9/2/22 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: The SPICE Movie Night was a big success!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

There’s an old black and white movie with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney called Boys Town. It is a very fictionalized story about Father Flanagan, played by Tracy and his founding of a home for orphan boys in Nebraska in 1917.

As I mentioned, it is very fictionalized but the message of the movie, as quoted by Spencer Tracy is a good one: “There is no such thing as a bad boy.” Of course, we know, unfortunately that this is not always the case. But the optimism of the message, which holds true for both boys and girls, is also the message of Christian salvation: We are all deserving of love, and all have the ability to be good.

What I always liked about this movie is that the boys ran the school. They ran the kitchen, they published the school paper, they did the farming and the cleaning. They even had a peer court of discipline to deal with minor transgressions. The teachers taught but the boys ran the organization.

This was somewhat on my mind as I contemplated this coming school year. Our purpose in middle school is to prepare our students for secondary school, not just educationally, but socially and spiritually as well. As many of you know, the four years of high school goes by quicker than that sports car in the left lane. We want to do what we can to get them to hit the ground running.

In our middle school classrooms high school style desks have replaced the ones that they have occupied since first grade, with only the legs getting longer. Sixth and seventh graders have some choice with a few electives: extra ELA. Spanish or Latin. Extra PE or extra music. 10 8th graders are doing independent study in Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Russian, ASL, creative writing, finance and history.

All the middle schoolers, in addition to their standards -based report card, will be graded traditionally and will also get a letter grade at the end of each quarter which reflects their entire body of work each quarter. As in high school, homework counts towards their grade. Students will have accurate G.P.A.’s that they can, hopefully, watch grow each quarter. Honor Role will be tied to their grades and conduct in its entirety.

My hope is that we demand more of our students, put the safety net out when we need to but posture them to be as successful as they can in ninth through twelfth grades.

In our eighth grade we assembled them last year for a Constitutional Convention and asked for input from them on how we can have a better, more productive school. Students were grouped into committees, amendments were introduced and voted on by themselves, their parents, and the faculty. One issue even went before the school board. Not every proposal passed but many did. This year the class of 2023 came for two extra days of school to initiate and plan for some of these changes.

For instance, each 8th grader as a volunteer job that they do once a week in service to the school and younger students. Additionally, they applied for a “paying job” which they will do daily or weekly. For these jobs they will be filling out a timecard which will go to 8th grade HR Directors who will approve them and present them to the “Our Lady of Peace Disciple Bank” where checks will be issued on the 15th and 30th of each month, minus taxes of course.

The students can then purchase things from the 8th grade store by writing a check. Everything from candy and gel pens, to dress down passes and gift cards are available. Do they save their money to buy something bigger or empty their account for a Snickers Bar? Financial literacy here we come!

We are asking our 8th graders to be our Disciples this year, modeling good behavior to the younger students and to each other in class, the hallways, in the cafeteria, and at recess. Most importantly, at morning prayer and Mass. It will not be an overnight process. Good habits of leadership and service must be learned, reinforced, and practiced and this is what we are attempting to accomplish this year.

Our 7th graders have already begun their training for next year with a once-a-week class on leadership and character. Our hope is that as the younger grade students see both the opportunities that accompany 8th grade year, they will aspire to emulate and even advance further.

In the movie, Boys Town, Mickey Rooney is a disaster at the school but eventually comes around. I am hoping that we have no disasters this year, but I fully expect that our middle school will not always act like young adults. Sometimes, as you know, they revert to kindergarten habits. But we are in the business of planting seeds, and it is my belief that some of the changes we are making will nourish those seeds and help them grow. Pray for our students in that journey.



Jim Silcott