The Future of Mission at La Salle

For over three hundred years Lasallian schools have endeavored to remain faithful to the central Mission of the Brothers of the Christian Schools:

To provide a Human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor.

 Following the Second Vatican Council, the 34th General Chapter (1966) of the Christian Brothers called for an increasing integration of Lay Partners in the implementation of this Mission at the local level. Over time, as the Brothers have focused more deeply on their role as animators of the vision of Saint John Baptist de La Salle, there has developed a greater need for ongoing support for the formation of Lay Partners in the constitutive elements of the Lasallian Mission. Mindful of this shift in emphasis, La Salle High School has created the position of Vice-President for Mission. In addition to serving a s resource for Lasallian pedagogical practices, it is expected that the Vice-President for Mission will coordinate all local and District Formation programs intended to reinforce the vision and values of the Christian Brothers.

It is within this context as well as the Founder’s insistence that his teachers engage in the “conversion of souls” that La Salle High School places particular emphasis on the creation of an Office for Mission:

In carrying out your service to children, you will not fulfill your ministry adequately if you resemble Jesus Christ only in his guidance and in his conversion of souls. You must also enter into his purposes and his goals

-Meditation 196.3

When Lasallian schools were operated by a preponderance of Brothers, this catechetical imperative transcended the artificial boundaries of academic departments. Whether a Brother taught Religion or Math or English, the legacy of Saint John Baptist de La Salle’s vision for his schools was transmitted through the person of the Brother teaching his subject competency. For 40 of its 54 years, La Salle High School was fortunate to rely on the services of a critical mass of Christian Brothers in the classrooms and in administrative offices. That is no longer the case at La Salle and at other Lasallian schools on the West Coast. To address that shift in personnel, the District of San Francisco has sponsored a series of robust formation programs aimed at educating Lay Partners in the understanding of and responsibility for the Lasallian Mission. After almost 15 years of sending teachers and administrators to these programs, La Salle High School is ready to bring responsibility for supporting Formation for Mission programs to the local (Pasadena) level. It does so mindful of the growing awareness that the Brothers’ distinctive approach to Mission (“Together and by Association”) requires Lay Partners to view their role in a Lasallian school through the lens of vocation. This is not to suggest that Lay Partners must become like Brothers. Rather, it is to recall the challenge of the Second Vatican Council to nurture the vocation of the laity in the life of the Church. By virtue of our Baptism, we are each called to share responsibility for the implementation of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Happily, Lasallian schools on the West Coast have a strong track record over the course of the last forty years with respect to encouraging Lay Partners to share in the Mission bequeathed to us by Saint John Baptist de La Salle. It is this experience which prompts the School’s strategic move to emphasize the central importance of Formation for Mission by creating a senior administrative position responsible for its implementation. One of the more recent documents that remind us of this shared Mission was produced in 2006 by the Symposium of Catechesis in the Lasallian Tradition convened by the Brothers Visitor of the six Districts in the US/Toronto Region:

• “All Lasallian educators, Brothers and lay colleagues alike are evangelizers and catechists by their vocation of giving witness to the Gospel in ways that invite young people into a deeper, more integrated, more committed faith.

• “The Lasallian educator must be committed to the values and mission of the Church and of the Institute, and to the Lasallian School as a community that gives witness to and embodies Gospel values.”


• “Although the teachers of religion in the school may have a unique role or opportunity in the evangelization and catechesis of the young, the entire Lasallian educational community assists the young to interiorize and make normative Gospel values in their lives, to become more and more conscious of God calling them to help fashion a world according to God’s design.”

