I am going to take a different approach once again, I guess it should be expected, as I am fairly random. At any rate, the following letter was sent to me by a student who has become someone I look up to... he is truly inspiring, and I would like to think he could have a great following on a blog, if he had the time to keep one. I asked his permission to share, to which he gave his okay. His name and email appear at the bottom, if you are interested in contacting him. Great person, doing great work. Some of this email will be funny, but it will be also serious!
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It has been many months since I took the time to think about, reflect on, and share my many experiences in this thing we call life, so I figured I better do that before it becomes years! I hope you had a blessed 2010 and 2011 brings even more blessings and guidance to help us make this crazy world we live in a better place for all.
SORRY to all of you I owe e-mails to from my last update or random ones in the past few months. I really don’t check my e-mail too often life has dealt me too busy of a schedule I guess! I checked my e-mail and saw that the last time I wrote an “update” it was April 6, exactly two weeks before the tragic BP oil spill that has wrecked havoc all over the Gulf region that I now call home. Before I share about that, I’d like to share about one experience I introduced last time: Team Enduring Hope, a 70.3 mile Ironman race and fundraising effort to help rebuild New Orleans.
A group of us committed to swimming, biking, and/or running to help raise money for Contemplatives in Action (CIA), an organization that helped inspire my move down here to New Orleans, to continue their ministry to the people of this city and introducing volunteers and guests to the many injustices that plague life down here (before, during, and after Katrina). The team supported each other under the slogan: swim, bike, run, pray, and all of us who stuck with it had a great experience. Rose ran the half-marathon and was my training buddy throughout. My buddy from Creighton Jeff Peak did the whole thing, and crossed the finish line with a smile on that hot and humid April afternoon. I did the bike and run portion, and made pretty good time, but it didn’t “officially” count because my partner for the swim forgot to wake up that morning… C’est la vie! Nonetheless, it was a great experience to exercise for this city, and on my 5 ½ hour 69-mile workout, I thought a lot about all of the people I have met in New Orleans and found much gratitude in the irony of how disaster brought these people into my life and has taught me so much.
Two days after that race (for which I earned the nickname “Scrap Metal Man” from my principal because I asked for the next morning off of work – my students started a rumor that I was seriously injured, but I really just wanted to sleep in!), an event that we all know about quietly made the front pages of the local newspaper. An explosion on an oil rig killed 11 workers and injured several others. While at first this seemed like another “innocent” tragedy in the region, no one could have predicted the unprecedented environmental disaster that has polluted the Gulf coast’s habitat, economy, and psyche once again. On April 20, the birthday of the late Adolf Hitler and 12-year anniversary of the shooting at Columbine, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and after a few days placed the New Orleans region in the national media once again, and NOT for positive news. The ensuing bickering and hypocrisy that has taken place is not new to any of you I’m sure, so I won’t discuss it much, but I do think I have a responsibility to share what many of the “locals” down here have said about the incident. Given that we are still struggling to acquire federal funds to rebuild homes and repair and restore our infrastructure, many Gulf residents – a very resilient population – feel betrayed by the country and government once again. I have heard more than a couple neighbors passionately share their conviction that if this oil spill happened off of Florida’s coast – where the money is at – the federal response would have been much more organized, responsible, and efficient. Locals have referred to this region as being treated like “the step-child of America” who is welcome in the family when times are good, but forgotten and ignored during hard times. In my limited time here, I have a hard time disagreeing with these comments. We have been used and abused by Americans (government and citizens alike) for our precious resources: oil, shrimp, other seafood, and great parties, yet when these products and experiences are put in jeopardy, it seems that the locals (people and government) are largely left to their own devices to figure out solutions. I just ask, over 8-months since this oil spill occurred, that we all re-examine our dependence and use of oil in our daily lives. We all use more than we need – we drive, we buy bottled water (which is just local tap water with less regulation and placed in plastic bottles, made from oil), we use plastic bags, we buy other plastic products that are readily available and seemingly unavoidable. Even if we recycle these oil-based products, plastic never goes away, it only breaks down into smaller parts. It is not easy, but if we want to make a real change and prevent future oil spills and other environmental crises from occurring, I believe step one is reducing our addiction to oil on all fronts (easier said than done, but if we don’t try and we don’t demand changes, we all know our government will not take the initiative in bringing about necessary changes).
