Reflection #58 (Only 1018 to go): Seeking Truth

 

        In my retirement, I have been blessed to have found a hobby that I enjoy and which is very different from the life I lead as a teacher.  Don’t get me wrong. I loved my life as a teacher and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

       Now, I spend a fair amount of time in my basement scroll sawing; that is, making “pictures“ out of wood.  The alone-time affords me the opportunity to “contemplate the verities”.   

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the faculty room at Ignatius, having a pleasant conversation with Steve Lord.  For those of you who haven’t been around Ignatius since 1999, Steve teaches in the Religious Studies Department.  In earlier blogs, I speculated about who might be the “iconic” teachers filling the void of some of the greats of bygone eras.   Steve falls well within such a sphere.

In my conversation with Steve, as I was struggling to remember a name-from-the-past, I mentioned that a sharp memory is one of the assets sacrificed as payment for the privilege of growing old.  My compensation, however, is a certain level of “wisdom”*…”sign posts” along the road of life that hopefully appear when needed.  (Not a brag; this “wisdom” is just knowledge gleaned from experience over a whole lot of life.)

At this point, many other “young” teachers would have excused themselves saying their phone was ringing or they just remembered that they had to prepare a test for the next class.  I speak from experience because that’s what I did when I was a young man in the company of old-timers back in my day.

Not Steve.  Instead, he asked me what I had learned.  Given fair warning, I could have rattled off several tidbits, but I was so caught off guard by that invitation to expound, that all I could come up with was not to judge others.  In the Spalding-Raispis List of Cliches to Live By, it is written “View everyone’s motives in the best possible light.”  To quote Sydney J. Harris, “It is hard to weigh the faults of others without putting your thumb on the scale.”  Again, Steve didn’t just stare, or argue.  Rather, he seemed to agree, or, at least, consider that tenet as viable.

As I thought about our conversation, I was more and more impressed by his reaction.  Steve was born and raised in Texas and became a captain in the marines.  (Perhaps he still is in the reserves, but that I don’t know.) He saw action in Operation Desert Storm in the early ‘90’s, and afterwards he and his family came to Chicago when he received a scholarship to study Theology at the University of Chicago.

Steve told me that he had wanted to be a teacher which prompted the question, “Why religion instead of some other discipline?”.  Here’s was his response:  “After my war experience, I needed to make sense of the world and the confusing existence of profound evil in a good world.  I was swept away by the wisdom of the Church fathers and the richness of scripture.  My love for theology continues to grow.” 

I can see a common element between Steve’s quest and mine.  We both seek truth.  I have a feeling that he’s better at it than I am.

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family.

 

");

Reflection #57 (Only 1019 to go): Alumni Revisited

 

 I can’t speak for all of my former teaching colleagues, but I genuinely enjoy the Ignatius reunions.   Near the middle of October, October 19^th to be exact, the classes of  ’68, ’73, ’78 and ’83 had their respective reunions, and it was great revisiting the experiences of their years at Ignatius  

The class of ’73 had a huge gathering, which included many of the men who I had coached on the sophomore basketball team.  I actually coached young men and, eventually, women in all 4 of those classes, but not always in basketball.  It’s great seeing my former athletes, because there is a unique bond between players and coaches of athletic teams.  

We don’t cling to those days out of a sense of desperation, but there is something invigorating about reliving the shared emotions and energy of athletic contests.  The unexpected wins, and even losses, are seen through the prism of both time and more- important issues in life, and can be recounted joyfully.

 It isn’t only former athletes that I enjoy seeing at reunions.  I’m interested in hearing how and what all of my former students are doing.   They tell me about their families, adventures and professional lives, and they seem to take a morbid pleasure in reminding me of things that I said that cause me to wonder how I kept my job all of those years.  It’s all great fun

With apologies to the members of the class of ’68, I failed to make it to their site that evening.  My age and the distance that I have to drive home impacted that omission.  Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to visit with them at their 50^th    reunion in 5 years.  It should be added that Bob Gabric was disappointed that he couldn’t make it, but he now lives in Tucson, AZ.

