Author: DeanAdmin

Chronological Snobbery: A reminder of the importance of a Liberal Arts Education

This is a guest blog post from a talented educator, Mr. Brendan D. Towell. I hope you enjoy his insights and perspectives as much as I did. We are lucky to have him on our faculty. 

By: Brendan D. Towell (Theology Department)

At the end of each academic year, the student body of St. Augustine Prep has an opportunity to anonymously review their teachers. I am not so sure if the Administration ever gets reviewed by the students… but that’s a question for another day! Regardless, our reviews can be quite illuminating. I will spare you the minutia of how the process works, yet I will say that the comment section is by far the most revealing and helpful for me as an educator. I have found that affording a teenaged boy the opportunity to anonymously comment on one of his teachers results in a brutal form of honesty more helpful than any peer evaluation.  Through this unfiltered honesty, I have come to find that one recurring point was how genuinely surprised the boys were to find that Theology class could actually be relevant in their lives today. Continue reading Chronological Snobbery: A reminder of the importance of a Liberal Arts Education

Eleven in Eleven

I was a new teacher eleven years ago. But as the new school year begins, it is more apparent to me than ever, that I am a new teacher every year. As educators, we are understandably focused on all there is to teach, and yet we must also be mindful of all there is to learn. The summer has given me bit of time to reflect on my own learning during my time in education and to identify the top eleven lessons I learned in as many years and to pay homage to the wise colleagues who have been my teachers. With their inspiration, I head into the next school year and those to come with a mindset not simply of, “What am I here to teach?” but “What am I here to learn?” On behalf of our students, I encourage you to do the same.

Lesson 1 – Meet the students where they are and take them where they need to go, even if that means to another country. Travel with your students, intellectually and literally. (Mr. Casolaro) Continue reading Eleven in Eleven