Becoming a "Scholar"

St. Michael’s mission statement says we want to form “scholars, leaders and disciples of Jesus Christ. “ This morning I want to talk about what it means to be a “scholar.” 

Let me begin by saying what it doesn’t mean. We don’t expect all of you to attend Harvard, Notre Dame or Vanderbilt when you graduate. We also don’t expect all of you to make all A’s, and if you fall short of that, that you’re a slacker! Though some of you are capable of these things—and we want to push you to strive for them— our mission isn’t so narrow as to serve only the intellectually “elite.”  In fact, I would argue it’s much grander than that!  We believe the chemistry and interplay of students with different aptitudes and socio-economic backgrounds give us  our authenticity, our liveliness, and perhaps even, our “flair.”  It makes St. Michael interesting! 

No, what we mean by “scholar,” is that you DO YOUR BEST. Whatever your station in life, whatever talents God has given you, whatever your strengths and weaknesses, we are all called to do our best. I want to reflect on how we can do that. 

There’s an interesting video floating around the internet of a Naval officer addressing cadets at their graduation, talking about ways they can “change the world.” He begins with this practical suggestion: Make your bed each morning! (Moms would like this guy). He says that when we begin the day completing a small task, it will give us momentum to complete larger tasks through out the day, starting our day on a positive trajectory. And if it turns out to be a miserable day, when we get home, our bed will be neatly made, beckoning us to get a good night’s sleep, so that we can have a better day tomorrow. 

If we want to be scholars, let’s begin by making our beds. The truth is, we’re emotionally influenced by our environment, and if our rooms are wrecks, our lives often reflect this chaos. But “scholars” take ownership of the small things, which gives them momentum for bigger things. 

You’ve heard me speak often about the importance of attendance in school. But I want to qualify that a bit this morning. It’s not enough to be physically present. We must bring our best selves to class: alert, and ready to learn. Practically, that begins with getting enough sleep the night before. Doctors recommend 8 hours for teenagers, and if you try to cheat your body with less than that, it’ll steal back that time by making you sluggish and apathetic. So if you’re waking up at 6 a.m. and not getting to bed by 10'ish, you’re not bringing your best self to class. Chances are you’re not engaged. You’re not taking very good notes, you’re not making connections, you’re not asking questions. Yes, teachers have an obligation to develop interesting lessons. But sometimes slogging through a unit in Math class is simply hard work, and it's up to you to slog through it. Bring your best self to class each day. 

“Scholars” ask questions in class. When I was younger, I taught in a school without air  conditioning. In the afternoon classes, after lunch, it was miserably hot, with our backs sticking to the back of our chairs like velcro, and it was very easy to drift off into sleep. But I remember there was one junior girl who fought through it by peppering me with questions through out class. “Mr. Weber, is this kind of like…?”  “Mr. Weber, could you re-explain what you just said? I didn’t understand you.” "Mr. Weber, don't you think...?" This girl wasn’t the smartest student in the class. But she was the best scholar! Ask questions. Teachers love them, by the way. 

“Scholars” become passionate about ideas! Do you want to know what makes me smile? It’s students getting into arguments in class which spill out into the hallways afterwards, debating ideas! That’s a sign of "turned on" minds! But too often we are the opposite, consumed with trivial matters.  My granddaughter is two, and she’s just discovered her belly button, and she seems fascinated with it. That describes segments of our culture: we are “navel gazers." Let’s get passionate about big ideas! The merits and demerits of democracy! The implications of a  world that is 4.5 billion years old, one planet in a galaxy of millions of stars, in a universe with billions of galaxies! Issues of social justice concerning refugees, unborn children, and the criminally accused! Scholars thirst to understand, and they get excited about ideas. Let’s be a school that is electrified with argument and debate! 

Scholars don’t work in isolation. Teachers will tell you the best way to learn new material is to tutor and mentor others. If you can explain it to someone else, you’ll understand it and remember it at a much higher level. I highly recommend study sessions together, and I am more than willing to accommodate after school sessions in classrooms, led by students, for that purpose. It’s also more fun that way!

Scholars at St. Michael bring their anxiety to God. Striving to be the best students we can be often brings with it a certain amount of stress. We care about our grades! We care about our performance on tests! But the wonderful gift about being believing Christians is we don’t have to carry that burden alone—God invites us to share it with him. Collette Murphy is starting a morning prayer service in our chapel three days/week with Mrs. Smith. It’ll be a student led group—that’s an awesome way to ask God to help us have a good day and to do our best. 