The specialized nature of this challenge (to encourage all educators to share responsibility for the implementation of the Lasallian Mission) necessitates the allocation of human resources in support of this goal. For the better part of the last decade this responsibility was shouldered by the President, Principal, other administrators and graduates of LLI. It is now time to allocate those responsibilities in a dedicated senior-level administrative position called the Vice President for Mission. I am particularly pleased to announce that Pat Bonacci, AFSC has graciously consented to take on this challenge beginning with the 2012-2013 academic year. I can’t think of a person more suited to this challenge than Pat. As an Affiliated member of the Christian Brothers, Pat has a deep appreciation for the mission and ministry bequeathed to us by Saint John Baptist de La Salle. His personal and professional behavior is uniquely Lasallian and he understands the power of the Lasallian pedagogical model. I am confident that, under Pat’s guidance, teachers and students will flourish in their appreciation of and commitment to Lasallian values.

Pat will continue as Principal next year (2011-2012) which will allow the School to develop a profile of the ideal candidate to serve as Principal in 2012-2013. Recognizing that it will be a challenge to fill Pat’s shoes, we want to take the next 18 months to carefully examine the central characteristics of Pat’s 20+ years of leadership here at La Salle. With that as a foundation, we will identify the critical issues facing La Salle in the next 5-10 years and begin a search for the next Principal. It is an exciting and challenging time for all of us!

To every thing there is a season...

Many of us are familiar with the Pete Seeger song, Turn, Turn, Turn. It is based on the famous passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3: 1-8 that begins with:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven

Biblical scholars argue that the relatively rare use of the word “season” in this passage is due to a more formal translation of the Hebrew concept of “fitting time”. That is to say, things happen when they are supposed to – when it is a fit time for the event to occur. As one scholar put it:

(The author) speaks of this diversity of time for two causes: first, to declare that there is nothing in this world perpetual; next, to teach us not to be grieved.

At December’s faculty meeting we listened to the first 8 lines of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 as we made the announcement that the time is near for the School to search for a new principal. More specifically, to hire a new principal to succeed Pat Bonacci, AFSC in the 2012-2013 school year. After occupying virtually every administrative position at La Salle for the last 25 years (15 as principal), Pat has asked to step back from the challenging responsibilities of the principalship at the end of the next school year. Happily, he wants to continue to serve the students entrusted to our care; albeit with a less intense set of responsibilities. Without hesitation, I knew what Pat’s next job would be at La Salle: Vice President for Mission.

This will be a new administrative position at La Salle, aimed at supporting Lasallian values among Lay Partners. In addition to serving as a resource for Lasallian pedagogical practices, it is expected that the Vice-President for Mission will coordinate all local and District Formation programs intended to reinforce the vision and values of the Christian Brothers.

Why this position and why Pat? Forgive me if I take a rhetorical detour into the world of the Christian Brothers. For over three hundred years Lasallian schools have endeavored to remain faithful to the central Mission of the Brothers of the Christian Schools:

To provide a Human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor.

Following the Second Vatican Council, the 34th General Chapter (1966) of the Christian Brothers called for an increasing integration of Lay Partners into the implementation of this Mission at the local level. Over time, as the Brothers have focused more deeply on their role as animators of the vision of Saint John Baptist de La Salle, there has developed a greater need for ongoing support for the formation of Lay Partners in the constitutive elements of the Lasallian Mission. The (2010) report of the Superior General of the Brothers to the US/Toronto Conference of Christian Brothers stressed this point:

It seems that local Lasallian formation programs are not as strong as those at the regional level.

and also stressed that:

Quality Lasallian formation is essential to keep alive the Lasallian charism as a

gift for the universal Church

Mindful of this challenge given by the Superior General, La Salle High School has created the position of Vice-President for Mission. In addition to serving as a resource for Lasallian pedagogical practices, it is expected that the Vice-President for Mission will coordinate all local and District Formation programs intended to reinforce the vision and values of the Christian Brothers.

