The
Marina Bay Sands Hotel was my last view of Singapore as we departed the
city-state for Los Angeles. “We” refers to a team of five La Salle colleagues
who joined me on a week-long trip to Hong Kong and Singapore. These two cities
have a sizeable Lasallian “footprint” with sixteen schools between them. We
were particularly interested in visiting three schools: La Salle College in
Hong Kong and Saint Joseph’s Institution and Saint Joseph’s International
School in Singapore. These three schools are highly-regarded for their superb
college-preparatory programs and it was my idea that they and we might benefit
from establishing some form of networking relationship which could include
students and teachers from each institution.
Our
hosts were truly gracious, generous with the time they shared with us and
clearly proud of the work they do on behalf of the students entrusted to their
care. Their sense of hospitality mirrored what I know visitors experience when
they come to La Salle here in Pasadena. There was definitely a “Lasallian feel”
to the schools we visited – surrounding their students with historical images
of De La Salle and other Christian Brother saints. In fact, I suspect they do a
more consistent job in this regard than we do here in Pasadena! What makes this
effort truly impressive is the fact that all three schools serve a significant
number of non-Christian (Buddhist and Muslim) students. And, given the fact
that two of the three schools are 100 and 166 years old, one should assume that
the Christian Brothers have always served a significant non-Christian student
population. I was struck by this commitment to sustaining a Lasallian identity
in a part of the world where Catholics are clearly in a minority. Saint
Joseph’s Institution, for example, proudly displays their Lasallian Core Values
(Faith-Service-Community) throughout the campus, making this visitor feel like
he could be at any school sponsored by the Christian Brothers here in
California! La Salle College, Hong Kong, decisively proclaims this Lasallian
principle:
(The College) seeks to
empower all students to realize their potential through
academic study, sport,
and the arts
Reminds me of
the “three-legged” stool (academics, arts, athletics) I like to use as a
metaphor to describe the La Salle
Difference here in Pasadena!
The
opportunity to visit successful Lasallian schools in a part of the world that
is non-Western and, largely, non-Christian was transformative for me. I came
away from the experience more convinced than ever that Lasallian – and Catholic
– values can be meaningful to students of all – and no – faiths. Even more
powerful is the recognition that what we do here in Pasadena is echoed in
Lasallian schools a half a world away. While I have been aware of the fact that
Lasallian schools operate in over 70 countries, it hasn’t really occurred to me
to appreciate how deeply connected we are, united in passing on a nearly 400
year old educational tradition bequeathed by a genius of an educational
innovator – Saint John Baptist de La Salle.
As
I departed Singapore and thought about the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, I realized
that my final memory of my first trip to Asia was a structure containing three
separate elements united by a boat-shaped “bridge.” What an appropriate visual
metaphor for my experience of our shared Lasallian world that bridges oceans
and continents for the simple purpose of delivering a high quality “Human and
Christian education to the young, especially the poor.”[i]
