Greetings from Santa Catalina Island!
I'd love to tell you about how awesome it is here, but I am, in fact, not here. Right now, It's Tuesday night and I'm at home writing this, but when this goes live, I will be away from it all. Since I am communicating with you from the past, I haven't yet taken any pictures to show you. But here's one that probably captures the setting.
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The Groucho Marx Offense
I'd love to tell you about how awesome it is here, but I am, in fact, not here. Right now, It's Tuesday night and I'm at home writing this, but when this goes live, I will be away from it all. Since I am communicating with you from the past, I haven't yet taken any pictures to show you. But here's one that probably captures the setting.
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The Groucho Marx Offense
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The dangers of fully operational windows.
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| Prepare to witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational window. |
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If only all chess matches were this interesting....
(I will be writing more on chess in the weeks ahead.)
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“It is a great fallacy for parents to believe that the education of their children depends on the school. The school is not the primary educator, but the secondary; its authority to teach the children is delegated by the parents, the right inherent in the father and the mother. Nor is the school ever a substitute for the parents. Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Thoughts for Daily Living)"
That being said, Sunday before last (that is, Septuagesima Sunday), was the open house at St. John the Baptist school. It being barely a year and a half before Damien enters kindergarten (my baby's growing up so fast), we decided to check out the place, to keep our options open. They said all the right things. At no point did anyone mention that the school's mission is to teach the children the things they need to be competitive in the work force, or to prepare for a career, or to get a good job. No, it was much closer to a quote that Tom Adams' mother once asked of a drill instructor: "education is about formation, not information: formation of the child's will and assistance with the discernment of vocation. Any educational effort that fails to form the will fails the student." Sr. Vianney, the sister who has run the school for 30-some years now, kept stressing faith formation as an integral part of education. I spoke with her about how some schools are teaching with the focus on careers. Sr. Vianney called that a recipe for an unhappy life.
I remember Mom talking about (one of) the reasons why she pulled us out of Nativity. She once commented that it was basically a public school education, with 30 minutes called "religion". I think they only ever begrudgingly took us to Mass on Holy Days. At SJB, the have weekly Mass, weekly adoration, and daily rosary for the students. The kindergartners pray a decade after lunch, and each one is given a "prayer bear" to take home to encourage them to pray on their own (or with family!).
I met with the teachers, one of whom I had met previously (she married one of the Breen clan, a Breen that attended FUS simultaneously to me, and brother of Steve Breen the cartoonist). A few of the Sisters recognized me (including Sr. Vianney) from 6:30am Mass every morning. I wasn't too sure what questions to ask, but I asked if they taught math with flash cards (sometimes) and if the students learned rote memorization of arithmetic (yes). I asked if they taught phonics (yes) and if they taught math for the calculator (no). I met the woman who runs the computer lab, and spent some time talking about what computer skills they learn. Mainly touch-typing and computer programs to supplement their school work. No Linux or object-oriented programming. The Murloc hit it off with the science teacher, who is also the drama teacher, so invariably the conversation turned towards cosplay. I never did get around to talk to the Latin teacher (which they teach to 7th and 8th grades). In kindergarten, they're learning Spanish. I spoke briefly with the music teacher, who also recognized me from the Latin choir. (Aside: it's interesting how many people now at St. Johns I know or who know me, even though I've never really spoken to them.)
All in all, it's definitely an inviting option, assuming we can somehow come up with $500 a month.
And of course, do you know who the rector at SJB is? Good ol' Father Norbert.
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Speaking of SJB, this was our Christmas present when we showed up for Midnight mass:
They removed the emblem from in front of the tabernacle!
The story was that when the renovated the Church, Bishop Brown's rule was that any church in the diocese that underwent significant modifications had to move the tabernacle out of the sanctuary (WHY?!?!). So the Norbertines, being almost as sly as Jesuits, placed a large gold emblem in front of the tabernacle, to fulfill this requirement (you can see it in the pictures on the parish website). Scarcely two weeks of Bishop Vann become the new Bishop and the emblem was removed. The plan is to eventually turn the tabernacle around (currently, the door is till in the back, in the adoration chapel).
Sounds like your parish is blessed with a good school. Ours is, too. But yeah, that price tag.... Another important question to ask is what kind of scholarships they offer!
ReplyDeleteThe price tag is a bit daunting, but it can be done with some reworking of the finances or me going back to work part- or full-time. Two things that were drilled into me by my parents when I was growing up was to never put a price tag on health or education. They also have a discount for each child entered after the first one, to the point where the fourth, fifth, and so on, are essentially free. The school will not go past a certain amount for tuition. That definitely helps.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, even if I did go to work part- or full-time, the school also offers after-school programs up to 6pm... three full hours after school has let out, precisely for those parents who need to work. They want to help the parents and be sure the children are looked after in a safe and adult-supervised environment.
Something else I noticed while there, and while talking to the science/drama teacher, was that the older kids look after the younger ones. There was a young gentleman there, probably 7th or 8th grade, and he watched both Damien and Anthony while I spoke to the teacher. I was a bit dumb-founded that a boy, barely touching his teens, was happily and willingly watching my boys, whom he'd never met, without having even been asked. I mentioned this to the teacher, and he said all the older kids are like that with the younger ones. He said the school was akin to one giant family and everyone looked after one another. Definitely a plus to hear that while touring the school's open house.
It's definitely a very viable option at this point.
Next time they have the open house again, we'll go see the other classes we didn't have time to check out. I want to be extra thorough. :)
One thing to check out: take a look at the readers (for all the grades). Are they Catholic? If not, are the stories at least inspiring and uplifting? Do they teach the children virtues? Are they entertaining? One of the factors that convinced me to homeschool you was the poor quality of the readers in your school, particularly in the older grades. The readers were secular and did not teach anything good. I remember the 7th grade reader in particular had stories that were depressing and filled with a sense of hopelessness. I didn't want you to have to read such negativity. Children's books should be positive, interesting, inspiring, uplifting, and fun. The older grades should have stories about overcoming real difficulties, but they should be hopeful, not despairing. The Faith and Freedom readers that we used at home were the best.
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