Bulletin Preview | Best First Day of School Ever

December 21, 2016

Preview from the Cate School Bulletin Fall 2016 issue by Cate Director of Marketing and Communications Sarah Kidwell

For many speakers, a standing ovation is the reward for an inspiring and well-delivered speech. But when Malala Yousafzai appeared before the Cate community on Monday, August 29, students, faculty, and guests rose to their feet and clapped vigorously for well over a minute before she even uttered a word. Her talk came on their first full day of the 2016-17 school year -– one student thanking Malala for making it “the best first day of school ever,” a sentiment that seemed to be shared school wide.

Malala Yousafzai’s story is well known around the world –- so well known, in fact, that Malala is among the few people on Earth who can be identified by nothing more than a first name. The nineteen-year-old native of Pakistan began speaking out publicly in support of girls’ education in her country when she was just eleven. She then survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban aboard a bus as she headed home from school in October of 2012. After multiple surgeries and a long and difficult recovery in Britain, she has become an internationally recognized advocate for equality in girls’ education. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at the age of seventeen — the youngest person ever to win the award. Her autobiography I Am Malala has been translated into more than 40 languages and has sold millions of copies. And she has met with President Obama and spoken before the United Nations General Assembly.

But on a late summer afternoon in the Hitchcock Theater, Malala appealed first to the Cate community as a fellow student, talking about her life as a schoolgirl in England.  “I have teachers too and get scared of them if I don’t do my homework on time,” she shared. And though it was only August, she read the minds of the seniors in the audience, saying that she too was stressed about “applying to university, so we have a lot in common as well.”

Speaking extemporaneously first, then sitting for a short question-and-answer session with Assistant Head for External Affairs Charlotte Brownlee, Malala later took questions from students, who lined up enthusiastically at two microphones placed in the aisles of a packed theater. The entire visit lasted less than an hour, but its impact is certain to be enduring.

Telling the story of the Taliban’s attempt to silence her through gunfire, Malala said simply, “They made a big mistake. They wanted to take a voice which was [being used] on a very local level. In return, I got a voice on a global level.” She urged students to use their own voices for their causes, “for as you know, if it is quiet, one voice is louder than anything.” Social media is an ally….

Timing, too, is critical, Malala acknowledged. “We are here in this world once; if we want to do [something important], this is the only time -– this time, this moment will never come again.”

Her foundation, the Malala Fund, has used its moment and voice to open schools for Syrian refugee girls, as well as schools in Nigeria, Kenya, and Jordan. Some of her inspiration comes from understanding that education “is more than books and pens in my school pack. It [is] something that is empowering women … fuel for women’s voice, fuel for women’s status and women’s recognition in society.”

Malala allowed that change cannot come without courage, which she described summoning as she awoke in a hospital room in Birmingham, England, far from her family and surrounded by English-speaking medical personnel. She explained that she had no memory of the attack that brought her there but talked of relying on her faith, and coming to understand in that hospital room that “God did not want me to die … even death did not want me to die so early.”

She talked not only of her enormous achievements in spreading the message of equal rights in education but also of her simple disappointments, sharing the story of how she lost the election to become the “head girl” at her school in England. With great humility, she relayed how she came to accept that the victor was more deserving. “The girl who got it was much better –- I know I can’t reach her position. She’s that angel kind of student who is good at everything; every teacher likes her and she’s participating in every activity from drama to music to speeches –- I wasn’t that. … Let me stay as our deputy head girl.”

In response to one of many student questions, Malala cautioned against entering into a distracting debate about the use of the word “feminism,” though she considers herself to be a feminist. “Feminism,” she said, “is just another word for equality.”

The young woman who is a heroine and role model to many spoke lovingly of her parents, who have inspired her deeply, she said. Her own quest for educational equality has its roots in the school her father started in Pakistan. And she expressed admiration for her mother’s transition to Western life after the family moved to England following her attack. Eliciting laughter, Malala explained how confused her mother was by the short dresses worn by girls and women in England, adding that her mother “felt sorry for them in the cold weather.”

Malala seemed to acknowledge that her fame has brought her many great gifts, but that her current high-profile life may have denied her some of the simple things her largely teenage audience might be accustomed to, like riding a bike, swimming, playing games, and being with friends.

Malala’s visit to Cate was arranged by Susan McCaw, who chairs the board of the Malala Fund and is a Cate parent. Her daughter Julia McCaw, a member of the Class of 2018, introduced Malala to the community as someone “whose valor, whose humanity, and whose humility are revered by those of all ages, colors, and beliefs.”

Before she left, Malala inscribed a copy of her bestselling book –- a gift for the School’s McBean Library — with these words: “To Cate School Students, keep reading, expand your knowledge and vision and believe in yourself.”

News of the highly unusual first day of school spread quickly on social media, with hundreds of friends, parents, and alumni weighing in. The universal response: “Malala at Cate School? Wow.”