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Spiritan Magazine Volume 31 Number 4 Calendar Article 1 11-2007 Spiritan Magazine Vol. 31 No. 4 Calendar Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/spiritan-tc Recommended Citation (2007). Spiritan Magazine Vol. 31 No. 4 Calendar. Spiritan Magazine, 31 (4). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/spiritan-tc/vol31/iss4/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Spiritan Collection at Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Spiritan Magazine by an authorized editor of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. Catholic Education: Nurturing Faith and Learning November 2007 / $2.50 From the Editor Volume 31, No. 4 Bringing Catholic November 2007 Spiritan is produced by The Congregation of the Holy Ghost TransCanada Province Education to Life Editors: Fr. Gerald FitzGerald Fr. Patrick Fitzpatrick glance along just one bookshelf in my room reveals the many-sided diamond Design & Production: Tim Faller Design Inc. that is Catholic Education: Educating for Life, Formation for Evangelization, A Strengthening the Heartbeat, Teaching with Fire, Reimagining the Catholic School, CONTENTS Teaching and Religious Imagination, Catholic Education and Politics in Ontario. More than forty years immersion in the sometimes turbulent waters of Catholic 2 From the Editor: Education has taught me a thing or two. My students, my colleagues, the parents, some Catholic Education insightful speakers and writers have educated me. I was far from fully prepared when I 3 Neil McNeil High School 1958-2008 stood in front of my first French class at Neil McNeil in 1964. I needed the challenge of the A Spiritan Endeavour religion classes in the 1970s, the four summers at Boston College’s Institute for Religious January — Thunder Bay CDSB. Education, the Catholic Teachers Centre and the Adult Faith Formation years at Toronto Courtesy OCSTA. and Dufferin Peel Catholic School Boards and now my work as chaplain to the Ontario February — Neil McNeil High School. Catholic School Trustees Association. Photo by Tom Switzer. As teachers we talk a lot. We need to listen and learn. I remember the student who March — St. Ignatius of Loyola High School, taught me most about teaching. He was leaving Neil for a Public School. We talked after the Mississauga, Ontario. Friday class. He asked if he could say something before he left: “Do you mind if I say this? Photo by Bill Wittman. You always seem to look over our heads instead of into our eyes.” I went home and all that April — University of Fondwa, Haiti. weekend I asked myself, “Was he right?” If so, I was overlooking all that was going on in Photo by Brian McElroy. and behind those eyes — the joys and sorrows, the dreams and fears, the hopes and May — Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. questions. “It’s so important to invite them to ask their questions and to pick up on these,” Photo by Keith Hodan. said a teaching colleague in a recent conversation. Any life-giving curriculum is to be found June — Neil McNeil High School. in both the textbook and the world of the student. Photo by Tom Switzer. First Nations woman, Krystal Kewayosh, introduced me to her people’s basic July — Non-formal education, Ethiopia. curriculum at a convention. “Teach the fours,” she advised us. The four seasons, the four Photo by Wilma Peters. winds, the four dimensions, the four elements, the four human components (mental, August — Neil McNeil High School. physical, emotional, spiritual), the four cardinal directions (creator, self, neighbour, earth), Photo by Tom Switzer. the four types of students (sponge, sieve, strainer, funnel). September — Holy Ghost Prep, She got me thinking: as Catholics we could add a few more fours — the four gospels, the Philadelphia. Photo by Kevin Montco. four Eucharistic actions (Jesus took, gave thanks, broke/poured, gave away), the four October — Sacred Heart School, Scar- dimensional Sign of the Cross, our birth-life-death-resurrection story. borough, Ontario. Photo by Gino Ruffo. I remember talking with a mother of two — a girl starting high school, a boy still in November — Non-formal education, grade school: “Light a fire in the kids about learning. Don’t just pass on what’s in the Ethiopia. Photo by Wilma Peters. textbook. How you choose to see the children makes all the difference. Affirm them in their December — Neil McNeil High School. struggles, their disappointments, in whatever makes them feel less. Encourage them in their Photo by Tom Switzer. desires and dreams and commitments.” Poet W.B. Yeats’ words came to mind: “Education Front cover: Neil McNeil High School. is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Photo by Victoria Zeltins No one can sum up in one sentence what it means to be a Catholic teacher. But