Thank you Vianney Faculty & Staff! I'll Miss you all!

To the Vianney Faculty and Staff:

My time is winding down and the end is drawing near. I've spent days and weeks in tears trying to find the words to say good-bye! Trying to find the words that express my unwavering love for you all!

The time has come for me to go and grow! Something I've asked and challenged you to do each day for the last five years! While I'm excited about the next stage of my career, I would be dishonest if I didn't say I will miss you all terribly! I knew in my heart this day would come, I just never imagined it would come so quickly. It has taken me by surprise, as I'm sure it has taken you by surprise as well. So this blog is dedicated to YOU! My feeble attempt to express the love and appreciation I have in my heart for you. I hope in time I can tell you each face-to-face what my heart has felt all along!

Thank YOU for being a teacher, more importantly a Vianney

teacher and part of the St. John Vianney High School family. Five years ago I uprooted my family in great part because of the people in this building. I NEVER asked about our ACT scores, I never saw a curriculum map. Questions about enrollment, facilities, technology, and budgets, NEVER came out of my mouth. But the feeling of family was strong! From the moment I stepped on this campus in October 2010 I knew I wanted to be part of this special place. I wanted to be a Griffin!

You welcomed me and treated me like family from day one!
That feeling of family permeated my body and sustained me on drives back to Springfield and consumed my thoughts in the months I waited to receive "the phone call". YOU are what makes Vianney special. You are its heart and soul!

The last five years have been the most rewarding years of my life both professionally and personally!

Watching Lexi serve as the lone Vianney cheerleader has brought me endless joy and memories! She LOVED firing up the Griffins! She would fall asleep on car rides home as she sang the Fight Song!

God knows I loved and appreciated the opportunity to work with my dad on a daily basis! As a young adolescent I always dreamed of growing up and making my parents proud. I wanted to show them that their efforts and sacrifices were not wasted. I never imagined that my father would get the chance to see me LIVE my dream. That's an indescribable feeling!

Vianney brought my family to St. Louis and allowed Lexi to grow-up seeing her Paw-Paw & Maw-Maw whenever she wants! You cannot put a price on that! I will forever be grateful to Mike Loyet, the Board of Directors, and the Marianists for providing me this opportunity! A middle-class kid from Mehlville was able to serve as Vianney’s principal, work with his dad, and incorporate his family in to his work. That is the definition of a dream come true!

I’m also thankful to each of you. I can’t possibly begin to list all the amazing accomplishments you are responsible for!

Over the last five years, Vianney has witnessed an unprecedented period of improvement in student achievement, curriculum, facilities, and infrastructure. YOU helped us maximize each

student’s ACT score and potential! YOU improved the rigor of our curriculum from top to bottom, including the addition of 24 new courses, 12 new dual-enrollment classes, a variety of digital media classes, and multiple STEM classes. YOU made Vianney a National School of Excellence, A Model School for Brain-Based Education, and A Top 100 workplace in St. Louis!

THANK YOU!

Thank you for making me the LEAST important person in the building!

Thank you for being in the classroom, ready, prepared, and willing to serve. For having the art and the science to develop Men of Character and Accomplishment.

Thank you for your dedication and timeless efforts. Words like complacency and status quo are nonexistent at Vianney and that's because each of you will not allow such words to be spoken or actions to exist. 

Thank you for recognizing each individual student is unique and learns differently and for creating differentiated classrooms that engage our students.

Thank you for encouraging our students to push a little more, lengthen their reach, give a little more effort! That is often tiring

and tedious work that does not get headlines in the media. But it is good, honorable, important work that will sustain our young men their entire lives!

Thank you for taking the time to teach life’s lessons and for using teachable moments! So often in this fast paced, standards driven world of education so many people and schools have forgotten that our students and our works are about so much more than test scores. You each understand the greater role we play in educating young men to be servant leaders, good husbands, great fathers, and leaders in their communities.

Thank you for helping our students to be balanced people. Who are not just intellects who lose themselves in books, but productive humanitarians that see and aide in community and world problems. Who are so level-headed that when they grow older they'll know to appreciate family, and faith, and freedom and NOT fret the small things.

Thank you for volunteering at the athletic events, Architecture night, All-Night Graduation, Open house, Auction set-up, Cocoa

and Cram, Service Trips, and dozens of other school events. Thanks

for attending our student's athletic competitions,their musical and theatrical performances, and supporting their causes when they Battle Cancer or try to help the less fortunate in Nairobi or Nicaragua. You're teaching them that this is NOT JUST a school, but a family.

Thank you for being part of their retreat experiences and for modeling your faith on a daily basis. You are all such outstanding role-models for our young men!

