Neighbourhood schools are especially important in urban areas where the poor have found low cost (and low quality) housing.  Neighbourhood Catholic schools have a way of drawing parents and the whole community together.

In the city of Memphis, St. Patrick’s parish has a great neighbourhood centre, which serves as the hub for education and recreation activities for children and adults, including organized sports leagues, after-school programmes and adult literacy classes.  An outreach centre was built with a grant from the Assisi Foundation:  it runs a food pantry, a recreation centre and other social programmes; it serves a weekly meal and until 2019 it housed the St. Patrick’s Jubilee School.

Thanks to Bishop Terry Steib SVD and his vision of making Catholic education available and affordable for low-income families, the Jubilee network of schools opened in the Jubilee year of 2000.  Jubilee Schools were known nationally as ‘The Memphis Miracle’.  The New York Times noted that “the most successful (urban Catholic school) model of all may well be in Memphis”.

After 19 years of this wonderful programme, during which it had educated almost 17,000 students, the Diocese of Memphis closed its nine Jubilee schools, citing financial shortfalls.  The diocese sold off most of the properties to Compass Community Charter Schools.

Now the former St. Patrick’s School building, still in parish hands, is used only for catechism – that’s one day a week, for an hour or so.  Another part of the school is leased to a bike share company.

It is Joan Byrne’s vision and that of many in the parish to re-open a parish school here for the neighbourhood children.  They will call the school after Sr. Thea Bowman – now on the road to Sainthood – whose Catholic schooling (the family was Methodist) was a huge influence on her life, so it is fitting that she be the patron of this school which hopes to open its doors to poor children who would not otherwise benefit from a Catholic education.

I visited there in December.

Shannon Curtis, the Pastoral Associate, showed us round the beautifully furnished set of three large rooms or atria, arranged round a central atrium that seemed designed for adult preparation and meetings.  Colourful oriental rugs broke up a tiled floor.  Each class space is set up for children to develop independence, confidence, motivation, and creativity, á la Montessori.  The catechetical programme being used is the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

We stood in what I would have called the Baby Room.

Joan talked about their vision for the Thea Bowman Montessori School: “We’re going to start with 15 children, aged 3 to 5 years and teach them here till they turn 6.  We plan to add a level each year.  And hopefully we will go up to sixth grade.  By that time, we would be able to take back the three classroom spaces now rented to a bike share group”.

Joan commented, “St. Patrick’s is a mixed neighbourhood, gentrifying, but with many very poor families still struggling.  We want this to be a neighbourhood school, serving mostly black and brown children, using the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at its heart.  So, our desire is to start with the Montessori preschool, and gradually build a full school year by year.

Rebekah Rojeewiez, one of the top Montessori educators in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, lives in our parish.  She is internationally known and gives workshops all over the world.  She’s also on our Thea Bowman Board and is very hopeful that we can get the school up and running.”

Shannon Curtis added “We are a little ahead of the game in that besides having Rebekah as such an important resource for both Montessori and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the environment is already set up.  The learning spaces and the community spaces are all there.  And we’re not using this at all during the week.

These are resources that could be shared with children who need it.”

We looked at the second room in the rotunda.  Shannon explained “This is used for children 6 to 9 years old; the catechesis prepares them for First Communion and Reconciliation.”

Continuing to the atrium used by children up to 12 years, “These children are preparing for Confirmation: this level digs a little deeper.  Well, all the levels invite the children into the liturgy and into the scripture, that’s what is at the heart of this catechesis”, Shannon told me.

“They don’t just memorise catechism, they understand it.

When they say the Hail Mary they learn it in its context in scripture.  They learn about the parts of Luke that we get the Hail Mary from and what it means to be ‘full of grace’.  The context that the children are taking in deepens their connection with the prayers and the sacraments”.

I also talked with Sr. Trudy Foster SCN, a former Principal who has much practical wisdom to offer, and with several other members of the parish, who are very supportive of the project.

Lawyer Debra Brittenum, a veteran worker for civil rights and a member of the board of the Thea Bowman Montessori School, says of Joan, “She has taken care of children with special needs, children with autism, that’s her training.  But she recognizes every need.  She was the one who came up with the idea to start a Catholic school again for our neighbourhood.

Joan Byrne rsm

Joan doesn’t get tired and weary.  As we say in the Black community, she is ‘working this’ any way she can.  And when the doors open, it will be because of Joan’s vision.”

We can hope and pray for them all in St. Patrick’s Parish, Memphis, that this dream will come to fruition, and that children raised a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment and getting holistic, culturally based learning will be blessed by it for their whole lives.

For after all, the tiny, powerless Child born to our world came “to bring good news to the poor”.

 

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