What a Difference a Year Makes
Last September, I was still new to North Carolina. Many people urged me to listen first, to take time to understand this community before trying to lead it. I didn’t yet grasp how strong and connected Davidson Day truly was—until Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina. In the days and weeks that followed, I stood at carpool in absolute awe as family after family arrived carrying bottled water, food, baby formula, and other essential supplies. We showed up again and again, adjusting what we collected to meet the changing needs of those most affected. Several families, faculty, and staff continued to rise to the challenge by stepping in to deliver supplies themselves. What I remember most is the spirit of it all: neighbors helping neighbors, children learning that generosity can be as natural as showing up for school.
A year later, it feels like everything has changed. Not just the weather, but the way we are showing up for one another. This week alone, walk into a Lower School classroom or onto a bus with our older students who are heading for Washington, D.C., Charleston, or Tennessee, and you feel it: energy, joy, and connection. Our students are traveling, learning, laughing, and, most importantly, doing it together.
Some of my favorite moments this fall have come from reading to our youngest students in their classrooms. They are full of questions, especially the word why. Why does this character feel that way? Why did the story end like that? Their curiosity is instinctive, and it opens doors to wonder, to empathy, and to understanding.
But as we grow older, I notice that we ask why less often. Maybe we are afraid of looking uncertain. Maybe it feels easier to assume we already know. The risk, of course, is that when we stop asking questions, we also stop being curious about the world and one another. That curiosity is what keeps us connected. It’s what allows us to hold differences without breaking apart.
One morning last week, as I listened to our Lower School recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the word indivisible stood out to me. Later that day, I shared this with our Upper School students. I told them I want us to be indivisible as a school community. That begins with the courage to ask why and to stay curious, especially when we encounter beliefs different from our own. It means slowing down and seeking to understand before rushing to judgment.
That is the very work the EE Ford Foundation, in its outstanding framework, calls independent schools to embrace: to be laboratories for pluralism, places where students learn to live with difference, to practice civility, and to strengthen the bonds that make them indivisible. In a world where polarization often drowns out dialogue, and social media makes it easier to argue than understand, these practices are no longer optional—they are essential.
That work is happening on Davidson Day’s campus every day, including in the class I’m teaching in the Upper School, AP WE with Service. I see how eager students are to be challenged, not only in mastering content but in how they engage one another. Teaching students how to disagree without division, and how to use their voices in service of something larger than themselves, may be the most important lesson we offer.
On Wednesday, September 24, students, faculty, and staff will gather to introduce our refreshed mission and C.O.R.E. values. They are not just words on paper. They are the compass points we already live by: Courage, Ownership, Resilience, Empathy. They are the throughline that carries us from last year’s storm to this year’s clarity, from fear to trust, from isolation to belonging. When prioritized and practiced as a community, they are the key to our indivisibility.
What a difference a year makes. Helene reminded us how fragile life can be. This year reminds us how powerful it is to stand together. And just as I will never forget those mornings at carpool, I hope we never forget what they revealed about us: that when we act with courage, generosity, and unity, we don’t just weather the storm…we become stronger because of it.
Davidson Day School
©2020 Davidson Day School. All Rights Reserved.
©2020 Davidson Day School. All Rights Reserved.