Thank you for stretching yourself professionally, taking every stride in curriculum and evaluation changes so effortlessly. I realize you worked with a principal that had a lot of ideas and only one

speed--FAST! Through curriculum mapping, brain-based research, and technological advances you have taken it all in stride. I'm not naive. I know it's been difficult at times, but I've also seen so many positive advancements in our students, our curriculum, and our student outcomes because of your efforts.

Thank you for reinforcing kindness and respect and teaching personal responsibility.

Thank you for allowing our young men to be unique personalities and not forcing conformity.

Thank you for letting our students know they are good enough and to believe in themselves. Thank you for teaching them that from here ANYTHING is possible if they're willing to work hard, apply all of themselves, and trust in God.

Thank you for being better than you need to be.

But mostly, Thank you for inspiring the hearts, minds, and souls of tomorrow's leaders!

You inspire me! I love you all and I will miss you all!

Please make an effort to be part of my life, because you will always be in my heart and my prayers.

Thank you for making me better than I am or better than I could have been! Thank you for believing in me when others did not! Thank you for showing me what’s possible when a group of people care only about what’s best for students!

You are my family, my friends, and an inseparable part of my heart!

THANK YOU!

Dear Seniors (Part II): In Life You ALWAYS get 2 Free-Throws

Dear Seniors (Part II):

8 days! In 8 short, simple, days your journey that began many years ago will commence at St. John Vianney High School. You leave here an abundantly talented group!

70 % of you will leave with a college scholarship to schools in the SEC, Mountain West, Big Ten, Missouri Valley, Atlantic 10 and all the lands and conferences in-between.

You are a talented, kind, considerate, and sometimes mischievous group that we as a community have molded into the young men we are proud to call Griffins! You are diverse. You are unique. And you are quite special to all of us!

In 8 Days I'll deliver my final address to you. I realize that in 8 days my time with you is limited, so these blogs are my attempt to leave you with a few more bits of advice. 

In my life I was fortunate to have MANY strong principals from elementary, middle, and high school and have been blessed to be mentored and collaborate with some of the best leaders in the state and across the country. And so I would like to share the words I wish my own principal had said to me during my gradation from high school when I, like many of you, thought I already knew everything I needed to know.
I think my principal would have encouraged me to try everything in college & life. Yes, I mean everything. Try everything in sports. Try everything in school. Try every educational, extracurricular, or athletic opportunity I could. We adults want you to be safe but we also want you to explore. We do! Sometimes, it just scares us what you will find, but that’s doesn’t mean we don’t want you to keep looking.
It is incredibly important to take risks in your life. It’s also quite smart to have a safety net of support just in case something goes wrong. If you try and fail, I’m proud of you! If you just fail without trying, you’ve wasted an opportunity to learn where the world is your classroom. As Dave Elkind, a professor at Tufts University, once said “We learn through experience and we learn through bad experiences. Through failure, we learn how to cope.”

And parents, You need to show your sons that it is okay to take risks and it is okay to fail. It is not about perfection; if anything, we parents need to model our own imperfections so our children know that it is okay to try and not reach our goals on the first, second, third or even the millionth attempt. Try to discuss your own personal failures with your children. Let your children know that you have failed and that they too will fail. Let them know that this is okay.

I also hope my principal would have shared how to be a successful person in life and how to find “The Happy Zone.”

I believe they would have encouraged me, like I am advising each of you, to be nicer. To our teachers. To our parents. To everyone. And most importantly, to ourselves.

I hope you know you are good enough just how you are right now. None of you need to be taller, faster, skinnier, or bigger. You are all exactly how you should be. I cannot stress enough the importance of self acceptance and self compassion. We are not defined by our successes nor our failures. Nobody is perfect, so please don’t compare yourselves to others. From the outside, the student sitting across the room from you in Mr. Sargent's English class may look like everything is great but don’t be fooled. Everyone has their own personal struggles. Some just may hide their worries better than others. I would like to encourage all of you to be honest and to support one another. Remember: nobody is perfect.

My former principal would have shared with me that everything from here on out will be a blur but that doesn't mean you have to spend your time taking pictures of these moments on a cell phone. Sometimes, your memory of the event is significantly more precious than one of the Instagram pictures you post for your six thousand followers. Just enjoy these days. Be in the moment. Help others have their moment.

My former principal would have encouraged me to laugh often and surround myself with people who lift my spirits and make me feel good about who I am. While you can never have too many friends, please make sure you have the right ones walking alongside you during your challenging days. a handful of freinds is far more valuable than a following on Facebook. And don’t forget these words from Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

And I hope my former principal would have shared a story or at least an analogy.--I do like analogies!

I wish he would have shared that life is often like shooting two free-throws with the game tied and a second remaining on the clock, because in life, you will have free throws. You will be expected to perform and do something where you often won’t have the strength to make it happen. You’ll try and you may fail. 

