A NEW LOOK AND NAME Cathedral’s fierce but friendly mascot has recently been given both a makeover and a new name! After receiving nearly 100 name suggestions from students, Headmaster Jones selected a name well-suited for the Cathedral hawk. We are proud to introduce everyone to “Forbes.” The sharp-eyed among you will note that “Forbes” shares a name with and honors our founding Headmaster, Rev. Canon David Forbes. We are pleased to let you know that David was delighted with his namesake.
The Rev. Canon David Forbes and The Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus discuss the incredible history of Cathedral School.
Horsing around in 1996
Cathedral School does its uniform proud then and now.
As much as the school has grown and changed, its foundation has remained solid and constant.
before
ways, with seventh and eighth graders devoting part of their school year to volunteering at local elementary schools or with senior citizens, the entire school participates in annual efforts to support the Bayview Mission and San Francisco Food Bank. Lower School boys tend to the roof garden and collect the School’s compost. After the introduction of Spanish in 1973 and Mandarin in 1991, seventh and eighth graders now travel abroad to practice their language skills and learn more about our global community. Many Upper School boys gather once a week for “Perspectives” to listen and learn from one another about current events. At the end of each eighth-grade boy’s time at Cathedral, he delivers a Chapel Talk to the community, during which he passes on some experience or wisdom he has gleaned along his journey. While the Cathedral experience is defined by a plethora of amazing opportunities, at the end of the day, there is a growing boy, making his way through the world. Boyhood can be messy, certainly loud, and is always full of energy and vibrancy. Cathedral’s teachers embrace each boy for who he is, and the relationships between each boy and his teachers are at the heart of the Cathedral experience. During this past year, Cathedral School for Boys celebrated its 60th anniversary. Nob Hill has acclimated to the School’s presence and the sounds of boys’ voices. Perhaps as San
Francisco’s demographics and the socioeconomic make-up of the city have shifted, people have a greater appreciation for the sound of boys’ play; maybe it’s the pure joy in the boys’ voices. As much as the school has grown and changed, its foundation has remained solid and constant. There were times when the School could have made dramatic changes. In the 1970s, as the value of single-sex education was questioned, a proposal to merge with one of the girls’ schools was briefly considered. Again, in the 1980s, the School explored the possibility of adding girls and increasing the school’s size to 400 students. But Cathedral has maintained a constant commitment to its identity as a small, all-boys, Episcopal school. Still adjoining Grace Cathedral after 60 years, the School and the church share a symbiotic relationship in which we provide the delightful sound of boys’ voices and they provide access to a world-class Cathedral, one in which we gather to sing and learn four times a week. Cathedral School for Boys is privileged to share the Cathedral Close with Grace Cathedral and sit at the top of Nob Hill in the midst of such a vibrant and innovative city. But as much as buildings have been added, renovated, and technology replaced, it continues to be the people—teachers, students, administrators, trustees, and very importantly, boys and
Sing for Joy, Children of Heaven Hymn
their families—who define us. Perhaps it is no wonder then that when we gather, we do so to share, listen, learn, and sing together. Over the course of the kindergarten year, boys begin to learn the words to the songs of the hymns we most frequently sing by listening at Chapel and in music class. At Friday Hymn Sing, “big brothers” often hold the hymn books in their hands for their “little brothers.” As the boys learn to read and they learn the songs, the young boys’ voices join the chorus of the school community. Parents of current students and alumni join us at Friday Hymn Sings when they can. Together, as the Cathedral School for Boys song proclaims, we continue to “sing with wonder, sing with cheer” in this extraordinary place where minds, hearts, hands, and voices come together as one.
“FORBES”
FALL 2018 • RED & GOLD | 21
20 | CATHEDRAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS
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