As I wrote in June in So here's my new teaching gig, I am now employed by DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville MD.
I am, besides teaching 6 (of the 8) sections of Government required of all seniors, also one of the two coaches of the Freshman soccer team — we have 21 players, a bit more than we had planned, but something we can make work.;
Over the last five weeks I have gotten more and more involved in the life of the school. My wife says she has not seen me this excited since I retired from Eleanor Roosevelt in 2012.
I still have several hours of preparatory work to do before tomorrow morning, and I did prep work all of yesterday, which is why I did not head north to my alma mater Haverford College for the annual Alumni soccer game (no, at 73 I no longer play) and reception.
I have not been as active here recently as people may have been used to, so I am taking some time this morning to explain what the recent weeks have been like, and why I am so excited — and somewhat challenged — by what I expect will be my final teaching position.
IF you choose not to read further, no problem. I hope what I offer will justify the time you spend following me beneath the squiggle — hopefully what I share will clearly connected with the mission of this site, at least as I have understood it over the more than 15 years since I first came here.
I signed my contract on June 10. Going back over the recent weeks, since I accepted the position of coaching soccer shortly thereafter, my activity with the school began with my working at the camp run by the Dematha Soccer Academy starting the last full week in July. That camp was for kids through rising high school freshmen, including some who will be attending other high schools. It was a chance for me to get oriented towards the program, and to meet and see some of those who would be trying out for the team I was going to be coaching. I did not attend the camp the following week for current high school players (again, including those from other high schools) because I would not be coaching them. Still, some of those assisting at the camp I attended were rising seniors at DeMatha, meaning I was already meeting some of those who would be in my classroom. I also met the rest of the coaching staff.
One thing that immediately became clear was seeing the entire coaching staff finding something positive to say as often as possible. In a sense that reminded me of the words of St. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 — hold fast that which is good. It also reminded me of how my college advisor the late John Davison would in intro music composition play the efforts of ALL students and find something positive to say to encourage them.
Thursday and Friday three weeks ago were our tryouts. I was able to see a few players I had not seen before. I also met more than a few of the varsity players who would be my students. Unfortunately I saw some people who really had no chance of ever playing interschoiastic athletics, but we gave them every chance we could. Those who made the various teams were informed via email and on Saturday we had a meeting with players and their parents for all three teams, where the philosophy of the program was explained and paperwork was done. What was key is this — you can be the most talented player but not get playing time unless you are committed to the concept of team. DeMatha has in all sports had its share of outstanding players — in basketball think just of Danny Ferry and Adrian Dantley and current Notre Dame coach Mike Brey — but it has won championships with teams that lacked superstars because the teamwork is so superb. The athletes and their parents were told that winning championships is nice, but the goal starts with being a team and improving from where one starts. In a sense this is something that flows from the commitment to service and community that is part of the school’s philosophy. We have had students go to Central America to build houses, go to serve meals at homeless shelters, and so on. The six pillars of the DeMatha approach are Faith, Community, Service, Academics, Arts, Athletics. While most people probably know DeMatha because of athletics, notice that it is the LAST of those 6. When I taught at nearby Eleanor Roosevelt (where a number of people, including one of my principals, had begun at DeMatha), I was far more likely to hear about DeMatha’s outstanding music program. And remember, I was an undergraduate Music major, so that impressed me.
August 12 and 13 was two days of orientation for new staff. Two of us were experienced teachers, one was a staff member in the athletics office who is also a parent, and three were interns who were themselves graduates of DeMatha, all three having also been athletes, two in crew and one in wrestling. The last was a high school national champion, and will coach the sport as well as teach one art class. Our instructor for orientation has been at DeMatha for well over a decade, is co-chair of the English department (the other co-chair is my fellow freshman coach), and like me and a batch of other people at the school has won a teaching award from the Washington Post.
We began practice on Thursday August 15, the first legal day. And that Sunday all new staff, their mentors, and key administrators had a welcoming dinner, where our individual mentors practice introducing us newbies
This past Monday was the official start of the year for teachers. After opening prayers, the week began with introductions to the staff of the new members. In the teachers’ lounge there are also photos of us, taken by the head of the art department during the dinner. That means most of the continuing staff can welcome us by name.
We had two days of meetings and training, then Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to the Freshman experience, to getting our freshmen oriented towards DeMatha, The second of the two days had them wearing DeMatha polo shirts, which will be their dress in warm weather until the middle of October. At that point they are required to wear jackets and ties and tan/khaki slacks. When dress changes for them, faculty are expected to wear collared shirts and hopefully ties as well. Jackets are optional for us, although I will bring one every day, and just purchased an additional sports coat to have enough variety.