Occasionally you will have given your all, left all your sweat on the court, have barely enough energy left to lift your head, yet alone your arms to shoot free throws and you'll have to shoot anyway.

And sometimes, maybe often, you'll miss that first free-throw, you may flat out air ball it! In a moment when all eyes are on you. When the crowd is cheering with excitement and waiting for you to send the team to victory, you'll air-ball the first free throw! Everyone’s excitement for a special moment will quickly turn to fear!

They will watch your reaction to that air ball and and expect to see someone ready to crumble, to see someone ready to quit, and in that moment I hope they see you smile, maybe even laugh it off.

Because performing in life or "shooting free throws" isn't necessarily about making the free throw; it is the realization that there are so many other moments in the game, so many other opportunities and so many teammates along the way that got you to this moment. Every classmate. Every teacher. Your parents. The Vianney family. 

I want you to be happy to have the opportunity to shoot a free throw.

I hope all of you have the chance to take your free throws one day. Don’t shy away from these opportunities. And even if you miss your first free throw, you just never know what can happen on your second shot. As we’ve seen, the ball may just bounce your way when you try again.

So don’t give up. Don’t let each other give up. Just don’t ever give up.

2016 graduates. Thank you for being a part of my life over the past four years and thank you for being a part of each other’s journey. You have each brought something very unique and special to St. John Vianney High School. You will be missed but we are quite excited to see where you lead next. We’ll be watching, ready to support you along the way. Congratulations!

Dear Seniors (A Prequel)

Dear Seniors:

The calendar tells me May is just around the corner and planning meeting after planning meeting has confirmed that our annual spring events like junior ring, honors convocation, mother-son Mass & brunch, prom, Baccalaureate Mass and graduation are all quickly approaching.

In just a few days, you will finish your final exams, take a couple of AP tests, practice walking in academic regalia, and have “Pomp & Circumstance” ingrained in your brains.

As your principal, I have the honor of being one of the last to deliver parting words on graduation. So today I offer you some random thoughts, a prequel, to memories that have started to flood my conscious.

As I do so, I’d like to invite you to take a trip back in time with me as I chronocial your journey and advances in technology simultaneously.

Let’s start our journey back in the fall of 2012. You came to Vianney as freshman, a little scared, a little nervous, but hopefully a little excited about the possibilities that would lie ahead. As you passed through the halls from Coach O’s Modern World History class to Coach Hamilton’s Freshman Forensic Science class, our world was changing. Google unveiled NOW, a feature that automatically alerted you to relevant information about where you were and what you were supposed to be doing. It was like a mind-reading personal assistant: If you were going on a trip, it told you about traffic on the way to the airport, gave you your boarding pass, showed you the weather at your destination, told you how to get to your appointment, and showed you the best restaurants near your hotel.  It never got the credit it rightfully deserved, but it too was a prequel of things to come.  I only wish they would have reminded you more to do your homework, get to class on time, hug your mom, and respect your dad with a little more effort than you chose to do without a technology widget. 

 As you entered your sophomore year, you were excited about the possibilities of no longer being the “new class” in the school. You were a little older, a little taller, and (hopefully) a little wiser. You worked hard to get through courses like Geometry, Chemistry, and Religion and of some of you were brave enough to complete Honors Algebra II! While you were busy with extracurricular events, finding your voice in our community, and studying to bolster your transcript, Amazon announced it would start using drones to deliver packages to your doorstep. Google Glass allowed people to view the world in a very different light, and 4k television sets changed how we watched our news, movies, and sporting events while Chromecast allowed you to fling and stream Netflix, webpages, and any other media you loved directly from your laptop, tablet, or iPhone to your new high definition display!

Finally in the fall of 2014, you charged into Vianney excited to begin your junior year. You were very optimistic that junior year was going to be a good one, and it was. Finally you had choice in the classes you could take. Some of you pursued ACC, AP, and honors level courses.  Some of you got elbows deep in technology, architectural drawing, and the arts.

You were upperclassmen, and let’s be honest, you might have been more powerful around here than the senior class at the time. In the world outside of Vianney, big ideas were on the horizon. Apple Pay made it faster and more secure to purchase items with the wave of your phone; new technologies and innovations hit the market in artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality, and 3-D printing spaces that paved the way for a major shift in society.

  

In the fall of 2015, you finally became the mighty Seniors of Vianney. You had the school at your fingertips. You effortlessly displayed incredible spirit and passion during homecoming and spring spirit week. You were challenged and had to give it your all in Mrs. Finley’s Senior English and Mr. Petersen’s Calculus courses. While you were doing this, Apple was sending you phone calls and texts through your Apple Watch and you were worrying about sitting too long and lowering your Fitbit stats.

