Assuring quality now and in the future...

               

By the time you read this, we will have concluded our accreditation visit by WCEA/WASC (Western Catholic Educational Association/Western Association of Schools & Colleges). Some might not be aware of the fact that La Salle belongs to two accrediting associations – one is for Catholic schools (WCEA) and one is for private and public schools (WASC).  Because we are, first and foremost, a Catholic school, we care deeply about “measuring up” to the standards of WCEA; but, because we also care deeply about meeting the standards of area private schools with whom we compete for Mission-appropriate students, we belong to WASC as well.  Fortunately for us, both agencies cooperate with each other when it comes to accrediting schools like La Salle who have a foot in more than one educational world.

                As such, we want to make sure that we are authentically Catholic and authentically college-preparatory. Accreditation by WCEA and WASC assures the community we serve that we can deliver on both counts. What does that look like? As Brother Christopher explained to the students this morning, the process involved spending the last eighteen months seeking the opinions of all La Salle constituents (Employees, Parents, Students, Alums, Trustees, Regents and Community representatives) via on-line surveys and various in-person opportunities (such as Parent Association meetings, Governance meetings, Student assemblies and Alumni gatherings) to learn from the people we serve what we do well and what we can do better. These encounters produced hundreds of pages of data which we then examined and synthesized to produce a “snapshot” of what La Salle looks like right now and what it should look like in the next five to ten years.

                What is unique about the process we are experiencing now is that, over the course of roughly the same time frame we also underwent a strategic planning process which focused on six broad initiatives we believe will position La Salle for long-term success in the highly competitive educational marketplace that surrounds the City of Pasadena.  While the two processes are not necessarily in alignment – one seeks to produce a “snapshot” of the current situation; the other makes claims about what the future will look like – they happily overlapped in one particular area: the development of an educational improvement plan designed to ensure that La Salle continues to provide a quality product for the students entrusted to our care.

                To that end, four of the six strategic goals:

1.       Expand and deepen Lasallian formation programs to better articulate the School’s Catholic and Lasallian identity.

2.       Ensure the delivery of a relevant and challenging college preparatory curriculum to address the diverse learning needs of all students.

3.       Strengthen the recruitment of a diverse faculty and staff to better align with a diverse student population.

4.       Strengthen the quality of the student experience outside of the classroom in:

•     Athletics

•     Guidance & Counseling

•     Student Life

became the basis of the WCEA/WASC educational improvement plan, while the last two goals:

5.       Ensure campus facilities effectively support the implementation of the Mission

6.       Ensure sustainability of the Mission through efficient and effective leveraging of Finance, Development and Marketing functions

anchor the Master Plan that is slowly wending its way through the Pasadena city approval process.  We are proud of the synergy created by the alignment of the accreditation, strategic and master planning processes at this particular moment in the School’s history. This alignment tells us that we have “got it right” when it comes to understanding what our community expects of La Salle in terms of delivering a high-quality college preparatory education to the largest and most ethnically and economically diverse student populations in the Greater Pasadena area.

                A fundamental component of the strategic planning process and, implicit in the accreditation process, has been the promotion of this value proposition:

What distinguishes La Salle from the other college-preparatory high schools in the greater Pasadena area is the opportunity for students to nurture their individual passion in academics, the arts, athletics and/or the spiritual life. Because it is the largest private high school in Pasadena, La Salle is able to offer a diversity of opportunities both in and out of the classroom that is unparalleled among its peers.

If one views the four goals of the EIP through the lens of this value proposition, I think it becomes obvious that the “snapshot” we have provided for the WCEA/WASC Visiting Committee and the future we envision for La Salle are not only in alignment, but offer an exciting opportunity to cement our vision of being “the school of choice in the San Gabriel Valley.”

Why I (finally) agree with George Will...

I have to admit it never occurred to me that I would agree with pundit, George Will on anything; but a column he authored just before Christmas (I read him, I just don’t agree with him) caused me to take a second look.  Will’s column focused on the current hot-button issue raging across college and university campuses: whether to define (or not) the limits of free speech.