It is within this context as well as the Founder’s insistence that his teachers engage in the “conversion of souls” that La Salle High School places particular emphasis on the creation of an Office for Mission:

In carrying out your service to children, you will not fulfill your ministry adequately if you resemble Jesus Christ only in his guidance and in his conversion of souls. You must also enter into his purposes and his goals

-Meditation 196.3

When Lasallian schools were operated by a preponderance of Brothers, this catechetical imperative transcended the artificial boundaries of academic departments. Whether a Brother taught Religion or Math or English, the legacy of Saint John Baptist de La Salle’s vision for his schools was transmitted through the person of the Brother teaching his subject competency. For 40 of its 54 years, La Salle High School was fortunate to rely on the services of a critical mass of Christian Brothers in the classrooms and in administrative offices. That is no longer the case at La Salle and at other Lasallian schools on the West Coast. To address that shift in personnel, the District of San Francisco has sponsored a series of robust formation programs aimed at educating Lay Partners in the understanding of and responsibility for the Lasallian Mission. After almost 15 years of sending teachers and administrators to these programs, La Salle High School is ready to respond to the Superior General’s call to strengthen local Lasallian formation programs by bringing responsibility for supporting Formation for Mission programs to the local (Pasadena) level. It does so mindful of the growing awareness that the Brothers’ distinctive approach to Mission (“Together and by Association”) requires Lay Partners to view their role in a Lasallian school through the lens of vocation. This is not to suggest that Lay Partners must become like Brothers. Rather, it is to recall the challenge of the Second Vatican Council to nurture the vocation of the laity in the life of the Church. By virtue of our Baptism, we are each called to share responsibility for the implementation of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Happily, Lasallian schools on the West Coast have a strong track record over the course of the last forty years with respect to encouraging Lay Partners to share in the Mission bequeathed to us by Saint John Baptist de La Salle. It is this experience which prompts the School’s strategic move to emphasize the central importance of Formation for Mission by creating a senior administrative position responsible for its implementation. One of the more recent documents that remind us of this shared Mission was produced in 2006 by the Symposium of Catechesis in the Lasallian Tradition convened by the Brothers Visitor of the six Districts in the US/Toronto Region:
• “All Lasallian educators, Brothers and lay colleagues alike are evangelizers and catechists by their vocation of giving witness to the Gospel in ways that invite young people into a deeper, more integrated, more committed faith.


• “The Lasallian educator must be committed to the values and mission of the Church and of the Institute, and to the Lasallian School as a community that gives witness to and embodies Gospel values.”


• “Although the teachers of religion in the school may have a unique role or opportunity in the evangelization and catechesis of the young, the entire Lasallian educational community assists the young to interiorize and make normative Gospel values in their lives, to become more and more conscious of God calling them to help fashion a world according to God’s design.”

The specialized nature of this challenge (to encourage all educators to share responsibility for the implementation of the Lasallian Mission) necessitates the allocation of human resources in support of this goal. For the better part of the last decade this responsibility was shouldered by the President, Principal, other administrators and graduates of LLI. It is now time to allocate these responsibilities to a dedicated senior-level administrative position called the Vice President for Mission.

Pat is particularly well-qualified to take on this challenge. As an Affiliated member of the Christian Brothers, Pat has a deep appreciation for the mission and ministry bequeathed to us by Saint John Baptist de La Salle. His personal and professional behavior is uniquely Lasallian and he understands the power of the Lasallian pedagogical model. I am confident that, under Pat’s guidance, teachers and students will flourish in their appreciation of and commitment to Lasallian values. Pat will continue as Principal next year (2011-2012) which will allow the School to develop a profile of the ideal candidate to serve as Principal in 2012-2013. Recognizing that it will be a challenge to fill Pat’s shoes, we want to take the next 18 months to carefully examine the central characteristics of Pat’s 25 years of leadership here at La Salle. With that as a foundation, we will identify the critical issues facing La Salle in the next 5-10 years and begin a search for the next Principal. I also want to assure you that our succession planning efforts will carefully take into account all of the wonderful values that you have found to be typical of your interaction with La Salle.

This Annual Report is a particularly special one because, not only are we giving you an accounting of the past 12 months, we are also giving you a glimpse of an exciting future framed by a chapter that sees Pat Bonacci, AFSC shift from one set of Mission-driven responsibilities to another, equally critical, set of challenges. It’s a story that is worthy of pursuing.