So, you entered as freshman with Google NOW telling you what to do and when to do it, you left with the excitement of information on your wrists 24-7. Just think about the progress and put it all in perspective. If you need another frame of reference, think about your iphones.  They were first released in 2007—you were only in the 3^rd grade and that was a year AFTER Twitter was introduced in San Francisco!

I want you to think about the monumental changes that took place in our world between Twitter and the iWatch – the time it took you to go from 2nd to 12th grade.

The twenty-first century is a fast-moving environment. We can only begin to imagine what the world will look like in four years when you again take the stage to graduate, this time from college. It will truly be a brave new world, and YOU will be our new leaders.

Maybe YOU will invent a cool new AP that will make our lives easier. Maybe one of YOU will have a major medical breakthrough or find a cure for cancer. Maybe YOU will help the human race finally make long distance space travel possible.

Look deep into your heart and remember, YOU have the knowledge, YOU have the potential, but most importantly, YOU have the drive to make anything possible. 

Make the most of your skills. Take from Vianney the memories and the confidence that YOU can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Carpe Diem – Seize the Day – don’t just sit idle waiting for life to come to you. And finally, my last piece of advice for you: When you finally make it big with that great idea, don’t forget to send a thank you check to your old high school principal – I’m counting on you!!!……….just kidding!

GOOD LUCK CLASS OF 2016 – MAKE US PROUD!!!

Spring Break--Make Good Choices

With Spring Break beginning today I'd like to share an important message in the hope that each and every Vianney Griffin returns safely from break.

The majority of our students make wise decisions throughout the school year and will continue to make positive decisions during Spring Break.

However, many teenagers place themselves in harm's way by not realizing the dangers associated with poor decisions they make on unsupervised Spring Break trips or while staying home unsupervised.

While spring break is often portrayed as a rite of passage for thousands of students– often a week of non-stop fun, socializing, and going to different events–things can quickly turn for the worse.

According to travel industry experts, an estimated one in seven young people (15%) on Spring Break party destinations are high school students. During a 17-day stretch in March 2013, Panama City, FL police arrested 1,000 teens for underage drinking. Furthermore, the U.S. State Department estimates that 100,000 teens go to Mexico for Spring Break each year. Alcohol consumption, binge drinking, drug experimentation, and other risky behavior that often accompany these behaviors truly put our teens at risk.
It's also important to understand that, whether or not young people are traveling, teens often start using marijuana and alcohol for the first time between the spring and summer months.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) urges parents of high school students to know the risks associated with this time of year. ONDCP Director Michael Botticelli and his staff, as well as Drug Free Community coalitions, warn, "We don't want parents to be naive about what happens when teenagers are away for Spring Break or home and unsupervised. Pressure can be immense to share exciting and funny stories when kids return to school."

Please have important conversations with your young men about making good choices. Let them know exactly where you stand on underage drinking, drug use, and their safety and well-being. We care about each and every Vianney Griffin and thank you for entrusting them to our care.
We look forward to seeing each student return safely on Tuesday, March 29th.

My prayer is that you each have a rejuvenating and relaxing spring break and Blessed Easter!

Springbreak and the Science of Sleep

SHHH!!!! Quiet!! Do you hear that?
It's coming....the time we've all been waiting for! Springbreak!

And with it the opportunity for so many wonderful things! 

Spring training, walks and runs in the park, time with family & friends, springtime temperatures, and most importantly, the opportunity to rest and sleep!

Placed at roughly the mid-point of spring semester, Springbreak is a wonderful opportunity to disconnect from the day-to-day grind of the school year and get a much needed break.

I found myself thinking about the importance of this downtime as
I listened to an interesting TED talk on the importance of sleep
by Oxford professor of circadian neuroscience Russell Foster.

Foster argues that scientists still don’t have a full picture of why
we sleep, but that they suspect it involves the intersection of three areas:

• restoration and repair of metabolic processes,
• energy conservation,
• and brain processing and memory consolidation.

Foster is most interested in the impact of brain processing
and memory. He cites several interesting strands of research
that highlight just how important sleep is to learning and productivity. This, of course, flies in the face of our more recent societal trends to see sleep as an enemy of efficiency and a crutch of the unmotivated or lazy. Foster goes on to share some research that links healthy sleep patterns with positive mental health.

Foster’s talk reminded me of an important chapter on sleep in the book Brain Rules by John Medina. Targeted more for teachers and parents, Medina links sleep to better academic performance, while also highlighting how sleep deprivation hurts attention, executive function, working memory, logical reasoning, and quantitative skills.

