Assembly 0607

Crescent School
Opening Assembly
September 2006

Good morning, and welcome back to one of the great schools of the world, Crescent School. Now that might sound like an outlandish statement, but let’s think about that for a moment. What makes a great school?

Great faculty – check
Great students – check
Great facilities – check
A clear mission – check
An understood and embraced set of values - check
An energy and enthusiasm that permeates the entire school – check

By all sorts of measures, we’re in the premier division of schools, but we’ve got to fight to keep our place with the best.

I alluded to the staff just now. We’ve made some wonderful additions from local schools, and have gleaned the best talent from the finest teaching universities internationally. It’s my pleasure to introduce them to you now. Please hold your applause until the end.

New Hires 2006-07

• Mr. Jeff Adams joins the Middle School faculty to teach Math and Science.
• Ms. Alli Birtwhistle joins the Lower School in the position of Grade 3 Form Teacher.
• Ms. Jillian Cooper joins the Upper School Geography Department on a part-time basis.
• Mr. AaronDion joins the Middle and Upper School Faculty in the position of French teacher.
• Mr. Steve Dubrick joins Crescent School as the Head of our Health and Physical Education Department.
• Mr. Craig Flanagan joins the Upper School Geography Department. He will replace Ms. Slater when she takes her maternity leave.
• Mr. Ari Hunter joins the Lower School in the position of Grade 3 Form Teacher.
• Ms. Munira Murphy joins the Lower School in the position of Lower School Drama/Language Arts teacher.
• Ms. Katherine Northcott joins the Upper School Mathematics Department.
• Mr. Mike Stephens joins the Upper School Faculty to teach in the Business Studies and Mathematics Departments
• Mr. John Lynch joins us as Crescent’s Chief Advancement Officer
• Christa Hancock , is our incoming Scheduling Coordinator and Events Assistant.

Please give them a warm welcome to Crescent School.

Another integral part of a great school is its students, and I think we’ve got the best group of boys of promise and burgeoning men of character in the GTA. And as we all know, the greatest influx of new students every year is at the grade 3 level. I’d like them to stand up, turn around, and wave to the rest of the school.

Would they remain standing, please. I’d like to ask the current grad class to stand. Would they please wave back to the grade 3. There we have it. The future – the grade 3 class - is waving to the present – our grad class. The class of 2017 is waving to the class of 2007.

I’d like to offer congratulations not only to all the new boys throughout the school, but to those who have chosen to return. A great school is a careful blend of new energy with institutional memory, and returning students have a knowledge of a school’s history, mythology and lore that should never be undervalued. I’d like to thank returning students – and their parents as well – for their ongoing commitment to Crescent’s mission.

Some things have changed over the summer, and you’ve probably noticed quite a few already. We have a new playground which was finished yesterday. Mr. Mitz has moved one floor up into the University Counselling Centre which he will share with Mr. Haag. We’ve created a strong and supportive Student Services Centre that Mr. Lowndes will probably be talking about throughout the year. We are putting the finishing touches on an Archives Room just to the south of the library which will house our documented history. And we’ve done a host of other smaller, less visible alterations to the facilities of the school to make Crescent even better than it was before. It’s a great time to be at Crescent.

By now your summer probably feels like it happened a lifetime ago. As I stand by the lunch room at break, I see a lot of new boys looking for class rooms, and that’s perfectly OK. And I see a lot of blue blazered veterans wondering what to do with themselves when they have a spare. Don’t worry, grads. That time will soon fill up.

So before you get back to the job at hand, which is to be the best student you can be this year, let me leave you with a few observations, and a couple of words of advice. Actually three.

First: Get involved. Don’t sit on the sidelines. There’s no such thing as an innocent bystander. You can make a difference. All you have to do is to decide to make a difference. Groaning, moaning, and complaining do nothing but irritate. Rolling up your sleeves and getting involved – that’s the difference between a man of character and one who is not. Thomas Huxley, a brilliant scientist and professor, stated this idea succinctly. “The great end of life is not knowledge but action.” Get involved – point one.

Point Two: School spirit begins with you. You’re only going through this school once, so get the most out of it. And there’s a reciprocal relationship between what you get out and what you put in. Give the school all you’ve got, and your school day joys will be abundant. Put excitement in your life by injecting enthusiasm into your classwork, your teams, your plays, intramurals – everything you do. Engage fully in what you choose to do, and school spirit and your personal joy will rise relationally and exponentially. School spirit begins with you.

Point three, and the final one. Crescent’s mission is to create men of character from boys of promise. Our mission isn’t really to be the best school in the known universe. Our goal is far more personal and far more human; it’s to help you, the students, become global citizens dedicated to making our world a better place for everyone in the future. We want you to become ethical family, community, national and international world leaders.

And to that end, I ask you to consider adopting the following mantra, and this is point three. Each morning, when you wake up, consider asking yourself a simple but potentially life-altering question: It could change your life, and how you live it. It could change someone else’s life and how they live it. It most certainly will change how people see you. Is a simple question to ask, and that question is, How can I help?

Everybody needs help; we don’t always ask for it, however. But when someone asks genuinely, with an open heart and spirit, and says “How can I help?” then a bridge is built between two people that didn’t exist before. Ask your parents in the morning, “How can I help you today?” They might fall off their chairs – initially. But if you ask honestly, and follow through on their request – if it’s reasonable, then you’ve just advanced their lives in some small way, and you have probably radically changed how they see you.

If you see someone who is lost, physically or emotionally, ask “How can I help?” If you see someone in distress, simply ask “How can I help?” If you come across things that seem unfair, unreasonable, unethical or just simply wrong, don’t complain. Ask yourself, honestly, “How can I help to make the world a better place?

We can all become leaders through service by continually asking “How can I help?”. We will make the world a better place for everyone, which, in essence, is a life’s mission for men and women of character.

Have a great year, everyone. It’s been a great start already.