While the oil spill dominated the news and daily life for people along the Gulf coast, it really did not affect life in New Orleans all that much. Aside from a few unpleasant scents in the air on windy days, most people went about their business with little change. Many homeless people and migrant laborers were recruited to clean up the oil, jumping at the chance of employment, but these vulnerable sisters and brothers of ours were not given adequate supplies to do this work, and many of them were hospitalized as a result (who knows the long-term effects of this…). In the midst of all this, my school year went on and Good Shepherd saw its third graduating class make its way out our doors and ready to move on to various high schools throughout the area. My first principle called this class our “mission class” because she said that if we got them through, we’ve done our job. They had 13 when I started and graduated 6 (one with summer school), so I am not sure if we can call that a success, but the ones that made it certainly made me proud. I was referenced in the valedictorian’s speech recognizing that it was in 6th grade religion class that she received her first “A” – I hope I didn’t go too easy on them! It was nice to see those 6 make it, but I was glad to see the 2009-2010 school year come to a close – we had 9 adults come and go on staff throughout the year and the chaos and drama that those departures caused for our students and our school is just indescribable. With all of the issues in education today, my limited experience has inspired me to believe that the instability in the life of our children is problem #1, and if our schools cannot provide the stability that these kids need, who will?
Summer break was much needed and much enjoyed. Rose and I briefly talked about returning to Ethiopia or heading to Haiti, but it was obvious that we just needed a break, a Sabbath if you will. We traveled up to Minnesota and Illinois in June, stopping in Memphis at the National Civil Rights Museum (AMAZING if you ever get the chance) and enjoying lots of family time up there. We were able to squeeze in a Twins game at their new ballpark and a White Sox win over the Cubs while in Chicago – couldn’t have written a better script myself. Our time up there ended with a family reunion with my mom’s side which was wonderful, especially given how spread out my family on Mom’s side is. After a family and friend-filled June, we made our way back South for July and August – nothing like a New Orleans summer! The rest of summer was spent relaxing and completing some online classes for my certification (only one semester left now until I can become a “REAL” teacher!). In early August, it was time to get back to the grind.
This school year has been rather difficult, and my responsibilities are much different than they were in the past. My on-paper job is to teach middle school Religion and Social Studies, as well as coordinating the prayer services and school masses every week. While that is an awesome responsibility that I thoroughly enjoy, adding 7th grade homeroom to my list of things to do (along with coaching, disciplining, mentoring, and all the other things teachers do on a day-to-day basis) has been a major adjustment for me! Nothing like an extra hour of 12 and 13-year olds every day! Nonetheless, the blessings far outnumber the stresses and I still love what I do. We have 90-minute classes this year in which we are to teach both subjects assigned to us. I like this set-up, it cuts down on transition time and allows for my flexible scheduling, but some days I just want to get away from the constant chatter and scattered attention that is obvious when students are asked to “sit and learn” for that long. One thing that keeps me going are the amazing and mysterious questions and comments I get on a daily basis. Some of my favorites from this year:
- “What is circumcision?” I answer. “I don’t get it, could you draw it on the board?” – 7th grade girl
- “Why do we keep bombing stuff, building it back up, and then bombing it again?” – 7th grade boy
- “Mr. Matt, why you always talking about Jesus like he is your friend? It’s like you know him and are always hanging out with him!” – 7th grade girl (I took that as an amazing compliment)
- After not being able to teach for over 10-minutes because of rapid and unpredictable bowel movements from the class, “Okay, 7th grade, let me teach how to fart silently!” – Not a lie, this was a real lesson
- On Columbus Day/Native American Remembrance Day, we were discussing how/why there are more white people than black people in the United States…After a brief history of migration and slave trade, one 7th grade girl raises her hand and says, “Mr. Matt, I don’t want to sound racist or nothing, but I thought black people get more booty than white people…” At that very moment, the principal walks in! My response, “Well, would you like to repeat that for Mrs. Paul?” The student shook her head no, I repeated the question, explained that we can’t stereotype any group of people like that, and proceeded to discuss the generalization, “Why do poor people have more children than rich people?” THAT ONE MAY HAVE SAVED MY JOB!
