Sadly, in some Catholic schools there can be a culture of criticism, gossip and tearing down of people. This is not the way things are supposed to be. So what actually creates the specific culture of any Catholic school? Why do some schools seem to be positive communities of light and growth and encouragement and others are not? In this episode I want to share with you a simple scriptural insight that can make a big difference in any Catholic school.
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome to the Catholic teacher daily podcast.
Speaker:Thanks so much for tuning in.
Speaker:Welcome aboard today.
Speaker:I'm going to share a really sort of helpful.
Speaker:Inspirational short scripture that goes.
Speaker:Right to the heart of some of our daily experiences in Catholic education.
Speaker:I did an episode a while back.
Speaker:On the issue of ambition in Catholic schools.
Speaker:You know, how have you've stayed in Catholic education long enough, you
Speaker:will encounter people who very much seem on a self-directed trajectory.
Speaker:To the C-suite to the top job, they are really keen to get
Speaker:somewhere fast and, uh, you know,
Speaker:I guess some Paul said that if we, if we want to have ambition and what we
Speaker:should have ambition for is what he used to call, uh, the higher gifts.
Speaker:So ambition for a Christian is a, it's an interesting topic, isn't it?
Speaker:I mean, we don't want to sit around and do nothing and pretend
Speaker:that we're not motivated or inspired to do particular things.
Speaker:Look at many of the great saints.
Speaker:It was a St.
Speaker:Ignatius avail was feast day last week.
Speaker:Uh, was he ambitious?
Speaker:Hard to say.
Speaker:I mean, he was a very driven young man.
Speaker:He was, uh, definitely inspired to do great things with his life.
Speaker:So I guess there's a form of ambition that spurs us on to do.
Speaker:Valuable useful, meaningful things.
Speaker:But you and I are both familiar with a different kind of ambition.
Speaker:That often sets itself up inside organizations where people will
Speaker:manipulate, they will gossip.
Speaker:They will undermine, they will bully.
Speaker:They will do all sorts of crazy things to get where they want to get to.
Speaker:So this, obviously I can tell, I don't think as a huge place or
Speaker:any place in Catholic education.
Speaker:And I said in the previous podcast,
Speaker:My favorite quote, as we sort of navigate this complex topic.
Speaker:Comes from, uh, the evangelical pastor, Christine Caine, who said something many
Speaker:years ago, that's always stayed with me.
Speaker:And it was just this.
Speaker:She said, if God wants you.
Speaker:He knows where to find you.
Speaker:I always thought that was excellent.
Speaker:You know, so many times we can go through life thinking, you know,
Speaker:God's really busy.
Speaker:I'm not sure if you realize this is what I've got planned here, but it just,
Speaker:you know, I'll just take care of this.
Speaker:Cause God's really busy.
Speaker:Well, he ain't that busy friends.
Speaker:And, uh, if he's busy, he's not God.
Speaker:Cause he's the author of time.
Speaker:So he cannot be constrained by time.
Speaker:So if he's got something for us to do, then he will prompt us.
Speaker:He will guide us.
Speaker:He will lead us as we go deeper in relationship with him.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Let's realize that when God wants us, he knows where to find us.
Speaker:I want to share this scripture with you today.
Speaker:As we sort of talk about this broad topic of ambition and politics within a Catholic
Speaker:school, this is from Romans chapter 14.
Speaker:And it says this, let us then pursue what makes for peace.
Speaker:And for mutual up building.
Speaker:Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Speaker:I really liked that phrasiology there mutual upbuilding.
Speaker:It's a kind of Catholic school community that comes into existence when people
Speaker:are really focused on building each other up on encouraging, affirming each other.
Speaker:I remember years ago, a sort of really wise principal saying to the
Speaker:staff, he said, try and catch kids in the act of doing the right thing.
Speaker:You know, you said often as teachers, you can fall in the trap of law.
Speaker:You know, scanning the room for, you know, lack of compliance noncompliance
Speaker:scanning the, the, uh, the playground or the, you know, just the hallways
Speaker:for someone doing the wrong thing.
Speaker:But how much better is it to catch kids doing the right thing?
Speaker:Catch them right in the act of doing something awesome and say to
Speaker:them, Hey, that was really good.
Speaker:Well done.
Speaker:That's brilliant.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:And what if we did it with our colleagues, what have we pursued?
Speaker:What made for mutual up building?
Speaker:You see a Catholic school culture doesn't just fall out of the sky.
Speaker:It's, it's literally created by the interactions between people.
Speaker:I mean, reflect on that for a second, right?
Speaker:I mean, what other possible.
Speaker:You know, formation of culture, could there be, you could say, well, you
Speaker:know, If we were in a terrible war zone, then that would affect our culture.
Speaker:Well, possibly, but I'm sure there's been schools throughout history that have still
Speaker:managed to be kingdom, places and joyful places in the midst of real adversity.