In it he applauded the leadership of Purdue University for its efforts to receive the top ranking from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) which opposes campus restrictions on speech. This is a particularly thorny issue, in part, because understandable concerns about how to handle hate speech in the Academy have evolved to include “micro-aggressions” (conversational messages that - intentionally or not - denigrate a member of a minority group) and “trigger warnings” (alerting students that an upcoming classroom discussion topic could “trigger” in them painful memories of previously experienced trauma).

In support of his frustration with this galloping trend, Will cites Emerita University of Chicago President Hanna Holburn Gray, who summarized the “Chicago Principle” (supporting free speech on campus) this way: 

"Education should not be intended to make people comfortable, it is meant to make them think.”

 What caused me to give Will’s column a second look was his reference to an amazing turn of events that took place on Yale’s campus last Halloween.  Erika Christakis and her husband, Nicholas, are faculty members and “Masters” of one of Yale’s residential colleges. In response to some student concerns regarding a series of instructions by Yale’s Intercultural Affairs Committee encouraging students to be culturally sensitive in their selection of Halloween costumes (think Prince Harry and the swastika debacle), Christakis sent an email to her students encouraging them to question the rationale for these instructions - largely along the lines of this notion: shouldn’t college-age students be allowed to make their own mistakes? The final sentence of her email summarized her position:

“Whose business is it to control the forms of costumes of young¨ people? It’s not mine, I know that.”

That rather innocuous statement set off a fire-storm of protest by students who were outraged at Christakis’ “insensitivity” to their felt victimization at the hands of “oppressive” attitudes seemingly prevalent throughout the University

Now, if you have hung in with me this long, I want to assure you that this isn’t an academic version of “inside baseball.” What alarmed me - and what caused me to agree with George Will - was what happened next.  In an attempt to mediate the firestorm of protest, Christakis’ husband - and co-Master - Nicholas, a tenured Sociologist and Physician, voluntarily met with concerned students on a nearby quad. It should not be surprising that, given the emotionally charged atmosphere, nothing Dr. Christakis said was going to make a dent in the students’ anger (ignoring whether their anger was, in fact, righteous). What was surprising - indeed astonishing - was the debased quality of their interaction with him. (Check out this link for a brief view of the outrageous interchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsgc0k594Js). I will just quote a few statements made by one student - who persistently shouted at Professor Christakis throughout her interaction with him:

“Be quiet! … “Why the f… did you accept the position”… “It is not about creating an intellectual space here” … “You are disgusting.”

After which, she stormed off, leaving the professor without an opportunity to respond…a professor with quite a pedigree - here is a snippet of his Yale Curriculum Vitae:

Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is co-author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, which has been translated into nearly twenty foreign languages. He is a sociologist and physician who conducts research in the area of biosocial science, investigating the biological predicates and consequences of social phenomena. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, where he is appointed as the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science, and he is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science.

So - here’s my issue - assuming that these students (and the one quoted here) have a righteous complaint - how did it come to pass that young people eligible to vote, intellectually gifted college students, individuals attending one of the most elite universities in the United States - found it acceptable to shout, curse and disrespect an accomplished, renowned professor who took the time to engage in a conversation about their concerns regarding an email sent by his wife? As I watched the video of this young woman shouting at Professor Christakis, I wondered what her parents’ reaction was (the video went viral, so I assume they saw it).  I know what my parents’ reaction would have been - get on the next plane home - we’re not paying tuition for you to allow people to think we didn’t raise you to speak respectfully to your elders.

            I worry about trends like this playing out at colleges and universities across the nation (University of Missouri, Wesleyan, University of Illinois, Claremont McKenna College and the University of Michigan, to name a few) which lead to shouting matches self-censorship and forced resignations - and here’s why -  because we here at La Salle devote a great deal of time and energy shaping an intellectual environment in which students not only feel safe to articulate opposing, controversial and even unpopular positions, but - as importantly - to do so with respect for those engaged in the conversation, regardless of their placement on the ideological spectrum.

            I don’t know where this trend of anger-fueled political discourse will take the Academy, but I do know this: we expect our students - and our graduates - to anchor their intellectual debates in the Lasallian values of respect for the individual and a commitment to nurturing a community atmosphere in which no one has the right to shout at another simply because they disagree.

