The big happening this week at DeLaSalle was our first-ever Activity Fair that was held on Wednesday, October 7. Staff and students worked hard over the past month to prepare for this "showcase" event to highlight the twenty extra- and intra- curricular activities we have for students.

While we do not have a football or baseball team, we do have an after school arts club that does drama, murals and car design. This year, students will also build an electric car and put together bamboo bikes, a first in the metropolitan area and maybe even in the country.

Other activities include our environmental science class that will be building a "green tower", student council and student ambassadors and the prom committee.

As I walked around the school on Tuesday to check on the plans for this event, I went into a counselor's room where she was with two students. She told me the students had been talking to her about the pressure that many young people experience to engage in sexual relationships.

I told her that I had recently written a blog entry about a similar concern expressed to me by a student. She said she was interested in this article, so I gave it to her to read. ("Why don't people read my blog online?", I thought to myself. "All of the staff have computers, don't they?") She immediately suggested that I come to her life skills class on Thursday for a Socratic Seminar about this article.

[For those of you who do not know, a Socratic Seminar is obviously named for the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, whose method of teaching was to ask questions of his students to make them think more deeply about the subject under study. At DeLaSalle, we try to do Socratic Seminars weekly, usually with a newspaper or magazine article that is topical and that has several levels of meaning.]

I eagerly looked forward to Thursday, even rescheduling a meeting I was to have so that I could attend this counselor's entire life skills' class.

Meanwhile, the Activity Fair on Wednesday was a resounding success. Students were engaged and visited each of the twenty tables that provided information and materials regarding the many services at DeLaSalle. Aim-For-Peace was represented, as well as a KU program promoting healthy lifestyles, which assists our students with learning about exercise and good eating habits.

There were also several individuals attending who help us with a program called All Stars, informing students about the health-risks involved in problematic behaviors such as drug use, gang involvement and early sexual behavior.

After the Activity Fair was over, I mentioned to these individuals how important it was for our students to know more about love and loving relationships. I said I had taken a course in college called "The Philosophy of Love", explaining the levels of love as delineated by Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers. I mentioned eros and agape, and one of our guests remembered that Aristotle had also discussed philia, which is dispassionate, virtuous love that friends usually have for one another. We had a fascinating discussion, and I offered the services of the Men's Group should they need a speaker in the future to address with the students how to be responsible fathers and good husbands.

The next day, I was delighted to see in the lifeskills class the young man who had earlier raised the question to me about love, and about whom I had written in my blog. He seemed surprised to see me, however, particularly when I gave him my blog to read before it was distributed to the rest of the class.

The counselor began the class by having two of the students read the blog out loud. A heated discussion ensued, with some students claiming that the incident had to have been made up, as the girls she knew did not behave that way. One of the boys said he observed similar behavior in girls that he knew. Several students remained silent during the discussion, including the young man who was the subject of the blog.

Before the discussion ended, I asked to address the class, talking about love and commitment. I said that there were many types of love, even celibate love, where individuals decide to not express their love in a sexually intimate fashion. I said that love was a gift of ourselves to another, and that some people feel called to express their exclusive love to God in a celibate fashion. No one should feel pressured to express themselves sexually until they were ready and until they knew the importance of the gift they gave through their exclusive love for another.

All in all, I learned a lot about our students and their diverse views on love. And as always, these exchanges help me ti understand myself better and to learn how to more deeply love our students, who need to be given the big picture in their education and development.