Report
The Ridge
November 2013
Goals and Criteria offer a countercultural response to the underlying noise of the world I just returned from a meeting of the Network of Sacred Heart Schools, an association of Catholic independent schools and the United States Province of the Society of the Sacred Heart, which includes the 22 U.S. schools and two Canadian Sacred Heart schools. Heads of school and board chairs from the schools gather twice a year for conversation, formation and professional development as school leadership. Once a group exclusively comprised of Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJs), the Network is now predominantly composed of lay people charged with remaining faithful to the educational mission of the Society. A colleague from another school shared with me a story that continues to intrigue me. It was about a discussion he had with his daughter, who had just started high school. During a break on the first day at her new school, a bunch of girls gathered around the new ninth-grader and asked her a simple question: “What kind of music do you like?” After hearing of her preference for country music, the girls all laughed and walked away; and the new girl realized she had just failed her first high school test. That night when she asked her father what she could have done differently, his initial advice was, “Well, you might have said you liked heavy metal or rap or reggae or something edgy.” But after thinking a bit more, he told her that she had actually handled things in exactly the right way, that it was good to have been honest. It was in that spirit of honesty that he told her that he himself had been a very uncool kid, that her mom had also been a very uncool adolescent and that she should try to accept the fact that she was from a very long line of very uncool people. He wasn’t sure he had helped relieve her anxiety, but he kept thinking she had done the right thing. The next day my colleague found himself in an eighth-grade English class where students were engaged in an exercise on courage.
One boy wrote a short reflection about a time he stumbled upon a violent scene at night when he was alone in a dark alley, in a big city far from home. The other students listened closely as he read his story, and they seemed to grow even more respectful as he talked about his own sense of fear. The author confessed that he still wondered about how he had handled himself that dark night. A few boys nodded their heads in silent agreement, and as they did, he could almost see them put themselves in that alley, as they tried to figure out what they themselves might have done. My colleague kept thinking back to the advice he had given his own daughter. He realized that courage comes in many different moments, regardless of whether you are a boy in a dark alley or the new girl at school. I find myself wondering about the difference, too. We are all shaped by the culture that surrounds us, a culture that quietly tells us how real men should behave and what real girls should be like. Hiding vulnerability is often at the core. At times, this is the hidden curriculum of our culture. What I truly respect about Sacred Heart schools is that we offer a countercultural response to the underlying noise of the world: the Goals and Criteria. These timeless values cross lines of religion, race, identity and culture; they naturally lead us to be compelled to action. Your daughter is growing in her understanding of these ideals every day that she come to this campus, interacts with her teachers, enjoys the company of her classmates and remains open to her spiritual and academic journey as a child of the Sacred Heart. We are glad she is with us and delighted she brings you along to school from time to time … even if you do like country music. Mark Pierotti Head of School