Be it done unto me...

This was Mr. Weber's second address to the JPII student body, given on August 11, 2008.

He was our school’s best athlete two years ago--our starting tailback in football and point guard in basketball. He was a guy’s guy—tough, gritty, not prone to emotion. The occasion was senior night in basketball, where we introduce players with their parents, and they walk out to half court together. His mother had a stroke a week earlier, and probably shouldn’t have been there but she wasn’t about to be at home when her son was playing his last home game.

When they called out her name, her son came from across the floor to get her in the bleachers, because she could hardly walk. He helped her, gently, come down from the bleachers and walked SLOWLY with her to half-court. The tenderness by which he treated his mother was a direct contrast to the way he presented himself to others, and all the students noticed it. There were even some tears welling up in the crowd.

But it was, after all, his mom. Mothers are special. Just look at any college football game when the TV cameras roam the sidelines. Whenever they do a close-up of a player, it’s not “Hey Dad” or “Hey Coach” from high school, but “Hey Mom” or “Hey Mom, love you”.

All of this helps us understand why Catholics seem to talk about Mary so much. This week, on Friday, we’ll be celebrating the Assumption, the belief that Mary was assumed into heaven, body and soul. Why all this fuss about Mary? We call Mary “first among the saints” for a simple reason: she was Jesus’ mom, and that puts her in a privileged place in our faith, just as Moms are held in a privileged place in our families and in our society.

And why do Catholics pay so much attention to dead people, even if that dead person was Jesus’ mom? For the same reason that we have pictures of our relatives in our homes and in our offices—so that we can be inspired by their example and can be reminded that we are called to live as they lived. There’s a picture of my grandfather in my office. My wife teases me because it’s much bigger than the picture of her. But there’s a reason he’s so prominently displayed. It wasn’t because he was a professor of orthodontics at the University of TN, or chair of that department for 37 years, or that he won 2 international awards in his field that only one other person in his profession has done. It was because every Friday, for 37 years, he went out to lunch with his graduate students, thus building a personal relationship with them. His picture reminds me of the kind of leader I want to be for JPII—not just a head of school, but one that gets to know the students personally—it’s the reason I teach a class and have done so for the 20 years I’ve been either president or principal.

We celebrate the saints, and this week, Mary, as first among the saints, because they remind us that a Christian life is not only possible, but it’s been done already. And that ought to inspire us to believe we can live that kind of life, too.

In 1954 track’s greatest record was broken. It was such a tremendous human achievement that it didn’t just make the sports headlines; it made front page headlines all over the world. It was thought to have been humanly impossible—that if someone pushed himself that hard, his lungs would collapse. (Does anyone know what it was?) Roger Bannister, an English long distance runner, broke the 4 minute mile. It had never been done before, was thought to be impossible, and as a result, no-one ever did it. But that same summer, the world record had been broken 3 more times, and within 3 years, over 16 different runners had broken that barrier. Today the world record is 3 minutes, 43 seconds, a full 17 seconds off that once unthinkable barrier.

What happened? It’s pretty clear: Once folks saw that a 4 minute mile was possible, it empowered others to run that barrier, too.

All that happened to Mary in her life was the result of a simple prayer. When the angel Gabriel announced she was to bear a son who shall become Emmanuel, savior, she said only “Be it done unto me according to your word”. Let that simple prayer, and her faithfulness to that prayer, be an inspiration to all of us to live according to his word, his will. What she has done, we can also do. May we have the courage to say yes as she did. Amen.

Welcome, Students of JPII !

Note: This is Mr. Weber's first address to the students of Pope John Paul II Catholic High School, on the occasion of their first day of school.

Welcome back to all of you who were students here last year, and once again, welcome to our many new students. I trust the upperclassmen will make our many new students feel welcome and I see that our senior class has taken some initiative to give a special welcome to our freshmen already.

For those of you who don’t remember who I am or who never met me, I am Mr. Weber, the new headmaster of JPII. My family and I come here from Montgomery, Al, where I was a former teacher, principal and president of Montgomery Catholic Preparatory for 23 years. I am excited to be here.

Since I had nothing to do with the school until now, I can tell people very honestly what I think of it without sounding too self-serving. I mean this seriously when I say you are blessed to be part of an outstanding school. I’ve been in education all my adult life and can say with some authority that this school ranks as one of the best schools in the southeast and among the best Catholic schools in the country. I hope, in as much as familiarity does at times breed contempt, that in your more honest moments, when you’re not feeling stressed, that you appreciate what a great school this is.

The facilities are excellent—this is a beautiful campus. The teachers here are at the very top of their profession—they’re well educated, they’re committed to their subject areas, but most of all they’re committed to you and helping you do well. The administration—Mrs. Phillips, Coach Rollins, Mr. Weaver, Mrs. Brown and Mr. McClaren—is second to none.

