When the Campaign (for $30,000,000) was first conceived, I was asked to write a “case statement” that would compel people to give us lots of money. I sat down. Like a sink sprinkled with Drano, my mind bubbled up with wild ideas: We would revolutionize teaching everywhere…. We would serve as the model school for…. We would change the world by demonstrating….blah, blah, blah. Now that we've raised about $24M, it occurs to me that I never wrote a case statement for the Campaign. Apparently, people donated because they wanted us to do what we do.

Steve helped us focus not on revolutionizing education to save the world, but rather prizing the faculty/student relationships that transform the lives of Proctor students. Let them change the world.

Steve offered this parable from Ben Zander's The Art of Possibililty: Strolling along the edge of the sea, a man catches sight of a young woman who appears to be engaged in a ritualistic dance. She stoops down, then straightens to her full height, casting her arm out in an arc. Drawing closer, he sees that the beach around her is littered with starfish, and she is throwing them one by one into the sea. He lightly mocks her: "There are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see, for miles up the beach. What difference can saving a few make?" Smiling, she bends down and once more tosses a starfish out over the water, saying serenely, "It certainly makes a difference to this one."