Work , his book about his and fellow baseball analyst and co-author Sam Miller's adventure running an independent minor-league baseball team's operations using advanced s...

  "These two men are a testament to what our alums can do," said Nicole Ransone, Executive Director of Horizons at Saint David's. "I'm so appreciative of the rock stars they are." With that, she handed the mic to Horizons' volunteers Davis C. (Saint David's Class of 2020) and Aaron P. (Horizons Class of 2020). The occasion was Horizons at Saint David's annual benefit, held Tuesday evening in our Benno Gymnasium. The evening was a tremendous success, raising more than $100,000 for the tuition-free, intensive academic and enrichment program for boys from our partner schools in East Harlem. Horizons was born as mission-focused, greater good initiative of Saint David's to provide educational opportunities for local elementary school children who wouldn't otherwise have access to programs and resources like these. Over 12 years, the program has evolved from a single class of rising first graders. It now covers the full spectrum of elementary s...

In the following article from the current issue of Saint David's Magazine, Art Curriculum Chair Jenna Boccella considers how boys' engagement and understanding are increased through the integration of art and academics. The headmaster’s theme of “Joyful Balance” resonates strongly throughout the art, woodworking, and ceramics studios at Saint David’s daily. At every grade level and in each visual arts class that boys attend at Saint David’s, there are opportunities to look, create, think critically, and express themselves through visual modes.  Our visual arts curriculum aims to balance mastery of skills, media, and techniques specific to each artistic discipline, while developing habits of mind that extend outside of the school’s walls and beyond graduation. Essential to preparing boys for meaningful, productive lives in the 21st century, they include creative problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking, and understanding and honoring multiple points of view.  In our st...

Imagine walking several miles to school each day as a second grader. Now imagine that when you arrive, school is conducted in an open field with dirt floors and perhaps one tree offering shade in the blistering sun. You are taught by a village elder. There are no facilities, no latrines. At the end of the day, you walk the more than 6 miles back home. This was the reality for children in Kalina, Tigray. When we learned of their need, Saint David's eighth graders in 2011 - the occasion of our school's 60th anniversary - made a commitment to helping children in Kalina by raising the funds to construct an elementary school. In celebrating our anniversary milestone, we wanted to do for others what others had done for us, by breathing life into two new programs. The first, Horizons at Saint David's (now in its 12th year) would serve children in need close to home; the other, would serve children far away. Both involve the education of children and serve the greater common good. ...

  If we care about the times we live in, we need to do more to model, embrace, and celebrate civility. Civility is dependent upon respectful disagreement, a celebration of civil discourse and debate, and an openness to entertaining a thought without necessarily accepting it. At Saint David's, one way we foster civility is through the Socratic seminar structure and focus in our Upper School History Program. Below, excerpted from the current issue of Saint David's Magazine is Assistant Upper School Head Dr. Evan Morse's article on the Socratic seminar experience in eighth grade: Grade Eight - Delving into Complex Questions The eighth-grade history program emphasizes the development of analytical thinking and engagement with primary sources. Socratic seminars combine these two skills; as a result, these seminars are a key component of the eighth-grade experience. For each seminar, the students are assigned a complex question to investigate… What were the causes of Savonarola’...