Amelioration at the MIM

Note:  Start here to understand why amelioration was needed.

On a whim today, I returned to the Musical Instrument Museum in North Phoenix, mostly because I wanted to see if anything had changed with the Vatican City exhibit as I prepared for the re-posting of Mortification at the MIM on another Catholic website.

I set out for the exhibit, only to find that it no longer occupied its previous space just inside the front entry to the Europe exhibit hall.  A staff member directed me to its new location: the far back corner.

I was about to unleash some adrenalin when, lo and behold, I looked down at the exhibit and read:

                  The new placard for the Vatican City exhibit!

It’s still a diminutive, unremarkable exhibit, sandwiched between Italy and Sardinia.  So much more could be taught and learned.

Audio?  No.

Video?  Nope.

Reflective of the full contribution of the Church to the history of Western music?  Not even close.

Overt mocking?  Gone.

A small step for the MIM and, I suppose, a tiny leap in the right direction for the portrayal of our Church and her musical legacy.

Addendum 

But wait, there’s more!  I went back to the MIM yesterday to do a small fact check because their curator’s office won’t return my calls.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I found this!

The previously secular organ exhibit has been transformed into a brand new Cathedral Music section with four video screens containing sweeping views of several cathedrals and four corresponding audio soundtracks!   

Interestingly, while the cathedrals are named in the exhibit and there is a reference to the Annunciation in one of the videos, I was unable to locate the words "Catholic" or "Christian."  Seems to me like an elephant in the room.

But on the whole, I am markedly thankful for the modifications at the MIM.

 

Catholic Education: Their Future

High School Options:  The Choice We Face
Let me be clear from the start.  I am an advocate of Catholic education.  And yet, as of now, my children might not attend a Catholic high school.  Here’s why.

Reason #1:  There is another option in our community that we hope will assist us more fully in meeting our family’s goals.  A local public charter school has reclaimed the intellectual roots of the Catholic education of ages past. The school incorporates logic and philosophy into its course of studies.  Students read the early Church Fathers and ancient Greek thinkers because their writings are of primary relevance for all times and cultures. Catholics in particular should find them an important part of a well-rounded education because they provide a foundation for Catholic theology.  I was not blessed with this type of education, and I want my children to have it. 

Reason #2:  This charter school aims to weed out modern pop culture from the daily school environment.  I do not want my daughters constantly assailed by the latest fashion trends, consumer must-haves, and false heroes consisting of pop music singers, reality TV and movie stars, and professional athletes of questionable moral character. While the concrete attainment of this goal is difficult to measure and results will vary depending on each child’s particular social contacts, at a minimum I want a school that attempts to keep the baser elements of our culture at bay. 

The problem that I will face is that it will break my heart to take our daughters out of the Catholic surroundings they have known and loved during the early years of their education.  If we decide to enroll our children in this high school, I will struggle with the lack of all of the elements that make Catholic education Catholic.  There is no prayer and no Catholic art to remind students of the heroes of our Faith.  There is no religious instruction and no Mass.  There is nothing Catholic about it other than that the level of intellectual development its students eventually attain will readily lend to their understanding of Catholic doctrine should they later engage in more rigorous study of Catholic theology as adults.  Without question, the school teaches about truth, goodness, and beauty, but they can’t mention Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.  They cannot legally make the connection to the Giver of all Truth.

One mitigating factor that might ease my discomfort is that many members of the school’s administration and faculty are Catholic, and the school was founded by Catholics who saw the need in our community for this type of education and filled it, somewhat courageously.  They built a successful academic alternative from the ground up.  I believe that a lot of love and sacrifice went into its founding.  Many Catholic families whom I admire greatly send their children to this school.  These families are prayerful and exemplify virtue. I have to believe that they carefully considered the spiritual consequences of moving their children away from a Catholic environment for 35 hours each week.

The ideal high school for my children would be one in which an academically excellent classical curriculum is integrated into an authentically Catholic culture with a parent population that is guided by its own Catholic nature to seek first and foremost the formation of young Catholic men and women who are strong in conscience and striving toward holiness.  The school would seek to remove the barriers to sanctity thrown at our young people by the secular culture at large, and the curriculum in its entirety would reflect Christian virtue.  A tall order by any stretch, I am praying for such a high school option by the time it becomes relevant for our family.  I also pray that the exceedingly talented faculty and administration members who successfully built the charter school alternative for our community will share their enthusiasm and energy with others who may decide to work toward improving the curriculum and environment of our Catholic schools. 