Coaches often say that their teams are only as good as their athletes—and stealing that line--a school is only as good as its students. I’ve had the chance to meet many of you already. I’ve seen your test scores. I received your AP test results this summer, which were incredible. I’ve read about the state hockey and bowling championships last year, read about all the other teams and your successes and struggles, I’ve listened to the CD of last year’s Spring Choral concert, and I look forward to attending MANY games, concerts and performances this year. The truth of the matter is this: This school is excellent because you are excellent. On the whole, you work hard, you practice hard, you play hard, and it all shows in your many achievements.

I challenge you to continue in this pursuit of excellence.

I’d like to point you to a quote from the person for whom this school is named, Pope John Paul II, as we begin this new school year.

"Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."

If you remember when you were a child and swimming in the pool, your parents always told you that you had to stay in the shallow end. The “deep end” was the forbidden zone, the part of the pool that was over your head. The shallow end was the “safe” side.

I think what John Paul II is telling us in this quote—telling you as you begin this year—is don’t play it safe. Take some risks. Join clubs and teams that you’ve not joined before, shoot for the better grade in your classes, deepen your relationship with God, make new friends, push yourself out of your comfort zone—move out to the deep end.

When my youngest son Daniel was 6, he was invited to his first pool party. It was during the winter, but it was an indoor pool, and he was so excited he pestered his mother each day for a week if it were the day of the party. Finally, the day came, and I told my wife I’d drop him off at the party on my way to a formal banquet—suit and tie. When Daniel arrived at the party, he quickly took off his shirt, shoes and coat and jumped for joy into the deep end of the pool…the only problem was, he didn’t know how to swim and he started to drown. The life guard was on the shallow end with the little kids, far away, so alarmed, I jumped in, suit, tie and all and pulled him to the edge.

Though I don’t recommend drowning yourself, I do think as we get older, one of the things that happens to us is we become overly cautious, not risking anything.

There are really two ways of going through life—jumping in and learning how to swim, or playing it safe at the shallow end, watching the others swim. It’s easier on the shallow end…you can make fun of the people who bust it off the diving board or look goofy learning to swim-- just like it’s easier to sit in the bleachers and be critical of athletes on the field, who compete on behalf of their school, even if that means they sometimes lose. As you begin this school year, don’t be one of those people playing it safe on the shallow end or in the bleachers—JUMP INTO the deep, GET IN the game.

This quote from John Paul also harkens back to the biblical story of the apostles who had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. You remember the story….as they were coming back, frustrated and tired, Jesus appears on the shore and tells them to head back out to the deep and throw their nets to the other side of the boat. “We’ve been fishing all night” they grumble back at him. “We’ve didn’t catch anything”. “Just head back out and throw your nets to the other side of the boat”, Jesus tells them. (I am translating loosely). I wish I were in the boat listening to the apostles’ sarcastic muttering as they turned their boat around and headed back to the deep—“Oh YEAH, the other side…that’ll do the trick…if only we had put an X on the lake where we last threw down our nets, then we could throw our nets to the other side and catch something. Why didn’t we think of that? ”. But despite their skepticism, they grudgingly did what Jesus said…they trusted him. And when they let down their nets, they caught more fish than they could handle, and brought a boat load back to the shore.

The Lord promises us if we are willing to trust him, if we are willing to risk moving to the deep end and to throwing down our nets—if we get involved, join clubs, try out for teams, become more committed to God, work on making new friends—if we shun mediocrity and not play it safe—he will bless us.

So as we begin this school year, my challenge to you is to jump into the deep end!

May all of you have an incredible year and may God bless each of you.

Teaching Religion in a Catholic High School

Advice to new religion teachers

So we're a few weeks from opening school and new teacher in-services are taking place beginning next week.

As I prepare my remarks for these teachers, I am apt to reminisce. At the age of 23, with a graduate degree in theology from Notre Dame, I walked into my school--eager, idealistic, ready to change the world. That was 24 years ago. I met my wife in my first year of teaching, became principal at 27, school president at 39 and am now a "headmaster" at 46. Through it all, I've taught theology at least part time each semester, because more than any thing else, teaching high school kids thrills me, challenges me, and humbles me.

So what wisdom can I pass on, especially to teachers entering the field of theology or religion?

1) Be yourself.

I'm reminded of St. Francis' admonition: "Preach the gospel, and if you must, use words". Nothing matters more in our teaching of the faith than who we are as people, and few things will cripple us more than trying to be someone other than ourselves with the kids. Teens recognize phonies instantaneously, and dismiss what they say either out of disdain or (worse) apathy.

The temptation of a new teacher, especially a young one, is to "role play" as a teacher, and let this role pre-define who he is with teens. Well, in fact we DO play a role: It's not "Johnny" to the kids, but "Mr. Smith". We can't cheer at the high school games like we might have cheered at the college games (my wife taught me this quickly!), nor can we be our students' "best friends". But despite that role, we can still be ourselves within it. We should allow kids to see our sense of humor, we should be able to relax around them, banter back and forth about hobbies, opine about athletic teams, tease and cajole. Nothing has more power to change a classroom dynamic or improve my relationship with teens than if I laugh with them about a joke they've told, or a silly prank they've pulled. It's strange, but they don't expect laughter from a teacher. Be willing to be yourself.

