Journal of a Soul


Book Description

From the age of fourteen until his death at the age of eighty-two, Pope John XXIII kept what he called his 'Journal of a Soul' - the record of his growth in holiness. Elected Pope at the age of seventy-eight he impressed the world with the breadth of his mind but also with his simplicity and his will to be at the service of others. This book covers the full span of his long career from the seminary at Bergamo to his brief but transformative papacy.His journal is a rare and intimate record of the spiritual life of a much-loved figure. As he wrote, 'my soul is in these pages.'




Catholic School Leadership


Book Description

The administration of Pre K – 12 Catholic schools becomes more challenging each year. Catholic school leaders not only have the daunting task of leading a successful learning organization, but also to serve as the school community’s spiritual leader and the vigilant steward who keeps the budget balanced, the building clean, and maintaining a healthy enrollment in the school. Each of these tasks can be a full time job, yet the Catholic school principal takes on these tasks day after day, year after year, so that teachers may teach as Jesus did. The goal of this book is to provide both beginning and seasoned Catholic school leaders with some insights that might help them to meet these challenges with a sense of confidence. The words in this text provide research?based approaches for dealing with issues of practice, especially those tasks that are not ordinarily taught in educational leadership programs. This text helps to make sense of the pastoral side of Catholic education, in terms of structures, mission, identity, curriculum, and relationships with the principal’s varied constituencies. It also provides some insights into enrollment management issues, finances and development, and the day in day out care of the organization and its home, the school building. As a Catholic school leader, each must remember that the Catholic school is not just another educational option. The Catholic school has a rich history and an important mission. Historically, education of the young goes back to the monastic and cathedral schools of the Middle Ages. In the United States, Catholic schools developed as a response to anti?Catholic bias that was rampant during the nineteenth century. Catholic schools developed to move their immigrant and first generation American youth from the Catholic ghetto to successful careers and lives in the American mainstream. However, most importantly, Catholic schools have brought Christ to generations of youngsters. It remains the continuing call of the Catholic school to be a center of Evangelization—a place where Gospel values live in the lives of faculty, students and parents. This text attempts to integrate the unique challenges of the instructional leader of the institution with the historical and theological underpinnings of contemporary Catholic education.




Irish and British Reflections on Catholic Education


Book Description

This volume presents an interdisciplinary and systematic review of Catholic Education Studies across Ireland and Britain. Taken together, the chapters drill down to the foundations, identity and leadership matters in Catholic education and schools. It is in reading the complete volume that a more precise picture of Catholic education in Ireland and Britain develops into sharper focus. This is important because it reflects and crystallises the complexity which has almost organically developed within the field of Catholic Education Studies. It also provides a powerful antidote to the naïve reductionism that would boil Catholic education down to just one or two fundamental issues or principles. Contemporary Catholic education, perhaps globally but certainly in Ireland and Britain, is best depicted in terms of being a colourful kaleidoscope of differing perspectives. However this diversity is ultimately grounded in the underlying unity of purpose, because each of the contributors to this volume is a committed advocate of Catholic education. The volume brings together a rich range of scholars into one place, so that these voices can be listened to as a whole. It includes contributions from leading scholars, blended with a plethora of other voices who are emerging to become the next generation of leading researchers in Catholic education. It also introduces a number of newer voices to the academic context. They present fresh perspectives and thinking about matters relating to Catholic education and each of them confidently stand alongside the other contributors. Moreover, these reflections on Catholic education are important fruits to have emerged from the collaboration made possible through the creation of the Network for Researchers in Catholic Education, which was established in 2016 under the auspices of Heythrop College, University of London.




The Leader in Me


Book Description

Children in today's world are inundated with information about who to be, what to do and how to live. But what if there was a way to teach children how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them? The Leader in Meis that programme. It's based on a hugely successful initiative carried out at the A.B. Combs Elementary School in North Carolina. To hear the parents of A. B Combs talk about the school is to be amazed. In 1999, the school debuted a programme that taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleto a pilot group of students. The parents reported an incredible change in their children, who blossomed under the programme. By the end of the following year the average end-of-grade scores had leapt from 84 to 94. This book will launch the message onto a much larger platform. Stephen R. Covey takes the 7 Habits, that have already changed the lives of millions of people, and shows how children can use them as they develop. Those habits -- be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw -- are critical skills to learn at a young age and bring incredible results, proving that it's never too early to teach someone how to live well.