            In support of that principle, George Will and I are on the same page.

---

¨ meaning college-age

Why it's okay to disagree with Pope Francis

For obvious reasons, I can’t resist devoting yet another column to the impact Pope Francis is having on the Catholic Church and the larger secular world it occupies. Needless to say, his amazing trip to the United States sparks my desire to comment in this space.  That having been said, my perspective of his impact isn’t prompted by his ability to draw record breaking crowds, nor is it his role as the first pontiff in history to address both houses of Congress.  Rather, I’m drawn to comment on a little-known, albeit pernicious, incident that was reported by the media back in September and vanished from public attention, as quickly as it surfaced.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) wrote a letter explaining why he planned to boycott the Pope’s address to Congress.  The reason? Climate change.  Here is his explanation:

“Media reports indicate His Holiness … intends to focus the brunt of his speech on climate change… If the Pope stuck to standard Christian theology, I would be the first in line… But to promote questionable science as Catholic dogma is ridiculous…. If the Pope plans to spend the majority of his time advocating for flawed climate change policies, then I will not attend.”

I am troubled by three assertions Congressman Gosar makes.  The first:

If the Pope stuck to standard Christian theology, I would be the first in line

Ignoring the hubris inherent in the Congressman’s implication that he knows “standard” Christian theology at least as well as the Pope, I wonder if he has ever consulted the website of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which articulates this, seventh, principle of Catholic social teaching (i.e. “standard” Christian theology):

Care for God's Creation:

We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored.

Those of us (myself included) who have taught Catholic social teaching within the context of a high school Religion classroom can easily assert that students and adults alike can disagree with respect to how we care for the earth, but all recognize – as a part of “standard” Christian theology that we must care for the earth. Which leads me to my next issue with Congressman Gosar’s complaint:

“But to promote questionable science as Catholic dogma is ridiculous”:

If Gosar is laying claim to knowledge about Catholic dogma, he might want to check his sources. In fact, according to one religious scholar, the faithful are only required to accept those teachings as dogma, if the Church clearly and specifically identifies them as infallible dogmas (i.e. incapable of error). There are 255 dogmas considered infallible by the Catholic Church and none of them reference Climate Change, its causes, effects or validity. In short, Representative Gosar – who is Jesuit-educated and considers himself a proud Catholic – mistakes the Pope’s challenge that Christians should care for the environment (a position Popes John Paul II and Benedict XI also promoted) for an arcane theological distinction that is as wide of the mark as his misunderstanding of “standard” Christian theology.  Which leads me to my last issue with the Congressman’s decision to boycott the Pope’s speech:

“If the Pope plans to spend the majority of his time advocating for flawed climate change policies, then I will not attend.”

“If”???  

Really? You mean he doesn’t know what – or even if the Pope will be “advocating for flawed climate change policies”? The Congressman boycotted the speech because he assumed that the Pope would be tackling this issue in a meaningful way. He assumed that the Pope would be arguing in favor of a position in opposition to the Congressman’s. He assumed that he would find himself in disagreement with the Pope and so could not bring himself to attend an historic occasion in which he could, at the very least, get a better understanding of the Pope’s vision for the Church in America…all because of one disputed hot-button issue.

                Any La Salle freshman can tell you what’s wrong with Congressman Gosar’s approach – the whole process of intellectual inquiry demands that attention is paid to opposing viewpoints. Walk into any Humanities classroom at La Salle and you will encounter robust debates in which the words “Yes, but…” dominate the exchange between students and teachers. We tell our students that to hold one position without understanding the other view is intellectually dishonest and we don’t accept assumptions that aren’t grounded in a careful examination of the contrary argument. We expect our students to hold competing views. We also expect them to not only defend their position but to attend to the opposing viewpoint. Why?  Because intellectual growth and development is nurtured in the Petri dish of opinion, argument and debate. Absent that set of conditions and the kind of stalemate that has paralyzed Congress for the better part of a decade becomes the norm. Shouting replaces authentic debate. Truth is defined as “my position.” Compromise becomes impossible.