After the quote from Ecclesiastes was read to the faculty, Associate Principal, John Ring read a quote from the “Book of Pat”:

A time for transition to allow for new leadership and institutional reflection, a time for grandpa to spend more time with grandson, a time for Pat to step back and embrace a new professional challenge!

Indeed, there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens! It is an exciting and challenging time for all of us!

Why it's important to know who Maimonides was...

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently published a report on the degrees of religious knowledge within various segments of the US population; and the findings are surprising. According to the Pew Forum:

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.

I suppose that I could accept the fact that people of the Jewish faith would know more about the Christian religion and its core teachings (after all, they are responsible for authoring the Old Testament); but…Mormons? I don’t have a problem with the existence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; but they’ve only been around since 1830! One would think that the faithful of the Catholic religion - all of 2000 years old, would have a better command of knowledge regarding our shared written traditions - the Old & New Testaments.

Previous surveys by the Pew Research Center have shown that America is among the most religious of the world’s developed nations. Nearly six-in-ten U.S. adults say that religion is “very important” in their lives, and roughly four-in-ten say they attend worship services at least once a week. But the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey shows that large numbers of Americans are uninformed about the tenets, practices, history and leading figures of major faith traditions – including their own.

In other words, while we Americans tend to take our religion very seriously, we aren’t as concerned about knowing why we believe what we do. From a Catholic perspective, for example, it is disturbing to discover that 45% of Catholics who responded to the survey did not know the central distinguishing tenet of Catholicism - which is that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ.

I suppose there is some cold comfort in the fact that this lack of religious knowledge is not limited to Catholics alone. Slightly more than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the instigator of the Protestant Reformation and 40% of Jews were unable to identify the significance of Maimonides. Nevertheless, these results help explain the rising tide of secularism in American society. Without religious literacy, it is practically impossible to refute those who seek to exclude religion from the social order, much less maintain fidelity to one’s own beliefs.

What can be done? The Pew Forum’s findings point to several important strategies. First, the survey results suggest that educational attainment (highest level of schooling) is the single largest predictor of religious literacy. Not surprisingly, the Survey also suggests that those who read Scripture on a regular basis, talk about religion with friends and family and attend church weekly are more likely to demonstrate greater religious literacy than those who don’t.

I’ve often argued the point that the purpose of the Religious Studies curriculum at La Salle is to:

• Nurture the faith of our Catholic students
• Encourage our non-Catholic students to grow in their faith tradition
• Enable our unchurched students to appreciate the religious basis for our shared moral values

We do this through the same strategies (albeit School Masses are monthly, not weekly) that the Pew Forum suggests will enhance religious literacy and, by extension, religious fidelity. In a time when our society is desperate for a moral anchor that doesn’t emerge from the “chattering class” found on television, radio and the Internet, I can’t think of a better argument for the Mission of La Salle High School than the findings of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Testing the Teachers

I was outraged when I learned that the head of United Teachers Los Angeles called for a boycott of The Los Angeles Times because of its "Grading the Teachers" project which, A.J. Duffy believes, “represents a continuing attack on our profession.” I want to be clear: I am not outraged because a union chief called for a job action. I am outraged because the chief representative of teachers in Los Angeles advocated interfering with two of the most fundamental privileges contained in our Nation’s Bill of Rights: the guarantee of a free press (no matter how odious) and the guarantee of free speech (no matter how obnoxious). We teach this in all of our schools. What kind of example is being set – particularly in such a highly charged situation as the Times’ article on the value-added of individual teachers – if educators not only oppose free and open debate, but actively seek to restrict it?

 Let me also be clear about another thing: I am unwaveringly convinced that we educators must be measured – in whole or in part – by our students’ performance on standardized and achievement-based tests.  Why would we want anything less than the security offered the public by the knowledge that the competence of our attorneys, accountants, physicians – even our realtors – must be measured by their performance on one or more tests? These professionals can’t even get to the point of being tested without passing through our schools. If for no other reason (and there are plenty) than to prepare future accountants and physicians for the rigorous testing they must face in order to be licensed to practice their professions, we pre-collegiate educators must emphasize the importance of every form of testing.  And, if we emphasize its importance, then we must agree to be measured and evaluated by our students’ performance on these tests.  I’m reminded of the famous Vince Lombardi quote:

If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?

