When making sense of things matters

                 

When I think about the aftermath of the Presidential election, I’m not sure how to talk to our students in order to make sense of things. Clearly the mood of the country is one of widespread anger. And just as clearly, prognosticators and pollsters got it monumentally wrong. What isn’t so clear is the why of the angry mood. While manufacturing and low level white collar jobs have been sent overseas, the Nation’s economy is in the best shape it’s been since the advent of the Great Recession. And, yes, Washington politics are more toxic than ever; but as we’ve seen in Sacramento, a divided legislature and executive branch prevents one party’s agenda from steamrolling over the party in the minority. Even the outcome of the election reflects a divided country; with one candidate winning the popular vote and the other winning the Electoral College.

As a Catholic educator, I find it especially troubling that so much attention was given to themes of exclusion, racial profiling, questioning the right to healthcare access and pursuit of aggressive military action overseas; to highlight just a few of the divisive issues that stoked the growing anger of the electorate. At La Salle, we seek to build an inclusive community in which students learn to examine both sides of complex issues. We don’t support the ease with which political opponents employ uncivil tactics to shout each other down and their tendency to encourage their supporters to do the same. Our teenagers were exposed to a steady diet of uncivil behavior during the nightly news, and on print and social media.  I don’t understand the angry mood of the country today; but I do believe it was, at least in part, encouraged by the way news of the candidates’ behavior were reported in the media. When everyone is shouting, no one is listening.

We expect our students to seek understanding of complex political, economic, social and moral issues by listening to their teachers and to each other. And as an educational community that seeks to include rather than exclude, we expect our students to recognize that, regardless of one’s political views, La Salle stands on the side of immigrants, marginalized people, middle income families and successful families who see a world where everyone should have the opportunity to succeed. I don’t know how much greater a challenge this will be over the course of the next four years; but I do know that for the last sixty years La Salle has been committed to nurturing, inspiring, challenging and motivating the students entrusted to our care to acquire the habits of responsible citizenship.

Which brings me to the purpose of the 2016 Annual Report; in addition to celebrating the financial and philanthropic success of the 2015-2016 school year, we are celebrating our sixtieth anniversary of making the La Salle Difference accessible to an economically, demographically and ethnically diverse set of students. We are proud of what has transpired here at La Salle since we first opened our doors in 1956; and we know that, regardless of the challenges of the next four or ten or fifteen years, we won’t lose sight of our fundamental purpose: to produce good students and good people who understand our commitment to Learn – Serve – Lead.