PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

“You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.” Well, we are all keenly aware that the winds of change have been howling around. We seem to be returning to school this year with some sort new mandate or improvement status imposed upon us. It is easy to allow ourselves to be tossed around by the ever changing winds and become discouraged if not desensitized to the idea of failure. “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t...you’re right.” Our focus this morning will be on how we can use these winds of change to our benefit – to allow it to inflate rather deflate us. We will capture that wind, use it to our advantage and we WILL soar! How is this achievable? Dear students, you may have noticed something different as you drove onto our campus this morning. As you all know, my love and passion for you run deep. I am a priest first by His Grace and teacher in habit, heart, and soul. Even though I serve as an administrator, I never stop teaching. I am simply teaching a different what and how. I can think back to several of my teachers who helped to shape me into the person I am today. My first teachers of course were my parents, but my school teachers are the ones who inspired me to want to be one of them. They were and continue to be my own personal heroes. I understood early on that education was the great equalizer and I witnessed how teachers opened the doors of opportunity for students. Most likely, my teachers did not think they were indelibly marking me for life with their gestures and style. I am sure all of you have similar stories. Think of the teachers you remember today, and ask yourself why you remember them. The poet William Wordsworth described the profound significance of what he called the “little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness.” In a universe as incomprehensibly large as ours, your classroom in Santhom is a very small place. But, within that room, countless “little, nameless, unremembered acts” occur every day. Many of them may be forgotten with time, but some will be remembered forever. When they are, they change someone’s life. These acts create our future. The time is now and I ask you to share my sense of urgency to do the right thing for every child who will enter one of our schools this week. The power to become a hero in a child’s life, my dear colleagues, is yours. It is indeed an awesome power and responsibility. Wish you a fruitful new Academic Year.