Second-grader Analucia Blanco-Madiedo answers a question about the
pope posed by St. James teacher Catherine Milligen at the school
last week. (GRETCHEN R. CROWE | CATHOLIC HERALD)
Grand and grander has been the scale on which to measure
Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Washington this week. The White House,
a meeting with the U.S. bishops, a Mass with 40,000-plus all topped the
agenda.
At St. James School in Falls Church, however, the students’ focus was different — less
grandiose and more human. Since Holy Week, Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Mary
Anne Sweeney, principal, prepared her school for the pope’s visit in consistent,
simple ways. They learned a papal “fact of the day,” studied his
coat of arms and wrote him letters. They practiced the old hymn “Long Live
the Pope” and made up a new one to the tune of “We Will Rock You.” They
read Jeanne Perego’s Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI
as Told by a Cat.
“They’re all little things, but little things add up to one big appreciation
because there’s been consistency,” Sister Mary Anne said.
This appreciation shone through in a second-grade classroom last week where students
jumped out of their seats to respond to their teacher’s papal questions.
They loved that he has a helicopter license and an iPod; that he has an affinity
for classical music and cats.
“He’s a real person,” Sister Mary Anne said. “He’s
not a statue, he’s not a picture.”
The school has a picture, though — a poster size, framed especially for
his visit — as well as a bulletin board and a prayer corner.
These small efforts by the principal and teachers at St. James helped integrate
papal information throughout the school’s entire curriculum. Using resources
from the National Catholic Educational Association, the teachers focused on the
person of the pope and why his visit to the United States was important.
“I said ‘If the Holy Father was here, what would you say to him?’” said
second-grade teacher Brigid Terwilliger.
Responses ranged from “What is it like to be a pope?” to “You
are the coolest pope ever.”
Every morning the youths said a special prayer for the Holy Father, and like
Catholic students around the country, those at St. James pledged more than 1,400
service hours in honor of the pope’s 81st birthday, April 16. They will
help elderly neighbors with yard work, baby-sit, serve food at Christ House in
Alexandria, and play cards with seniors at a nearby assisted living center.
“Real learning is integrated,” Sister Mary Anne said. “It’s
not just religion class.”
In the end, these smaller daily facts, books, songs and prayers all added up
to a larger understanding of Pope Benedict XVI for the students.
“You can have one big assembly of something and that has its place,” Sister
Mary Anne said, “but I think when you do daily consistent things in little
different ways, kids get it.”
Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.
