Neil McNeil High School Celebrates 50 Year

Shanahan, John

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Spiritan Magazine Volume 32 Number 2 May Article 15 5-2008 Transforming Young Boys into Catholic Leaders John Shanahan Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/spiritan-tc Recommended Citation Shanahan, J. (2008). Transforming Young Boys into Catholic Leaders. Spiritan Magazine, 32 (2). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/spiritan-tc/vol32/iss2/15 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Spiritan Collection at Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Spiritan Magazine by an authorized editor of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. Mark Rodas (1996)Neil McNeil is the best friend a teen canhave. One can be totally lost, or totallystupid, and still expect the concern andguidance of this institution. Neil is an edu-cational body — one that builds on eachperson’s individuality.It’s blind to discrimination and alien-ation. It’s a family away from home. Neilgives space to grow. It’s a spring fromwhich confidence and self-awareness flow.It’s quite a cultural experience being here.Everyone is different, yet paradoxically thesame. Neil gives you choices. It enables you tomake informed decisions where to takeyour life and how to get there.John Shanahan (Principal since 2001)“… the Holy Ghostover the bent Worldbroods with warmbreast and with ah!bright wings.”— Gerard Manley HopkinsThe world has changed dramaticallyin fifty years. Each decade has beenlike a century. New technologies andnew ideas have opened the door to newworlds and new possibilities.Neil McNeil, too, has changed. Once aprivate Catholic Boys’ School operated bythe Spiritans, it is now a publicly fundedCatholic Boy’s school under the jurisdic-tion of the Toronto Catholic DistrictSchool Board. The building has seen many24 May 2008 / Spiritan★★★★★ TED SCHMIDT Ted (Mr. Schmidt always seemed too formal for this man) came to Neil with areputation as a basketball coach — and he soon made his mark as coach of Neil’ssenior team. He came with a reputation as a teacher who connected withstudents. He came with a burning desire to connect religion and life, religion andcritical thinking. He “fired up” a great many students and staff, he provoked themto challenge themselves and the society they lived in.For him the kingdom way of life that Jesus preached was not just the kingdomof heaven. It gave us a vision of how life should be lived on earth. It called for thechurch not to be fixated on itself, but to get its hands dirty in the messy situationsof today.Ted was a real character for both staff and students. He was outrageous, alwaysconfrontational, challenging, questioning, debunking and scoffing. And he did hisministry from a deep understanding of the teachings and example of Christ, andwith an original sense of humour.Those who were comfortable with the way things were felt undermined byTed, but those whom he reached were set on fire. How many teachers still keep intouch with former students thirty years later? Ted meets with groups of alumnithroughout the year for esoteric discussions and the celebration of suchanniversaries as Saul Mazurman’s birthday.Whatever Ted believed in his heart he proclaimed in his teaching and hisactions. It was said of his recent book Journeys to the Heart of Catholicism: “Hisessays prod and disturb, sometimes ruffle feathers and confront, but always bringinsight.” The same could be said of Ted’s high school teaching at Neil. In Room310 Jesus came alive for many students and the gap between faith and life wasbridged.TransformingYoung BoysF I D E L I T A S   Keith Martin (1979)I went through the sciencestream, but regardless ofwhat classes you took, theteachers had an uncannyability to challenge yourfaith and your character. Inreligious studies we werecontinually challenged tobring our faith into the realworld. From the Solidarityworld of Poland to the bat-tles for justice and peace,our faith was brought to lifein our Spartan classrooms.Spiritan / May 2008 25changes and renovations. The communityis excited by the possibility of a new mod-ern facility which would permit us toexpand and enhance our programs.New technologies have changed teach-ing and learning in all subject areas. Stu-dents write their compositions on WordProcessors, conduct their research on theInternet, deliver their presentations onPowerPoint and use assistive software tomaster difficult concepts and support theirlearning. New technologies have re-designed traditional programs and usheredin new courses in a variety of subject areas.The faculty is comprised almost entirelyof lay staff, many of whom are recent addi-tions to the community. Even the uniformhas undergone subtle changes in order tomake it current. Certainly, Neil McNeil hasembraced change and continues to flourishin the new millennium.Key ingredientsParadoxically, however, what distin-guishes our school, what defines it andmakes it unique, is the unwavering com-mitment of its community to the unchang-ing values with which the founding SpiritanFathers imbued it: service to others, com-passion, faith, inclusiveness, resilience,Christian leadership, academic excellence,and humility as defined in the Spiritanphilosophy and exemplified in the Gifts ofthe Holy Spirit. These values are still the keyingredients in its mission of transformingyoung boys into Catholic leaders.Today, the Neil McNeil communitycontinues to celebrate its Catholic tradi-tions. Liturgical celebrations, the sacramentof Reconciliation, and spiritual retreats, arecentral to the life of the community. Staffand Spiritans encourage students to recog-nize Christ in themselves and others. TheFather Troy Award of Excellence challengesstudents to strive to be their best in all as-pects of their lives. Through such programsas the Father McCarthy Leadership Pro-gram, the student-led Young SpiritansFundraising program for schools andstudents in developing countries, variousStudent Council initiatives and studentparticipation in Habitat for Humanity, thecommunity provides students with oppor-tunities and experiences which enablethem to discover their leadership talentsand use them in the service of others.The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus said,“Change is the only constant.” Undoubt-edly, Neil McNeil will face still morechange. The challenge will be to preserve itscore values, while embracing this change.We move forward confident that the HolySpirit will guide and enlighten us on thejourney. ■into Catholic LeadersI N   A R D U I S

Transforming Young Boys into Catholic Leaders

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Transforming Young Boys into Catholic Leaders

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