Why POP?

Dear prospective parent of POP, 

“Ask me why!” the badge said on the girl at the grocery store checkout line. Intrigued, I asked her, and she gave me a cheerful, well-rehearsed answer.

Choosing a school for our children is much more important than where we shop!

Even so, it’s exactly the right question in trying to decide on the place our kids will best flourish.  So here's my take on the question, “Why Prince of Peace?” 

It’s not because our program is versatile, or that our students’ national test scores are high, or that our teachers are kind and caring. These are true, but they’re not enough. Rather, it’s the culture we’re trying to build here, and the hope we have for each child in our care. 

C.S. Lewis, in his book, Mere Christianity, catches the sense of it when he writes: 

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you ​knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Our task at POP is to cooperate with God’s grace in the life of children to help them become “palaces”—we might even say “cathedrals” where the Lord lives and through which his light shines! Each day at POP,  our students are reminded that God loves them and desires their happiness! No, growing up isn’t always easy, and as C.S. Lewis reminds us, there will be some hurt and disappointment along the way. But nurtured by a joyful culture of faith, optimism and just the right amount of challenge, we believe that children here grow in confidence, wisdom and grace. 

Though we'll never be perfect, we consider this task worthy of our best efforts and our most noble hopes. We invite you to join us in building such a school for your child and other children. We're in this together! 

Faustin Weber

President

Prince of Peace Catholic School

Plano, TX.

Reflections on 9/11, Twenty-one Years Later

These were my remarks to students during assembly on 9/11/2022: 

You may have noticed our flags are at half mast today. Twenty one years ago today, we were horrified to watch planes fly into the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon, and a fourth plane crash in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 were killed, the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our history. We remember all those who died that day. We also continued to pray for the family members who still feel their loss today. 

I was just 1 when our president, John F. Kennedy was assassinated,  22 when the space shuttle Columbia blew up, and 39 on 9/11/2021 when we were attacked. For people who lived through it—and I think your teachers will agree with me—it’s the worst public event we’ve witnessed in our lifetimes.

There have been a lot of articles written about the lasting impact on 9/11 and the toll it’s taken on the United States, even beyond those killed that day. Among other things, we’ve fought two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq, with many lives lost and billions of dollars spent. 

But I would argue the longest lasting impact is we’ve lost a lot of trust in each other. You can see that in airport security check points. You can see that in the millions of security cams we’ve put everywhere. Schools are required to have them—we have 35 of them.  In homes: “Ring” Doorbells for front doors, hidden cams in our homes. Cities have web cams everywhere. Cars have them on their dashboards. You can scarcely do anything without being recorded. 

And because of this felt loss of privacy, Americans have tried to counter by protecting their privacy, turning “inward.”  Just look at our neighborhoods. If you were flying over the typical middle class neighborhood today, and comparing to 21 years ago, you’d notice two striking differences: privacy fences, and the proportion of house size (huge) to lawn size (small). We don’t go outside as much, and we’ve separated ourselves from our neighbors.

Our smart phones have contributed to this. One of the great ironies of our time is despite the fact these phones give us almost unlimited potential to connect with each other, in fact they more often than not separate us. We look down, and not out. When I walk in the morning, I often pass 7 teenagers waiting for the bus, standing next to each other. What are they typically doing? All on the phone! Of course!  But it isn’t just teenagers. It’s adults, too. I was at a restaurant recently, and there was a family two tables over—a grandmother, a mom and dad, and 2 teens—and they were ALL on their phones, even grandmother!

People ask me, from time to time, why we have a “no cell phone during school hours” policy. It’s precisely for this reason. We want you to look up! We want you to notice each other, to talk with each other, to turn outward, not inward. The joy is in the interactions. The joy is in the friendships. That’s why I was so happy last week with our club fair, when so many of you were signing up for clubs to join this year. Dive in to these clubs, and you’ll build real friendships here. I know it’s awkward, and little bit scary to join something new, but it’s a risk worth taking. 

Let us continue to pray for the families of the victims of 9/11. But let us also pray for ourselves, that we will look up, that we will trust ourselves to each other, and that we will forge lasting friendships that will bring joy to our lives. 

Fond Farewell

Because our house in Daphne sold so quickly, for the last few weeks Diane and I have been living in a friend’s guest house in Fairhope, very close to the Mobile Bay. My morning walks have improved considerably; I now walk down the bay to the Fairhope Public Pier, then down the pier. The sun is just rising from the east as I walk back, reminding me, once again, how breathtakingly beautiful this place is. 

It’s easy to take all this for granted. I grew up in Mobile. During my teenage years, my good friend had a bay house on County Rd 1, south of Scenic 98. They had a pier that stretched out 400 feet over the water,  with a covered landing at the end. We spent many weekends there, fishing, playing music, sailing, laughing and teasing. That was nearly 45 years ago, but the memories come roaring back as I walk alongside the bay each morning and soak it all in. Something about the open water brings us full circle, calming us and slowing us down.

I will miss this place. I will miss its beauty and southern charm. I will miss the kindness of strangers, who engage you in friendly “hello’s” or small talk as you  pass them by. I will miss the oak trees, draped in Spanish moss, and the sounds of laughter and faint music, which carry across the water from some unknown source. I’ve learned that retired people love their dogs, and can be seen at all parts of the day, out walking them.  There’s indeed a “peaceful, easy feeling” here. No one is in a particular hurry. 

My first impression of Plano is different: More traffic, a much younger town, with people in their mid-careers, successful,  hustling to get ahead. Things are just busier there, and it’ll take some getting used to. But we believe it’s where God wants us, for now. My daughter is there, with her four daughters, ages 6, 4, 3 and 1, and we don’t want them to grow up without knowing us. 

And perhaps, though I am conflicted about this, it’s time to move on from St. Michael as well. It’s been an incredible joy ride these last seven years to start this school with the people of Baldwin County. I’ve been able to take all my best ideas from leading two other Catholic high schools for 26 years, propose them for this school, and see them flourish. Our success has been astounding on every level: enrollment, philanthropy, test scores, A.P. results, athletic accomplishments, and real advances in the arts, music and band. The life of faith here is vibrant and strong. I am proud of the school we’ve created together. 

But there does come a point in every school, I believe, where the “cutting edge” ideas experienced by the first wave of students and parents become the “status quo” ideas by the second and third wave. Storefronts need occasional make-overs. So do schools, and the easiest way to do that is change out the leadership. “Letting go” is tough for the founder of any institution, even when that person senses, deep down, it’s time to do so. From that release comes a grace and a humility (not my strong suit) which is good for the soul. I’ve felt the peace that comes with that, especially these last few weeks. 

So, “onward and upward.” I’ve used that phrase to close out my weekly communications with our parents and friends ever since our beginning. I mean it to suggest we should keep our gaze focused on our future (onward) but also on the Lord (upward). 

I’ve been asked hundreds of questions about our success here: “Why are donors so generous?”  “How do you have such great A.P. scores?”  “How did you land Philip Rivers as your coach?”  “What accounts for your strong enrollment? “ "How did you get such wonderful teachers?" In the end, the answer to all those questions is the same:  “God’s grace.” If we remember that, with humility, if we listen carefully to Him and have the conviction to go where He leads,  this school will continue to make a powerful difference—an eternal difference— in the lives of its students and families. 

May it always be so.