5/21/09
On a hot summer's day in June 1994, just days after my daughter Molly's third birthday, my wife Julie and I dropped her off at the Early Childhood Center at St. Philip's for her first day of summer camp. Then-camp director Mary Stevens briskly scooped her up, wished us a quick good day, and took her off to begin what would turn out to be a 15-year connection between our family and Corpus Christi School.
Before we knew it, Molly was standing with her friends singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" to the parents assembled for kindergarten graduation. Then she was off to the big campus. But her brother Kevin was right behind her, ready to share his own adventures at the ECC with Yellow Pencil Day, the May Crowning, and all the other preschool activities. By then, we had moved to a new home many miles away from the ECC, and even farther from the elementary campus at St. Anthony's. But breaking the bond that had developed between the school and our family was never an option.
Why not? First, of course, was the academics. The teachers were challenging, supportive, engaged and committed. They had varying styles and approaches, but a common goal: demanding the most of their students. That's no mean feat in a school so committed to affirming and celebrating diversity in its students. Molly was so well-prepared by her Corpus Christi experience that the easiest year of her academic life turned out to be her freshman year of high school.
Frankly, though, the quality of instruction wouldn't have been enough to sustain our relationship with Corpus Christi. After all, we had very good public schools right in our neighborhood. There was something else that set Corpus Christi apart -- the sense of being part of something, along with our children, that was much bigger than solving equations or reading great literature. It started with the religious instruction that was part of every day's activities, and the commitment to weaving moral values into all forms of instruction.
This wasn't just something you saw, or understood. You felt it, sitting in the church at the Christmas pageant, watching the kindergartners warble carols and the 8th graders self-consciously sing their selections in between glances down at their shoes. Or walking through the Christmas attic, seeing both student and parent volunteers demonstrate their commitment to the school. Or praying as a group of teammates and competitors before a Junior Catholic Youth Organization basketball game.
The sense of connection between the school, the kids and their parents manifested itself in tangible ways. Molly's Girl Scout troop, formed when the girls were kindergarten classmates, stayed together until they turned 18, even though by then they had scattered to different high schools -- even different continents. Likewise, members of Kevin's Cub Scout pack stuck together for years before marching off to Boy Scouts together.
Corpus Christi's principal, George Chiplock, and other school leaders set a firm, consistent course, demanding a balance between the twin imperatives of academic achievement and spiritual development. The teachers made that balance work every day in the classroom and extracurricular activities. I remember getting firsthand experience with the challenges they faced during Kevin's fourth-grade Colonial Day, struggling to stay in character -- and in control -- as a Revolutionary War-era schoolmaster. Parents did their part, too. More than a few humbled me with the amount of time they devoted to school board and PTO meetings, field trip chaperoning and other volunteer service.
For five years, I coached Kevin's CYO basketball team, seeing them rise from dead last to third place, and then second. Finally, we were poised to make an 8th grade run at a championship. When we fell short of that goal, I was as disappointed as the boys, until it occurred to me that maybe what I was really supposed to be teaching them was something other than the joys of winning. Maybe it was about understanding God's plan for us, and how that sometimes differs from our earthly desires. After all, that's the kind of lesson their teachers, their principal and all the Corpus Christi staff had been teaching all those years.
Fifteen years in, the Corpus Christi experience is woven into the very fabric of our family. It will be very difficult to leave the school behind. But we will do so knowing that our children couldn't be better prepared for their lives ahead.
-Tom Shoop
Corpus Christi School Parent and Supporter for 15 years
Click here to read more about Tom Shoop
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