Inside King's-Edgehill School

Volume: 5 Issue: 24

Dear KES Family,

An essay written for me by a prospective student for next year quoted an American Journalist of whom I was unaware. Dennis Prager, the American journalist, said: “Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.” The boy’s essay used this concept of how we treat other people as a litmus test for goodness or evil. He writes eloquently about it. Being kind, honest, and generous defines one as good. However, he did not stop there. Being good, having moral courage, also means that “the will to stand up for something is paramount.” Being good, he says, is “not merely the absence of doing evil” or “turning a blind eye” to it.
At its core, this is what we hope all our students learn. We hope that they will treat each other with dignity and respect, but if they see others being mean that they will have the courage to take action. This student essay is broad in its scope and ascends beyond the realities of bullying to global issues both past and present pointing out eight specific times (going as far back as Biblical times when Moses freed the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt) where goodness has prevailed.

In its own humble and symbolic fashion, this is why I appreciate the events of the last week. Goodness and character need to be practiced and reinforced. I saw this as twenty-one students finished up a 30 Hour Famine to raise money and awareness for victims of poverty. (Thank you Miranda Walsh, class of 2015, for organizing that!) I also saw this on Monday night at the Coffee House when students of all ages and nationalities felt safe enough to stand up and sing and play, joke, or recite poetry in front of 150 supportive peers. (Thank you Michael Dennis and Alex Creedon, both class of 2015.) It was also evident on the ice this week when our junior hockey players filled the bench with boys and girls and anyone wishing to play – whether they had ever played before or not. It was fabulous! Even when the games were close (most went to a shoot-out) and the opposition was shortening its bench, everyone on our team played a regular shift. That is character. Many thanks to coaches Watters and MacLeod for setting such fine examples.

Sincerely,


Joe Seagram
Headmaster

This week in pictures. 

Week 24

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