A boarding school experience is as much about character education as academic education. As educators, we try to convey the importance of values such as generosity, humility, and kindness. Every time the girls of Millet House enter the building bearing Mr. Millet’s name, they receive a reminder to aspire to those values. Mr. Millet epitomized the values we teach.
As a benefactor, Mr. Millet gave to the girls generously. Every fall, each new girl would receive a grey fleece vest with the Millet crest embroidered over the heart, a kind of unofficial “uniform” for the Millet girl. The vests seemed to magically and simply appear. They were a quiet welcome from Mr. Millet. Mr. Millet was consistently eager to give to the girls; when he caught word that we were arranging to buy a flag for the House, he generously provided the beautiful flag that hangs over our front porch. Mr. Millet gave without expectation of recognition. In fact, when we invited him to the house to celebrate his birthday last year (2012), he accepted on one condition—he did not want any fanfare or fuss.
At that birthday dinner, Mr. Millet sat with a table of girls from the house. Watching him engage with each and every girl at the table was an education in kindness. He managed to make every girl at the table feel special. He listened carefully to them in a way that showed his genuine interest. In his short dining experience with the girls, he made natural connections that demonstrated the power of kindness in our daily interactions.
At the end of the year, the Millet House faculty select a senior as the recipient of the “Millet Award.” The language accompanying the award is as follows: “As Mr. Millet has shown over decades of work and life at Milton Academy, a quiet, largely unacknowledged altruism for the school and its students, so too this senior has shown a similar dedication to Millet House, as demonstrated by acts of kindness and generosity.” The award is a copy of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and Mr. Millet always found time to inscribe a note to the recipient, an addition to the award of far more value than the text itself. While Mr. Millet will no longer lend his distinctive hand to the “Millet Award,” it will continue to inspire Millet girls to be their best selves. By aspiring to embody the Mr. Millet’s traits, Millet House and Milton Academy can become a more perfect place. In this way, Mr. Millet’s legacy to Millet House will endure beyond his name.
Nicole Colson
Former House Head, Millet House
Faculty, English Department