Admittedly I'm not too deep into Dan Goleman’s book Focus: The Hidden Ingredient in Excellence, but it is already clear that sleep plays a major factor in our ability not only to focus on the task at hand but also the ability to let our minds wander — linked increasingly to our ability to find creative solutions to interdisciplinary problems.

At a time during the school year when everybody is faced with a cascade of deadlines and assignments, Springbreak is a nice opportunity to put away those check-lists, reflect a bit on the work we’ve accomplished so far, and perhaps get a restorative afternoon nap! 

March Madness-College Acceptance Season

This is the time of year in St. Louis when the morning gives us sleet and snow and 24 hours later we have sunshine and 70 degree temperatures!  A time when students (and teachers) look forward to spring break, spring training, and March Madness! Everything in March definitely starts to change!

But this is also the season for something much more important and often stressful for a population of our students and their parents--college admission season.

By now, anybody with a high school junior or senior has probably read Frank Bruni’s March 2015 New York Times column “How to Survive the College Admissions Madness.” In this piece Bruni shares stories of a few talented young men and women who first survive and then later thrive after getting turned down at elite colleges. One underlying problem, he says, is that many of our students have come to equate their self-worth with admission into these highly selective universities. Whereas, many of us working in education like to think we are a part of a much longer end game: to help foster healthy and happy adults. The paths to that outcome are MANY..

What our students are up against is often referred to as a madness or a mania. I think this is fair, because it also implies that even the most healthy and well adjusted can get caught up. By now, the story is fairly well known. A small and well-publicized number of elite schools are now competing globally for students, making the marketplace more competitive than ever. In addition, helpful tools like the Common Application are making it easier for students to apply to many more schools than ever before.  According to the National Association of College Admissions Counseling, only 9 percent of students applied to seven or more colleges in 1990. By 2011, that number was 29 percent. Students who apply to more than 20 colleges are not uncommon. This leads to ever shrinking acceptance ratios that are under 10% and approaching 5% at the most elite schools. 

This can’t help but create a potentially unhealthy environment for our students, feeling they have to do more and more to beat the odds. Sites like College Confidential at first seemed to open up the admissions process, but now seems only to add to the sense of competitive frenzy.

More and more students are feeling pressure to craft resumes in high school that don’t really reflect true passions or interests, and as a result are matriculating to college with significant health issues. 

So what to do?

Bruni highlights the healthy way in which the parents of one particular young man kept perspective throughout the process. Their letter of support to their son on the eve of admission notification reassured him that he is not the product of the decisions of an overwhelmed admissions committee.

I’d also add the importance of being a part of a healthy school and community environment. Schools have many subtle and not-so-subtle ways of increasing the stress and competitive environment, from starting college counseling in middle school, to encouraging underclassmen to take multiple AP exams, to ranking students by their GPA(practices Vianney does NOT do). The answer to the college admissions madness is not to double down and go even more mad. 

In the end, college counselors can demystify this process and help our students see that there are absolutely fabulous options beyond the top 10 lists that dominate the popular press and social media. When we help our students understand themselves as learners and as people, then they can see themselves as happy and successful in many different places.

Despite the craziness of the application process, this is exactly what colleges are also saying they want from our students. I recently read a post from the National Association of Independent Schools Conference featuring the leaders of four universities. They said they were looking for graduates who:

• can interact in a community,
• have perseverance,
• have good writing and quantitative skills,
• have a healthy and balanced lifestyle,
• have the ability to self-reflect and self-assess,
• and can navigate new situations and act independently.

Thankfully, I do believe that we’ve got the right balance here at Vianney. I’ve found myself on more than one occasion describing our school as “healthy.” Our approach to developing young men spiritually, academically, and personally in the Catholic, Marianist tradition is an important perspective on this topic.  To educate the whole person values their uniqueness and maximizes their potential! 

Thank you for entrusting your son to our care and for partnering us on this holistic journey to becoming Men of Character & Accomplishment! 

Developing Authentic Leaders

There is a plethora of research on what characteristics define the truly great leader. Integrity, honesty, vulnerability, vision are all descriptors of the outstanding leader. There is also a prevailing belief (in which I concur), that you cannot ascend to the highest level of leadership without being relational. 

At Vianney we take the leadership development of our students seriously!  For years our students have been required to take a freshmen leadership course, we were the 1st school in St. Louis to have our upper-level leadership course approved for dual-enrollment through Drury University, and the list of leadership opportunities is extensive and impressive! 

One thing we always stress to our young men during their leadership development is that Relationships Matter! Gifted leaders, ones who are well-respected, trusted and liked, understand that relationships must also be authentic.

Weak or passing fad leaders confuse authenticity with the art pleasing the people. Pleasing people is more often about self gain, about getting votes or being liked (although those might be great end results). Authentic relationships are formed by leaders who do the right thing, make tough decisions and have difficult conversations. Building authentic relationships is a great skill for teenagers to develop and for all of us to continuously work on and improve.

