Skip to main content

Take Only Memories; Leave Nothing But Footprints*


Our school’s 61st year will be long remembered not for its post sexagesimo anniversario accomplishments, but rather as the year of Mr. Thomas A. McLellan’s retirement.  Mr. McLellan’s retirement at the conclusion of his 41st year at Saint David’s, and 42nd teaching, is a reason for celebration, not only because Tom lasted so long in his chosen profession, but more that he touched so many and accomplished so much right here with us on 89th Street. His level of sustained energy, devotion and commitment is rare in today’s world.  There would have been, in a tenure as long as Tom’s, many opportunities—attractive, you can be sure—to make a change, to move on to something new.  Fortunately for a thousand Saint David’s boys, he remained with us.

Exceptional schools require exceptional teachers. They need teachers who inspire and energize, challenge and defend, teachers who can instill in a boy, at just the right moment, as much excitement as they can, “an element of fear.”  Mr. McLellan is one of these exceptional teachers.  Unlike Shakespeare’s Holofernes and more like Twain’s Bixby, Tom knows just when and how to connect with boys.  His talent derives from natural instinct to be sure, but is also more than that.  It is the consequence of decades of finely tuned, critically refined and thoughtfully executed pedagogy; a lifetime of applied practice and learned experience. It is the direct result of a deeply felt love and passion for the teaching of boys.  “When the student is ready,” an old Buddhist proverb says of exceptional teachers, “the master appears.”  And so it is with Tom.

Within the Native American culture that Tom holds so dear, it is often said “Listen to all the teachers in the woods. Watch the trees, the animals and all the living things—you'll learn more from them than books.” For Saint David’s boys taught by Mr. McLellan this is all they had to do.  Never one lost for words, nor shy to opine, Tom’s slightly irreverent humor, larger-than-life personality, and endless enthusiasm for the job at hand have defined his era. Tom takes with him now a thousand memories, but leaves behind, deeply imbedded in the fabric of this school, a thousand footprints.

* Chief Seattle, Duwamish Suquamish



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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!
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more