Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2 — The Southern Cross, April 30, 1987
NCEA President: Educate For Next Millenium
"Teachers And Astronauts
Have Much In Common”
BY STEPHENIE OVERMAN
NEW ORLEANS (NC) — The world the
next generation lives in — the world of the
next millennium — can be shaped by to
day’s Catholic teachers, Sister Catherine
T. McNamee told several thousand
Catholic teachers April 20.
Catholic educators are in the position to
be the leaders for the 21st century, said
Sister McNamee, a Sister of St. Joseph of
Carondelet and the keynote speaker at the
April 20-23 National Catholic Educational
Association convention in New Orleans.
Installed last September as the first
woman NCEA president, Sister McNamee
was presiding over her first NCEA conven
tion.
The theme of Sister McNamee’s talk,
“And to Some ... the Gift of Teaching,’’
was the convention theme and is part of
the theme of Pope John Paul II’s visit to
the United States in September.
The gift of teaching is especially impor
tant as the world moves toward the 21st
century, Sister McNamee said.
Catholic educators can be leaders
because they have “the commitment, the
dedication” and are “probably the only
ones who can raise the right questions”
about ethics and values in the new high-
tech world, she said.
This third millenium “could become the
great millenium: 1,000 years of peace and
well-being for all the inhabitants of the
global village,” Sister McNamee
predicted.
But society and its leaders must be
prepared for the transition — or even pro
found transformation — that lies ahead,
the NCEA president said.
She warned that if people are not aware
of the changes in society “we beome vic
tims of our society.”
But that is not going to happen, she told
the teachers. “We are going to play a role
... we can make a difference” for the next
generation.
“Every act of our lives casts a shadow
forward,” according to Sister McNamee.
“We educate ourselves and we prepare to
educate the next generation.”
In her talk Sister McNamee referred
often to the book “Megatrends” by John
Naisbitt.
“Megatrends” for the coming millen
nium, according to Naisbitt, include a shift
from an industrial society that thinks
short-term and nationally to an informa
tion society that thinks long-term and
globally. He believes the trend will be
toward networks instead of hierarchies
and multiple options instead of either-or
choices.
To help shape the coming era teachers
must ask the ethical questions about issues
such as the “Baby M” surrogate mother
case and the possible dangers of new
technologies to the environment, Sister
McNamee said.
They must also ask what kind of skills
students will need in the 21st century.
Students will need “to learn how to learn,
how to raise questions, how to raise value
issues, how to imagine in creative ways,”
Sister McNamee said.
And educators must ask themselves
what kind of business they are in, she con
tinued. Learning must mean more than the
time of formal schooling and should extend
throughout life.
“The Book of Lamentations, mourning
the lost grandeur of Jerusalem, indicts the
city with these words: ‘She did not
remember her future,”’ Sister McNamee
said. “We, too, are summoned to
remember our future.”
In her talk to Catholic educators Mrs.
Scobee said the Challenger disaster has
taught valuable lessons in courage,
dedication and the importance of taking
risks.
During America’s westward expansion,
Conestoga wagons — and lives — were
lost, Mrs. Scobee said, but people con
tinued and the West was settled. “The
pioneer spirit does carry us forward,” she
said, and today both teachers and
astronauts are pioneers.
Teachers and astronauts have much in
common, according to Mrs. Scobee, who
has taught at all levels from elementary
through university.
“They have a common quest to extend
the reach of the human race. They strug
gle to survive in an alien environment and
they both forge the way for others to
follow.”
“They dedicate themselves to a cause
and they take risks,” she told the NCEA
delegates.
To risk is to grow, Mrs. Scobee said, for
without risk no new knowledge or
discovery is made.
“The greatest risk is to take no risk at
all,” she said, for when people stop taking
risks complacency sets in.
She urged the teachers to promote
“ideals that recognize that there must be
change in society if we are to grow rather
than stagnate” and to promote the
peaceful use of space.
Mrs. Scobee showed a slide presentation
of the Challenger crew members and
described plans for the Challenger Center
for Space Science Education that will
honor their memory.
The program plans centers in
Washington and Houston and eventually
will include a network around the country
linked to the main centers.
At the Washington and Houston centers
space life stations will simulate space
travel and students “will ‘launch’ off into
space to learn more about the universe”
and about working together, Mrs. Scobee
said.
Mrs. Scobee told the Catholic educators
that although she would continue to work
for the Challenger Center, her NCEA
presentation on the Challenger family
would be her last because “it is too dif
ficult to continue.” She said that now she
“must go on.”
The teachers responded with a standing
ovation followed by three more long
rounds of applause.
Martha - Mary Chapel at St. Anne, Richmond Hill.
FIRST FOR NCEA — Sister Catherine T. McNamee, first woman to
head the National Catholic Educational Association, gives the keynote
speech to the NCEA convention in New Orleans April 20. The Sister of
St. Joseph of Carondolet said that the world the next generation lives in
can be shaped by today’s Catholic teachers. (NC photo by Frank
Methe)
Martha - Mary Chape!
St. Anne’s pastor, Father Douglas Clark.
The altar was cleaned and restored by
parishioner Dave Lovell, who also built
stands for the sanctuary lamp and the holy
oils and put up the icon of the risen Christ,
purchased by Fr. Clark in Rome as a gift
for the parish.
The name of the chapel goes back to the
days of the Ford plantation, Fr. Clark ex
plained. The original church was called
the Martha Mary Chapel, in commemora
tion of Mr. Ford’s mother and his wife’s
mother.
A store room at St. Anne Church, Rich
mond Hill, has been transformed into a
chapel dedicated to Martha and Mary. Its
high windows are characteristic of the col
onial style of the church, which was built in
1936 by automobile magnate Henry Ford.
The eucharistic chapel has been design
ed in accordance with liturgical norms,
allowing a place where the Blessed Sacra
ment will be the center of attention and
receive due honor without detracting from
the celebration of the Mass, according to
BY STEPHENIE OVERMAN
NEW ORLEANS (NC) — Teachers, like
astronauts, are pioneers, a teacher whose
husband died in the Challenger explosion
told National Catholic Educational
Association delegates April 21.
June Scobee, widow of space shuttle
commander Dick Scobee and now chair
woman of the Challenger Center planned
as a tribute to the crew, asked the Catholic
educators to help carry on the Challenger
mission to explore and teach.
She spoke at the NCEA’s 84th annual
convention, held April 20-23 in New
Orleans.
Among those killed in the January 1986
shuttle explosion was Christa McAuliffe, a
Catholic who was to have been the first
teacher in space.
“We have a choice,” Mrs. Scobee said.
“We can remember the Challenger explo
sion and be discouraged or we can use it
and help them continue their mission.”
“As Christa said, you, I, all of us, can
reach for the stars. We might have lost the
Challenger but we haven’t lost that
challenge.”
Mrs. McAuliffe was scheduled to teach
lessons from space, but the shuttle explod
ed shortly after liftoff as schoolchildren
around the country watched on television.