ORANGE COUNTY CATHOLIC educators recently came together for their yearly convocation to start the school year and deepen their commitment to providing students with more than just academics.
Teachers and principals from the 37 diocesan schools gathered on Sept. 11 for the annual Educator Convocation, held at Santa Margarita Catholic High School (SMCHS). This year’s theme, “There’s More: Living the Magis,” featured keynote speaker Sr. John Dominic Rasmussen, O.P., and Mass with Auxiliary Bishop Thanh Thai Nguyen.
SR. JOHN DOMINIC RASMUSSEN, O.P., APPEARS ON THE VIDEO SCREEN AS SHE SPEAKS TO TEACHERS AND STAFF FROM ALL 37 CATHOLIC SCHOOLS AT THE CONVOCATION. PHOTOS BY ALAN WENDELL/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
“This is one of my favorite times of the year and favorite days of the year, to be here with all of you,” said Superintendent Dr. Erin Barisano, “and it really is our only opportunity to gather as Catholic educators in the Diocese of Orange to celebrate this beautiful mission of Catholic education that’s been entrusted to us. We reflect on our call and our vocation as Catholic school educators, as leaders, as support staff, as coaches — all of the beautiful ways that God is working through us to minister to these young men and women who have been entrusted to us.”
The convocation, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, opened with a remembrance of how that fateful Tuesday in 2001 exemplified Christ’s words in the Gospel of John: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
SMCHS president Andrew Sulick recalled the firefighters climbing the stairs of the damaged Twin Towers, the passengers of United 93 fighting back against their hijackers, chaplains walking toward wreckage, and strangers helping strangers to safety. Many in the room remembered that day, but Sulick pointed out that none of the current students were alive yet; 9/11 is now just a part of history to them.
“We’re being reminded that we are now the keepers of this story, the ones responsible for handing it to a generation that has no memory of it at all,” he said. “How we remember it, how we teach it, can shape how our students understand courage, sacrifice and love for the rest of their lives.”
FROM LEFT, CHRIST CATHEDRAL ACADEMY PRESCHOOL DIRECTOR PATTI ABEYTA AND SUPERINTENDENT OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS DR. ERIN BARISANO ARE PICTURED DURING THE CONVOCATION FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATORS IN ORANGE COUNTY.
Sr. John continued her conversation on the Catholic educator’s unique position to not just teach academics, but also formation. Sr. John spoke to nearly 600 K-8 teachers last school year for Elementary School Formation Day. The day was a professional development opportunity where teachers learned real-life strategies for implementing the new virtue curriculum piloted last year. Sr. John, a founder of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, Michigan, developed the curriculum. She holds a bachelor’s degree in education, a master’s degree in theology, and has more than 40 years of experience in education as a teacher and administrator.
“I hope what I’m able to offer to you in the short time that we have together is something that you can walk away inspired with, something that you can kind of hold on to in those moments when things are tense,” she said.
Sr. John addressed the challenges teachers are seeing in the classroom, such as increased student anxiety and depression, fragmentation from increased technology use, and relational poverty. There are also the pressures educators face to do “just one more thing.”
She challenged the crowd to reconsider the dual importance of both education and formation. Instead of thinking, “What I have to do,” she suggested reframing the educator’s calling as a continual recollection that they “get to” teach formation.
Educators see their students every day, look into their eyes and see their struggles and hardships. Teachers think about their students 24/7 because they are responding to a call, she explained.
“The fact that you’re involved in Catholic education is different from someone who’s at a public school, because you’re looking and trying to make a difference eternally,” Sr. John said. “You’re trying to reach into the soul of that young man or that young lady who’s in front of you. It’s different. There’s more. There’s so much more that you do on a day-in and day-out basis. Our goal for you today is for you to really see that.”