Dear Member:
As our students return to school happy, rejuvenated and ready to learn, I appreciate full well just how hard you have worked behind the scenes to prepare for this moment. In creating their theme parks, Disney talks about the “onstage†and “backstage†experiences – every aspect of the guest’s visit is a show, but that show is defined both by what they see and what they don’t. If you are reading these words, you’re likely a practitioner of the backstage experience yourself – lesson planning, classroom prep, professional development, care that the school is safe and beautiful – all those things that remind kids and families on their first day back that they aren’t just at any school; they are at an excellent Catholic school.
Jesus taught us about three great loves – God, neighbor and self – and a Catholic school teacher has to live all three. We know from our experience and modern research that children learn best from teachers who love them. For us Catholic school educators, a big part of our backstage preparation is investing in our own formation and spiritual health. A theme park is about a day or two of recreation; we face the far loftier challenge of helping children become who they are called to be. For us to do that well, we have to commit to the same discernment for ourselves.
In this issue of Momentum, you’ll read a lot about how we make connections with our students. In addition to our regular columns, we have a number of articles about what back to school feels like for kids in our Catholic schools, as well as an article from Sr. John Dominic, a NCEA 2023 keynote speaker, on how educators can nurture an interior life to find a place of stillness. Our feature article is about what it means to connect to students, and we follow up with some of the teenagers we were blessed to have share about their lives at NCEA 2023 in Irving, TX, this past April.
These are great times for Catholic schools, and we can take pride in how well we have served our students, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic. But amongst all this student focus, we need to keep our own faith and emotional health in sight, too. Authentic witness matters because we are always onstage, and as much as we care for all other aspects of our back-to-school plans, caring for our own preparation is the most important thing we can do.
Wishing you the best in the coming school year, I remain yours in Him.
Peace,
Lincoln Snyder
President/CEO, NCEA