2) Be professional.

We're at an initial disadvantage as high school religion teachers. Too often in their young lives as students, they've had religion teachers who have treated religion as touchy feely nonsense, or had textbooks with cutesy pictures and little substance (a friend once called it "butterfly theology"). I once asked my middle school age daughter what she had learned in religion, and she told me, with a derisive smile, "Love God, love each other, love God, love each other, love God, love each other..." So when students come to your class, you've got a credibility problem, right off the bat.

The temptation is to BLAST them right out of the water academically, just to show them that theology "is TOO as important as Math". But this isn't the way. Rather, make sure that what is being taught is substantial and factual, make sure that home work requirements are consistent with what other subjects require, that assessments are frequent and fair, that work is graded in a timely fashion, and that classes are well prepared and taught from beginning to end (nothing destroys the "value" of the subject matter in the students' eyes more quickly than teachers "shutting down" early. The message is the subject matter is important only when the teacher defines it to be so, rather than the teacher being in service to the subject matter). In short, teach religion as professionally as you can, as well as the best Math, Science or English teacher you've ever had. The kids will follow.

3) Aim toward sense, not sensation.

Implied in goal #2 above is a mistake that religion teachers make too frequently: they aim directly at the heart instead of the head. I believe effective high school teachers should aim at making sense and teaching content, and take the long view that the context of our teaching-- namely, a Catholic Christian community of adults who take their faith seriously, where prayer is frequent, opportunities for service abound, and yes, where religion is taught as a serious academic subject--will take hold of the heart. Designing exercises aimed directly at eliciting an emotional response discredits the class in a teenager's mind, and almost certainly in a teenage BOY'S mind.

In my mind, many textbooks and many theology classrooms suffer from a kind of schizophrenia about this exact issue: Is it my job, as a religion teacher, to lead kids to conversion? One must be nuanced in one's answer here. It's my job as a teacher working in a Catholic school community to lead kids to Christ, and as a person who is specially trained in theology, it’s my job to be particularly active within this community to foster practices that advance that goal. But my responsibility in the classroom toward this goal is the same as a Math teacher's: teach content!

One of the Catholic tradition's greatest strengths is our intellectual tradition. The underpinning of our tradition is "knowledge precedes love". That's why in some Christian traditions, one can become a Church member during a 10 minute altar call, but Catholics require a one to two year RCIA process, with lengthy instruction in the faith. Sadly, few Catholics know our intellectual tradition deeply enough to appreciate it. Years later, will they become like the seed placed in rocky soil, sprouting quickly but dying for lack of good roots? Our job is to give them roots, and that comes first through making sense.


4) What they say is more important than what you say

Here's what I mean: A wise mentor once told me that a common fault in religion classrooms is that teachers are "answering questions that students haven't even asked themselves yet". More simply, we should aim to be exceptionally good listeners. Most of us as teachers are better talkers than listeners! Listen carefully to the questions students ask, and treat these questions like they were GOLD. So, for example, rather than imposing a tightly structured, systematically sound, theologically accurate outline onto a "Catholic doctrine" class, for example, try to begin by asking students to write out any and all questions they have about their faith, and find a way of answering these questions in a systematic way. Work inductively when possible, rather than deductively. You'll find that much of what they've asked can be incorporated into a systematic outline, anyway, but you'll be answering THEIR questions as you go. Just be sure they recognize their questions as you go along!


5) Make it real.

Every book ever written about effective teaching has said as much, but here's your unique goal as a high school religion teacher: EVERYTHING you discuss needs to have a practical application, a connection to current events, a place in contemporary discussions, some information that can used, debated or discussed. In my view, a sound high school religion class talks a lot about current events, lyrics to songs, a T.V. show or current movie, an event at the school –all aimed to connect the content to something “real”. Compare, contrast and critique these things in light of what the Church believes, and allow (without trying to “force” the issue) the attractiveness of the Church's ideas, God’s grace, and the pull of the Catholic school community to "win" hearts over the long haul.

6) Stay close to the Lord

Thoughout your career, you will experience crises of confidence, exasperation, frustration, unreasonable parents, troubled teens, bad classes, poor liturgies. You will be misquoted, misrepresented and for some periods of time, mistrusted. But you will also get the unparalleled gift to see the world with wonder again, through the eyes of young people. You will be made a confidante by a young person seeking advice, feel the joy of a weak student who does well on an assignment, cheer for your students in athletic contests, beam with a near parents’ pride as your students graduate. In other words, to borrow a line from our armed services, “It’ll be the toughest job you’ll ever love”. To keep yourself rooted, to keep your ideas fresh, to be the kind of faithful person our young people need to see first hand in a world with such cause for cynicism, stay close to the Lord, both in your daily prayer and in the reception of the sacraments. If you do, the Lord will bless you in your work and you will go to bed each night exhausted, but with a smile on your face.