Sarah Bell
In this moving address to the St. John the Evangelist cohort of the Catholic Educator Formation and Credential Program upon graduation, a veteran educator and single mother shared her 18-month journey from initial skepticism to a profound discovery of the Catholic liberal arts. Moving from the “outside looking in” to a deep participation in this tradition, she draws on the rich imagery of Sirach 38 to explore the teacher’s dual vocation: acting as both the craftsman who maintains the fabric of the world and the scribe who seeks the mysteries of God. Her reflection serves as a powerful testament to how Institute for Catholic Liberal Education’s (ICLE) formation program transcends mere credentials to reshape the very heart of the educator.
Good Evening
- My fellow graduates
- family/friends
- Our dear instructors
- All who have joined in this spirit of celebration
We are truly celebrating tonight for after 18 months of
- Reading and discussing articles
- writing lesson plans
- brainstorming ways to integrate across the curriculum
we have reached the end of the ICLE’s catholic educators formation and credential program. But, it is not really the end of our formation because that carries on and we carry it on everyday in our classrooms for our students.
To our family and friends, thank you for supporting us through this program. You have cooked meals, listened to our papers, and continually offered words of encouragement.
To my fellow graduates I want to say thank you. The friendships we have made in person and on paper will continue. You are an amazing group of people. Though we were in a program that had lessons to learn and tasks to accomplish, all of you approached it with openness and genuine interest. Our assignments were not hoops to jump through but opportunities to ponder ideas and explore new avenues of teaching. Even though we came from across the nation and we span several decades in age, we banded together in faith, joy, and an enthusiasm for learning. I am in awe at the intentionality, creativity, and love you pour into your lessons. As a mom I am comforted knowing that you are the group of people who are educating our children. The future of catholic education is in your hands and the future is bright. Even though it was the Lord who brought us together, I want you to know that I would choose you and that I would trust every single one of you with my children.
A special thank you goes out to our exceptional instructors. This was the most freeing educational experience of my life; having always attended public school, learning in the liberal arts tradition was new to me. I had witnessed the fruit of it in my daughter who had attended a catholic liberal arts high school, but I always felt like I was on the outside looking in. However, as I have journeyed these last 18 months I just kept thinking, I’m experiencing what my daughter received . For the first time, I did not feel like my education was about regurgitating a list of facts or getting a certain grade. It was about formation; mine personally and as an educator. The lessons were applicable. There was space for connections to be made and wisdom to be developed. There was an expectation of growth. I was challenged not in the quantity of facts but in the quality of wisdom.
So, on behalf of all of us in the St. John the Evangelist cohort, I want to say thank you to Dr. DeAnn Stuart, Peter Crawford, and Dr. Ryan Messmore and all the other talented ICLE instructors. We want to be you when we grow up. We want to give our students all that you have given us. We want to set them free and go on adventures of discovery with them. We want to open their eyes in wonder and ask them questions whose answers will abide with them long after the socratic seminar is over. You inspire us.
To our principals and superintendents, thank you for approving this Catholic Educators program and for walking alongside us as we completed it. It has been a blessing for all of us, personally and professionally. It has been the gift that keeps on giving because it has shaped us into the teachers that we are and our students are the recipients of this blessing.
Admittedly, I was not too happy to have the requirement of further education put on me. It was not what I wanted to hear as a single mom who was teaching full time and homeschooling her son. Life felt pretty full. To fix my outlook the Lord led me to Sirach 38 which discusses the vocations of the skilled worker and the scribe. The skilled workers are identified as the farmer, engraver, smith, and potter. Each one has its own particular concerns and is careful to see to certain aspects of their work. However, all four are “skilled with their hands, each one an expert at his own work.” I clung to the idea of becoming an expert at my work. The requirement for further education became a mission to know and practice this craft called education.
Since the completion of the program I have reread Sirach 38 and now more than ever I see that educators are craftsmen. Like the farmer we plow furrows of truth in students’ minds. Like the engraver producing lifelike imitations we work in images. We awaken students in wonder and we etch beauty into their hearts inviting them to attend to all that is worthy to be loved. Like the smith we forge their wills to choose that which is good, encouraging them to establish themselves in virtue. As potters we shape each one according to their God given design, and though there be a great quantity, each individual is molded, discovering their unique purpose. Educators truly are craftsmen, and like all craftsmen they are not going to be chosen to rule or sit in the assembly; however, it is these skilled workers who “maintain the fabric of the world”.
But, when I reread Sirach I discovered we are also the scribes. For like the scribes we
- Explore the wisdom of all the ancients
- Preserve the discourses of the famous and go to the heart of involved sayings
- Seek out the hidden meaning of proverbs
- Rise early to seek the Lord our Maker, to petition the Most High
- Meditate on God’s mysteries
Educators are not either/or but rather and/both. We are both craftsmen and scribes. As craftsmen we are concerned with the exercise of our skill engaging in pedagogy that will lead our students to encounter reality and incarnate truth, and as scribes we pour forth words of wisdom and in prayer give praise to the Lord. And above all and through all, as the St. John the Evangelist cohort, we proclaim the Gospel message and lead others to worship. So, on those days when being an educator feels like you have stepped into the fire of the smith’s forge or that the soil is dry and hard packed, remember, that you are doing something greater than planting a seed or hammering iron, you are forming humans for the glory of God. You are maintaining the fabric of the world and like the scribe you are “one out of a thousand.”
31 members made up the National Cohort, and the ceremony was held virtually on Wednesday, March 4. It was a moving ceremony and a testament to all involved. Mary Pat Donoghue, Executive Director of the Secretariat of Catholic education for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, gave a heartfelt, inspiring speech. Congrats to all the instructors, and especially to Director of the Credential Program, DeAnn Stuart, whose love for her mentees was radiantly evident!