The Church's Best-Kept Secret


Book Description

The Church’s Best-Kept Secret is a short primer which lays out the basics of Catholic social teaching in a way accessible to the ordinary Catholic as well as to any other person of good will attempting to grasp this often profoundly misunderstood area of Church doctrine and practice. Writing in everyday language for the non-scholar, award-winning writer Mark Shea concisely describes the roots of Catholic social teaching in Scripture and Tradition and gives simple, practical examples of how it works in ordinary life. Sketching the meaning of the Dignity of the Human Person, the Common Good, Subsidiarity, and Solidarity, Shea bridges the gulf in our politics and cultural warfare to make the case that Catholic Social Teaching, properly understood, is common sense, as well as the path to living a happier and more just common life for each human person.




What We Hold in Trust


Book Description

The specific concern in What We Hold in Trust comes to this: the Catholic university that sees its principal purpose in terms of the active life, of career, and of changing the world, undermines the contemplative and more deep-rooted purpose of the university. If a university adopts the language of technical and social change as its main and exclusive purpose, it will weaken the deeper roots of the university’s liberal arts and Catholic mission. The language of the activist, of changing the world through social justice, equality and inclusion, or of the technician through market-oriented incentives, plays an important role in university life. We need to change the world for the better and universities play an important role, but both the activist and technician will be co-opted by our age of hyper-activity and technocratic organizations if there is not first a contemplative outlook on the world that receives reality rather than constructs it. To address this need for roots What We Hold in Trust unfolds in four chapters that will demonstrate how essential it is for the faculty, administrators, and trustees of Catholic universities to think philosophically and theologically (Chapter One), historically (Chapter Two) and institutionally (Chapters Three and Four). What we desperately need today are leaders in Catholic universities who understand the roots of the institutions they serve, who can wisely order the goods of the university, who know what is primary and what is secondary, and who can distinguish fads and slogans from authentic reform. We need leaders who are in touch with their history and have a love for tradition, and in particular for the Catholic tradition. Without this vision, our universities may grow in size, but shrink in purpose. They may be richer but not wiser.




Why Catholicism Matters


Book Description

The most visible representative of the Catholic Church in the United States shows how the Church is far from being an ossified carry-over tradition from antiquity. Why Catholicism Matters celebrates the significant contribution the Church makes in many aspects of today's world and applies its wisdom to issues on a personal, national, and global scale. In recent years the Catholic Church has gone through turbulent times with the uncovering of horrible abuse that persisted and could have been prevented by certain bishops for so many years. Yet the many positive aspects of what the Catholic Church teaches and practices are not being overlooked. William Donohue, the outspoken and highly visible president of the Catholic League, shows Church teachings remain the best guide to good living ever adopted. He reminds readers of the great wealth of charity and wisdom that exists in the Catholic tradition and explains hows its best attributes can be applies to solve many of the biggest problems society must confront today and in the future.




CLARITY


Book Description

Shared knowledge between educators breeds shared success in all systems and schools Comprehensive in scope, CLARITY illustrates how system and school leaders must come together to boost student achievement and build teacher capacity to learn, teach and lead. By emphasizing collaborative processes, Lyn Sharratt’s detailed design demonstrates how shared knowledge, equity and expertise can make every classroom more impactful and every teacher more empowered. Readers will uncover these ‘Big Ideas’: 14 essential Parameters to guide system and school leaders toward building powerful collaborative learning cultures Case studies, vignettes and firsthand accounts from gifted teachers and leaders bring important theories and practices to life From all points in the organization, a ‘line-of-sight’ directly to students’ FACES in every classroom to ensure continuous improvement Data-driven tasks and tools to tackle solutions needed in all facets of education With more than four decades of research, writing and practical experience in system, school, and classroom improvement, Sharratt provides a ‘why-and-how-to guide’ to assist educators across the globe as they solve 21st century-created problems and identify the much-needed learning critical to the success of our future citizens.




International Handbook of Catholic Education


Book Description

Knowledge of Catholic educational scholarship and research has been largely confined to specific national settings. Now is the time to bring together this scholarship. This is the first international handbook on Catholic educational scholarship and research. The unifying theme of the Handbook is ‘Catholic Education: challenges and responses’ in a number of international settings. In addition to analyzing the largest faith-based educational system worldwide, the book also critically examines contemporary issues such as church-state relations and the impact of secularization and globalization.