                As saddened as I am by Congressman Gosar’s myopic view of Pope Francis’ moral and intellectual leadership, I am all the more encouraged by the rigor of the classroom experience our students encounter on a daily basis. I am quite confident that when they leave La Salle, they will be well on their way to becoming intellectually curious adults who recognize that “Truth” is to be sought, not defined and that there is great value in seeking out opposing views.

                I think Pope Francis would agree.

Let us remember...

Let us remember…that we are in the holy presence of God.

                Anyone associated with La Salle - actually with any Lasallian school in the 83 countries in which the Christian Brothers are to be found - will immediately recognize this salutation. It begins the prayer at the start of the school day, it begins every class, it launches administrative and faculty meetings, indeed, it is even to be found at the start of athletic contests. It is so ubiquitous that I am fond of telling the story of one La Salle alum who decided to find out how many graduates of Lasallian schools were eating lunch in his college cafeteria.  So he stood on a chair and shouted out the first part of the salutation and, not surprisingly, received, in return, the second part of the response from throughout the room.  Needless to say, he struck up quite a few new friendships as a result.

                So, I was delighted to be in attendance at our recent Junior Class Leadership Ceremony, in which the students are presented with various symbols of their newly acquired status as Upperclassmen, to hear Aly Hartman ’17 and Jonny Clarizio ’17 not only begin their student presentation to their classmates and their parents with this salutation but to then expound on its significance for them as they described their journey at La Salle. It’s one thing to shout the salutation out in a crowded cafeteria as a way of identifying those who share the experience of life in a Lasallian school; it is quite another to get up in front of your teenage peers and expound on its actual significance in your day-to-day life.  Aly began her portion of the talk with this elegant, but simple observation:

The presence of God is a tricky thing to address.

Indeed. Adults can certainly empathize with her observation. After all Aly and Jonny – quite naturally - expect their parents and teachers to help them understand the work of God’s hand in their lives. Little do they know that we find talking about the presence of God just as tricky as they do. Yet, it was ever thus…children become adults only to find that understanding the presence of God is as tricky in adulthood as it was during their adolescence. Still, it is their adolescent belief in the transparency of life’s events which sustains their sense of wonder that God is present even in the smallest of details. How do they come to trust that, because of the presence of God, their world makes sense? Here’s Jonny’s explanation:

I experienced the presence of God every time I stepped onto the football field.  I felt the presence of God in each of those friends and each of the coaches. La Salle became a place where the

presence of God was present every day for me.

Aly echoed Jonny’s description of the close-knit quality of the ways in which his teammates interacted with each other by noting what happens when her fellow actors gather just before a show opens:

Standing in a circle, holding hands and praying with thirty people that I had begun to consider as family made me realize I wanted to be a positive asset in the lives of those around me.

Listening to these two remarkable young people describe their essential trust in the presence of God and attributing it to their experience of life at La Salle was not only humbling but challenging at the same time. I am humbled to think that we can nurture such a profound experience of God’s presence that teenagers can name clearly quotidian moments as examples.  At the same time, I am challenged to support my colleagues - who faithfully deliver the Mission every day – by providing the resources they need to be their best selves in and out of the classroom. And in being their best selves, they create the conditions that nurture trust in the presence of God which the young people entrusted to our care deserve to take for granted. Aly described this dynamic even more eloquently:

We often forget God in the simple times.  It is typical for us to only turn to Him in times of need or in times of triumph. Yet it is in the most mundane of moments of our lives that we

develop the most in the hands of the Lord.

Aly and Jonny remind me of that wonderful translation of Matthew 21:16 – “out of the mouths of babes…” This year’s Junior Leadership Ceremony showcased two special teenagers who encouraged this world-weary adult to pay attention to the myriad ways in which La Salle High School creates a nurturing space for them in order to develop an appreciation for the hand of God in their lives. Saint John Baptist de La Salle probably did not realize that - centuries later - the priorities he set for the early Brothers would so powerfully impact young people when, in the 1718 edition of his Rule, he stressed the importance of:

…giv(ing) the greatest attention they can to the holy presence of God

and will take care to renew it from time to time

The 2015 Annual Report is replete with examples of how De La Salle’s Mission to instill a sense of the presence of God continues to play itself out here in Pasadena. I encourage you to review the accomplishments of the Class of 2015 in order to see for yourself how they have blossomed over the course of four years. And, lastly, thank you for so generously supporting the Mission so that our young people can discover the presence of God on a daily basis.