Speaking of alumni, I had to laugh a couple of weeks ago when I was watching  television…on a Tuesday evening, I believe.  In the first program, Andre Baugher, Ignatius class of ’80, was appearing as a police captain on the sitcom Brooklyn 99.  That was followed immediately by NCIS Los Angeles in which Vito Ruginis from the class of ’74 appeared in a reoccurring role as a Russian “businessman” (wink, wink!).  It’s fun and somewhat exciting to see former students suddenly show up on the screen.

Finally, when I was visiting the class of ’73, I ran into Bernie Reusz who is a dentist in the Downers Grove area.  My wife and I had gone to Bernie before we moved away.   That, in turn, reminded me that, when we went to Ireland this past summer, John O’Riordan, class of ’84, acted as our travel agent.  In fact, John, at  World Class Travels, has done a wonderful job of organizing several different trips for us always to our satisfaction.   (With a name like O’Riordan, it’s probably no surprise that he’s particularly skilled at organizing Ireland trips.)

When I started this “gig” of writing a blog for the school, I thought that it might be nice to give a shout out to Ignatius alumni who are self-employed or work for small companies.  I was told at that time that this is already done, but, with my limited computer skills, I’ve never found that site.

You’d think that, with a son who makes his living in I.T., I’d be able to find it.  Oh, well.

Reflection #56 (Only 1020 to go): Changing of the Guard

A smile crossed my face when the College of Cardinals elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J. as the first Jesuit pope, and he promptly took the name “Francis”.  Finally Raispis was getting the recognition that he deserved.  (Just kidding…kind of)  Did you know that Frank Raispis actually considered entering the Jesuits following his college years, then spent the next 60+ years (1955 to 2012) working for them?

          A bigger smile twisted across my twisted face when I heard about the changes in the Vatican culture that Pope Francis was bringing about.  The reason for my smile was that, a year and a half ago, I was invited to give a speech at the 2012 graduation, and the main point of my speech was that an integral part of Jesuit education is that students should listen and learn, then use their knowledge, along with their intelligence to determine what is true and just.   They shouldn’t just follow along, doing what others have done or tell them to do. 
           Almost on cue, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope…as well as the first non-European pope…came along to shake up the long-standing traditions of the papacy and the Vatican.   The cardinals are intelligent men, and they knew his  background and works in Argentina.  Considering some of the difficulties that the Church has had to deal with in recent years, it may well have been that the College of Cardinals decided to move in a direction that would show the world its intention to “right the ship”.  (This is NOT a religio-political statement …one of neither approval or disapproval…. definitely a can-of-worms that I do not care to open.)

The history of the Jesuits is both interesting and complex, and in a later blog, I’d like to revisit that in more detail, but for the moment, on a somewhat unrelated topic, I have been keeping tabs on some friends of ours…Frank Raispis, Mrs. Sue Connelly, Jim’s widow, and Joan Terracina, long-time secretary to the treasurer at Ignatius.  They are all doing pretty well.  As my mother-law use to say, they’re in pretty good shape for the shape they’re in.   I also talked to Bob Gabric who is sending his regards to those who knew him back-in-the-day.

That’s all for now, folks.

