Christian Brothers High School • Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve
A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF MEDIA, VISUAL, AND PERFORMING ARTS... “ISN’T IT FUNNY HOW DAY BY DAY NOTHING CHANGES, BUT WHEN YOU LOOK BACK, EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT.” -C. S. LEWIS
APRIL 2015
SPRING SEMESTER Christian Brothers High School Monthly Newsletter
www.cbhs-sacramento.org
INSIDE
It is not hard to believe teaching day after day that somehow you have been cast in the movie “Groundhog Day” and no one told you. The alarm goes off, you get to school, log on the computer, greet kids, and teach lessons that have been taught since De La Salle opened the first Brothers school in 1685. In the world of visual and performing arts, the routine is only broken by scheduled activities like Liturgies, Christmas concerts, auditions for a plays, or the La Salle Art Show. Even these events and many others that fill the calendar have the familiarity of repeated cyclical events we do every year. Day by day nothing changes. At the start of every school year we meet new students who are full of hope, adolescent angst, good humor, and awkwardness. They are often determined that this year they will be on top of all their assignments, dutifully complete homework, and take notes in class like a medieval monk. Teachers also promise themselves that papers will be graded on time, lessons presented with charm and grace, and every email answered before they leave for the day. These noble ambitions may get mixed reviews at the end of the year, and while we are the same people; we are different. We have grown. Most of this growth comes in our relationships with our students. We know their struggles and the efforts they have made to complete the school year. They in turn have seen us stumble plenty of times. A short time before the members of the class of 2015 were born Christian Brothers was a very different place. If a parent wanted to contact a teacher, they would call the office and someone would answer the rotary dial phone and write down on a slip of paper the number to return the call. Teachers would then go to a phone booth in the main hallway and use an access code to call the parent back. Some parents found it more efficient to write a letter and have the post office deliver it. Before too long a few teachers were given 20 pound “laptops” to aid in their instruction. Guest speakers at in-services talked
about how computers and the internet would transform education. These visionaries talked about a day, maybe within our teaching career, where every classroom would have a computer to tap into the “web”. Crazy talk. If you knew the campus back in the day and just now walked on it for a tour you would practically need a map. The changes are so many and so significant that you would wonder if the old school was torn down and a modern school built in its place. Many of these changes are worth noting: the STEM building, The Witry Field House, the Learning Commons with kids on iPads, and of course the beautiful George Cunningham ’40 Performing Arts Center, the most state-ofthe-art theater in Northern California. The kids, by the way, are particularly fond of the new drinking fountains. Go figure. Our faith tells us that these changes, often hidden day to day, are the Providence of God. We are given the opportunity to use these wonderful facilities to teach rigorous and relevant lessons, and most importantly build relationships with our students, preparing them for their future work. Only using the long arc of history do we see the dramatic and transformational nature of the path we are on today and that our work is blessed. We are so very grateful. The next time you are on campus take a walk around and see how much has changed. And don’t forget to check out those drinking fountains. They are amazing.
Thank you,
Findlay McIntosh Director of Media, Visual & Performing Arts
Counseling and Guidance Lasallian Student Life - Campus Ministry - Christian Service - Student Activities
Athletics Media Visual and Performing Arts Talon Vocations Falcon Family Faces