The future depends on us...

The future depends

on what you do today.

-Mahatma Gandhi

                After ten long years, the City of Pasadena has finally scheduled the first of three public hearings regarding our proposed Master Plan. It is hard to believe that it has taken this long. As I have explained in this space and elsewhere, the City is extremely sensitive to neighborhood concerns when it comes to school construction projects. So, for the better part of ten years, we have been challenged to justify the substantive need for the projects identified in the proposed Master Plan and to conduct a variety of studies (traffic, noise, pedestrian movement, etc.) in order to determine the relative impact our plans will have on the surrounding residential streets.

                For those who are new to the La Salle community; our Master Plan proposes three phases of projects:

o   Phase I: construction of a practice gym, fitness and aquatics centers

o   Phase II: construction of a visual and performing arts center

o   Phase III: construction of a field house on Kohorst Field

There are some smaller projects associated with each phase, but – for the most part – these three elements form the focus of neighborhood concerns.

                Ironically, the timing of the first Hearing (Design Review Commission) couldn’t be better. The main question which must be addressed at each Hearing (Design Review, Planning Commission and City Council) is this: How will La Salle justify the necessity of each phase of the Master Plan? For those of you who have been following my comments in this space will remember that, at the same time we have been pursuing the Master Plan, we have also been working on the development of a new Strategic Plan. I am pleased to report that the draft goals which emerged from the Strategic Planning Retreat held last February provide substantive evidence in support of each phase of our Master Plan. There are six goals:

1.                   EXPAND AND DEEPEN LASALLIAN FORMATION PROGRAMS TO BETTER ARTICULATE THE SCHOOL’S CATHOLIC AND LASALLIAN IDENTITY.

2.                   ENSURE THE DELIVERY OF A RELEVANT AND CHALLENGING COLLEGE PREPARATORY CURRICULUM TO ADDRESS THE DIVERSE LEARNING NEEDS OF ALL STUDENTS.

3.                   STRENGTHEN THE RECRUITMENT OF A DIVERSE FACULTY AND STAFF TO BETTER ALIGN WITH A DIVERSE STUDENT POPULATION.

4.                   STRENGTHEN THE QUALITY OF THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM IN:

·         Athletics

·         Guidance & Counseling

·         Student Life

5.                   ENSURE CAMPUS FACILITIES EFFECTIVELY SUPPORT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MISSION

6.                   ENSURE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE MISSION THROUGH EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE LEVERAGING OF FINANCE, DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING FUNCTIONS

The casual observer will note that these six goals make sense for any educational institution. What makes them compelling for the future of La Salle is the underlying expectation that the School must deliver excellence in every aspect of the programs it offers to the students entrusted to our care. Why? One of the facts of life we discovered through the strategic planning process is the undeniable reality of a shrinking population of school-age children available to afford the tuition of the ten private high schools in and around Pasadena with which La Salle competes. From a strategic perspective, La Salle must capture its fair share of Mission-appropriate students; to do that requires that we offer the same level of service being provided at schools who charge more – often twice the price – of what we ask families to pay.  Quite simply – and understandably - families who are able to pay most - or all of our tuition - expect La Salle to deliver the same quality of education as schools charging up to twice our price.

                This is the link between our strategic and master plans. La Salle cannot succeed as an independent school in Pasadena without the ability to provide the facilities necessary to attract families who have excellent – and more expensive - options for their children.  I would be remiss, however, if I didn’t also note that there is an absolute link between our strategic/master plans and our commitment to serve families on the margin. We wouldn’t be the school we are without the inclusion of children from all walks of life. I am fond of noting that our full tuition families regularly inform me that they appreciate the kinds of children who hang out in their family room.

                So, in the end, the substantive justification for the projects we want to pursue in our Master Plan is simply this: the students entrusted to our care deserve the absolute best facilities and programs to ensure that their lives will be full and productive – an outcome any parent can support.

La Salle's Value Proposition

Dr. Michael Porter, a member of the faculty of the Harvard School of Business, once observed:

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.