- And my favorite…on the day before Christmas break, a 1st grader comes up to me and pulls my shirt. When I look at him he holds up a crumpled piece of paper. I ask him what it is and he responds, “It’s for Hai-ti.” I then take the paper and realize it is a $1 bill. What a legend!
The last thing I’ll share is the highlight of my almost 3-year teaching career. In November, after much fundraising (because of a lack of support from the board) and hard work, I was able to take two of my 7th grade boys up to Washington D.C. to present at this year’s Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice. This gathering was formerly held at Columbus, Georgia near Ft. Benning along with the protest and vigil to close the SOA, but it moved to DC this year to add an action/advocacy piece. I had told the ISN (who runs it) that I’d like to bring some students to this gathering to share about Katrina (5 years later). They liked the idea, but there had never been middle school students in attendance and it didn’t seem like it would work out. However, in September I was contacted by them and received the invite. My principal was fully on board along with the other teachers. The Board of the school, however, did not see “educational value” in the trip: speaking in front of 1,200 people high school, college, and professional ranks, visiting with elected officials, attending workshops on advocacy, listening to talks on social justice --- I could see the lack of educational value in things like that… Anyway, we pressed forward and had a few generous individuals from the board who donated, held a raffle, and got some other support along the way and were able to make the trip a reality. The 2 boys who spoke were DYNAMITE at the conference. They get a standing ovation before, during, and after their talk. They shared their families’ stories of staying in the city during Katrina, rebuilding after the storm, and what they are doing today to help New Orleans recover. It was framed around the theme of the gathering: prophetic voices. While I was up on stage with them controlling the slide show behind them, I did not say a word. These boys became instant celebrities. We could not do anything the rest of the conference because they were always getting interviewed and taken out to lunch and dinner (THANKS CREIGHTON, Jocelyn!) and sharing more and more of their lives. This experience also allowed them to see Georgetown University’s campus and to meet some of the most amazing people in my life from Creighton (Ken, Maria Teresa and family, Jeff, and the many students from CU that treated these boys like family – I still owe you some thank you cards coming soon). I don’t know if it’ll come out, but there may have been some college recruiting violations with how well these guys were received J. All I can say is that it was difficult being “like a father” during those 4 days, my beloved Creighton family was like the grandparents who love to spoil their grandchildren! Both of them showed nothing but gratitude to me and others for the experience, and their families were supportive of the whole thing. It really was an amazing experience that I did not do justice to with these words here. I’m hoping someone got it on video to put on YouTube or something like that, but I’ll pass on photos when I take the time to go through them.
My next big goal is to try and take the whole 7th grade class to DC for a class trip in June. We also are trying to do a 3-day mission trip in Appalachia on the way up there to instill the values I try to teach these kids everyday with a real world experience. I might come calling on everyone for help (spiritual and financial) as the time gets closer, but if you want to start now, any donations can be made in the form of cash or checks (payable to The Good Shepherd School) sent to:
The Good Shepherd School
Attn. Matthew DeBoer
353 Baronne St.
New Orleans, LA 70112
I hate asking for money, but for kids, the free experiences don’t always get the job done! I’ve already written more than many of you have time to read, so thank you for taking the time to read this. I think about and pray for all of you often. Thank you for all you do to make our world a better place, and if anyone is making their way down to New Orleans, let me know and I’d be happy to meet up and chat. Keep fighting the good fight!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and God bless you all!
Peace,
Matthew