The challenges of effective leadership are immense. Chris Lowney writes in his book, Heroic Leadership, "it is not easy for the leader to set the course, get everyone onside with the direction and then maneuver in and around the barriers that exist to ascertain the preferred future."

Getting people committed to the cause requires authentic relationships. The leader’s ability to build effective and authentic relationships with one’s employees,colleagues and the general community is simply non-negotiable. Authentic relationships where everyone is committed to a common cause has been a strength of Vianney since our establishment in 1960 and something we hope to continuously work on and improve for many years to come! 

I highlight the word “authentic” because too often relationships are viewed as one way, shallow and superficial. In other words the default becomes to please others. Employee groups or leaders sometimes revert to the position that if you truly cared about this relationship you would do “X”. This is simply not authentic. In fact it's is immature and dare I say, "adolescent?"

Effective and authentic relationships are mutually beneficial and based on respect. It is not centered on getting your own way and is not structured with the mentality of win/lose. It is also not without struggle, tough decisions and disappointment. Authentic relationships value the messiness of the interactions and understand the complexity of leadership life. 

It is crucial for students to recognize upon graduation that it is impossible to please
everyone. They need to understand that any decision made will have people lined up on both sides of the fence. It is a no win scenario and therefore should be avoided at all costs. However, authentic relationships allows leaders to make tough decisions without major fallout. Pleasing people is fleeting and superficial at best. It requires no strong and enduring commitment which is why these leaders typically don’t have a long and successful shelf life and never create a legacy!

Our goal in developing Men of Character & Accomplishment is that they will grow in to leaders who will be authentic in their relationships rather than simply desiring to please people. That's the legacy we hope to leave behind. 

Building Character-there's a science to it!

Anyone who has spent anytime at St. John Vianney High School knows how serious we take the Character Development of our students. It has become our motto, our rallying cry, and statement of who we all aspire to be, an example we hope to set for others--"Men of Character & Accomplishment."

Similarly, anyone who has spent five minutes with me has likely heard my speeches or even viewed my presentations on the importance of school culture.  I believe culture fuels everything in a school. The more positive people are, the more open, and willing people are to take risks, the more caring and loving the people are, the greater the outcomes will be!

Of course, one reason our culture has been so strong and so outstanding in improving student learning is our commitment to implementing neuroscience and groundbreaking brain research.

While most of our implementation has been on brain-based instructional strategies, the research also demonstrates that we can "train" our brains and shape how we approach the world and complex problems. 

We understand that our brains have tremendous capacity to take on challenges and learn new things. While this may seem obvious, it takes some training to tap into our potential. Often, we fool ourselves into thinking we can't do something. (How often do you hear someone say,"Oh, I am no good at math"?)

Some people have trained themselves to operate with a “fixed” mindset. At Vianney, we want to promote a "growth" mindset, and science tells us that it is possible to teach both young and older brains how to expand their potential. 

It all comes through practice. If we respond to the world with disappointment and doubt, we reinforce that mindset in our neural pathways. Essentially, "We are what we practice." Through practice and deliberate effort, we can train our brains to see the possibilities and opportunities that sometimes even failure presents.

Check out this short 8-minute video that captures this science in an amazing way.

The video was produced by Tiffany Shlain & The Moxie Institute Films.

Defining Excellence

It is carefully placed in every publication, hangs in every classroom, fills the bottom of our emails, and any Vianney employee, student, or alumni can recite it:

"St. John Vianney High School is dedicated to forming young men for spiritual, academic, and personal excellence in the Catholic, Marianist tradition."

Of course, these are merely words unless we have a shared understanding of what they mean for our school. I reflect on these words often.  As principal I think it's important that I at least have my own understanding of what the words mean to me. I always find myself coming back time and time again to the word “excellence.” I often ask myself some tough questions:

• What exactly what about this concept is important for us at Vianney?
• What organization doesn’t want to be excellent?
• What school doesn’t want its students, employees, and alumni to be excellent?
• How, exactly, does my understanding of excellence differentiate our school?

So here are some of my quick thoughts/ramblings on what excellence means for Vianney...

To me, Vianney recognizes excellence as meaningful growth resulting from dedicated pursuit of individual and shared goals.

This view is not meant to discount what might be traditional measures of excellence such as our Average ACT score, number of National Merit finalists, or state championships in soccer. Instead, we want to dig deeper, to recognize how excellence is defined by individuals or groups depending on a host of factors.

Lory Hough has written a terrific article in Harvard Education Magazine where she highlights the dangers of using “averages” to define excellence in student achievement. The design of school, says Harvard professor Todd Rose, is built around a mythical “average student,” with the result being that systems, textbooks and curriculum don’t fit about 80% of the students sitting in the classrooms — we end up treating students in one-dimensional terms.