I used this quote in my opening remarks at last February’s Strategic Planning Retreat.   At that event, I offered my view of the world La Salle occupies in the greater Pasadena area.  It is a world only now emerging from the pernicious effects of the Great Recession. It is a world in which the “Baby Boom” has gone “bust” and fewer middle income families can afford private education without the support of financial aid.  It is a world in which excellent private secondary schools are increasingly competing for the same students and it is a world in which programs and facilities occupy an out-sized role in how families choose a high school.

It is this latter challenge that, in Southern California, means attracting Mission-appropriate students cannot be limited to the classroom; but must account for the fact that families choose private high schools in and around the greater Pasadena area based on the perception that their sons and daughters will be well taken care of from the moment they arrive on campus until the moment they leave (which, I might point out, is virtually impossible to predict, since I am convinced that La Salle is the “City that never sleeps”). This means, however, that in the first part of the 21^st Century, there are three legs to the stool which must shape La Salle’s approach to the recruitment of Mission-appropriate students:

Academics • Arts • Athletics

And, like a three-legged stool, kick one out from under and the whole thing collapses. Our ability, therefore, to attract and retain Mission-appropriate students is dependent upon the degree to which La Salle offers superior programs in Academics, Arts and Athletics…which brings me back to Michael Porter who offered this justification for the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the educational process:

I teach in the Medical School, the School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Business School. And it's the best perch... because most of my work crosses boundaries.

I believe that Porter’s preference for interdisciplinary engagement is exactly what La Salle does best.  Why shouldn’t we choose “the best perch” when searching for the Truth - we know that the answer will be found in the Christian Brothers’ three hundred year mission to promote

A human and Christian education of the young, especially the poor.

And, how we do this at La Salle relies on a three-legged stool comprising academics, arts and athletics. In support of this approach, the Strategic Planning Committee articulated this value proposition to characterize the unique elements that differentiate La Salle from other private secondary schools in the area:

As the only Catholic, co-educational high school in the Pasadena area and rooted in its Mission to nurture, inspire, challenge and motivate the students entrusted to our care, La Salle High School of Pasadena is committed to the delivery of an excellent college preparatory education in which students are encouraged to 
LearnŸ
Serve
Lead

What distinguishes La Salle from other college-preparatory high schools in the greater Pasadena area is the opportunity for students to nurture their individual passion in academics, the arts, athletics and/or the spiritual life. Because it is the largest private high school in Pasadena, La Salle is able to offer a diversity of opportunities both in and out of the classroom that is unparalleled among its peers.

With this value proposition as the basis for their deliberations, the Strategic Planning Retreat set to work on developing strategies to ensure that La Salle will continue to offer excellent programs in academics, the arts and athletics (more on that next month). This, I believe, is what Porter meant when he noted that strategy is “about deliberately choosing to be different.”

            We recently welcomed the incoming Class of 2019. They are a talented group and offer great potential for taking advantage of our academic, arts and athletic programs. I look forward to the next four years as they benefit from the strategic initiatives that we are beginning to put into place to ensure that our value proposition (La Salle is able to offer a diversity of opportunities both in and out of the classroom that is unparalleled among its peers) continues to differentiate us from other high school options.

Lessons Learned at Graduation

A tried and true approach to describing the process by which students move from one level of education to go on to another is to juxtapose the word “graduation” (i.e. “completion”) with the word “commencement” (i.e. “beginning”). Countless valedictorians, salutatorians and invited dignitaries have resorted to this well-worn trope for decades, if not hundreds of years. It continues to resonate, year after year, however, because, unlike many over-used clichés, it actually characterizes the reality of students’ experience as one chapter of their lives ends and another begins. Whether it is graduation from elementary school, high school, and college or beyond, young people experience these moments of transition as exciting and challenging – at the same time.  They are thrilled to have reached a particular moment of accomplishment and nervous about what comes next. Having spent the last 35 years listening to countless descriptions of how the graduation/commencement dichotomy is expected to play itself out, it was a bit of a shock for me, therefore, to discover at this, my 16^th graduation ceremony at La Salle, that I am no less subject to this dynamic than the young people eagerly awaiting the parties that would follow their formal participation in the awarding of diplomas on Friday, May 22, 2015.