Reflection #56 (Only 1020 to go): The Presidents

    Father Caruso, the president of St. Ignatius, announced on the Ignatius web site that Father Brian Paulson would be the next “provincial” for the newly formed USA Midwest Province.  This province will be made up of the Chicago, Detroit and Wisconsin Provinces.  Fr. Paulson was Fr. Caruso’s predecessor as president of St. Ignatius, serving from 1999 to 2010.
    I want to take the opportunity to congratulate Father Paulson and wish him the best of luck in his new position.  Being the provincial means that Father Paulson will be the “head” of the Jesuits and Jesuit institutions in this province, but, despite my 50+ years of association with the Jesuits, I admit to having only a vague sense of what else the position includes.  I’m sure that much of it is administrative. 
    Fr. Brad Schaeffer, a Jesuit who is an Ignatius alumnus (class of ’67), returned as a scholastic to teach and coach baseball, and, after ordination, came back as principal.  After a few years at Ignatius, he was tapped to work for the Chicago Province, and at some point, became the head of the Jesuit Conference in the U.S., which, in Taylor Street terms, is the capo d’capo of the Jesuits in the United States…pretty “heady” stuff. 
    I’d also like to thank all of the men who filled the roll of president at Ignatius.  That was, and is, an awesome responsibility.  My first inclination was to write about my perceptions of each of the 8 men who were presidents of Ignatius during my full-time tour of duty, but, honestly, I didn’t know most of them very well.  That prompted a second reaction.  It seemed to me that they weren’t very well known by students and parents, either.  It is true that those who were “in-siders”, for want of a better word, board-of-trustee members, those involved with fund-raising, and, probably, officers of different organizations within the school would have had more contact.  Students would mostly have seen the president only at school masses and at graduation.  He really was “the man behind the screen” so to speak.
    That wasn’t universally true.  For example Father Paulson often accompanied students on retreats.  Father John Reilly, God rest his soul, was a teacher, assistant principal, then principal before becoming president.  I can’t speak to the amount of contact that the others had, but Fathers Paulson and Reilly come immediately to mind as being more recognizable to students.
     Despite the fact that they signed my paycheck (figuratively if not literally), their primary job was to keep the doors of the school open.  During the late 60’s and through the 70’s…and perhaps into the early 80’s… that was not easy task.  There seemed to be a delicate balance between raising tuition and not raising it so high that parents couldn’t afford to send their sons here.
     It occurred to me that, whatever the nature of the calling to the priesthood/Jesuits for each of these men, I’m willing to bet that it didn’t include being an administrator.  It didn’t involve fund-raising or many of the other less glamorous responsibilities of being president.  If a person becomes a principal, he or she has take courses for certification with the intent of becoming principal, but the president of a school was just assigned the position.  Having taken a vow of obedience, what option did he have?
    As an act of self-indulgence, I’m going to mention my short stint as an administrator.  I was the athletic director for 3 years, and, no, I didn’t have to take a class to get that job. I’d like to have been the first to say that I really wasn’t equipped to handle the task, but others have said it before I did.  (For the record, I did leave that position of my own accord.) I realized that being in administration wasn’t why I became a teacher.  (In that way, Frank Raispis and I were alike…maybe the only way.)

Reflections #55 (Only 1021 to go): A Rare Opportunity (Pt. 1)

     It's not very often that the 40+ year history of a high school sport can be compiled without extensive research, but I don't do research.  Happily, in the case of St. Ignatius Soccer, I don't have to.  The reason, of course, is that Jim Luzzi is the only varsity soccer coach the team has ever had.  I can just ask him about his experiences…while he's still young enough to remember them.  For 42 years, he has been at the helm.  I'm not particularly fond of statistics either, but I like stories.    I like to hear them and I like to tell them, so I asked Jim some questions about being the sole Ignatius varsity soccer coach. One important "stat" is his win-loss-tie record of 465-404-92.  (This, of course, is before this season started.)

     In 1970, I was the athletic director, and a group of boys with an ethnicity that lent itself to soccer (Ukrainian) came to me and asked if we could have soccer.  Times were tough financially at the time, and I wasn't keen on the idea of adding one more responsibility into the mix, but I also didn't want to be the "bad guy" in this scenario, so I said that there was no coach…a sure fired cop-out.  Not to be denied, the boys found Jim Luzzi, and he agreed to do it.  Oh, well!  "A promise mad is a debt unpaid."  Since then, the boys and, eventually, girls have been the happy beneficiaries.

     In 1969, Jim's first year teaching math at Ignatius, he had helped me coach the sophomore basketball team and found that he enjoyed the added dimension of emotion and intensity that coaching brought to the educational experience.  He had never coached soccer before, but, to quote Jim, "I remember thinking, at the time, that if a more capable coach came aboard, I'd feel fine stepping aside.  I guess we know where that went."  The fact is that, in 1970, soccer was not a very big sport in the USA, and Jim was not very knowledgeable about its intricacies…but he was, and always has been intelligent, dedicated and hard-working.

