A Schoolhouse's Light

High atop a hill overlooking the sea, a beautiful lighthouse illuminates the night, showing the way. It was built by the residents of a small hamlet, concerned by the number of shipwrecks witnessed and wayfarers who had lost their way. It was a prodigious lighthouse. As time passed though, the lighthouse’s beauty faded and the light went dark. Successive generations of hamletfolk, losing sight of their ancestors’ original intentions, ignored the lighthouse’s upkeep, disregarded its importance, and in an effort to satisfy a more selfish need, eventually converted it to a clubhouse.

For institutions to be strong and vibrant they can never loose sight of their founding principles or true purpose. Institutions that do can easily become something far different than their founding intention. As Saint David’s passes the mid-point of its 60^th anniversary year, we continue to illuminate and reflect upon our mission, critically evaluating its purpose and redefining its significance for today and for tomorrow.

The last phrase of our school’s mission synthesizes the essence of our enterprise. To help our sons aspire “to be good men” requires that we provide models and examples. It necessitates active, deliberate, and purposeful application. More often than not, it demands that we be counter-cultural, or more specifically “counter pop-cultural,” because the prevailing popular culture may not always celebrate, reflect, or imbue the values and behaviors generally associated with what’s “good.” Development of a strong sense of what’s right, fair, or good comes in part by learning it, and to learn it we must study it, see it, and do it.

Informed a little by the aesthetic, the latest issue of Saint David's Magazine explores the concept of being Agents for the Good. With the help of Jack Hale ’71, Michael Izquierdo’92, Father Katsouros, Oscar de la Renta, James Barbieri, Thomas Ryan, Brian Donnelly, John Dearie ’95, and RoseMarie Alfieri, it highlights some of the ways Saint David’s School illuminates its mission at the mid-point of its sixtieth anniversary year, ensuring that the light of this schoolhouse burns forever bright.

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OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Sixth Graders Meet with Dr. Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Carter Emmart with Saint David's Sixth Graders This past Friday, as part of our unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, sixth graders had the great honor to attend a private lecture given by Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at AMNH. Dr. Emmart told the boys about his passion for science along with an overview of the history of the Hayden Planetarium. He also gave the boys advice on how to take scientific information about the universe and compile it into an interesting and captivating show for an audience. The boys were able to see Dr. Emmart's original sketches, which helped create the Uniview program they are using to develop their presentations. The session provided our boys with an opportunity to learn how art and science come together in the planetarium, and to obtain expert advice on developing their own space shows from one of the creators of Uniview . You can learn more about Dr. Emmart's work and Univie...

Tales of a Good Man

"Sometime in the midst of all this, we became friends. And his story, and all its vast world passed into mine." --From the Introduction of Blood & Oil by Roxane Farmanfarmaian. "Stories are so important; they become traditions that tell about the good that often comes out of bad experiences..." So began Roxane Farmanfarmaian's fascinating talk Monday night at Saint David's Seventh Grade Father-Son Dinner. Dr. Farmanfarmaian, Affiliated Lecturer of Modern Middle East Studies at the Political and International Studies Department at Cambridge University, was introduced by her nephew, Saint David's seventh grader Cyrus '17. She spoke to the seventh grade boys and their fathers about what makes a "Good Man" through the prism of her book Blood & Oil : A Prince's Memoir of Iran from the Shah to the Ayatollah (Random House 2005), which she co-authored with her late father, Prince Manucher Farmanfarmaian. The memoir i...

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