3 minute read
letter from the head of
e Merits of Simple Daily Habits
A day at Cardigan begins with a weather report, delivered in person by the forces of nature—through one’s own eyes, skin, and senses—as one heads to the Cardigan Commons for breakfast. e community walks east to get there. A fair day starts with a slight breeze (and there is always a breeze on this hilltop), coming from behind, aiding the boys in their morning ramble. Foul weather comes from the south and east and accosts the boys with a lashing, forcing their heads down in a determined march, as they unconsciously gird themselves for the day to come. e Cardigan boy doesn’t need an app to tell him any of this. In this place his senses are not dulled. Quite the opposite; they are honed and relied upon to succeed and grow. e morning also begins with a dress code check. Dress socks and belts are to be worn at meals as part of class dress, which also includes a collared shirt and slacks. Shirts should be tucked in, and hoodies and sweatshirts should be checked in the coat room before entering the dining room. “Oh, and your le shoe is untied, young man. No, pull off to the side and tie it now, and then you may go in to breakfast. ank you.” ey learn that when someone asks to please pass the salt, it should be delivered with the pepper too. Knives go on the right, cutting edge facing in, forks on the le. e boys may leave a meal when they are dismissed (and that isn’t until the dishes are cleared and the table is sprayed and wiped), squaring their chairs and offering polite farewells to the faculty.
Why mention all of this here? Should all of this be celebrated, or mocked as quaint traditions that time has forgotten? Each and every day at Cardigan begins this way—it always has. In the first hour of a Cardigan boy’s day he has brushed his teeth—with toothpaste (there are victories large and small with middle school boys)—made his bed, tidied his room, gathered his school supplies, dressed appropriately for classes, activated his inner compass en route to the dining hall, exchanged pleasantries with friends and a faculty member or two over a delicious breakfast, and cleaned and set the table for the next meal. us begins each day at Cardigan, where “what’s past is prologue” translates into doing the simple things each day—feeding a discipline—in order to confront what’s to come.
When veteran faculty member Allan KreuzburgP’14,’17coaches the boys in the Jobs Program, he exhorts them to: “Do it right, do it to the best of your ability, and do it until it is done.” Simple but effective…and every boy on this campus has the cadence of that formula down pat, because Kreuz knows better than anyone that middle school boys need a simple but sensible message, they need to have it repeated until they’ll never forget it, and they need to know the “why” behind it. e result is oen seen if one lingers aer class to see a boy picking up trash or paper on the floor when everyone else has le, or fixing his brother’s tie before heading into Chapel, or going to PEAKSfor extra help on an assignment because he knows a teacher will be there waiting to help him. e healthy maturation of our boys is our real mission at Cardigan. It happens over time—through countless quotidian acts that build into discipline and habits—of learning and of living. Our students earn leadership by being good citizens first; they know that if they don’t maintain their status as responsible citizens then they can’t actually lead.
By the time boys leave Cardigan they oen possess a certain carriage about them (we hear this oen from secondary schools) that many young men do not. At Cardigan we know that such a bearing reflects a foundation of good habits, self-awareness, and confidence— earned through living a face-to-face existence where mistakes are called out, actions (and inaction) have consequences, community values aren’t just words but promises, and the job isn’t done until it’s done.
Oh, and they know that in New England fair weather comes from the west. e pages of this edition of the Chronicle invite you in—to the daily life of Cardigan. Welcome! r
Christopher D. DayP’12,’13 Head of School
7:05 AM
One of the first members of the community to appear is Head of School Chris Day, stopping on his way to breakfast to admire the industrious nocturnal work of a campus spider.
