Brick by Brick

A Fitting Book-End

On September 4, 2007, we started our year simply and together -- with people, prayer, and bricks. Similarly, at our end-of-the-year commemoration, our community of students, staff, and families gathered to mark this unique year and all that has been accomplished.

Looking back with words and pictures, it is clear that we have accomplished a great deal and built a real, solid, and lasting foundation for our school. I am proud of what we have made together.

Click to read Student Council remarks (Download studentcouncilremarks.pdf) and Principal's address(Download Principalsremarks.pdf) .

Let Me Say a Few Words...

Last week I was asked to speak at a gathering of teachers and administrators from all the schools in our Diocese to be held on Friday. Specifically, I was asked to focus on Cape Cod as part of the larger story of Catholic education in the Diocese of Fall River and its attendant lessons of birth, death, and new life (For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven [Eccl 3.1]).

Despite (or because of...) the tight leash of time (2-5 minutes...I can't clear my throat in that time!), this little assignment's got me in a reflective way as I dwell on how our Cape 'trees' color and change the Diocesan 'forest.'

I'm told that the duty's mine in part due to remarks given at the Cape-Wide Catholic Schools Week Mass held at St. Pius X Church in January. This special liturgy featured students, teachers, and guests from all five Cape Catholic schools and was celebrated by Bishop Coleman.

Read those remarks here: Download csw_mass_remarks.pdf

Lion Pride? [12-15-07]

Coming into a pair of tickets to Friday's Celtics game had me reminiscing about the team's glory days. As a boy I had an album called Celtic Pride(free from A&P, or something like that), a compilation of Johnny Most's descriptions of team accomplishments ("Havliceck stole the ball!") which created a palpable sense of Celtic pride for me and I imagine for many a New Englander.This pride, of course, had its source in the team's winning tradition and multiple championships. This is a privileged position; to be able to take pride based on real evidence of accomplishments linked to a clear standard of success.

These reminiscences brought me around to the question of pride at (and in) Pope John Paul II High School. A reality of our new school, in my observation, is that some or perhaps many students do not yet feel pride in JP II. This isn't to say that they feel negatively -- its only to say that, as ninth-graders in a environment without tradition and an established identity, feelings come slowly and cautiously. All of us but young people especially "look around" to others to see how to feel. They're at a tough age to decide who we are and what we are and derive pride without the helpful validation of older students.

What's tough for freshmen to see, but no less authentic a source of pride, is pride in responding to the call and pride in meeting the challenge. My desire is to see our first class of thirty-six to take pride that it is they who have been called and they who are  meeting the challenge -- The challenge of building  without forebears and from their own strength and character. I see our students responding to the call and meeting the challenge, yet I see students unsure how to feel about their unique role. 

Time and patience. It will be gratifying indeed to see students proud of themselves and proud of their school. I look forward to the day when student articulate, in whatever manner they are able to, that "We made it happen" and "It is good." That'll be Lion Pride!

Leadership and Culture [12-13-07]

When leaving Ohio, a friend and colleague gave me Witness to Hope, George Weigel's biography of Pope John Paul II (sort of required reading for my new gig...).

A dense and philosophical treatment of John Paul's remarkable life, one point about his papacy really stood out in my mind: John Paul's insistence that culture is the glue that holds people together, not national politics or ideology. Wherever he went, he appealed to people to build up their culture. It was Polish culture, for example, that resisted communist politics and ideology. It is American culture that holds out such freedom and yet so many abuses of this freedom.

Yesterday Pope John Paul II High School held, for the first time, Student Council elections. Three strong candidates were selected to be representatives, two as officers, and one president. It is a high-quality group that I believe can do wonderful things for the school.

I think about leadership and culture and John Paul's insistence on the importance of culture because the challenge these young leaders face is not so much organizing activities as it is forming student culture in our new school. While this formation is already underway, our new leaders have the ability to develop norms, values, patterns and habits that solidify our student culture and define who we are. These leaders do not have past culture at this school to rely upon, so have only their values, integrity, and leadership skills. I'm betting that these student leaders and their abilities will be more than enough to forge strong culture. There's a football expression to the effect that 'We win with people'. Stay tuned...

Talk about leadership training!