Money and Mission
I know that one factor for both large middle class and lower income Catholic families is the cost of the diocesan high schools.  But there is a diocese in the United States in which Catholic schools are tuition-free.  Yes, tuition free—and high quality.  After establishing an aggressive diocesan-wide stewardship campaign in 1985, the Diocese of Wichita was able to offer tuition-free Catholic education to children of active parishioners in all of its elementary and high schools by 2002.  Note the key words: active parishioners.  In doing so, the diocese has not only ensured Catholic education across economic lines but has also created schools with an authentic Catholic identity that fosters more completely the primary goal of Catholic education:  to form Catholic children into faithful Catholic adults who will know, love, and serve God.

The following quote is from an in-depth look at Catholic education in the Diocese of Wichita, Chapter 1 of “Who Will Save America’s Urban Catholic Schools?”

 “The big ‘C’ Catholic comes before the little ‘s’ school,” [Diocese of Wichita Superintendent of Schools Bob Voboril] says. “We are schools that if you come here, you are going to be formed as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is going to be taught every day.  You are going to be surrounded by it in the environment.  Your teachers are going to be trained that way and you’re going to live it out in service. We are going to worship daily. We are going to pray daily.  And in the end you are going to be expected to turn into a young person who knows that the gifts they have are going to be put into the service of the entire community, not just to enrich themselves,” Voboril says. In many struggling dioceses, the opposite is more the norm. The schools’ Catholic identity has been slowly eroded, replaced with focuses on athletics, academics or whatever other educational avenue the tuition-paying families desire. “These schools become subject to market forces,” he says. “If you’re going to charge someone $8,000 or $12,000 in tuition, then you are going to have to listen very carefully to the people who pay that kind of money.” What frees Wichita of those pressures is the parish and stewardship model. With the parish providing the funding and no wealthy donors (or government program) calling the shots, the schools can retain a strong Catholic focus.

“We are not academically elite prep schools,” Voboril explains. “We are not schools that cater to athletes. But we are able to do what we can because parishioners are committed to the notion that Catholic schools should be available for every active Catholic, not just those who can pay for it and not just for those who are academically talented. That changes the nature of the school in a good way. It exists for the mission for which it was created instead of morphing into something because that’s all it can afford.”  (boldface mine)

And the mission for which the Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Wichita were created: 

“Together with the family, the parish, and each other, we will FORM EACH STUDENT INTO A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST who seeks the Truth, grows to love It, and learns to live It.”  (capitalization theirs)

That’s it.  Wow.  It’s a simply stated mission, really, but my husband and I cannot think of a more appropriate one to help us achieve our goals for our children.

Many in our community have perceived a three-way divide in our diocese on the issue of education and are greatly troubled by it.  Catholic education is more critical than ever right now as we and our children face the increasingly dangerous anti-Catholic disposition of the government and media in our country.  I believe that 54% of Catholics voted for President Obama in 2008 in part because our own schools for the past 40 years have failed to properly form the consciences of young Catholics.  Catholic education must, first and foremost, be Catholic, conceived and carried out by Catholics, for Catholic children.

Catholic Education: Her Present

Why I Love My Daughter's Catholic School

I love my daughter’s Catholic elementary school, and so does she.  Like the mission statement of virtually every Catholic school since John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio was published, her Catholic school recognizes parents as the primary educators of their children.  This community means it.  This school organizes itself around and actively mirrors family life.

The children with siblings at my daughter’s school have more time together during school hours.  They have recess at the same time and eat in the same lunch room.  They pray together as a group three times per day.  This familial way of arranging time during the school day also allows children to see the interactions of other sibling combinations, both good and bad, so siblings can recognize the blessing of each other and model their relationships toward virtue.

When I did the math, I was surprised to learn that my daughter and I are separated for 29% less time than at other schools.  That’s 29% more time with me, learning the values that I want to teach instead of those that society-at-large wants her to learn.  The school achieves this reduction by cutting out the conspicuous inessentials that have crept into the modern U.S. educational system. 

Here are just a few of the many blessings my family has received during our time at this school:

1)  The Playground

During my daughter’s Kindergarten year, I was able to embrace the opportunity to observe lunch recess at least once per week.  I have witnessed all of the following beautiful things:

• I have seen crowds form around newborns as though they were rock stars. 

•  I have seen teenage and pre-teen boys mentoring younger boys. 

• When I inquired into the nature of some very loud roaring between two groups, I was informed that they were playing the “lions against the Christians game.”  Another mom nearby cheerfully chimed in, “I hope the Christians win.”

• Whenever children incur minor playground injuries, their siblings are immediately at their sides.  Don’t bother to tell them that you’ve got it handled because they’re not going anywhere until they’re satisfied that their brother or sister is fully recovered.