Even more irritating have been quotes from various teachers, such as this one on the Time’s Blog: "Teenagers are teenagers. They are inexplicable, as are student test scores." Not, if you re-read the original story, which analyzed 1.5 million scores from 603,500 students over a seven year period. Any statistician will support the utility of examining large performance samples taken from hundreds of thousands of test-takers over an extended period of time. The argument that a “student having a bad day” explains a particularly low test score is eliminated by virtue of the patterns that emerge from large samples taken over an extended period of time. As a matter of fact, we can form conclusions about teacher effectiveness when measured against huge statistical samples. What we can’t do is predict future performance of the teacher. That is up to the teachers and their supervisors.

According to The Times, they “used a statistical approach known as value-added analysis, which rates teachers based on their students' progress on standardized tests from year to year. Each student's performance is compared with his or her own in past years, which largely controls for outside influences often blamed for academic failure: poverty, prior learning and other factors.  The utility of this approach at the elementary and middle school levels is supported by the way those grades are typically structured: language arts and mathematics (the two most common disciplines measured by many standardized tests) are typically isolated from the rest of the curriculum, making it simpler to link student mastery to content taught. It is a more challenging task at the high school level where the curriculum tends to overlap individual academic disciplines. But we do have a rough framework that can support measuring student performance in the SAT and ACT exams. These tools provide a broad indicator of student achievement near the end of their high school career. Any high school teacher who is inclined to repeat the blogger’s argument that “student test scores are inexplicable” better not do so in the presence of anxious high school parents looking at college options!

Lastly, I want to take note of the term which describes the statistical analysis used by The Los Angeles Times: value-added.  Here, at  La Salle, we would want to expand the concept of “value-added” by including the religious, artistic and athletic dimensions which contribute to the whole person walking across the stage at Commencement. Readers of this space know that I am fond of describing our Mission in this way:

We produce good students and good people.

For us, the concept of “value-added” extends well beyond the measures of a standardized test. It must include the notion that our efforts as high school educators are in vain if our students don’t leave us better able to meet the challenges, not just of college, but of life as well. If I could figure out how to test for that, I would!

The Future of Catholic Education Part 5

I’ve devoted this space lately to a reflection on a talk on the future of American Catholic education given by Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ. Father McShane articulated five theses which, he believes, will characterize Catholic schools of the future:


1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past 50 years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next 50 years

2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different

3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents

4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith

5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

This month I want to consider his fifth and final thesis:

The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

McShane’s use of the term grace alludes to one of the great assertions of Catholic theology made by Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica: “grace builds on nature.” By this, he meant that God works through the natural and human condition in order to bring us closer to the perfection to which we aspire in the next life. Humanity, in all of its sinfulness, becomes the vehicle through which God moves us closer to Him. In the words of one commentator: “To say that grace builds on nature means that we can change.”

I can’t think of a better rationale for the existence of Catholic schools than this understanding of grace: it is possible for humans to change for the better. The entire system of K-12 Catholic education is organized around this principle. Two of the three sacraments of Initiation occur during this time. Elementary students prepare for the sacrament of First Eucharist while secondary students prepare for the sacrament of Confirmation. Both moments memorialize, in McShane’s understanding, “the transforming instrument of…grace.” The study of Religion over the course of 12 years and student involvement in community service programs reinforce this notion that we humans are on a journey of “personal enrichment” which aims at union with God in the next life. In one sense, McShane’s fifth thesis embodies the first four. Saint John Baptist de La Salle understood this when he insisted the purpose of his schools is to offer the students entrusted to our care salvation that is both human and Christian: that is a productive life in this world and union with God in the next. Lutheran theologian, Stephen Schmidt underscores this dynamic when he wrote:

Grace builds on nature, and the whole enterprise of becoming a Christian is about the abundant possibility of optimistic hope.

