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Commentary

By Liz Quirin

Catholic School Experiences Can Change Lives

I used to think Catholic Schools Week was just a way for schools to goof off for five days, go bowling, roller skating or wear crazy clothes. After wandering around the diocese during that week, I know I was mistaken. Catholic schools set aside that week, with an enormous amount of planning and hard work, to pay special attention to the folks who help them during the year — volunteers, grandparents, business people in the community, parents, teachers and students, to name just a few.

The activities included more than “thank yous” to folks, though. I spoke with an eighth-grader at St. Augustine’s in Belleville who designed a certificate in braille for Jon Brough, a police officer shot and blinded in the line of duty in 2006. Josh spoke shyly about his project, but fervently about his belief that Jon Brough is a hero. He didn’t know about the incident or the man, but when Jon visited the school, Josh heard his story and was impressed.

Jon’s courage — and that of his family, in facing the “new normal” life he has now — continue to be tested and strengthened as he faces one surgery after another to repair damage to his face. Students at St. Augustine’s have an excellent role model in this former student who demonstrates courage and faith in his daily struggles to wrap his arms around a new way of being a man, a husband and a father.
In other parts of the diocese, Catholic school students practiced their faith, shared their time and talents with others and learned some life lessons along the way.

Those of us who graduated from Catholic schools many years ago didn’t celebrate Catholic Schools Week. We completed our lessons, tried to stay out of trouble with “Sister,” and counted our blessings at the end of every day when the last bell rang to go home. If you were guilty of some infraction, your parents always stood on “Sister’s” side, questioning you about what you could possibly have done to incur her displeasure. As you can imagine, I was not always on the right side of the argument.

However, Catholic schools must have made a serious impact on my thinking and way of looking at the world. I sent my children to Catholic schools as well, and I don’t know exactly what impact they’ve had on them yet, but time will tell. They grew up in a time very different from mine, and they face very different, and probably more difficult, issues than I did growing up. These days Catholic school teachers see the value of introducing service to others to their students, even as youngsters in elementary school. Their experiences in reaching out to someone else will, in the long run, make a life-long, if not life-changing, impact on them and the people they meet, and it begins, in some cases, in Catholic schools.