FROM THE RECTOR
This Moment of Our Responsibility KATHLEEN C. GILES
of rapid change in science and technology, Fourth Rector Dr. Samuel Drury wrote in 1926: [I]t is provable that we cannot be high-minded in the afterlife unless we constantly climb to the top story in our task. In a day when efficiency is so lauded and when perpetual motion seems to spell success, those who are beset by the problems of education must achieve for themselves the detachment and high-mindedness which gazes from the top story. Why should it be deemed praiseworthy to potter about in the cellar of our task? Why is it glorious to wear one’s self out on trivial ground? Too often men are duped by their duties, never having made a friend of Duty, and are encouraged to regard the What an extraordinary, complex time it is in which we drudging devotion to routine as the be-all and endlive. While life goes on apace at the School, the shape of all. People … who are in any capacity connected the world continues to shift, with remarkable changes in with schools, will insist on climbing to the top story every landscape, from the geopolitical to the geophysical. of the task, where they can see school problems, And with the extraordinary connectivity our digital world either technical or personal, steadily and in relation both provides and requires of us, we know — or think to life at large. we know — so much about the extraordinary complexity At the “top story of the task,” we look not only at the upon us. “How did we get here?” dominates many conversations and debates these days, and while that question is problems, but also for the opportunities. We are stewards of the commitment, dedication, important — it is so much a part of and excellence of St. Paul’s School, our humanity and our Humanities “IN THIS MOMENT OF and as stewards, in this moment program here — perhaps a more of our responsibility, it is critical compelling question is, “Where do OUR RESPONSIBILITY, that everyone who cares about we go from here?” IT IS CRITICAL THAT the School look steadily and in Here on the grounds, the serenity relation to life at large at how to of our campus and the routines of EVERYONE WHO CARES invest in the School today. Genour day-to-day lives contrast sharpABOUT THE SCHOOL erations to come should have the ly with the pace of change all around same transformational opportuus. What and how we teach evolves, LOOK STEADILY AND IN nities for which our alumni and as we develop and test how the “new basics” in core curricula com- RELATION TO LIFE AT LARGE families are so grateful and that form an important part of the plement the core of knowledge and AT HOW TO INVEST foundation from which our alumni skills young people need to learn IN THE SCHOOL TODAY.” build purposeful lives in service to to be independent, knowledgeable, the greater good. skilled, and compassionate critical David Scully ’79, P’21, president of our Board of Trustthinkers. Our focus every day, however, never wavers: it is the pursuit of excellence in character and scholarship to ees, opened this community discussion in the last edition support our students’ building purposeful lives in service of Alumni Horae, where he outlined the new governance to the greater good. It helps so much, walking into chapel model adopted by the Trustees and committed the Board in the mornings, to remember that indeed, there is to focusing on mission and specifically, on the excellence nothing new under the sun. A century ago, during the of our students’ experience. For the past two years, we globally turbulent years post-World War I and in a time have been doing the work of developing a Comprehensive 2
Alumni Horae | Issue II 24/25