What a noble sentiment to reflect upon during these days following the great celebration of Pentecost. With the Holy Spirit as our guide and a renewed commitment to the transcendent and transformative possibilities of Catholic education, McShane’s prognosis for Catholic schools over the course of the next 50 years may find us positioned to impact secular culture in more ways than we can now imagine.

The Future of Catholic Education Part 4

I’ve devoted this space lately to a reflection on a talk on the future of American Catholic education given by Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ. Father McShane articulated five theses which, he believes, will characterize Catholic schools of the future:


1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past 50 years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next 50 years


2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different


3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents


4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith


5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

This month I want to consider his fourth thesis:
Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith

Recently La Salle’s Trustees conducted their annual Mission Effectiveness Workshop in which administrators, faculty, parents and students came together to evaluate the degree to which the School is successful in implementing the principles of our Mission Statement. The workshop ended with a Q & A session in which the adults asked the student panel to describe their experience through the lens of our Mission Statement. It was a powerful and exciting experience to encounter the candor of our students regarding what we do well and what we can do better.

I was particularly pleased to see that they identified the School’s commitment to community service as an integral component of their day-to-day experience. I have often described our Mission in terms of producing good students and good people. The students’ recognition of the importance of service reinforces the second ideal of producing good people and resonates with McShane’s notion that students will discover something far richer than just a superior college preparatory education. In his words:

Parents are willing to invest in Catholic schools because they believe (rightly) that the schools will reinforce the values that they teach their children at home.

I’ve commented in this space and elsewhere that La Salle is successful primarily because of the close home/school partnership that nourishes a shared set of values above and beyond the demands of preparation for college. And, while these values are rooted in the Catholic faith, they are pertinent to all faith traditions represented in the school. I’ve come to believe that the values formation component of our educational program encourages all of our students to become more deeply committed to their particular faith tradition and, since there are many ways to approach God in this world, we can be assured of their spiritual formation as well. After all, schools like La Salle exist because of the shared belief that students are being educated for something that is bigger than they. If we merely offered a good preparation for college and didn’t embed in that education a deep commitment to values formation, our Mission would cease to have any significance in the larger culture. McShane puts it this way:

Therefore, although the schools stressed the importance of passing on the faith, they also stressed the need to prepare students to be players in the culture and the world that they would inhabit as they grew older.


Recently, we adopted a new phrase to capture the essence of a La Salle education:

LEARN  SERVE  LEAD

We expect the students entrusted to our care to make a difference when they leave us; to be “players in the culture” by using their experience of learning and serving while at La Salle to form them into tomorrow’s leaders. This is the “for something” that distinguishes La Salle from other exemplary high schools. It is gratifying to hear our students echo this sentiment in the context of our Mission Effectiveness Workshop.

Next month, the final condition of McShane’s thesis: Catholic schools as transforming institutions.

The Future of Catholic Education Part 3

I’ve devoted this space lately to a reflection on a talk on the future of American Catholic education given by Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ. Father McShane articulated five theses which, he believes, will characterize Catholic schools of the future:



1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past 50 years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next 50 years


2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different


3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents


4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith


5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

This month I want to consider his third thesis:
The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents

Since we are a Lasallian school, sponsored by a religious congregation, I think it is fair to paraphrase McShane’s thesis this way:

La Salle High School will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build a community-based school in which ownership is shared by the Christian Brothers, the school faculty and the parents

