The Good News March | 2012
In This Issue: 1
From the Headmaster
2
From Fr. Tom
3
Literary Week
6
Art at the Park 2012
7
CESPA News
4&5 Campus Clips
From the Headmaster...
I
We Are All Teachers
write this article during the Mardi Gras break, a welcomed respite for all of us after the flurry of activities at CES during the month of February. Literary Week has just concluded, and that wonderful program again this year provided an impressive variety of interesting and meaningful activities for our students. (See page 2). I view Literary Week as the kind of special activity at CES for which we are well known and do exceptionally well. The emphasis is rightly on the academic and the events are kid-oriented, as we attempt to expose our students to prominent writers and their works. The underlying message is that reading is important and that good writing is attainable with hard work and practice. And both reading and writing should be promoted and celebrated. Literary Week also represents for me a meaningful example of the beneficial collaboration of parents and teachers that exists at CES. Beth Tees and her CESPA helpers worked for months in planning and organizing an exceptional Literary Week experience for our students, and we are grateful to them for their efforts.
M
r. Doug Saylor, CES Christian Ed teacher and Athletic Director, delivered the closing presentation of Literary Week. He gave our students and faculty a perspective on his own childhood, about the goals he set for himself as he grew up, and the obstacles he had to overcome in the process of reaching his goals. Throughout his life, Mr. Saylor would attest, he encountered many wonderful teachers. He told the story of his special relationship with his junior high school basketball coach, Mr. Mytinger, who, in addition to basketball, taught Mr. Saylor how to learn and how to make a plan to reach his dreams. His story has applications for all of us. To achieve anything in life, Mr. Saylor told us, you sometimes have to give up something in order to gain something, you get better at things in small steps, you have to learn the basics before you try to master the advanced stuff. You have to learn to be self-disciplined, to sacrifice, and to work through obstacles. These were the life lessons Mr. Saylor learned from his mentor, Mr. Mytinger . And those lessons were more important, and meant more to Mr. Saylor, than all the skills he acquired as a basketball player, skills which were considerable enough for him to one day earn a starting varsity position as a freshman basketball player at LSU.
B Mark Your Calendars! AATP 2012 will host “Under the Sea” April 20 th & 21 st, 2012. See page 6 for more information.
ut Mr. Saylor’s larger message to the students and teachers assembled in the gym that day was that he felt immensely fortunate to have known a teacher like Mr. Mytinger. And because of the profound influence of his former coach, Mr. Saylor decided to make it his life’s work to teach younger players just as Mr. Mytinger had taught him. He reminded us that we are all teachers to someone. And, he said, we are all students. Throughout life, we teach and we learn. We learn and we teach. And we all have the enormous responsibility to reach out and help others, just as we all benefit daily from the Mr. Mytingers in our own lives. Mr. Saylor closed this way: “Regardless of what each and every one of you does in this world, nothing is more important, or more special, or more rewarding than being a teacher to someone.” And, yes, he reminded us, we are all teachers.
John Morvant