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Hal Hannaford relives 11 years as headmaster (Continued from page 4) My dad used to say: “Challenge your convictions and challenge your beliefs. I’ll do that for you, too.” When you are convinced something is right, you can’t do the other thing because you will not survive if you do something you don’t feel is right. So, the Board of Directors is playing the role of my father. It’s challenging my convictions. I have tons of respect for the governance function; it’s absolutely necessary, the ultimate check. I like the Board to challenge my convictions, but, if I’m convinced something’s right I’m not going to waver. If I were doing anything again, I wish I had been more articulate about my philosophical outlook on discipline earlier on. Punishment doesn’t work. It’s going to make things worse. It’s bullying in reverse. We’re not going to do that. The greatest form of consequence for a boy is when he disappoints someone he truly admires and respects, that’s a relational solution to discipline. Veritas: What has it been like steering the school through the COVID-19 pandemic? Hal: One thing I’ve been good at all through my career is handling crises. For whatever reason, I’ve always been good at it. Little things can always irritate me, but the big stuff, I just get focused and do it. So, for me, to be really honest, it was a very engaging time. I couldn’t be a lame duck, right? I came back from March Break early, from the Old Boys’ Reunions in London and Paris. Susan and I came back and, boom, we were thrust into this. And so, I found it very invigorating. It wasn’t preferred, but there were many positives. It wasn’t negative for me. For example, how do you know you have a senior management team that’s any good? You don’t really know till you have a really tough time, right? And boy, they’re really good. The ultimate definition of leadership is: “Management is the science of getting people to do things. Leadership is the art of getting people to want to do things, and want to do them well.” Veritas: What is the most important thing students learn at Selwyn House? Hal: If I were being slang about it, I would say, as we joke, “good guys who work hard.” Figure out what being a good guy is, and learn how to work hard. Minna Shulman was very influential on this. She and I talked about the concept of “Happy people are the ones who are going to be successful, and not the other way around.” And happy is about your family and your friendships and being kind, that type of stuff. The whole thing of boys being partners in love, and understanding that has such a profound impact. Why isn’t that a part of education? Why aren’t we doing more with that? Veritas: What do we learn from our students? Hal: They teach us that respect is really important. We, as teachers, want respect shown to us, but they teach us that if we don’t show the same respect to them, it’s not going to work, and there are classic examples of it. They remind us to be spontaneous, and the value of friendships Veritas, page 6