Coram Deo Academy High School House Retreat

Headmaster’s speech on self-government and the purpose of the house system

August 15, 2008

 

As Benjamin Franklin emerged from Independence Hall at the close of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, a Philadelphian asked, "What kind of government have you given us, Dr. Franklin?" He replied: "A republic, if you can keep it." (source: Papers of Dr. James McHenry on the Federal Convention of 1787, in Charles C. Tansill, comp. Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the American States (Washington: U.S. Printing Office, 1927), page 952.) 

 

Last year CDA student leaders, faculty and administrators collaborated to inaugurate the CDA House System to provide students opportunity to exercise self-government, develop in leadership, and promote school honor and spirit and to serve the community.  Education at Coram Deo is vigorous and it should be full of life as well. We pray the House System will help you enjoy the process as you embrace a remarkable education.

 

Self Government

The limited constitutional government espoused by the founders of the American republic assumed the self-government of each individual under God. They knew it would be impossible to govern lightly people that would not govern themselves. As said John Adams, “We have not government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  [from a letter of Adams dated October 13, 1789] 

Likewise, the House System design facilitates school life with a minimum of legalistic rules when the whole high school community, students, parents, faculty and administration lives Coram Deo. If by God’s grace, we live consistent with God’s law little top down enforcement will be necessary. Do love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your classmates and teachers as yourselves. Do take time for personal and corporate worship and bible study building up and edifying yourselves so you can bring comfort and encouragement to others contributing to a spirited learning environment. Do honor your parents, teachers and Dean as those in authority so that they may carry it lightly. Do not kill one another with gossip; rather speak that which is edifying. Do your own work, do not steal it from others or misrepresent the work of someone else as your own. Keep an appropriate distance treating one another and especially those of the opposite gender with due dignity. In addition, do not covet the gifts of others; rather develop the God-given talents you possess for the purpose of service to God and to shape the culture around you for His glory. 

At Coram Deo Academy, to the extent individual students govern themselves and to the extent houses and the student/faculty council govern themselves less administration is required to impose top down government. We offer you the opportunity to govern yourselves.

 

We encourage you to seize every opportunity to develop in leadership through one of the twenty-eight official positions in the house student government or as captain of your athletic team, by demonstrating artistic leadership in theatre, music and the visual arts or by pursuing the highest academic honors you can achieve while inspiring others to join you in the same goal. You could lead a team to build a habitat for the homeless, or collaborate to loosen chains with loose change, donate a ton of tuna to the poor, or welcome soldiers home from their tours of duty or any of a host of other demonstrations of leadership in community service.

 

Encourage spirit and honor amongst yourselves that is your mark of distinction or respect. What mark of distinction do you want on you, your fellow students, your parents, teachers and administrators? More than anyone else, you will earn whatever respect you enjoy. “A good name is like oil poured forth (of great value).” School spirit includes pep clubs and pep bands and it especially includes living consistently as a Christian in a fashion that brings honor to all others associated with CDA. It is easy to identify attitudes and behaviors contrary to generating respect. Would you like your school to be known as one where students cheat, or use crude speech or would you like it to be known as one where vigorous students learn, debate and play with zeal and honesty? You should take care of your school’s reputation the same way you would protect your mother’s reputation. You should not let anyone soil the marks that distinguish your school. It is your job and you can do it.

 

St. Crispians Day speech from Henry V, Act iv, Scene 3 illustrates the esprit de corps we seek.    http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechhenryV.html and no one performs it better than Kenneth Branagh in this clip. 

Although Shakespeare penned this work nearly two hundred years after the Battle of Agincourt (1415), it remains the finest dramatic interpretation of what leadership meant to the men in the Middle Ages. Prior to the Battle, Henry V had led his English footmen across Northwestern France, seizing Calais and other cities in an attempt to win back holds in France that had once been in English possession and to claim the French crown through the obscure but powerful Salig Law. The French, aware of Henry's troops weakening condition because of their distance from England and the attacks of dysentery that had plagued the dwindling band, moved between King Henry and Calais, the port he needed to reach in order to return to England. The troops followed Henry's band along the rivers, preventing their crossing and daring them to a battle they thought they could not win. The famed Band of Brothers speech prepared the men for the impending battle. 

Although the speech below is a work of fiction, it is evocative of the spirit with which Henry--and all strong medieval kings--ruled through the strength of their convictions and by force of their personality.  Let us learn to lead as well.