Intellectual Bohemian

Happy Easter to all.

I had a frantic and demanding last few weeks of term in school. This left me particularly drained physically and emotionally and thus the break in blogging. However, I did manage to achieve a fair few things in that time.

I did sing with the band in school and performed “Before I Fall to Pieces” by Razorlight at the Spring Term Concert. It went really well and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I had my hair and goatee shaved off by some pupils to raise money for charity. This happened the day after the concert and was quite the hit in school. I am now clean shaven and without a goatee for the first time in seven years! I am now getting used to not having facial hair and may just keep it for a while.

We had the school Holy Week Service in which I gave the homily and I asked the band and music group to perform “Lean on me”. Their performance was excellent and helped me get the message of my homily across really well. That was to turn to Jesus to help us carry out burdens and crosses.

And finally we have had the Easter Holidays. I went to the usual church services, the morning mass on Easter Sunday was one of the best I have been to in years. I also visited both London Zoo, and the London Wetlands Centre, the photos from these can be found on my Flikr page.

I am now putting the final touches to my joint class project with Simon’s class in Canada. This can be found at the Flatplanet wikispace and on the Flatplanetproject blog.

I hope to start blogging regularly now and will be keeping you posted on how the joint class project goes.

Yesterday I went to Church but not in the normal way. I have started an idea in school whereby every week for the next few weeks I am offering to go to Mass with a pupil.

This is aimed at pupils who don’t normally go to Mass and whose parents don’t go to Mass. I hope by this to enable pupils to go to Mass with someone that they know and in a way that made the environment less threatening and more welcoming.

The first Mass was yesterday and met a Year 11 pupil at his local parish church. He said he enjoyed the service and found it very interesting and welcoming. He is considering coming back again and may come and see me to find out about other people who go to that Church regularly.

I really enjoyed it too, and it looks like there may be more pupils signing up to do this after seeing how well the first one went.

These last few days have been slightly overwhelming. I have received some very fortunate news which could mean very good things for me; unfortunately, I just can’t say what it is yet!

But, a few things struck me. As a Catholic and, what I would call a fervent believer, I have a strong faith. This faith means that I trust that things will turn out for the best and that I am being looked after. Over the last few years this trust and faith has been tested greatly by events in both Hazel’s and my own health, but I have stood firm.

The events of this week have been more than mere coincidence in my opinion. There are aspects of them that make the odds very slim and the way things have worked out proves that Hazel and myself are being looked after. This is, by no means, the first time these type of events have happened to us as a family, and the list goes back right to the start of our relationship. We have even gone so far as to comment that if we wrote a book or made a film of our lives, it wouldn’t sell as people would find the events to unbelievable to be true.

Nevertheless it always amazes me how overwhelming it is when these types of things happen. Even when you have faith in them and even when they have happened to you before. This feeling overcomes you both spiritually and emotionally and makes you profoundly happy.

And just confirms to an even greater degree my own religious faith and makes me feel lucky and grateful to be leading the life I lead.

This week has seen me receive two memorable compliments from pupils. On both occasions the comments were not designed as compliments, but I took them as such as the both pupils did not realise how much they meant to me.

The first one happened in a lesson where I was introducing the idea of pacifism to a class of low ability boys. As part of the lesson we were also talking about Dietrich Bonheoffer and his life, and I mentioned to the boys that he was a preacher. This prompted the question from one pupil as to what a preacher was, one pupil immediately put up his hand and answered, “A preacher is like someone who teaches people about Christianity or religion, like sir.” I was a bit surprised by this and wasn’t too keen to be compared with Dietrich Bonheoffer so I played down the comment. But the pupil was not to be brushed away, “Nah sir, I don’t mean like in lessons and stuff, I mean all the assemblies and services you do, and all those clubs and stuff, you make it easier for people to understand why we should be Christian, so you are important like a preacher!” I thanked him for the comment and moved back to the lesson, I didn’t let on how much this meant to me, as this comment came from and was supported by some of the roughest pupils in the school, and somehow the work I am doing had gotten through and earned their respect. I was humbled and at the same time grateful for having my school and my job.

