Catholic Schools

I did not experience the difference between equal and equitable when I first realized it was there; I tripped over it and — though I am embarrassed to admit this now — thought that I had discovered a new injustice. It was an incredible revelation to a well-meaning white suburbanite…

My buddy Chuck was told that his hall monitor services were “no longer needed” because he’d been lax in handing out yellow slips to malefactors. His sudden replacement by Callahan made me wary, so I skulked past him, but he nailed me anyway. I had just turned my head towards…

The Rockford Register Star has an update about a Catholic school teacher and Boy Scout camp co-director who has been charged with a sex crime against a child. The front-page story fails to include the offender’s first name. You’ve heard of ‘bury the lede.’ This is ‘bury the deed.’ Someone…

There is still some snow on the ground but the sun is shining and it’s Friday. As Angelo was getting ready for school this morning, he hollered out, “Wait! It’s Friday, isn’t it?” I confirmed the day and date. “Yes!” Angelo shouted. “High knees!” “High knees” is something our family…

QUESTION: What can I try when I’m stuck in the daily Lesson Planning trap? ANSWER: Instead of planning on a computer, plan with sticky notes on poster board. In my first month as a teacher, I wasted a lot of time staring at the ACE template trying to come up…

Jocelyn was inducted into the National Honor Society at Guilford High School last night. I couldn’t be there because I had Naked Angels Tuesdays@9. Even though the high school is a hop, skip and jump from our house, I couldn’t risk being late for my 8:30 Zoom call. …

The Lowdown on Limbo I grew up in West. Locals refer to it as West (comma) Texas to distinguish it from the state’s vast, western region. West is in Central Texas, about eighteen miles north of Waco. The population is predominately Czech Catholic. I attended St. Mary’s Catholic school from…

In the summer of 1993 I worked at my high school. The work was honest. The pay was good. But there was a certain shame I crucified myself with for working at my school. I feared peer persecution: I attended an all-boys Catholic high school about which I regularly reported…