At the town hall meeting this past Sunday Bishop Barnes gave an overview of how our parish is doing based on what he observed and heard during his three day visit, as well as what he read in the survey cards that all parishioners had an opportunity to fill out several months back. Those details will be shared by the parish in the next few months. For now I’d like to focus on what two of our Academy kids, who were at the town hall meeting, thought of @BishopBarnes, something that isn't going to be in the parish summary.
Carol, 2nd grade, asked the Bishop how he liked his visit to the Atrium and was most pleased when he answered back that he really liked it and was glad that he had been shown this area—she was sitting in front of me, and I could see the big smile she had. When I asked Brandon, 4th grade, what he learned from being at the town hall meeting he pointed out, without hesitation, that the Bishop has a sense of humor. Brandon noticed how the bishop often had a gentle, humorous way of answering, and he really liked that. To be humble is always a good thing and I’m glad Brandon noticed this in the way the bishop responded.
Since pastoral visits by a bishop are to help the bishop learn about the parishes in his dioceses, our 7th grader’s essay, that focuses on radical community care through the eyes of an educator, seemed appropriate.
Radical Community Care
by Catherine
Radical community care is a broad subject that could be interpreted in many different ways. Me, being in school, and my parents being educators, I took this subject from an academic standpoint. As you know, reading and writing is a building block in school and life. This building block needs to be supported both in school and at home. Now, what if at that home there is not enough money to buy books or pens and paper? Or maybe there is not a home at all. Then, theoretically, the block would fall, leaving a gap in their lives. Where I’m going with this is that cities should have centers filled with book, pens, paper, and computers at no cost to help anyone fill that gap.
This literacy center would be beneficial for more than just underprivileged households. It could be beneficial for teachers, those seeking a higher education, and for those seeking a job. Teachers could take classes on field trips to the center to get children more engaged in reading and writing. For those seeking a higher education they could go there to write an entrance letter at no cost. The center could also be a cool new job opportunity for teachers. For those teachers who specifically like teaching Language Arts or English, this would be the perfect environment for them to help people to read and write. It could also be a perfect environment for teachers who don’t like the classic classroom setting.
Watching a gymnasium full of dominoes fall can help show us how our actions, no matter how small, can have an effect on something far removed from us, how our actions ripple out long after the time it happened. I used this video of 128,000 dominoes falling to illustrate this last week. Here is what the 7th graders thought: “It shows that 1 small action can have a huge effect, whether it is good or bad in impact.”; “My actions can affect something in the future.”; “When something falls the rest will fall too. When someone talks everyone talks.”; “It is like how love spreads to each person. If one domino hit another they all fall. Like how people are nice to each other.”; “We learn that any small choice/thing we do can really affect us in many ways. This shows that every decision we make can change our life forever. We also learn to be careful with our actions because every option there is can have consequences.”
Video link to 128,000 dominoes falling; A journey around the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLRjiiAawGg
God Bless,
Mrs. Alhadef
Campus Minister
5th Grade / Jr. High Teacher’s Aide