M e ssag e f rom t h e
HEADMASTER Fixing Our Broken Windows: Opportunities to Build Greatness
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few years ago, at our year-end Senior Awards ceremony, I shared with the graduating class a perspective on life that was, ironically, derived from a wellrespected concept of crime fighting. (Read into that what you will.) The concept was discussed at length in “Broken Windows,” an article by George Kelling and James Wilson published in The Atlantic in March 1982. Kelling and Wilson suggested that we imagine a rundown area of a city, in which many buildings have cracked or broken windows. When the windows go unrepaired, they wrote, vandals break even more, because it appears as though nobody cares. As more windows are broken with no response, further license is taken to cover walls with graffiti, break in, damage and steal contents, and ultimately to set fires. The path to ruin is gradual, and it begins with a few, small broken windows that remain untended for too long. The same concept applies to litter: A sidewalk that becomes cluttered with a few, stray fast-food bags or broken bottles naturally gathers even more, because those who see litter are more inclined to litter themselves. It appears as though nobody cares, and the street eventually becomes a magnet for break-ins and drug dealing. The “Broken Windows” concept is simple: If you fix small things right away — repair the first broken window so as to avoid a second getting broken, pick up the first fast-food carton on the sidewalk so that a shattered bottle doesn’t follow — you’ll prevent small problems from growing. And, in the process of containment, they’ll be easier to address and solve in the long term. As you may have guessed, as an educator of the “whole boy,” I believe this view applies to life as well.
In crime fighting, fixing broken windows means just that —keeping neighborhoods tidy and free of disrepair and, in doing so, keeping out the crime that often accompanies such disrepair and neglect. In life, “fixing the broken windows” means meeting our smallest commitments, so that our bigger ones come more easily: Being on time when others are late, being considerate when others are rude, being honest when others shade the truth. A “broken window” may be a small thing. But if one takes care of life’s small things, the big things often take care of themselves. Over the years, I’ve found that life is, to a surprising extent, all about establishing good habits — all about fixing your occasional “broken windows.” So often, to the extent that any adults have regrets about their lives, it’s because they wish that they’d done just a “little bit” more when, instead, they did just a “little bit” less. Establishing habits that take care of the little things can so often lead to success in the big things: Just a “little bit” here or there can make all the difference in an experience or a relationship. Whether in school or in life, getting in the habit of doing just a “little bit” more when you might have gotten away with less can make all the difference. In a school such as Brunswick, this philosophy often translates into whether the book we assign our boys was read carefully enough or whether the papers they wrote were really researched enough. In life, it encompasses much more: Do our boys eventually make the extra effort to be a good husband and a good father? Do they go the extra
“ ... getting in the habit of doing just a ‘little bit’ more when you might have gotten away with less can make all the difference.”
mile for a prospective client or for a charity with which they become involved? Do they allow themselves the opportunity to develop fully into all that they could be both for themselves and for those around them? Do they always take the little steps to fix their “broken windows”? So, as Brunswick teaches the “whole boy,” we must urge our sons to pursue the opportunities ahead, the big and the little ones — perhaps especially the little ones — to make the most of what they can become. “Broken windows” are everywhere around us, all the time — in every task, every encounter, every conversation, every job, every thought. I urge Brunswick boys to pay attention to life’s “broken windows,” for each offers a small opportunity to build greatness.
Thomas W. Philip
w w w . br u n sw i c ksc h ool . o rg
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