Crescent School's Caring Mindset

Michael Fellin, Headmaster of Crescent School
At our recent Town Hall, I referenced the top questions that I have been asked over my five years as Headmaster. In addition to the likelihood of a hockey rink on campus, and what keeps me up at night, I am often asked, “What is different about a Crescent education?” There are many ways to answer this question, including the quality of our faculty and staff, the focus of our administrators to lead in a time of change, the commitment of our parent community to support the school as partners, and the contributions of our students to enhance school life for all. The list goes on. Sometimes these features are called our “secret sauce.” However, there is not anything secret to how great schools operate in support of their mission. Rather, it is made explicit in how people show up each day.
A favourite book of mine is The Difference by Subir Chowdhury, one of the world’s most recognized experts on organizational strategy and corporate quality. He argues that world class organizations of all types have something in common: what he calls the STAR principles, the qualities of straightforwardness, thoughtfulness, accountability and resolve. These four principles, he argues, rest on mindset. In the opening pages, he asks a very important question: in your home or workplace, what would you do if you found a toothpick on the floor? This simple but provocative query speaks to the type of mindset that we have for the things we encounter in life. Do we care to pick the toothpick up or are we indifferent?

A caring mindset is evident each day in great schools. It appears when people go the extra mile to help someone, to contribute something that may directly benefit others, to “put yourself in another person’s shoes.” Recently, I observed students in each of our three divisions who employed this mindset. During the Lower School lunch, a Grade 3 student dropped his plate on the floor, causing it to break and his food to spill. Without direction, a Grade 6 student stepped forward, grabbed napkins, a broom and dustpan, and helped clean up the mess. That same day, during Middle School lunch, a new boy was eating alone at a table. Again, without any intervention, a group of boys who have been at Crescent for a few years invited him to join them. Finally, during Upper School lunch, I watched as a group of boys offered to help a Mentor group that was short-handed that day with their table clean-up duty, again without the instruction to do so.

It is often easy to focus on the big things at a school like Crescent: programs with competitive cachet, people with raw talent and potential, or plans with the greatest net impact. However, it is often the little things that matter more: students, staff, parents and alumni who make daily choices that are in step with our core values of respect, responsibility, honesty and compassion. Growing up, I was always taught to “sweat the small stuff,” whether it was sorting flyers for my first paper route, shoveling my driveway after a big snowfall, or stocking pop bottles “like toy soldiers” for my store manager. In fact, one of Crescent’s greatest features is the mindset to care, to ask for and give help, and to leave the school better than we found it. Perhaps there is no quality our world needs more today from our young men and from us than to live our school’s values and mission.

Veritate Stamus et Crescimus.


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