• Most of the kids interact with adults successfully on a consistent basis, as opposed to larger schools where visiting adults are routinely ignored. 

• Disputes, disagreements, and general unkindness do occur.  However, the subject matter of the disputes is far more innocent than I have experienced elsewhere.  Additionally, because the staff and supervising parents are immediately accessible and develop relationships with the kids and each other, situations requiring intervention are handled immediately.  The children seem to interact with each other more like siblings and cousins, with all of the predominantly positive aspects unique to those familial relationships.

2) Heroes

These kids know their Saints.  Heroes elsewhere generally consist of actors, pop music singers, and professional athletes.  For each of these children, a time of testing will eventually come.  It matters whose example they turn toward when the chips are down.

3)  Authentic Catholicism

This school is permeated with Catholicism.  All of our beautiful traditions are taught, such as the power of Novenas and scapulars. Catholic teaching is not watered down—missing Mass as a mortal sin is discussed because it is true, and the parents do not object.  Catholicism is not limited to formal religion class.  Textbooks include references to God and our Church and are classical in nature, enabling this school to reclaim the intellectual roots of the Catholic education of years past.

4)  Keeping Life Simple

Using this school as a model for other (diocesan) Catholic schools presents some challenges.  Some of the accomplishments of the school come because its class sizes are limited to 15 students per grade, which is not readily replicable at other schools.  Many families cannot arrange life around Friday at-home study days.  Some families will want foreign languages taught before fourth grade.  Others will decry the lack of sports teams and formal art and music classes.  I find none of these issues worthy of sending my daughter anywhere else, and I considered all of them before placing her at the school.

As for sports, she plays soccer, softball, and basketball in community programs, and because we are not counting on college sports scholarships, she participates for fun and exercise while enjoying camaraderie as a team member.  She is also improving her social skills by playing with kids she doesn’t already know.. 

As for art, one of my first experiences with another school mom was an invitation to join her children in a parent-led art class.  The mom had taken a relevant course at the Phoenix Museum of Art and willingly shared the time she was spending instructing her own children with my children.  Her lessons did not consist of craft projects, but rather of learning the basic elements of art, identifying styles of art, and memorizing some of the paintings of the masters. 

As for music, the kids learn traditional Church hymns and practice singing in rounds.  They sing and recite in a Christmas program.  If I believe that my daughter needs more musical instruction, we will pursue it elsewhere using our Friday at-home study time.

The bottom line is that this school helps us achieve our goals for our daughter.  This school works with us, the primary educators of our child.

Catholic Education: My Past

Why My Daughter Goes to a Catholic School

Other than attending Mass every Sunday, there is little that I remember about the Catholic part of growing up in California in the 1970s and early 1980s.  I remember the big moments, such as First Holy Communion, my Confirmation retreat and the day I received that Sacrament, and having the privilege to be one of three girls chosen to crown Mary in May of my eighth grade year.

I attended Catholic schools for all eight years of my primary education and all four years of my secondary education.  I remember next to nothing of my formal religious instruction, but I do remember this:

Our lunch break at my parish Catholic grammar school was from 11:30am to 12:30pm.  All 240 students successfully coexisted on the large, tarry, black-top playground.  There were many activities available to us:  hopscotch, four square, the currently much-maligned dodge ball, jump ropes, kick-ball, etc.  But at noon, every ball was picked up, every hopscotch marker was left on the ground, and every jump rope ceased its twirling. Silence took over, we all turned toward the school’s white stone Mary statue, and led by the principal’s voice over the loudspeaker, we prayed the Angelus together.  The image is powerful for me now, and the experience was powerful for me then, despite the fact that my play-time was interrupted.

I believe that this one daily experience with prayer later saved my life.  As a young adult, I fell away from the Church.  I didn’t renounce it, but I no longer cared much about it.  It didn’t seem to hold any relevance in my modern life at a liberal public university.  Later, as a 28 year old woman, I faced a major life crisis, the kind of which I pray daily my children will never face.  But in the midst of great suffering, I fell to my knees.  I begged God to intervene and alleviate my pain, because at that moment He was the only one who could.  I didn’t remember or pray the Angelus, but I instinctively knew that the best thing I could do in that moment was to be silent and turn my attention to Him.

That is the instinct that I want my children to develop, and that is why I will continue my daughter’s exposure to as authentically Catholic an environment as possible, both at home and in school.  I have never read Aristotle, Plato, or even St. Thomas Aquinas, but in the darkest moment of my life, I remembered to pray.  If my children one day do the same, that’s enough for me. 

