Good morning and welcome to the 118th school year at Holton-Arms. I want to extend a particularly warm welcome to everyone who is new to this wonderful community: our new parents, new faculty and staff, and most of all our new girls. Let's give an especially big hand to the new third graders, the class of 2028. I can promise you that you will find this a warm, supportive learning community where you will thrive.
And, of course, I want to recognize the special class of 2019! Thank you for helping launch us with such spirited enthusiasm. You've tapped into countless fond TV memories. We look forward to being inspired by your warmth, creativity and humor as the year unfolds.
Before I begin, I want to say something about construction. I want to thank everyone, most particularly the Lower School faculty but many others as well, for all the flexibility you have shown and will need to show in the weeks and months to come. Replacing almost all the heating and air-conditioning in this huge building as well as doing renovations in Lower School is an enormous project. We also need to thank the Facilities staff, Mr. Bilyeu and Mr. Joyce, and Ms. Fudge, our Director of Finance and Operations, for all their hard work in support of this effort. When it's finished, we will all be much more comfortable – warm in winter and cool in the hotter months – than we have been. We just need to be patient, and for that I thank you in advance.
I know that all of you are familiar with Holton's motto, "I will find a way or make one." I love it for all it stands for: creativity, perseverance in the face of challenge, resilience. However, I also love our mission which I'm guessing not all of you know as well:
Holton-Arms School cultivates the unique potential of young women through the "education not only of the mind, but of the soul and spirit."
That last part about educating the mind, the soul and the spirit is a quotation from Mrs. Holton. The adults in the community have been thinking a lot recently about the mission, and we've come up with a new way to describe how we "do" school at Holton: Learn Well Live Well Lead Well. Learn Well fits with the mind; Live Well fits with the soul; and Lead Well fits with the spirit. You will be experiencing more about this way of doing school – which is really just a formalized way of talking about what we've always done with enhanced and expanded programming in certain areas. For example, we will be conducting advisory differently this year. Overall, while we continue our focus on your minds, we are attending more to your souls and spirits than we perhaps we have in the past.
Today, I want to explore Lead Well. We talk a lot about what we expect of you once you graduate from Holton – how we want you to "make a difference in a complex and changing world" as our Philosophy states and we believe that we are providing you the foundation you need to take up leadership in your communities as adults.
Leadership is a complex topic and scholars have set forth a range of qualities that make effective leaders. However, one thing is certain, uncomfortable though it may feel, leadership cannot exist without power.
This fact undoubtedly plays a critical role in the challenges women face in becoming leaders and being successful in those roles. In most cultures, even in 2018, even here in the United States, powerful women can provoke deep antipathy. At the same time, as women, we often feel conflicted about exercising power. While there is certainly much to say about societies' attitudes towards powerful women, today, I want to concentrate on our personal relationships with power.
Take a minute to think about what power means to you. I bet negative thoughts popped into many of your minds. We think about someone having power over someone else, and that makes us feel uneasy. We think about abuses of power, where people take advantage of their power for their own ends rather than the greater good.
However, if we really think about it, it's impossible to lead without having power. Moreover, power is actually neutral. It can be good or bad. It all depends on how it's being used and for what ends. Military power can be used to overcome dangerous enemies, as the Allies did in defeating the Nazis in World War II. Think of every movie where the superhero uses superpowers to conquer evil. The power of money can be used for so much good. Bill and Melinda Gates are leveraging their enormous wealth to eradicate malaria, one of the deadliest diseases in Africa.
People acquire power in many ways. They might control weapons or they might be big and strong. They might be rich. Privilege, such as privilege that stems from race or socioeconomic status or education – though not gender in the case of all of us females – endows some of us with power, power we often don't even notice that we have. Personality can even give people power. People also have power by virtue of their positions; your teachers, for example, have a degree of power over you because they decide what and how to teach you and they grade you. They gain that power both by virtue of their positions, but also because of their knowledge, expertise, and experience. Your doctor also has power because of these characteristics. People can acquire power because they are great communicators, great speakers or great writers. Think about how much of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's influence stemmed from his power as an orator. Art – painting, sculpture, music, theatre – can have power. The great Aretha Franklin personified that power. Her rendition of Respect became an anthem of the Civil Rights and the Women's Rights Movements. As the Reverend Jesse Jackson said, "She used her voice to deliver music for social justice. She was a fighter who used her art as a platform.
As leaders, in whatever context we operate, we need to acknowledge that we need power to accomplish goals, to make a difference. Instead of shrinking from power for fear of offending, we need to think consciously about how we can gain and use power for good. Some of us have positions that come with power. We should ask ourselves how we can use that power for good. Are we principled and behave with integrity; do we respond well to challenges; do we support and empower those we lead; do we listen; are we compassionate and empathetic? When we behave in these ways, we gain people's respect and support. Thus, exercising power well actually enables us to do more good.
Those of us without formal positions with power still have opportunities to lead, to make a difference. Aretha Franklin was one of those people; no one crowned her the Queen of Soul, but she still wielded considerable power. And many of you do as well. Someone who is a particularly good student, or is very athletic, or is funny, or is a social leader – although you may not realize it, you have power that allows you to lead.
In fact, we all have access to power, and with it, the chance to lead. We all have the power to listen. We all have the power of honesty and integrity. We all have the power of generosity, kindness and love. By being Holton girls, you all have the power of a great education and the power of opportunity. You can use all these powers whether or not you have a formal leadership role to make the world around you – whether your group of friends, your class, your division, the school or even your communities – better places. Let's stop shying away from power, being afraid to use it, because when we do, we miss out on opportunities to make a difference. Instead, let's recalibrate our attitudes and embrace power for all the good it allows us to do.