At Vianney we are dedicated to helping discover and unlock known and unknown potential in all our students. We help them understand standards of individual excellence and to develop the self-awareness and skills to achieve realistic goals. We also work to develop the group and social skills necessary to achieve in interdisciplinary, artistic, and athletic endeavors. 

In this way, we can say that we are all constantly striving for excellence at Vianney. The target is moving, and we are excited to be on the journey.

Catholic Schools Week--THANK YOU Vianney Teachers

It is with great enthusiasm and gratitude that we conclude 2016 Catholic Schools Week!

This week always arrives at the perfect time for me and gives me so many reasons to pause and be thankful for the blessings I have had in my life and career in Catholic education.  As if my career was not blessing enough, I now leave my house each morning and arrive home each night knowing my daughter is educated by some of the most passionate, inspiring, and faithful people I could ever imagine.  That's a gift!

This week as I reflected I thought of how proud I am of our wonderful students and the many contributions of all those who make Catholic education possible: dedicated teachers, our cafe and maintenance staff, secretaries, volunteers, committed parents, and board members who all ​provide excellent leadership and stewardship of our Catholic, Marianist mission.

Thank you for all you do to support Catholic education!

This week as we hosted Back-to-School Night and prepared to send off our acceptance letters to the Class of 2020 I could not help but think of how blessed Vianney is to have the most dedicated and talented faculty in Missouri! Parent after parent approached me on Tuesday night saying how excited THEY were to spend time with our teachers.  How excited THEY were to learn about the course content, projects, and brain-based learning!  It reaffirmed what I have known for 5 years.  Vianney is blessed with great educators!

The amount of work and energy our teachers pour into their work and into educating our ​students is astonishing! It is a crime that they don’t all make ​$5​50K a year. Since they couldn’t possibly do it for the money, I ​​​can only assume they love their job and love our young men. I hope they know how much I ​appreciate them for that!

 Our teachers do far more than teach ​students​ the building blocks of knowledge and learning; they are help ​to  develop them in to tomorrow's leaders! Our teachers provide an environment in which students have to practice respect, obedience, teamwork, and diligence​. T​he high standards they set for students both in their academic work and behavior is amazing! ​

Thank you Vianney faculty & staff! 

Thank you for insisting on kindness and respect, excellence and persistence! Thank you for sometimes saying, “This ​work is garbage and you can do better." Thank you for making our young men tuck in their shirt, sending them to the office to shave, and calling them out when they are wrong! Thanks for ​constantly ​requiring their best.

 ​After nine years in administration I guess it's safe to assume my career has officially ended as a classroom teacher.  But as someone who sees the quality of students our faculty produce year after year, it NEVER escapes me how magnificent you all are! 

I've seen you in your brilliance and in your most difficult times.

I've seen you instruct our students that struggle as much as you have celebrated the success of those who achieve remarkable feats. 

I know there are students battling academic and personal struggles and I've marveled at your tireless patience with them. I know they require so much of you in the midst of your regular responsibilities, and your patient attentiveness cannot possibly be over-celebrated.

​Please remember, at least during this Catholic Schools Week, that you are so respected, so important! Your work impacts your ​students for the rest of their lives.

I am 3​6​-years-old and still talking about my old teachers: Mrs. ​Meltner, Doug Thaman, Mrs. Meyer,

Mr. Mana, and even Sister Louise Wagner. Educators don’t get the credit they deserve, so I am standing up today, applauding YOU, cherishing YOUR investment in the next generation. I see the incredible amount of work YOU do, and I am forever grateful! YOU are heroes; there is no lesser designation.

Please remember when you are grading papers at 10:30pm on Sunday night, or tweeting another incredible idea, or writing our ​students another encouraging note​ or letter of recommendation​, or ​updating your website, ​I ​see you, ​I ​ appreciate you, and ​I think our school is abundantly blessed to have you!

 Your life matters so much and your legacy will go on long after you’re done teaching. You are sending out visionaries, thinkers, activists, and leaders into the world, and ​I ​owe you a debt of gratitude that ​I ​can never repay.

 Happy Catholic Schools Week! You are amazing! From the bottom of my heart, Thank you​!

College Admissions--Finding a Land to Inhabit & Till

January is coming to a close and that means there are many exciting events ahead of us both as a school and as individuals.  Soon The Night of the Griffin Auction will provide a fabulous venue where our donors and our mission meet.

The Super Bowl will provide entertainment as the epic struggle of "old" Peyton Manning meets the "new" in Cam Newton. Not long after that will come the crack of the bats, spring training and Opening Day! 