Speaker:So what makes the culture is the teachers?
Speaker:It really does.
Speaker:If you look at the church documents on Catholic education,
Speaker:it says it over and over again.
Speaker:That the teachers create the culture.
Speaker:The teachers create the culture.
Speaker:So if you've got a Catholic school community, where there is mutual,
Speaker:upbuilding you get a particular kind of Catholic school community, right?
Speaker:It's really simple.
Speaker:You get a particular kind of Catholic school community when people seek to
Speaker:catch each other in the act of doing the right thing and doing good things.
Speaker:And affirming those things.
Speaker:As opposed to a Catholic school community, full of criticism and
Speaker:gossip and slander and undermining.
Speaker:So very simply, how do we do this?
Speaker:Well, the good news is that the answer is with you.
Speaker:You see, it's very easy when we talk about culture to think
Speaker:about other people, isn't it.
Speaker:You.
Speaker:You know, I'm in this culture of my own family, with my kids and Karen, and I'm
Speaker:like, you know, it's very easy for me to say, well, things could be different if
Speaker:the kids behave better or they cleaned up after dinner more effectively.
Speaker:But it also very much depends on the setting, a culture and
Speaker:catching people doing the right thing and my own family encouraging
Speaker:mutually upbuilding in the home.
Speaker:And if we do that enough, we get a positive spirit.
Speaker:We get an encouraging spirit in this, in the family environment.
Speaker:So in the, in, in your Catholic school communities, you go about your work.
Speaker:Think about this theme of mutual upbuilding.
Speaker:You know, I, I live in Australia and sadly we've, we're, we're
Speaker:relatively cynical culture.
Speaker:It's it goes deep, but back to our founding, but, uh, you know, sometimes in
Speaker:Australia, if you really encourage people, they're just like, What are you doing?
Speaker:Like.
Speaker:What's the angle, but all my visits to the us, I just absolutely love the, you
Speaker:know, speaking in us schools because there's an energy and a positivity.
Speaker:And I know my us listeners, we think, and Jonathan, we're not perfect.
Speaker:Well, I know you're not perfect, but I've always loved the
Speaker:energy and the positivity.
Speaker:That's, that's sort of embedded.
Speaker:In your community there in your culture there.
Speaker:So friends, I think I've just lost all my Australian listeners.
Speaker:I didn't quite mean it the way it sounded.
Speaker:I just meant, you know what I mean?
Speaker:Like in Australia, we're just a little bit more reticent about encouragement
Speaker:and mutual upbuilding so let's get after it friends let's get after it,
Speaker:let's get off to mutual up building.
Speaker:Let's discover ways.
Speaker:To encourage each other and muse, uh, move each other forward.
Speaker:All right, friends, please make sure you've subscribed to the podcast.
Speaker:Uh, and the other things cause come and follow me.
Speaker:I'm back on Facebook after getting locked out of a previous account, I'm back.
Speaker:Just go to Facebook and type in one Catholic teacher.
Speaker:It's a, there's a great group.
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Speaker:So have you ended up on the page for one Catholic teacher?
Speaker:You should see a link through to the groups are coming.
Speaker:Um, joined the group there and posting there all the time.
Speaker:And on Twitter, I'm at J D Catholic at J D Catholic.
Speaker:You'll find me there.
Speaker:Um, the other thing I wanted to mention is that my very wonderful wife who has
Speaker:done incredible work over the years.
Speaker:With, um, I'm just going to bring up this link here while I'm thinking about it.
Speaker:Uh, she's done amazing work over the years.
Speaker:In the area of sort of John Paul two's work on the feminine
Speaker:genius on Catholic womanhood.
Speaker:So she's released this awesome free strengths finder.
Speaker:And I just want to give you the link to that, because if you're hearing this.
Speaker:Uh, and you are a Catholic woman.
Speaker:I want you to go and grab yourself a free copy of this.
Speaker:I'll just give you the URL.
Speaker:Where is it?
Speaker:Here we go.
Speaker:And here, and if you are not a Catholic woman and you're listening to this, then
Speaker:there will be Catholic women in your life.
Speaker:So please.
Speaker:Uh, share this link, which is drum old place.
Speaker:Just got to discover my gifts.com.
Speaker:Discover my gifts.com.
Speaker:You got to discover my gifts.com.
Speaker:You are going to find her free offer there for Catholic women,
Speaker:which I think is really important.
Speaker:So otherwise friends we'll see on Facebook, please
Speaker:make sure you've subscribed.
Speaker:Get out there, encourage each other and spend the next week focused on the art,
Speaker:the grace, the spirit infused magic of.
Speaker:Mutual upbuilding God bless your friends.
Speaker:My name is Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the Catholic teacher daily podcast.
Speaker:And I'll have another message for you very soon.
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