 What's your secret for knowing when your Thanksgiving bird is ready for the table? Is it the aroma in the kitchen? The shade of golden brown achieved by the exterior of the bird? The internal temperature? Perhaps you're the type that simply waits for the button to pop?
Wouldn't it be nice if our children gave us similar indicators that they were ready to go -- some kind of visual or other sensory cue that they had sufficiently matured and were prepared for the next step?
Education, like a well-prepared Thanksgiving meal, is one part science and one part art. Our students arrive to De La Salle in various states of emotional maturity and intellectual development. Our educators lovingly come to know each student as an individual and modify both book and life lessons according to the needs of each young person entrusted to their care.
How do we know when the job is complete? The truth of the matter is that we often don't.
A De La Salle graduate always leaves our school a work-in-progress. It is often not until that graduate returns to us as a high schooler, college student, or working young adult that we see that the "button" has popped -- the child whom we formerly knew has blossomed into a young man or woman. (And nothing is more fun than to see one of those young men or women return who was formerly, well, a real turkey!)
During this season of refection and giving thanks, I want to Thank You for your support of De La Salle Middle School. More than a middle school, De La Salle is a gateway to maturity and a path to responsible adulthood for our nearly 100 graduates and 60 future graduates. On behalf of all of our young people, thank you for sharing from your abundance so that the table may be set for their future successes.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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