May God give you the courage, the energy, and the desire to become scholars! It’s one of St. Michael’s greatest hopes for each of you!

Through the narrow portal

I want to thank all those students who spoke at Masses this weekend on behalf of the Guardian Angel project. It’s a generous act to dress in your school uniform, sit with your principal or school leader, stand in front of everyone and represent your school, so thank you!

Much more important than what I said or the adult said, was your willingness to stand in front of the Church and speak of your pride in the school. That’s what people were looking at. It’s what they’ll remember about this weekend. 

In fact, many people judge St. Michael on the basis of a single experience they have of you. That’s usually a good thing—you represent yourselves well. Because we’re a new school we spend a lot of time and money on advertising—news articles, ads, videos, bill boards, printing costs—but their experience of you matters much more. Our success so far as a school, the reason we’re growing so quickly, is that you represented us so well last year. You are the most important ambassadors of the school. 

You have a lot of power, you really do! Remember that. You have the power to do tremendous good for this institution, but you also have the power to do tremendous harm. I am proud of you because I get to see the whole panoramic view of who you are, how you relate to each other, how you handle yourselves around your teachers. But people that don’t know the school, if they have a bad experience of you, they are quick to judge the school on the basic of a single snapshot. Using an analogy, we may know the “yearbook’s” worth of pictures that tells the broad tale, but they may only have a single picture. Yet they’ll judge us quickly on the basis of that narrow portal. 

We sink or swim together. Remember that tonight as we cheer for our football team, or our volleyball team this weekend, or cross country team. Be loud, be crazy, be proud—but don’t ever put down or ridicule the other team or its players. We don’t boo the other school, but cheer proudly for our own. Putting down another school is not who we are, nor who we want to be. 

To me, the greatest compliment of a student body is, after winning or losing the game, the other school says, “They played hard, they fought hard, and their student body is a class act.  Let that be what they say about us tonight. Let that be our reputation throughout Baldwin County!

My Message to New Students: "I hope you'll fail often here."

Fake news? No. Those were my exact words this morning during new student orientation. But listen, please, for the context of my remarks. 

I recently observed an endearing moment while on a walk in my neighborhood:  A young boy, perhaps 5 years old, was learning to ride a bike, with his mom and dad helping him. The boy would sit on the bike, with anticipation and a little fear in his face, and his father would gently push him forward and let go. Within seconds, the front wheels would begin to wobble, and the boy would crash. But he would hop up, run the bike back to his father and say,  ‘Again, Daddy.’ The father gently pushed, the bike would wobble, then, wobble some more, and crash.  ‘Again Daddy.’ I watched this happen at least five times as I walked passed this young family, and when I rounded the block ten minutes later, they were still at it. But then a break-through moment occurred: For 20 glorious seconds, he rode the bike without crashing, shouting with electric joy, ‘I’m doing it! I’m doing it!’ as his parents cheered and clapped for him. 

This was a wonderful moment in a young boy’s life. But what was fascinating to me was the boy’s relentless desire to succeed, even though he kept crashing. Some where along the way as we grow up, we stop taking risks. We “play it safe” for fear of failure.  We don’t want to be laughed at, we don’t want to be ostracized for being wrong, we are fearful of rejection. 

I hope St. Michael will be a place that’s the opposite of that—where you will have the courage to risk failure. I hope you’ll try out for a team, even if you get cut or don’t play much. I hope you’ll run for student government, even if you’re not elected. I hope you’ll ask a girl out, even if she says no, or that if you’re a girl, you’ll say yes, even if “he’s not your type.” I hope you’ll volunteer an answer in class, even if it’s wrong. Ladies, studies show that beginning in middle school, you too often take a back seat to the boys in class, unwilling to challenge their ideas or declare your independent thoughts. I hope you’ll do the opposite at St. Michael—that you’ll speak out, even if it means you’ll have to tell a boy he’s wrong.

I want you to fail often because that means you’re trying new things, taking risks, exploring new possibilities often. The electric joy we feel, like this boy learning to ride a bike for the first time, comes in achieving things we work hard for.  It’s what makes life such a fantastic adventure!

As you begin your time at St. Michael, pray that God will give you the courage to try new things. Pray that he will give you the courage to fail!