I often make jokes about having survived doing time in 12 years of Catholic schools. Some folks have even called me out on it. I am the first to confess to being a smart ass about it and to admit that it is not one of my better traits to be so caustic about being Catholic. Then again, it is what it is. What’s the old saying – being Catholic means always being guilty about something!
However, if ever I am in a semi-reflective mood, I can now look back with the benefit of hindsight and see that overall, I really can’t complain too much about having been born, raised and educated as a Catholic. When I do the bottom line Catholic school math, it all sorta adds up correctly as the amount of assets do seem to out number the number of liabilities associated with being Catholic.
All this came to my mind the past couple days as I reflected on a conversation that I recently had with my friend Steve Raley at our high school reunion party on Saturday. It involved us discussing who was our most influential teacher that we had teaching us at Ryken High.
When Steve and I were at Ryken, we were taught by the Xaverian Brothers along with a couple of lay teachers, Terry Smith and Pat Birch, who were also excellent teachers. As Steve and I listed and talked about the several Brothers who had instructed us, it dawned on me just how many excellent teachers we had to chose from as being our most influential. Naming just one as THE most influential was indeed a challenge.
Ironically, later in the evening at our reunion party, my friend Ellie (Condon) Hamilton and I had a similar discussion about our St Michael’s days and most influential teacher. Ellie noted how it was Sister Genevieve Marie who was so instrumental in teaching all of us how to get along with one another and how Sister made us better classmates and friends (click here for previous Buzzyblog post on Sister Genevieve.)
The Sisters of St. Joseph taught us at St. Michael’s. To show their different approaches to teaching, I’ll paraphrase the comment Rich Dauer made after the Orioles won the 83 World Series: “Earl taught us how to win; Joe let us.” (Rich was referring to the Orioles’ previous manager Earl Weaver and then current one Joe Altobelli.) In much the same way, the good Sisters of St Joseph taught us how to study and learn; but it was Xavarian Brothers who let us do so.
Did you know that St. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris? Also, Eva Marie Saint turned 100 in July of this year. (See how I tap danced from Sister Genevieve Marie to Eva Marie?)
More trivia for you – Earl Weaver’s father’s middle name is suddenly everywhere – Milton!