     I wrote in blog #4 that he is highly organized.  (Some might say "obsessive", but he's my friend, so I won't say that. I'll just say "meticulous".)  He has saved all of the programs and award books for all of the seasons since the beginning.  Looking back through these documents actually gave him a chance to reminisce about teams and players he's coached through all of the seasons.  He told me that he could recall every player as each name appeared.  As a former coach myself, I can assure you that is a remarkable feat.

     I asked him what challenges he had at the beginning.  He said that knowing how to plan practices and knowing what system of play to use took some time to master.  He added, "Dealing with player personalities was another challenge.  Luckily, the first team was great about helping a rookie coach through the season.  There were great leaders on that team…"

     Again, I can empathize with him.  I coached 4 sports over my years, but I was the sophomore coach for 2 of them and freshmen coach for the third.  That meant I had the varsity coach to lean on to answer those questions.  The only sport that I was varsity coach was tennis, and those players came in knowing how to play, several highly trained and skilled.  All I had to do was make sure that we had plenty of tennis balls and I got them to the matches on time.

     On a related topic, I asked if there were things that he might/could/should have done differently.  He said, hind sight being 20-20, there were certain games in which he might have made better coaching decision, but he really doesn't think that there was anything that would have made a difference to the outcome of the entire season.

     At the end of this season, I'll post Part 2, his most memorable seasons and experiences.

 

 

Reminiscence #54...Only 1022 to go: The Times They are A-Changing

     First of all, I want to give a shout out to the outstanding athletes who comprise the Ignatius girls' 4 person crew.  They came in 2nd in the nation in their event, and subsequently, they were honored by the Illinois State House of Representatives.  Congratulations, ladies.  When I find out more, I'll pass it along.

     For those of you who might not be aware, there are a lot of faculty changes going on at St. Ignatius. Quite a few veteran teachers have either retired or are continuing their careers at different venues. Best wishes to all of them. This caused me to wonder who are Ignatius' "iconic" teachers of today and tomorrow. Who will take the place of O'Mara, Fr. Link, Connelly or Raispis?  Many from my generation (or later) might say, "No one!!!", and they're probably right. That doesn't mean that Ignatius is suffering a vacuum of great teachers. It's just that things are different now. The world is different now.
     For the sake of clarity, today's "reminiscence" is about Dr. Jane Delaney. As you might guess, I feel that she is a very likely prospect for the role of the next generation of "icons".  In 2004 she was awarded the Raymond T. Grant Educator-of-the-Year Award. That was the first inkling that I had of the respect her students had for her, but when I asked her what other professional recognitions she may have earned, I was over-whelmed. Three times she was named Outstanding Elementary Teacher by St. Ignatius College Prep, Nazareth Academy made her the recipient of the Teachers Who Make A Difference Award, she was a semi-finalist for the Golden Apple Award. There have been other accolades, but that's enough to give you the idea. I'm sure that she would be the first to tell you that such recognitions are fine, but that's never been her goal.
     I actually took the 37-mile trip to school just to interview Dr. Delaney to find out what makes her so successful, and I studiously wrote down what she told me. After dwelling on my notes for a long time, I realized what is more important is how different the process of education has become. It's not better, it's not worse...a statement many of my peers would disagree with...but things are different now. If I had to read and memorize ("memorizing" was very big back in the day) "The Cremation of Sam McGee" (by Robert Service), I would have had go to my nearest public library and hunt through the card catalog and stacks to find the right book. I have a 9-year old grandson who now could probably "google" it in less than a minute. If you generalize that to all areas of learning, it becomes apparent why I say that things are different now.
     To be a great teacher now, the same elements are necessary as they were in yesteryear. A teacher has to be intelligent and well-educated, have a passion for the material and the students (or in Jane's case call it "love") and have a high enough energy level to "do 5 shows a day" then coach or moderate a sport or activity. There is one other quality that I have noticed in my experience: Charisma. Like beauty, I can't define charisma but I know it when I see it. Jane has all of these elements.
     My original intent was to put down what she told me were the driving forces in her method, but, upon reflection, it occurred to me that, even if I understood it completely, I'm not sure that I could explain it. In my teaching years, we tried to convince our charges that we were the fountain of all truth in our respective fields. "Learn what I tell you, and give it back on the test."
     Dr. Delaney is at the vanguard of the new wave of teaching. That's why I'm featuring her in this blog. The theme that I kept hearing from Jane was open-to-growth...not only for her students, but for herself. In her classes, learning is a collaborative process. She even admitted that there are students who are more skilled (or talented) in the realm of technology than she is. Sometimes she learns from them.
     This should not be interpreted as, "Let the students wander aimlessly." This is where the intelligence aspect enters. She sets the assignments, and, where and when necessary, she steers the class in the appropriate direction. She also does that on an individual basis. Her students have come to trust her to guide them, but they are allowed to discover. They are "learning how to learn" and they are incorporating the facilities that are available in the world today. When they have moved on to another class, to another school, they take that skill with them.
      I close by saying that, while Dr. Delaney came to mind when I was "cogitating" the next icons, she is NOT to only one.  To all Ignatius teachers and coaches, "Keep up the great tradition!...and thanks."

