Catholic Schools Week 2010

Next week, Catholic schools across America celebrate Catholic Schools Week. This year's theme is "Dividends for Life."

Holy Family School will kick off the week with an Open House on Monday night from 7-8. I look forward to taking Thomas and letting him explore the "big school" and see friends from church there.

Here's a little bit of what's going on at some of the Catholic schools around our area, including Holy Family and St. Elizabeth in Granite City, St. Boniface in Edwardsville, St. John Neumann in Maryville, and St. Mary in Edwardsville.

Last year, I wrote a tribute/reflection on my time at Holy Family. As a result, I was surprised with an email from Sister Angelene, my grade school principal, who wrote, "Just read and enjoyed your grade school history. Hello and love to Suzanne and your boys, Mom and Dad, too." I share it again this year... and can't wait to see which one of my former teachers writes to me this year!...

Holy Family School, Granite City, IL

It'd be silly to let this year's Catholic Schools Week go by without some thoughts and reflections on my own time in the "little house" (as my teachers liked to refer to Holy Family School as we were preparing to graduate 8th grade and move on to the "big house.")

I started at St. Margaret Mary school in 1st grade. I had attended public school for Kindergarten, but that year our local school district teachers went on a prolonged strike at the start of the school year. Rather than wait it out and see what happened, my parents bit the bullet and made the decision to send me to our Catholic grade school instead. Perhaps they saw the strike as a sign, and it was Providence in action.

In 1st grade, Mrs. Wilkinson (God bless her) was a wonderful teacher. I got a detention for sharpening my crayon in the pencil sharpener, but I didn't know any better. We still used pencils. All of our books were really, really thin. Toward the end of the year, we got to try out ink pens in preparation to start to learn cursive the next year. I took my little old Casio PT-80 in for show and tell. On the way out of school, I dropped it in the snow. As a result, I got a newer, bigger keyboard.

Casio PT-80

In 2nd grade, I had Mrs. Provasnik (God bless her.) I learned to write in cursive. I tutored 1st graders in reading. I got to grade papers, and she gave me my very own EZ-Grader to grade them. The girl who sat behind me in our classroom threw up on my back. Luckily it was as we were waiting for dismissal, so I was able to promptly go home and clean up. Once, we had to draw a picture of something we thought made God happy. I drew a picture of a bank and lots of money. If I remember correctly, it was sent home to my parents with a note asking them to help explain to me what really made God happy.

In 3rd grade, Mrs. McKay (God bless her) was our teacher. For Catholic Schools Week, we had to lay on the floor so she could trace us on big paper. We then cut out the paper and drew what we wanted to be when we grew up. Of course I drew myself as a priest. But I was torn. I wrote an essay about becoming a movie or theatrical producer. God had entirely other ideas in store.

In 4th grade, we had Mrs. Kurant (God bless her). She lived up to her reputation of being one of the hardest teachers on earth, but we loved her. Once, I got caught sitting on my feet in my chair. In true Mrs. Kurant fashion, I was assigned the task of writing an essay about birds, why they perch on their feet, and why humans do not.

After 4th grade, St. Margaret Mary merged with Sacred Heart and St. Joseph. We became Holy Family. At the end of the 4th grade year, the students of Sacred Heart / St. Joseph were bussed to our school for the day (we were going to be using our school property the next year as the merged school) to meet us, play games, hang out, and make friends. It was great... I met the classmates who would be my friends for the second half of grade school and with whom I would be Confirmed and graduate into high school.

In 5th grade, we had Mrs. Pennell (God bless her), one of my favorite teachers of all my educational career. We were also part of an experiment called the "split class." Since there were too many kids for a 4th grade class but not enough for 2 classes... and there were too many kids for a 5th grade class but not enough for 2 classes, some of each class (4th & 5th grades) were split off into a combined class. Mrs. Pennell helped us learn a ton as we grew to study more "adult" subjects like social studies, history, and more advanced sciences. We also started some "departmental" experiences, like going to Sr. Mary Stanley for art, Mrs. Bucatch and the gym for PE, and Mr. Vizer for music.

6th grade brough Mrs. Pennell again - I was again in the older 1/2 of the split class. Notably, Mrs. Pennell is now the principal at Holy Family.

Mrs. Pennell was also our speech coach. And it's quite possible that at many points in my career I could point back and say that "all I ever really needed to know, I learned from Mrs. Pennell." The life skills and lessons from the 2 years in her classroom have carried me far. Including the life lesson when Matt Kelahan and John Haug and I were caught blowing spitwads onto the classroom ceiling. It was an experiment! And one for which we had to serve after-school time cleaning the Learning Center & Preschool.

In 7th grade, we had Mrs. Prazma (God bless her) and moved to a full departmental schedule, going to various teachers for various subjects. We dissected a worm and a frog. I won the contest for guessing when the first significant snowfall of the year would be.

In 8th grade, we had Mrs. Bucatch (God bless her.) She and our departmental teachers prepared us for life and for our future studies in high school. Mrs. Prazma let us dissect the pig that had been waiting in her science closet for years just for our class.

Through it all, there were others too... Mrs. Lueddeke with social studies... Mrs. Webb with English and a good dose of Catholic morality (that we could've probably used even more of)... Mrs. Friedel with algebra... and on... and on... (God bless all of them.)

Looking back, I wouldn't trade my experiences in Catholic school for the world. We were sheltered from a culture that was increasingly changing around us, infiltrated by the evil one and his work. We had a tremendous group of loving and active parents who pulled together to really enrich our academic experience with extracurriculars like a strong athletic program, a fantastic computer lab, and more. And we had a phenomenal parish and pastor who stood behind our school and worked hard to keep it strong.

Guiding it all with a very firm but loving hand was Sister Mary Angelene. As I've grown older, I've come to appreciate more and more the strong sheparding hand in which she held our school.

As I've grown older, I've also come to really grasp the sacrifice that Catholic school teachers make in many cases in order to teach in our Catholic schools. It truly is a ministry, and one of sacrifice at that. We owe them - and the religious who served our schools for so many years - a huge debt of gratitude.

I remember the night of our 8th grade graduation. The nervousness of moving on to the "big house". The sadness of our class of friends disbanding and going various ways for high school. The excitement of finally graduating from school and church (yeah, unfortunately, that's how we saw it.) But as I've grown, I've learned that the latter was never true, and never should've been. Sure, maybe we were burnt out on learning about our faith. But the journey that God wanted us to have with him was only continuing in new ways. It took a few years of walking a path away from Him for me to realize that.

So a salute to my Alma Mater - truly a "Nourishing Mother" - Holy Family School - and to all who stood by it, supported it, made it good and strong, and continue to do so today. You had a world of impact on my wife and on me... more than you'll ever really know, I'm sure... and we pray that our kids have the same opportunity through their whole education.
And to all Catholic schools. This week, as you celebrate your heritage and future, I thank you and pray for you.