One thing I love about Milton, a characteristic that drew me here and connects me deeply, is the sense of accountability that alumni, students, faculty and staff feel for their own lives, and the life of the School. Daring to be true seems to be a standard we require of ourselves. How has this come to be? How does Milton nurture a culture centered on this value? I believe that for generations our faculty have modeled and fostered this value, and I am proud to preserve their legacy.
Role models in my life were the people who cultivated in me a sense of responsibility for myself and for others. I admired them and aspired to lead a similar life—family and friends, teachers, coaches and advisors who showed me what it meant to be committed and to reach for certain personal achievements and contributions to others. Their lives enabled them to be fulfilled, to be happy people.
I’ve had opportunities to rethink my choice to be an educator. Events of this past year, international, national and local, including the Newtown school shooting, the Boston Marathon bombing and the untimely death of our own Merritt Levitan ’13, have rocked our collective foundation. Crises as momentous as these refocus me on core questions. Am I spending my time and energy on what is most important? Affirming my passion for education and my priorities for Milton is restorative and energizing.
I am grateful for my role as head of school, and I’m grateful for the work all of you did to help define our Strategic Plan and articulate clearly our direction for the future. You have helped affirm my commitment to redouble our efforts to honor the great teachers that shaped Milton, by making it possible for us to recruit and retain their contemporary counterparts.
Milton’s faculty is one of the most senior in New England; we can anticipate that in 10 years almost 50 percent of the faculty will be new to Milton. Today, they uphold the Milton tradition: connecting young people with role models who are more than classroom teachers, advisors, and coaches, who model the highest sense of responsibility for themselves and for others. Our upcoming campaign centers on supporting teachers: those active in our classrooms today, and those who will come to Milton in the next decade.
“A hundred times a day I remind myself that my life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give, in measure as I have received, and am still receiving,” Albert Einstein said. Now our turn has come, to give in the measure in which we have received. We must choose to care about Milton’s ability to carry forward this culture of responsibility so powerfully nurtured by our faculty, and even strengthen it for the students yet to arrive on Centre Street.
— Todd B. Bland