The second compliment I received yesterday. On Wednesday of this week I had participated in a “beat the goalie” competition through lunchtime, where pupils paid money to see if they could score a penalty against me and another teacher. The session was a success and proved popular. This was the first time I had been asked to do one, and the first time I had played in goal for about 8 years. Since then my health hasn’t been good enough to play regular sports, and I have gotten quite out of shape, to say the least. Apparently I impressed many pupils as many of them have come up to me to say how well I did, and how I was better than the other teacher who was with me who plays football every week. At first I took these as mere pleasantries and pupils just being polite, but then yesterday I was sought out by a group of pupils who wanted to question me about my performance. They couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t playing for a team as I was, according to their standards, good enough to. I informed them of my health problems and lack of time and thanked them. This was so uplifting for me, as my health problems have been going on for so long that you sometimes just forget the joys of sports and how well you actually used to be. Their interest as boosted my confidence and morale and helped me persevere through the two pulled thigh muscles I suffered as a result of going in goal.

Every Tuesday morning in school we celebrate a short Mass before school in my classroom. It is celebrated by our school chaplain, and starts at 8.15am, half an hour before the bell goes for the start of the day. It generally lasts about 15 minutes, and has been going now for a year and a half with about a 50:50 attendance between staff and pupils, and proves to be a lovely way to start the day.

This year we have been allocated the Mass to registration classes as their “Tutor Group Mass”. I would go in and speak to the pupils before hand and get intentions to be prayed for at the bidding prayers, and would select readers etc for the Mass. This has been very successful so far, with the Year 8 and Year 9 Tutor Groups averaging about 30 people a week coming to the Mass, including brothers, sisters and friends.

This term I have moved onto Year 11, (about 15 years old), and when I went into the registration class yesterday to brief them and speak to them about the Mass, all I got was blankness and apathy. I would normally expect about 10 people to pray for at the Mass, made up of a mixture of sick, dying or deceased relatives and friends. With this class I really struggled to get one person to pray for, and one person to read.

I left the room feeling disheartened, that I maybe had done something wrong or phrased something wrong. I fully expected Mass to happen this morning with maybe 1 person from that registration class there, and was really thinking it was my fault. This was not made any better during my morning round up when I walk the playground and dining hall to remind people about Mass and managed to get nobody else to come.

When I finally arrived at Mass and it begins, I look around and find 10 people from that registration class there, (about half of the registration class!); along with their registration teacher and 5 other teachers. Here was I worrying about my meagre efforts making the difference about people attending the Mass, when all along it wasn’t my efforts that were going to make the difference.

Jesus’ spirit is truly at work in the world; even it seems in the hearts and minds of 15 year olds boys, enough to make them get up half an hour earlier on the coldest morning of the year so far. Thank you, Jesus, for reminding me of your power and presence.

I found this on Tall Skinny Kiwi and thought it would be interesting for a Catholic RE Teacher to take. I tried hard to be honest with my answers to see what came up and to my relief …

What's your theological worldview?

The Rosary at lunch went well, I had hoped for 2 pupils and ended up with 5! I was really happy with this, even more so when they asked when they could do it again, and also said that it would be no problem getting more people along next time. The only downside is that “next time” can’t happen for a couple of weeks, but at least its something to build on.

If you do feel like joining in the “spiritual boquet” please comment on my post below.

On request from my mother, I am holding a prayer meeting at lunchtime today in school to say the rosary. It will provide a nice introduction to the boys that have been invited and also help us pray for a cause. The prayer request was made by a prayer group who meet regularly to pray the rosary to Our Lady of Medjugorje for private intentions, but in this instance they have asked those who are willing to say a rosary in thanks to Our Lady for all her intercessions and help.

I really like this idea of praying the rosary as a “spiritual boquet” or a thank you, especially in light of all the good that has come about through the help of Our Lady. And I really do hope that a good number of pupils turn up, (a lot have shown interest, but may forget). But in an all boy high school I will be happy with 2 boys.

If you like the idea and would be willing to take part in this, please feel free to say your own rosary. All I would ask is that you please leave a comment to that effect so that I can pass on your participation to those who are organising it and my thanks to you.