Education and Social Justice

Dear St. John’s Community:

May the blessings of our Lord be upon you and your families!

I thought I would deviate from my standard format this week a bit and offer some reflections on who St. John’s is and why we do what we do at our school. Too often we get stuck in the rut of day-to-day happenings (making lunches, helping with homework, filling out paperwork – you know the drill!), and rarely do we reflect on the fundamental raisons d’etre of Catholic education and why we chose Catholic education for our children.

This week’s reflection is on a topic that is near and dear to my heart: Education and Social Justice. More specifically, how schools have an inherent role in teaching children social justice and a compassionate awareness of others in their world. This topic is central to my educational philosophy. You may see evidence of it in many aspects of our school: Our school’s emphasis on service to others, our “Hall of Flags”, our Sister School in Cap Haitien, Haiti, morning and afternoon prayer, and the list goes on.

There are probably many reasons why you send your child to St. John’s, but I would hope that one reason is that you believe that Catholic education instills a sense of compassion and respect for others in our children. At St. John’s, we are constantly asking our children, “What did Jesus do?” and “What would Jesus do?” as questions to guide our students in being Christ-filled in their interactions with others. By instilling this compassionate awareness of others, we are, though our actions, teaching our children social justice.

This week, we have been publicly acknowledged for our school’s emphasis on Catholic social justice teachings. We are the 2009 recipient of Group Publishing’s award for “Services by Youth” and the recipient of $1,000 to go toward our classroom service projects. We were acknowledged for our emphasis on the education of the whole child. This is a testament to our commitment to educate our children in the importance of compassionate awareness of others. A very special thanks goes out to all of our teachers for their efforts to make this possible for our school!

During the week of November 9th, I will be going to visit one of our school’s special projects to raise awareness of social justice issues: Our sister school in Haiti. I will be traveling with the Director of Operation Starfish and representatives of Food for the Poor to visit our sister school in Cap Haitien, Haiti. I will be bringing with me pencils donated by our teachers and Rosaries donated by Fr. Frank. I will go with the intent of gathering information on the sister school’s specific needs and taking pictures of students there so that our St. John’s students can “connect” better with their peers. The pictures will be used in our upcoming “100 Person Feast” to be held in late November. Please stay tuned for more information on this important awareness-raising event!





I close with a final reflection for you: Catholic schools are uniquely situated within the Church to be a grace-filled conduit of social justice teachings. Each and every day without interruption, we teach – though our actions and through the various symbols in our environment – the importance of social justice to our students. How amazing!

I hope that you have a safe and relaxing weekend. The school families remain in my constant prayers – may God bless you and keep you safe!

Blessings,
Dr. Sara Amodio