If they turn toward Him, He will carry them through.

Delivering Themselves from Evil

My daughters are afraid of things that are ... scary.  There, I've said it.  I've completely failed to desensitize them to all of the horror that the entertainment media is so eager to show them. 

They refuse to walk down the dark, narrow hallways at the movie theater because on previous such treks they have glimpsed posters of people on fire and vampires with blood dripping from their mouths.  For this, they've been called "timid."  At Disneyland, they prefer the carousel to the Tower of Terror, causing some to question their "willingness to try new things."  Perhaps my kids are just too literal--after all, the word "Terror" is in the title.  Daughter #1 once corrected an adult who tried to placate her fear of war by telling her that the only modern wars are being fought in other countries, far away from the United States.  Daughter #1 knows better:  her Mama lost a cousin in the Twin Towers, and her Daddy travels to New York too often for her liking.  Daughter #2's radar for evil is so finely tuned that she actually leaves the vicinity of the TV when Curious George starts to misbehave.  She knows that the Man in the Yellow Hat is not George's father, but she's convinced the fourth commandment applies anyway.

When did fearlessness become the measure of a child?  What about prudence and rationality?

Many around me subscribe to the idea that a well-rounded child will try anything once, and that her failure to do so foreshadows a narrow life.  I am teaching mine that they don't have to do anything that seems evil or unnatural.  I tell them that under normal circumstances they control what their eyes see and what their ears hear, and as a result I have seen them consistently refuse to be assaulted by the negative visual and auditory stimuli that many take for granted.  I am teaching them that evil is aberrant--that we are sinners, but that we were made for good, not bad.  And I do this while the entertainment media culture tries repeatedly to teach them that evil is commonplace, unavoidable, and nothing to get upset about.

I don't yet know if, how, or when they will or should lose their drive to block out the more upsetting side of life.  But for now, they recognize evil, they are afraid of it, and they will go to great lengths to avoid it.  I don’t call that “too timid”.  I call that one shot on goal.

Check It Off

Today is our 20^th wedding anniversary, and suddenly I’ve become a writer with no words.  I dug for prior content and found most of what I've written about my husband to be too personal to post. 

Here’s what’s shareable:

2011:  Words I used to describe him to a friend:

• Strong

• Committed

• Logical

• Very funny

• Smart

•  Calming

•  Protective  

• Generous

2009, notes for an essay:  Little Things He Does To Make Me Feel Bigly Loved

• He leaves his car radio on K-LOVE when he knows I’m going to use it next.

•   Recognizing that I can no longer stomach movies with graphic scenes, he carefully researches and selects movies that are uplifting, include a positive spiritual message, and are void of all the garbage that seems to infatuate the Hollywood crowd.

•   He loves one line from Fireproof as much as I do: “Never leave your partner behind.”

•  For a few nights in a row last fall, he played “Dancing in the Moonlight” from the beautiful movie “A Walk to Remember” on his iPod for us to listen to together as we drifted off to sleep.  Never said a word.  Just did it.

• He gives me his jacket or coat when I’m cold while we’re out…every time.  Only recently has he started to suggest, in a gentle way, that perhaps I should plan a little better next time.

May 16, 2012:  A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words

Steve, your faith since your conversion has become an anchor for our family as you lead us in a whole new way.  I know it’s a bit self-indulgent, but last week I found some video-making software that is really easy to use.  In practically no time (i.e. this is why the laundry isn’t done--picture inserted smiley face here), I was able to create a summation of the beauty with which God has blessed us.  Hope you like it.

“Put me like a seal over your heart,
Like a seal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death"
--Song of Solomon 8:6

Twenty years:  ✔ 

On My Vocation...

Catholic parenting is my passion.  Over the past five years I’ve been called overprotective and out-of-touch.  I’ve been informed that I must allow my children to grow up in “the real world.”  I’ve heard the constant refrain “they’re going to be exposed to (this, that, and the other thing) eventually,” as if I don’t know that.  But what I also know is that it is my responsibility as a parent to be vigilant as to the manner and timing of my kids’ exposure to those elements of today’s culture that seek to prevent me from achieving my parenting goals. My hope is that by allowing my children to be pure of heart and mind for as long as possible, they will build both the mindset to recognize the perversity that pervades modern culture and the critical thinking skills they’ll need to successfully battle it.

Much of what I’ve learned about parenting has resulted from my own mistakes.  I think I’ll start by sharing the parenting goals my husband and I set about two years ago as we discerned the direction in which we wished to take our daughters’ formal education.

