July 31, 2009

Dear Staff and Board:
It’s been a quiet July around the DeLaSalle Education Center. Our high school campus did not offer summer classes for the first time in many years. It was another casualty of the economy. So some of us decided last week that we would invite a small group of students to go to lunch and to see how they were doing.
After picking up four of the students who responded to our phone calls, we met at an inexpensive Mexican restaurant downtown. It was a fun and relaxing lunch. Each of the young men appeared to be glad to be with us. Perhaps it was being away from the peer pressure of a larger school environment that made them open up to us on this day, to tell us illuminating stories of what they had been doing so far this summer.
I was surprised to learn that none of them had found employment or had enrolled in other schools for the summer. They were all at least 16 years old and needed money and were all behind in achieving their high school credits. A significant amount of government money had been allocated to Kansas City this summer to help youth secure temporary employment, but these young men seemed to have missed out on that opportunity, as they had missed out on so many other opportunities in their short lives.
However, I discovered that all of them were doing something positive during the summer. One was babysitting extensively for relatives, another was helping his father with his small business, while the other two were helping their families with odd jobs and work around the house.
As they talked about sleeping late, hanging out with friends, and the latest electronic gadgets and video games, I was reminded of my own summer experiences as a teenager. Although I was blessed in high school with a job in a small catering company, I used to do nearly the same things, hanging out with friends after working late at a banquet hall, and staying up until the early hours of the morning.
There was something magic about that period in my life, and I began to see that these young men had a similar appreciation for the simple but profound pleasures of life. I began to see them differently than I had come to know them during the school year. I already knew too much about the poverty and violence that enveloped their lives, with young friends and relatives dying and all of the other sad circumstances that many our young people experience.
I could now see that they were teenagers just like I had been, like all of us had once been. And we were having fun on this lazy Friday afternoon, just talking about our shared experiences, like how fun it was to watch the sun rise after being up all night.
I saw them with new eyes, and a new understanding, and a new appreciation for the importance of our work. All of the students at DeLaSalle are like you and me, wanting and yearning for meaning and joy in our lives.
This school year, I will try to remind myself of this vision when our students are having trouble getting up early for school, or when they seem to lose hope after watching friends or relatives succumb to the senseless temptations of the streets. I will try to remember that I faced the same personal challenges but in a far different era and environment, and that I had support systems that many of our students lack.
I know that you share with me this vision that all young people in our community should receive a quality education regardless of their backgrounds or life circumstances.
All of us want a better tomorrow, even those of us who have stayed up too late for too many nights looking for it!
I hope you are well and enjoying your summer. See you soon!

Best,
Jim