Many of our students no doubt are already peeking ahead to Spring break, Easter, Junior Ring, Prom and Graduation! 

While all these things have value and bring excitement and enthusiasm to our lives, work, and school, I know there is another group of students engaged in much more deliberate and perhaps more difficult conversations and decisions.

Our seniors have been receiving and will continue to receive their acceptance letters from colleges and universities all over the country--the world! And in the coming weeks and months they will need to make a life-altering decision by selecting the school of their choice.

As the principal of Vianney college-admissions and acceptance is understandably an important topic in our college-preparatory high school.  As one who has benefited mightily from a college education I'm an obvious proponent of how it can change a person's life for the better.  Having progressed through an undergrad, masters, and doctoral program I have seen many sides of this issue, learned a lot in my life about the process, and have many opinions to share. With college decisions looming on the minds of our students January seems like an appropriate time to share a little more freely than usual.

Not long ago I read a provocative book by Frank Bruni’s titled, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania. In it an important question arises as to what university and college are for. There is no question that a post-secondary experience is an important step on the path our young men venture along. We, as a school, value the university experience greatly and work with our students to prepare them for it and for life beyond it. 

Where the tension can arise is understanding what it is that our students and their parents are looking for in an undergraduate degree, and whether that first post-secondary experience is any better at one school than another- be it Ivy League, SEC, or not. Too often students and families are lured to undergraduate programs because of superior marketing.  Packed football/basketball stadiums, commercials touting prestigious alumni, promises of Greek life, and the peer pressure of friends often lead to students choosing a school that does not offer the programs of study they are passionate about, the environment & support systems they need to be successful, or the financial support to escape without a lifetime of debt.  

I realize that in writing this, as the Principal of a National School of Excellence and one that touts our academic program and who serves as the chief cheerleader who prides himself in 100% university placement for our students, I risk backlash. I should be espousing the ‘best’ schools for our young men. The reality is that we do- and must- work together with our parents, students and counselors to define what ‘best’ means for each of our Griffins and not be confined to magazine rankings, social status badges, and other unreliable markers of success.

I was taken with Bruni’s comment about undergraduate experiences. He says of one’s first degree, “College (or university) is a singular opportunity to rummage through and luxuriate in ideas, to give your brain a vigorous workout and your soul a thorough investigation, to realize how very large the world is and to contemplate your desired place in it. And that’s being lost in the admission mania which sends the message that college is a sanctum to be breached- a border to be crossed- rather than a land to be inhabited and tilled for all that it’s worth.” I couldn’t agree more.

At Vianney we talk a lot about the best path rarely being a straight line. We learn so much  from variety and turns- both those that life throws us and those we have the courage to choose. We are adamant that our young men choose the best for themselves- and that it be grounded in who they are, what they are passionate about and how they learn best. This is the key to finding a land “to inhabit and till.”  

Adaptation & Change--How Vianney Stays Nimble

As with many organizations, businesses, and school's it is important these days for St. John Vianney High School to be nimble. 

Just this week we were tested with winter weather, questionable road conditions, and the challenge of educating our students despite the consistency and structure a traditional five day week provides. 

The ability to adjust, adapt and grow is a key trait for success in our dynamic and complex world.  Fortunately the Society of Mary recognized that many years ago.  "Adaption & Change" is one of the 5 Characteristics we seek to educate our young men to handle when they exit our halls as Men of Character & Accomplishment.  

Just like our organizations, individuals within them fare best when they are prepared for ongoing change and provided with the skills such that they, too, can be nimble.

The fall leading in to winter is always a rewarding time for me to be the principal.  From Homecoming to Thanksgiving through Christmas we welcome back our graduates.!

We meet them at reunions, the Thanksgiving Lunch/Yearbook Party, and see them as their college semesters close and they return to enjoy a Spicy Chicken Sandwich or a Hot Ham & Cheese on a Pretzel bun for lunch!

Seeing our graduates return with smiles on their faces and stories of success is rewarding and reminds me of a quote I once read in my undergraduate studies that speaks to the importance of community belonging for relationships but also benefits. 

“True belonging is born of relationships not only to one another but to a place of shared responsibilities and benefits. We love not so much what we have acquired as what we have made and whom we have made it with.”

As the fall and winter unfold each year, we welcome back our graduates from new environments and they tell us that they feel well-prepared for their next stage of life: academically, spiritually, and personally.

We also see our current students and staff adjust to new technologies, higher expectations, more responsibilities, and even Snow Days.!

Upon reflection this week I thought again to the quote above. I thought of the benefits that St. John Vianney High School provides for our community. 

In addition, I was reminded, I “love not so much what we have acquired as what we have made and whom we have made it with.”

Thank you for entrusting your son to our care.  Thank you for being part of the Vianney Family!