Did you ever want to quit?
Why did you want to become a Navy Seal?
What was the most frightening experience?
Do you believe women should be allowed in Seal training?
Do you feel the United States should use drones despite the civilian casualties?
You never know what is going to happen in a Hockaday classroom or the questions students are going to ask. Last week I had the privilege to hear former Navy Seal LCDR Rorke Denver speak to Hockaday students about his experiences during a ten-year career as an active duty Seal. Mr. Denver was in Dallas to promote his book Damn Few, and he came to Hockaday to speak with students in the class Spycraft: the History of Espionage, a course taught by a Hockaday teacher who spent her early career as a CIA agent in counter intelligence across the Middle East following 9/11.
For an hour, seventeen Hockaday girls asked candid questions, and Mr. Denver answered them with honest, thoughtful responses. As the conversation ended, he invited a student to read a section of his book that has yet to be made public. It is a letter he writes to his two little girls during a deployment in case he did not return home. The conversation and the letter made a significant impact on all of us.
Later that day, I saw Mr. Denver, and as I thanked him for taking time to visit Hockaday, he told me the experience had quite an impact on him. As a father of two daughters, he never considered sending them to an all-girls’ school….until today. Mr. Denver said the girls showed confidence, intellect, and guts to ask the hard questions, and these are attributes he wants his daughters to develop. That is a significant compliment coming from one of the Navy Seal’s finest.
I think Mr. Denver’s comment would make Miss Ela Hockaday quite proud of her girls.
Cornerstone 