Our Goals for Our Daughters

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” 

1994 Letter to Families, Pope John Paul II: "Parents are the first and most important educators of their own children, and they also possess a fundamental competence in this area; they are educators, because they are parents." (16)

Yes, we would like our daughters to be happy and have fun, go to college, avoid premarital sex, find suitable marriage partners, avoid addiction, depression and eating disorders, etc.—these are expected minimums of achievement for which we will continue to pray.

However, it is most succinct to say that we wish our daughters to be saints—that is, to achieve the destiny for which they were created: to worship Him in heaven forever. As the primary educators of our children, we will be held accountable for our success or our failure to assist them in accomplishing this goal.  Our children are a gift from God; they are meant to be returned to Him.  If our children are one day to live in the presence of God, they must strive to become like Him while they are here on Earth.  In short, they must cultivate virtue.

“A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good.  It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself.  The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.  The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God.”  CCC 1803

The virtues that we must inspire in our children are Faith, Hope, and Charity. The Holy Spirit offers seven gifts to help in the development of these virtues: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.  As I understand it, however, those gifts are not unconditionally available.  Our children (and we ourselves) must be attentive, prayerful, and open to grace in order to receive them.  It is our responsibility, therefore, to be certain that any person or group with whom we entrust our children will support us in reaching our goals for our daughters by demonstrating that they are attentive to God’s will, prayerful, and open to grace.  Most of our culture demonstrates the opposite.

Mortification at the MIM

The introductory gallery at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix had been quite inspiring.  I hadn’t been looking forward to the trip, but the first room reminded me of the influential role that music has played in my life, first during my teenage years, later in my reversion to the Catholic Church, and currently in my love of worship music.

The museum is organized first by continent, and then by country.  As we entered the European gallery, I did not expect to see the first country to catch my eye: on the left was a display marked “Vatican City.”  I filled with excitement at the upcoming possibilities of hearing traditional Catholic hymns, music created for the Mass by classical composers, the booming of pipe organs with notes lifted toward Heaven, haunting Gregorian chant, and the magnificent sound of bells in their towers.  I decided to mortify myself just a little bit by starting on the right side of the room.

Each country display has an audio box describing the exhibit along with a TV screen showing more detail about the people and music of that culture.  Since the beginning of the tour my audio headphones had not been working well, so when I arrived at the Vatican City display I walked in circles in front of it trying to capture the audio by positioning my head just right.  When I had no success picking up the recording, I decided to settle for watching the video without sound.  I searched the rather small exhibit for the screen, certain that I would see cathedrals and choirs.  It took at least a minute for it to sink in.  There was no screen. The Vatican City exhibit had no audio and no video.

As disappointment took hold, I comforted myself that the MIM had at least chosen to create a Vatican City exhibit.  They could have omitted it entirely, and that probably could be seen as a reasonable decision given the size of its population.  So I turned my attention to the artifacts and written portion of the display.  Here is what I saw:

As my outrage bubbled to the surface, I imagined what people already less than enamored with the Church would be thinking at this point.  “Those Catholics and their rules!  They even regulate bells!”  “Ha!  Flying Easter eggs… How typically ridiculous is that?”  “Those Catholics have interfered with music throughout history!”  To the best of my recollection of the other exhibits, the Catholics have the only instruments respectfully referred to as “noisemakers.”

Sometimes I have trouble letting go of insults, particularly involving my beloved Church.  OK, pretty much all of the time.   So as I walked through the rest of the museum with a chip on my shoulder, I couldn’t resist snapping this photo:

One of Scooby Doo’s supporting characters had her own screen.  She had audio too.  Admittedly, the display wasn’t really about the animated show itself but rather a discussion of player pianos.  I’m sure that player pianos have contributed at least as much to music history as the Catholic Church, right?

This treatment of the Church by the Musical Instrument Museum reminded me of the continued and increasing disrespect for Christianity in our modern culture.  And it is my belief that it is becoming dangerous.  Father Lankeit at Sts. Simon and Jude recently published an article in his parish bulletin discussing the hostility of the secular media toward Christians.  He included headlines from 15 articles displaying such bias from two weeks in September 2011 alone.  

I would like to urge all Catholics to take notice of the portrayals of our Church being offered to the public at large.  We try to combat negative depictions when they occur in obviously offensive movies, but attacks are also being launched using subtle and seemingly innocent means such as museum displays.  It’s not false that Catholics change up the bells during Lent, and there probably was some folklore related to flying Easter eggs.  But to represent those details as the Church’s sole contribution to music history?  That’s just plain deceptive.

Continue reading here to see the changes the MIM has made to the Vatican City exhibit.