Reflection #53 (Only 1023 to go!): Go, Wolfpack

     I was excited to read that the St. Ignatius Girls' Water Polo Team won the state championship this year...and the boy's team came in 4th in the state. I don't know the team members, nor have I ever coached any water sport, but my involvement with St. Ignatius, including coaching, has generated a keen interest in how the Wolfpack is doing. I read one statement that said this is the first state team championship that St. Ignatius has ever captured, and I would guess this is so. Prior to 1963, we didn't even participate in the Illinois state association.      At a pep rally this spring, not only were the water polo teams' achievements acknowledged, but it was noted that this year, Ignatius teams had earned 9 conference championships, 4 state regional titles, 6 state sectional titles and a state championship. This is a vast difference from when I was a new teacher and coach 50+ years ago.
     Certainly we strived to field championship teams back in the early '60's, and indeed, there were individual athletes who excelled. Tom O’Hara, class of ’60, was favored to win the one-mile race at the ‘64 Olympics. The Sheehan brothers achieved great success in the state in tennis, and Don and Fred Hogan were outstanding in their respective sports. In team sports, we’ve had many fine athletes who have distinguished themselves in college and beyond. I was privileged to have coached several outstanding athletes. But athletics at Ignatius has (or should I say "had"?) always taken a back-seat to academics. After all, the Jesuits were the intelligentsia of the Church. (Don’t tell the Dominicans that I said that.)
     I was prompted by this year’s athletic achievements to drag out the old 1963 yearbook and do a little unofficial research. Needless to say, there have been a lot of changes at the school since '63. We are now coed, the building and grounds have increased in both size and quality, the size of the student body is larger and far more diverse, and there are far fewer priests and scholastics than in the early ’60’s.
     In the ‘63 yearbook, there were 8 sports pictured. They were football, cross country, basketball, swimming, bowling, tennis, golf and track-and-field. (Interestingly, chess was included in the athletic portion of the book, but I didn‘t count it as one of the 8. No offense intended.) Baseball was not among the sports shown, but, actually, we fielded a baseball team in the spring of '63 right after football was dropped . In order to compare, I reviewed the present-day athletic
section of the Ignatius website, and I noted 22 different sports. The boys’ and girls’ teams for the same sport are counted as just one; e.g., girls’ basketball and boys’ basketball were counted as a single sport. Ignatius now offers not only the 8 that were on the ‘63 list, but also such sports as field hockey, la cross, rugby, crew, and, of course, soccer as well as many others.      It should be noted that now several of the sports are classified as “club” sports. These are sports that are not sanctioned by the IHSA, and the cost of participating in the sport is passed on to the athletes' families.

     The frosting on our year was that senior Jack Keelan won the state championship in cross country and set the state record for the two-mile run in track. A truly remarkable achievement.
     In a somewhat humorous vein, Ignatius had a cheer to soften the blow of being bested by our opponents which drove Fr. Brad Schaeffer up the proverbial wall when he was principal. It went: "That's all right; that's OK. You're gonna work for us someday.". Father felt it was arrogant. I don't know why.
After this year, that cheer can be laid to rest.
             Congratulations to all of the fine athletes and their coaches. Go, Wolfpack!