1/28/22 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Servant Leadership with 8th grade at first grade lunch.

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

The above was written during Catholic Schools Week in 1974 by me as a senior at St. Charles. It was entered into a Diocesan essay contest on why Catholic Schools were special. It won second place in the contest which garnered a certificate awarded by Bishop Edward Hermann.

I remember the nuns with the funny names. We used to sit in class and wonder what was beneath those layers of black dress. We knew they had no hair, but were they really people like us?

I remember weekly trips to the confessional, guest appearances by the Parish priests in religion class and diocesan report cards, handed out personally by the pastor himself

I remember entering class as a freshman in high school and finding out that I had to wear a tie. I remember one rainy day in study hall when I was faced with the choice of doing my Latin homework or going to Mass. Students going to Mass got to eat lunch first! I remember a sunny day in May when I was urged by a teacher to attend a retreat called “Teens Encounter Christ.” I remember going to TEC for free because three of my classmates and I were the first from our school to become involved.

These are memories that I call to mind after twelve years of parochial education. But they are not my explanation for the greatness of Catholic schools. It is something more.

My education in the last twelve years has been one of individualization and personalization. Through most of those years these have been the main arguments used by Catholic educators in defense of their system. Public school officials though, have always counterattacked with better facilities and a totally free education. I could go to my grave speaking out for the superior quality of a parochial education, but people in favor of public schools could answer that this is only a matter of opinion, far from the truth. This then cannot be the factor behind the greatness of Catholic learning. It must be something more. 

Catholic education, for me, is a big family that cares for one another- a family where students give as well as receive and where teachers, like mothers and fathers, are not in it for the money. This family atmosphere is conducive to very real and meaningful learning. But even this is not enough. Every family must have a foundation on which to grow. The greatness must be sought elsewhere.

In order to arrive at an answer we must push aside the superstitions and the confessionals, the ties and even he individualization. We must go to the core of our education, the center upon which everything depends. When we find that core we discover that we need look no further. Jesus Christ is the center of a Catholic School

Education strives for perfection. God is perfect. Education attempts to secure deep bonds of personal friendship. Christ’s greatest commandment is love. Education serves as an inspiration to all students in the hope that they may go on to greatness. The Holy Spirit has been known to set people on fire with zeal and enthusiasm. Education urges extensive reading for both pleasure and enrichment. The greatest book ever written is the Bible. Education seeks the truth. Christ is the answer.

He once said, “Whenever two or more of you are gathered in My Name, there I am.” That is why Catholic education is so fantastic. 

We have no student center in our school but we do have a chapel. Sometimes during lunch I go up there and pray. It is quiet and I can feel His presence. We talk, and I learn from the world’s greatest teacher. I get a great education. 

As I look back on these words from 48 years ago I reflect on the experience of that young man and try to compare it to our present students here at Trinity Catholic. The senior from the class of 1974 had witnessed a complete change in both his church and his school in his twelve years of education. From nuns with habits and priests speaking in Latin with his back to the congregation to an experience such as TEC where both nuns and priests were in regular clothes and Mass was said sitting on the floor and singing songs with guitars. The senior of 1974 went from reciting the Baltimore Catechism to listening to Simon and Garfunkel albums and trying to find Jesus in the lyrics. Through it all, the senior of 1974 and his family had a fierce devotion to Catholic schools and what it did for young people both educationally and spiritually.

The students of 2022 have had a much different experience in some ways than his 1974 counterpart. We didn’t have to worry about COVID and masks and vaccines for one. But, at the core of the essay above was the overriding feeling from this 17 year old that God’s presence was very real and personal in his life and in his education. For our students my wish is that this core remains as powerful for them as it did for the student of the seventies.

Catholic Schools Week begins this week. While I know that we compete with some good public school districts I wish more students from our area could experience what we have the privilege of experiencing daily at Our Lady of Peace. We are united in daily prayer and focused on an education in which Christ is at the center at a time when spirituality and closeness to Christ have never been more important. 

As a senior in high school with my whole life ahead of me I never thought that I would spend that life, 43 years and counting, working in Catholic schools on the other end of the desk. I certainly never pictured myself a principal; although I was kind of a dorky 17 year old, even I wasn’t that dorky. But I have never, for one day, regretted the career choice that I made to be in education, and, specifically, to be in Catholic education.

Doing the math this is actually my 60th year in Catholic education. I thank my parents for sending me to Catholic schools as a student and the Diocese of Columbus for employing me as a teacher and an administrator. May your students feel that same faith and presence of God every day that they come to our little school.

Jim Silcott