An Important Time for Leadership in Boys' Education
Recently, I attended an assembly at one of our sister schools. It was a thought-provoking experience. As a class of Grade 3 girls led a full-school reflection on truth and reconciliation, I witnessed the power of student voice, leadership and agency, with hundreds of girls tuned in to messages of respect, diversity, inclusivity and tolerance. I was struck by how much influence these young girls had on the tone and culture of their school.
On my drive back to Crescent, I reflected on how much our world is changing for the better and yet how much work there is still to do as a society. Recent events, locally and globally, have raised serious questions about relations between men and women, about power and influence in educational settings and professional workplaces, and how we should raise young men for a better world. The effectiveness and urgency of boys’ schools teaching ethical conduct – especially respect for women – has been questioned too.
At Crescent, we believe that our mission, Men of Character from Boys of Promise, directs us to ensure our students embrace gender equality and respect for all people. We are going at this in a number of ways. We are working to build meaningful partnerships with our sister schools, giving our students opportunities to learn and work together with young women. We are empowering women to be mentors, teachers, and leaders at Crescent, so that our boys benefit from a diversity of talent and perspective. We are training our boys to be leaders – to learn important skills such as bias reduction, situational awareness, and social resilience while creating pathways for them to take on leadership roles in the school so that they can act with integrity and courage. In short, Crescent is embracing diversity of people and programs as a strength while fully knowing that diversity can also disrupt the status quo.
I believe that there has never been a more important time for leadership in boys’ education. That is why I choose to serve as Headmaster at Crescent School and as Trustee on the Board of the International Boys’ Schools Coalition. Neither Crescent nor the IBSC tolerate disrespect, unkindness or violence of any kind. We believe a good school succeeds primarily because of its culture, one that teaches and models for boys moral values and principles that strengthen society as a whole.
In January, the IBSC Board of Trustees approved an official statement about IBSC’s stance on boys’ education. I encourage you to read the full IBSC statement here. I am proud that Crescent is fully aligned with the IBSC on this matter. We believe that our core values of respect, responsibility, honesty and compassion are the foundation for this work. We believe that our graduates are called to be moral and self-aware people, who are positive leaders and critical thinkers, and who are adaptable so as to be engaged citizens. We believe that our promise as a staff is to help our boys find their own promise as developing Men of Character. We believe that through an active, experiential and relational all-boys learning environment, boys thrive and flourish. We believe there is still much important work to do together. And that’s why we also believe that a Crescent education matters more than ever.
