Credo

I am presently taking a leadership course and the class was instructed to write a Credo memo listing our major beliefs - what we stand for. We are to role play that we are leaving on a six month sabatical and that we are to leave our Credo Memo for our staffs so that they could carry on without us for that time. I thought I would share that memo with you as it really defines not only the "work" me, but the "home" me as well. :-)

I believe in God. "All life comes from God", says a priest I know. This is evident to me each day: the survival of children born too early, genetics, rainbows, a woman living for 35 years with Multiple Sclerosis, and the resiliency of children, to name a few examples. Between God’s grace and my faith in it, I get through days that would otherwise defeat me.


I believe in the power of family. Family can have a positive or negative impact. (I have been fortunate to live in a positive family situation.) Children need their families and when their home life is unstable, or they have little family support, the school becomes their family...in loco parentis. As teachers and school leaders, we need to take this seriously, building relationship with our students and their families. Parents are the first educators of our students and we must always maintain open communications with them, including them when we can in our planning, teaching, and in the evaluation process. Understanding the culture our students are being brought up in is critical to maintaining these open communications.

I believe in Catholic education. Teaching and leading in a Catholic school allows me to bring hope into the picture, using prayer, virtues education, and faith in God to bridge the historical, the present, and the future. I also believe in lower case “c” catholic education, universal, for all and for each student. Students in rural or inner city areas, from poverty stricken and/or broken homes deserve the best education, equal to any other in the province. It is education that will bring hope for the future, breaking the bonds of poverty and ignorance, and changing narrow attitudes. Education is more than academic, involving making connections between students’ lives and the outside world.

All of my other convictions fall into the above three categories.