Pope Back cover: Pokot student, Kenya. John Paul II came as close as anyone else: “To teach means not only to impart what we Photo by David Conway. know, but also to reveal who we are by living what we believe.” Spiritan is published four times a year by the Spiritans, The Congregation of the Holy Ghost, What we believe is modeled on Jesus the Teacher. He began to do and to teach — 121 Victoria Park Ave., Toronto, ON M4E 3S2. actions first, then words — words made flesh. We see how he dealt with people, how he Tel: 416-698-2003. Fax: 416-698-1884. E-mail: found in their daily life examples of God’s presence and what God’s kingdom was like, how [email protected]. All correspondence and changes of address should be sent to this he challenged the rules and regulations people, what his priorities were, who his kind of address. people were. One year subscription: $10.00. In our 2008 Calendar Catholic educators in the so-called missions come face to face with Printed by Mediavision International, Toronto. a people who realize the importance of the spiritual in human life. Their counterparts in the Canadian Publications Mail Agreement no. so-called developed world come face to face with a majority overwhelmed by the concerns 40050389. Registration No. 09612. Postage paid at of the marketplace and poorly informed about religious matters. To both groups of Toronto, ON. educators Jesus would say, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Find ways to bring it to life.” We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Publica- tions Assistance Program (PAP), toward our Pat Fitzpatrick, CSSp mailing costs. Visit our Web site at 2 www.spiritans.com 1958-2008 A Spiritan Endeavour eil McNeil launched into life as the only quality education, an ability to teach students and not Catholic boys’ school east of Yonge Street in only subjects, an ease in relationships, a desire to pro- NToronto. A determined, youthful, energetic, mote a worldwide view, a missionary outreach that has focused educational endeavour, more than 99% male, a special care for those on the margin of church or cul- mainly Irish in its outlook, it gradually evolved into the ture, a sense of tradition combined with a willingness to more cosmopolitan way of life in east end Toronto and read the signs of the times, a belief that Catholic Edu- Scarborough. Soon gone were the “strap” and the week- cation must touch the heart as well as the head and the ly report books borrowed from the Spiritan schools in spirit as well as the body, a sense of gratitude for the Ireland, and taken home for parental perusal and signa- many people they have met as colleagues and School ture each week. A weekly assembly assured the learning Board personnel, as parents and trustees, as coaches and of Neil Boys Are We — any graduate of the school then consultants. If Spiritans have given much to Catholic and since can sing this school anthem by heart and often Education they have received more than much in re- does so whenever two or three classmates gather together turn. Theirs has been a ministry uniquely blessed in its (especially if a glass of beer lubricates their larynxes). coming and its going. Over time at Neil the Irish influence diminished but The 2008 Spiritan calendar captures elements of life never disappeared. At one time there were up to 12 Spir- today at Neil McNeil. It also pictures Spiritan education itans on staff, the result of annual reinforcements from in several other settings across the world. Neil does not Ireland. Too many talents in one location as it turned stand alone. It belongs in a larger cluster of educational out. Dispersal followed to Edmonton, a community endeavours enabling young people to aspire to the college, two Greater Toronto Area school boards and as fullness of life, east of Yonge Street and in exile east of founding principals of three new Catholic high schools. Eden. ■ Lay principals have now taken over leadership, many women teach on staff, student enrollment has dipped but resurfaced to a very encouraging level, innovative programmes ensure that all stu- dents are given an opportunity to succeed, a younger staff relates very well to the current multi- hued, multi-faceted student body. Neil remains an all-boys school — one of several single-gender high schools in the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Spiritans who went elsewhere and those who remained con- tinued to embody the spirit of Former Spiritan principals of Neil McNeil High School: (left to right) Gerald FitzGerald, Neil McNeil: a high regard for Peter Fleming, John Geary and Michael Troy. Neil McNeil High School McNeil Neil Spiritan / November 2007 3 CATHOLICCATHOLIC EDUCATION EDUCATION All teachers should be short so you could look them in the eye.

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