As I write this, the School community is experiencing the third and final day of the WCEA/WASC accreditation visit. The Visiting Committee has been busy observing classes, interviewing administrators, faculty, students and parents. They were particularly impressed by their encounters with our students and parents. One member of the Visiting Committee commented to me that she wished her school had the depth and breadth of commitment that our parents demonstrate here at La Salle. She went on to note how impressive it is that a substantial number of freshman parents demonstrate similar qualities of commitment here. I was proud to hear this message because I agree with her observation. In my 30 years as a Catholic educator I have never encountered a more engaged, supportive and involved parent community as I have here at La Salle. We are surrounded by evidence: the work of the four parent Booster groups, the large attendance at monthly Parent Association meetings, the enormous volunteer effort that supports a wide variety of school-sponsored events, especially the Crystal Ball, PALS, new parent orientation and the Back to Swing dance. I mention this because, as McShane notes below, this represents “parent ownership” of the school:
The product was an extraordinary achievement: a school system that was owned by the people and owned in two important ways: It was owned in the sense that the people paid for it voluntarily. It was also owned because the people who paid for its maintenance believed that its central proposition (namely, the passing on of the faith) was important.


At La Salle, where we cheerfully welcome up to a third of our families from other – or no – religious traditions, we know that the transmission of the faith, one of our chief responsibilities as a Catholic school, generates valuable by-products that are appreciated by everyone: a shared sense of purpose, moral and ethical values that stand against an increasingly secular – and hostile – culture and a commitment to serve the community. The term “ownership” in the context McShane uses, refers to the relationship between the Catholic school and the community it serves. Seen in this light, “moral ownership” of the school belongs to the enrolled families who are, according to McShane, “endowed with a shared sense of purpose…and who believe that the school will reinforce the values that they teach their children at home.”

I have long believed – and the WCEA/WASC Visitation has confirmed – that the successful involvement of parents in the life of the School emerges from their “shared sense of purpose” which we like to paraphrase by asserting that La Salle’s Mission is to produce good students and good people.


Next month, more about developing “good students and good people.”

The Future of Catholic Education Part 2

Last month I made reference to a talk on the future of American Catholic education given by Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ. Father McShane articulated five theses which, he believed, will characterize Catholic schools of the future:




1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past 50 years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next 50 years


2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different


3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents


4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entrée to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith


5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment

I commented on his first thesis in this space last month. This time, I want to take up his second thesis that the success of Catholic schools is (and will be) a function of their ability to become a “community of communities.”

At first glance, the notion that a school can function as a “community of communities” may appear to be a bit of an oxymoron. After all, one could argue that the primary function of a school is to nurture a community of learners. But this perspective, while accurate, overlooks the challenge every school faces in responding to the needs of a heterogeneous population of students while, at the same time, treating them as equals. Successful schools recognize that their students come from different neighborhoods, cultural, economic and ethnic backgrounds and academic foundations. Even the most prestigious school must face – and meet – this challenge.

At La Salle, for example, we take great pride in the policy established by our Board of Trustees, which requires that the student population we serve should reflect the demographics of the San Gabriel Valley. This explains why there is no majority from any one racial/ethnic population among our students; why 5% of them qualify for full tuition assistance and the next 10% are eligible for 50% financial aid grants and that up to 30% of our students will come from religious traditions other than the Catholic Church. At La Salle, we strive to create one community of learners out of the various communities from which our students’ identity is forged. Our success in this endeavor is predicated upon the strong ties between home and school that are nurtured over the course of four years. It is not at all unusual, for example, to have parents tell me that they appreciate the diversity of teenagers who socialize in their home after school and on weekends. This unity in diversity can be observed on our campus at lunch, during break, in the classrooms and on the playing field. And, while no adolescent society is ever completely free of the tyranny found in social relationships among peers, at La Salle, I find that our young people are extremely conscious of the inclusive values inherent in schools sponsored by the Christian Brothers. This, too, echoes the American Catholic school experience over the course of the last 150 years.

In describing the emergence of the Catholic school system in the middle of the 19th century, Father McShane artfully notes that “…the American Catholic Church was (and is) the only institution in the nation (aside from the nation itself) that mirrors the national motto/aspiration: “Out of many, one.” Then, the challenge for the Church was to protect an immigrant population from the quasi-public effort to instill Protestant religious values in Catholic children, thus weakening their adherence to Catholic beliefs. So the Church nurtured “ethnic villages” organized around urban neighborhoods where Central and Western European immigrants could feel comfortable speaking their native language and practicing cherished customs from their homeland.