Planning can be challenging, as can keeping track of what one is supposed to be doing at any point. Let me explain. The school has had a rotating schedule in the past, but this yeafr’s schedule is new. We have an 8-day rotating schedule A through H. In those 8 days each class meets 6 times, rotating through the time slots so that students do not always have the same class at the same time. That means in each prep with more than one section I can be teaching two different lessons. And sometimes some classes will fall on a day with a full schedule (50 minute periods) while others at that point on the curriculum will fall on a compressed schedule — assembly, or planned early dismissal, or later in the year late arrival or early dismissal because of inclement weather. As a coach I have a further issue;. All of our games are played during the week, meaning I will be leaving school for all of the last block and most of the block before. Because I only teach seniors, those classes will have no substitutes, so the lesson has to be done without the presence of an adult — that means the same lesson with some classes will have me in the room while others will not. Ponder that.
I will also have to provide some assistance to students whose activities within and without the school lead to their being absent. I have one student who is likely to be among the most highly recruited basketball players among this year’s high school students nationwide. I have another who will miss the first two + weeks of school because he is on the national U-18 team currently playing in world championships in Asia. I have others who will be out for music, or for art and photography.
I also have a study hall that is almost all freshman (currently 1 sophomore). I believe 3 of my soccer players are in that study hall. Another staff member will cover the study hall when I am out.
I have blocked out lessons for the first 16 days of school — two cycles of A through H days, meaning 12 day of instruction. Given that Labor Day is after the first full week, that carries me through September 18th, although I will spend several hours today tweaking lessons, and as I get to know my students tweaking some more,
Here’s what is exciting for me. I have two sections of Honors. There is one other section, but I do not have to coordinate with that teacher. We are each free to shape our courses as we see fit. I have four sections of a class that combines Government and Practical Law. While officially those are two separate semester courses, I am actually going to spend about 2/3 of the time on Government with some elements of law infused before switching over to concentrating on law.
I am already changing some of what I have previously done. For example, I begin with an exploration of the nature of Justice and of Social Contract theory. Since I am in a Catholic school, I am adding an exercise where they have to read 4 pages of a document produced by Pope Francis, those pages discussing the relationship in Catholic thought between justice and mercy, and then write a paper (perhaps a page or more) that (a) addresses some questions that I pose, and (b) has them consider how mercy is considered if at all in the American approach to Justice.
When I had my contract signing with the President, who is a member of the Religious order that owns DeMatha, the first words out of his mouth were to ask me if I felt welcomed.
I feel more than welcomed, and perhaps a bit overwhelmed. More than a few staff whom I had not met during the interviewing process have come up and told me what good things they had heard about me. I have high expectations placed on me, and I do not want to disappoint.
I have had conversations with about ¼ of the staff members already, some very interesting. Here is part of what I have learned.
DeMatha faculty stay around. The man whose slot I am filling taught at DeMatha for 49 years. I have met close to a dozen staff members with more than 30 years of service to the school, and the vast majority have been there at least a decade. That provides the continuity necessary to having a strong and positive school culture. Given that the past two years I was in schools that had dysfunctional administrations and a portion (in one case substantial) of the student body that was out of control, I find this very positive.
What is also important is the number of staff who are themselves DeMatha grad, For example, the Principal and my social Studies Department Chair and the head Soccer Coach and his assistant coach and the Dean of Students and the counselor for Seniors and so on.
What is interesting is that there are a number of connections with Eleanor Roosevelt as well. The man who teaches the other section of Honors government was in a swim club coached by the man who started with me at Roosevelt in 1998 and we taught in adjacent rooms (and was the only teacher among my invited guests for the reception at the Washington Post when I received my Agnes Meyer award). The woman who runs the service program and teaches AP Government (and is married to the counselor to seniors) was a sophomore at Eleanor Roosevelt when I started there. I never taught her, although she knew who I was. Her younger brother, who was also a baseball player, was my students in AP Government, and she told me that her younger brother is now teaching in a Catholic school, which means I now know of 83 of my former students who have at some point taught in K-12 education. On Wednesday I found out one of the math teachers across the hall graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt in 1989 (again, I arrived in 1998), and we talked about some of the teachers he had had that I knew well.
My wife and I decided not to have children. She is the eldest of 5. She is a loving aunt to 6 nieces and nephews and the godmother to one niece. I could not have put the time an energy into being the kind of teacher I am had I been a parent — 12 hour days are normal for me during most school years. My legacy is the students I teach. I view that as more important than anything else I do except try to be a good husband to and best friend with my spouse. In some ways DeMatha seems like the most ideal position I have ever had.
I am not saying it is a perfect situation. We have to keep parents happy to keep our enrollment up. There are some issues of discipline among some of the students. I need to be careful about HOW I speak/write on certain issues — we are a Catholic institution that is highly visible.
Imagine a place where several staff members sometimes bring their dogs to work with them. It is that kind of place.
Tomorrow my adventure begins for real.
It becomes even more interesting given the political and other events ongoing around the world that will affect the lives of the students I teach. My task is to help them make sense of it, and empower them to make a difference.
And I cannot help but remember the ancient Chinese “curse” —
May you live in interesting times
Peace.