This week as part of our faculty development we watched the 2018 documentary “Won’t You be My Neighbor?” Fred Rogers, a name familiar to many for his television show, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, taught generations of preschool age children to love, be kind, laugh, respect, forgive, and most importantly that each child in this world was “special.” He said “only you are you” so “nobody else can live the life you live.” So why were the faculty of the New York Military Academy watching the biography of Mr. Rogers a preschool television educator? “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility” he said. “It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’”  If we as teachers cannot see the shared responsibility than we are living with blinders on.  We, as Mr. Rogers said, must “see the need and respond.” That never stops, whether the child is 3, 10, 17, or beyond. “The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.”  Isn’t that the job of education — to teach tolerance, sharing, civility, and self-worth along with reading, writing, and arithmetic? We sometimes forget as parents and teachers that we pass on to our children not only lessons of life, but lessons also on how to truly live.  Enjoying every moment, whether it is in the calm of the morning sun, or listening with the empathy of someone who cares is important.  So I aspire for each of the faculty, in some way or another, to be Mister Rogers – I know I certainly wish I was more like him each and everyday.  — Christine C. McDonald, Dean of Academics