In some ways American Catholic schools continue to protect our students from a hostile culture – only now the hostility is to be found in the secularization of values, the homogenization of customs and the incessant stream of messages which effectively degrade moral and ethical principles that are the essential building blocks of healthy social interactions. At La Salle, these challenges are met with a robust response that is prevalent throughout the day-to-day school experience especially in the Religion classroom, monthly liturgical celebrations and our retreat and community service programs. These programs enable the students entrusted to our care to develop a respect and compassion for others, especially the poor and, equally importantly, to celebrate the diversity of the human condition. It is in this sense that La Salle, like the American Catholic school system can be said to be a “community of communities.”

Next month: shared “ownership” of the educational enterprise.

The Future of Catholic Education

In a recent address to the John Carroll Society of Washington, DC on the future of Catholic education, Fordham University President, Joseph McShane, SJ articulated five theses:


1. The challenges that Catholic education has faced and overcome in the past fifty years will pale in comparison to the challenges that it will face in the next fifty years.


2. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if the Church recognizes that it is a community of communities – and that the needs of the various communities that it is called to serve are different.


3. The American Catholic School System will survive and thrive only if it is able to believe in, nurture and build community-based schools in which ownership is shared by the parish community, the school faculty and the parents.


4. Students will come in the door expecting one thing (namely, an entree to a successful professional life) and they will discover something entirely far richer: they will discover the faith.


5. The American Catholic School System will thrive only if it is seen as … a great, transcendent and transforming instrument of both grace and personal enrichment.


The context for Father McShane’s address is the startling shift in the number of Catholic schools from a high of over 12,000 in the 1960s to just over 7,000 in 2009. The vast majority of the closed schools have been located in the nation’s inner cities. This trend mirrors the demographic shift that Father McShane describes as the “suburbanization of American culture” in which the expansion of Catholic education followed the move from urban to exurban locations. This informs McShane’s first point: that the challenges facing Catholic education in the next fifty years are expected to be far more dramatic than anything experienced in the last fifty. Why? Because, as McShane notes, the success of the first 100 years of Catholic schools in the United States “reflected the ethnic villages (neighborhoods) in which the Catholic people lived. This was a brilliant strategy: the bishops sought to keep the Church together by catering to the very different needs of their diverse flock. (They sought unity through diversity.) This meant that schools reflected linguistically and culturally the neighborhoods in which they were located.” This isn’t the case in suburbia, where schools like La Salle, located on the edge of an urban center, serve a majority/minority population. Moreover, the population served by a Catholic school tends to become more homogenous the farther out it is from the urban core. Ironically, therefore, the social network that sustained Catholic schools for the first hundred years (local, ethnically based institutions staffed by “inexpensive” labor – religious men and women – united in the values and traditions of the Catholic faith) – will be largely absent in the next fifty. La Salle is a case in point. In 1960 there were fifteen Christian Brothers staffing a school of 400 boys. Today there is one Brother on staff (doing the work of three!) serving 740 young men and women. Our students come from 33 different communities and, while two-thirds of them identify as Catholic, we are proud to serve students who identify with each of the major world religions. We are equally proud of the ethnic diversity that they represent. I would argue that this is precisely why La Salle enjoys a robust admissions profile. Our success as a Catholic high school in the early years of a new millennium is due, in no small part, to our ability to adapt to the needs of the community we serve. This is a uniquely “Lasallian” characteristic, derived from the commitment of Saint John Baptist de La Salle to meet the needs and challenges of the students entrusted to his care, particularly in and around the margins of seventeenth century French cities.

By the time you read this column, we will be in the middle of “Catholic Schools Week” an annual nation-wide celebration sponsored by the National Catholic Educational Association (www.ncea.org). I want to take the opportunity of Catholic Schools Week to begin to explore the theses Father McShane asserts and to see how they correspond to the lived reality of La Salle High School. Next month: the Catholic school as a “community of communities.”