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Dear Academy Parents,

The halfway mark in the first quarter of the school year has just been crossed. Perhaps this is the time when we begin to think of evaluations, grades and report cards. Perhaps this is also a good time to begin to think about what we need to do (or not do) to help our children become successful.

In sync with these timely questions, it so happens that I am in the middle of reading How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough.  The author, a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, calls into question what he refers to as the “cognitive hypotheses,” which, as he puts it, is…

… the belief, rarely expressed aloud but commonly held nonetheless, that success today depends primarily on cognitive skills—the kind of intelligence that gets measured on IQ tests, including the abilities to recognize letters and words, to calculate, to detect patterns—and that the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible. (introduction, page xiii)

What matters instead, Tough claims, “is whether we are able to help [our children] develop a very different set of qualities, a list that includes persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence. (introduction, page xv)

The book not only affirms, but provides evidence for, an idea which Sacred Heart educators have believed for 200 years—that some traits, such as the inclination to persist at a boring and often unrewarding task, the ability to delay gratification and the tendency to follow through on a plan, are valuable, not only in school but in the workplace and in life!

I suspect this information is not at all surprising to a group of parents who value education. It is certainly not an earth-shattering concept for us as Sacred Heart educators. Dare I say, the book’s claims are satisfyingly affirming.

So, as your children fall into the current cultural trap of claiming boredom while waiting for you as you run errands, or as they struggle with (or even experience a small consequence from not) completing a task, or as they complain when we ask them to try to accomplish something they don’t think they can do, let us smile patiently. Let us not allow ourselves to be drawn into our children’s angst. Rather, let us relish the knowledge that they are gaining skills and developing interior strengths which will, in fact, allow them to push through or carry on and, in the end, be successful adults!

United in our joint task of helping children to grow,

Maureen Glavin, rscj

Dear Parents,

This is the third of three Thursday Mail letters regarding this year’s theme. It is the culmination and the essence of what I hope you remember about Saint Madeleine Sophie’s educational vision: that it was indeed Forward Thinking Then and remains Forward Thinking Now!

We often articulate our more than 200-year-old educational tradition as a value. We proclaim it, we preserve it and we perpetuate it! Our history is part of our heritage and that history includes a successful philosophy of understanding children, understanding God, understanding human nature and successfully applying those understandings to our formative efforts for the sake of developing the hearts and minds of children.

Yet, I always like to point out―moreover, it is imperative that we point out―that an aspect of our more than 200-year-old heritage is our openness to change. In fact, I would say it more strongly:

We have a heritage of being on the forefront of change!

This aspect of who we are was adopted very early in the life of the Society of the Sacred Heart when Madeleine Sophie helped to develop a program of study for educating the nuns to be educators. The goal of this program was described this way by one who went through it:

“…to make sure that our teaching would preserve its progressiveness, its cultured breadth, its lofty scope, while
losing nothing of its orthodoxy or its beautiful uniformity and, concurrently, being perfectly suited to the times.”

Madeleine Sophie was always attentive to the constant need of adaption to new needs, new methods, and fresh approaches. The Plan of Studies of the Society of the Sacred Heart, first formulated in 1806, was rigorously modified at regular intervals to meet changing times and conditions. SMS wrote:

“It shows weakness of mind to hold too much to the
beaten track, through fear of innovations.”

And again:

“Times change, and to keep up with them
we must change and modify our methods.”

Modifying our methods and adapting our educational approaches as needed is an aspect of our heritage that must never be lost. The organizational ability to keep that which is of value because it is of value while moving forward when we need to adopt changes is the process of discernment and wisdom, which, in and of itself, IS part of our spiritual heritage.

So yes, let us celebrate, live, proclaim, preserve and perpetuate our precious heritage―both the timely and the timeless aspect of it. Only by doing so will this form of education STILL have meaning for the NEXT 200 years.

United with joy in our joint efforts to live this mission,

Maureen Glavin, rscj

Dear Parents,

As I mentioned last week, I have been using the life of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart, as my inspiration for this year’s school theme. Her life has been, is and will always be foundational in deepening our understanding of the essence of Sacred Heart education. This week, I want to expand a bit on her educational vision.

What we treasure as the Goals and Criteria of Sacred Heart education are a current articulation of Sophie’s vision. It is an education that inculcates a deep and abiding faith in God, a rigorous intellectual formation, a concern for others (especially the disadvantaged), a strong instinct for community and a personal growth in freedom.

Her way of educating was designed to be broad, deep and demanding. How could it not be, especially given her own extraordinary education! In order to accomplish this kind of education, she insisted that those who formed the students would have themselves, both excellent professional preparation and also strong personal formation. On a regular basis she noted the impossibility of communicating attitudes and values that one has not personally appropriated.

So, Sophie looked for both learning and virtue in those who were assigned to the schools. She looked for a combination of qualities which she would capture with the words “sainte savant” – she wanted holy scholars or, if you will, learned saints. In other words, while she was, on the one hand, rigorous about the intellectual formation of the teachers in her Sacred Heart schools, she was, on the other hand, equally concerned with the personal and spiritual formation of her teachers.

We continue to try to fill our schools with “sainte savants” and surround your children with holy scholars and learned saints. We continue to try to attend to our ongoing intellectual, professional, personal and spiritual formation. We do all this in the spirit of Saint Madeleine Sophie, so that, through our own personal virtue, our own deep faith, our own intellectual rigor, our own work ethic, our own skill at building community, and our own free choices, actions, words and behaviors, we aspire to inspire and form your children so that they too become learned saints and holy scholars!

Tonight (for Lower School parents) and next Thursday (for Middle School parents) you will have an opportunity to meet the learned saints we’ve invited to inspire, educate and form your children this year.

Looking forward to seeing you at those meetings,

Mauren Glavin, rscj