Time

So the plan was to blog a couples times a week or more.


So the plan was to groove on the year at SSA as each day and each event presented itself.

Guess not.



Time flies. In high school, time flies at a speed faster than light...if there is such a thing.

I started observing classes today. The physics crowd was measuring velocity and speaking knowledgeably about hundredths of seconds; the biology crowd was analyzing mystery substances [including the use of a liquid called "Benedict's" appropriately enough...the students were amused at my joy in the name...or perhaps my ignorance that the solution exists]; the English crowd was learning to do peer editing and review in a way both kind and objective - no easy task. Three classes, three dynamic teachers, three groups of deeply engaged students.

That's what we're about.

When I sit in my office and push papers I forget, quickly.


Remembering is crucial. Learning is the key. Community is the environment in which learning happens so well here. In fact, like nowhere else.

One of our recent graduates is seriously ill. Please pray. The word spread quickly here in our family; the love is already going out in prayer and cards and calls and visits. That's us. That's education in community.

Remember.

Peaceful Footsteps, Great Memories

The first day, Opening Day, was beautiful; the first week, though not quite over, amazing.

Our peer mediators have been busy training this week. The Academy has such a peaceful atmosphere, such a respectful student community. This is due, I think, in no small measure because we work hard on hearing and respecting each other. When tensions do arise, as they do in any family, we have a trained group of peer mediators to help manage the conflicts. The mediators received three days of intensive training this week- we take this oh so seriously.

We prayed around the theme of footsteps on Opening Day, and came back to the theme each morning this week. The marble stairs of our 1926 building are worn down from generations of footsteps. We thought about the students here for generations before us, and about those still to come. We intend to walk gently and purposefully this year, peacefully and carefully. Friday held a first meeting with teachers, a picnic in the gym [we were rained out of the backyard...], and lots of screams and hugs and laughter as old friends rediscovered each other in the hallways.

As I write this after school the noise level is increasing - we have a jv and a varsity volleyball game in the gym tonight. Meanwhile the tennis team is on the road, and our cross country team is out running, running, running...footsteps through Rogers Park and back again. The journalism students are packing up from a day of supervising Picture Day[I looked like that back then!?!?!] while the student council is preparing welcome gifts for the freshies as they finish their first full week here. School may be out - the day goes on and on.

We remembered St. Gregory the Great today. He told our story....the story of Benedict and Scholastica. We will create our own stories during this year....and some will be told here.

An exhausting, exhilarating first week for all of us....and, yes, everyone already has homework!

Opening Day

Tomorrow we begin again.

The Opening Day of the 103rd school year on our current campus.

All is in readiness.

Everyone involved is at home tonight thinking and dreaming and hoping and worrying and planning and remembering and longing for a peaceful, wonderful, memorable year. There's a little melancholy too - another summer gone, darkness is coming earlier and the light later, and the intensity of the coming school year looms large. For some, tomorrow is the first day of high school. For some, tomorrow is the first day teaching in a new school. For some, it is the beginning of the end - ah, those seniors. Tonight is the night - tomorrow we begin.

We begin again at SSA -

St. Scholastica Academy. [http://www.scholastica.us/ ]

We are a Benedictine college prep academy for young women in Chicago. We're ever-ancient, ever-new...to borrow Augustine's [tomorrow's his day!] description of his experience of God. We're as young as the newest freshie [freshman, in more exclusive language] anxious to begin. We're as old as the oldest Benedictine Sister with whom we share a house, a school, and an experience that cannot be replicated elsewhere. SSA is a place, a people, an event, that must be experienced to be fully understood.

Tomorrow is my first day of school too - first day of school as the 17th principal of this Benedictine academy on our lush, spacious, astoundingly beautiful Ridge Boulevard campus. I hope to share the journey of this school year from my new perspective. I have been around SSA for awhile, but with new responsibilities comes new insight.

The Rule of St. Benedict informs what we do and how we are at SSA. In Chapter 3 he insists that the community members - all of them, even the very young - be called together to offer counsel to the leader of the community.

What would you say to a new principal?
What would you say to our youngest freshie?

Ready to go back to school?

What wisdom have you to share?