Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me…”   Mk 9:36-37a Sunday’s gospel brings to mind a teaching memory from years ago.  Kenny was in my 4 th  grade once a week art class and he was, to put it mildly, a handful.  He was hyper, always moving, unable to focus – his classroom teacher couldn’t wait to send him to the art room. Although so exasperating he created some great artwork, and I displayed a drawing of his for the fall Open House knowing he would not have any other papers posted with wonderful comments or good grades.  Greeting parents and students that night saw I saw Kenny with an older man, gray haired, wearing bib overalls. I pointed to Kenny’s drawing and said to him, “Did you see Kenny’s picture?”  The man looked up at it with a huge smile and then putting his arms around this youngster looked up at me and said, ...

I read recently that students in the high school graduating class of 2016 or 2017 will be the first to have no personal memory of the events of 9/11.  They will know only what they have read and been taught.  Thus, what is written and what is said (both in and out of the classroom) can enormously influence the worldview of these impressionable young people, who will grow to lead us into an unknown future.  What they read and hear could cause them to live life either cynically and in fear, or in hope.  What they read and hear could cause them to see themselves as independent beings or as integral parts of an interconnected worldwide family and Mother Earth who sustains it.  What they read and hear could mean an increase in suspicion and oppression of the ‘other’ or to a healthy curiosity and welcoming of the rich diversity offered to all of us, by each of us. We are teachers accountable to our children and the future we are asking them to be...