For me, that dynamic typically plays itself out along the axis of “I am grateful our seniors succeeded at La Salle and am excited to see what comes next for them.” This year, however, was different. I discovered that, at the “tender” age of 60, like our graduating teenagers, I still have much to learn. My learning curve – my axis between completion and beginning – revealed itself in a rather mundane, but no less dramatic way; and here’s how…but I must digress for a moment.

We have all attended various graduation ceremonies – from elementary school to graduate school. Our American culture has witnessed a steady erosion of – what would have been called in an earlier era – manners.  This is nowhere played out more dramatically than at school graduations where all sorts of bad behavior is tolerated in the name of “celebration.” There was a time when graduation ceremonies were viewed with the same reverence as church ceremonies.  That era is rapidly withering away. So much so, that some public and private institutions are trying to “put the toothpaste back in the tube” by insisting on proper behavior on the part of parents and graduates during the commencement ceremony.  I fear the effort is more quixotic than practical – a perspective I learned the hard way at our most recent graduation ceremony this past Memorial Day weekend.

Don’t get me wrong, as commencement ceremonies go, graduation at La Salle is fairly tame.  We don’t see beach balls bouncing around or seniors behaving badly on stage. What does happen – and which is problematic as our ceremony takes place in a church – is the excessive cheering and shouting by proud family members who, unbeknownst to them, drown out the announcement of the name of the next graduate in line.  Even with reminders throughout the ceremony, this continues to happen. Here’s how Tracy Stanciel a middle class mother described her experience of a sixth grade graduation ceremony on the South Side of Chicago – the title of her Blog was “It’s Graduation, not a football game.”

Let me make this perfectly clear: You should NOT clap when specifically asked not to. Nor should you whoop, holler, scream, catcall, or yell things like “Mah baybay!” or “You go, girl!” or “Work that stage! Work that stage!” (These are actual statements shouted at various children.)

In the abstract, we recognize that her counsel makes abundant sense. In reality, however, over-enthusiasm often leads to the behavior she described at her child’s elementary school graduation. Then, of course, gone unchecked, it is only human nature for the next proud family to make even more noise than the one before.

                With that in mind, and recognizing that hindsight is always 20/20, here’s the lesson I learned and which convinced me that we are all works in progress and needing to be reminded that it isn’t just teenagers or college graduates – but adults as well - who are confronted by an endless series of beginnings and endings: at a particular moment, midway through the graduation ceremony, some attendees spontaneously broke out in the kind of cheering that Stanciel described at her child’s sixth grade commencement event. I was about to shake the graduate’s hand, when suddenly – and without much thought – I swung around and stared at the source of the disruption in the congregation gathered in the church.  In those few seconds, the proud senior was unable to shake my hand and proceeded to walk off the stage. It didn’t take me long to realize the mistake I had made and the ineradicable memory of that teenager and that family with respect to that graduation ceremony that night

                I later sent a note of apology to the graduate but, of course, the damage had been done. I realized that, I, too, had more to learn, that I, too, must greet the future as a new beginning and to take the lessons of the distant – and recent – past and use them – as we expect our graduates – to figure out how to take advantage of the future lessons which await us.

Earlier today I was exiting the 210 Freeway at the Madre Street exit. Those who frequent this intersection will know that there is an ever changing cast of homeless people who await the first car to come to a stop when the light turns red. From time to time, if I am the first one in line, I’ll give the person whatever change happens to be in my possession at that particular moment. Today was one of those days. The petite woman to whom I gave the meager coins in my possession seemed aged beyond her years.  Her face was weathered by too many days of sitting in the bright Southern California sun.  What was more remarkable for me was the brilliant smile she offered me as we concluded our transaction. And, as I was preparing to roll up my window, she turned to face me, with that amazing smile and said: “Take one day at a time.” I thought to myself, how often we assert that maxim to each other; and how rarely we really take it to heart. It took a homeless woman with an infectious smile to stop me in my tracks and confront me with the inescapable fact that we are all works in progress and we all must negotiate endings and beginnings one day at a time.