The St. Mary's Way: Many schools try to teach students what to think,
We strive to teach students how to think for themselves.
The Best Kept Secret in Temple, Texas!
Fostering Excellence:
Excellent Christians
Striving to always increase in virtue to grow closer to God and loved ones.
Excellent people who strive to be the best version of themselves
Desire to be healthy, cheerful, brave, and trustworthy people of honor.
Excellent scholars curious about and always seeking truth, beauty, & goodness
Motivated, dedicated, and on a quest to be our best
Parents truly are the primary educatorsof their children. Most parents appreciate that we are partnering with themto teach the virtues, personal responsibility, manners, and respect. We have high standards of conduct for our students. If these standards aren't first taught in the home, it is very difficult for us to reinforce a non-existing structure. We can't unteach the culture of the home. If the home has a love of God and respect for others, we can reinforce it. If the home has a love of reading and learning and a respect for math, we can reinforce it.
Some misinterpret our high standards as "nit-picking." However, we view them as maintaining the "St. Mary's Way" of high standards of excellence as we challenge each student to become the best version of themselves. We are not claiming that we do this perfectly, but we can assure you that this is our ideal. We can assure you that our school teaches the Catholic virtues while the staff strives to model these virtues.
Our faculty and staff adhere to our mission: A commitment to the spiritual development of our students toward a life of prayer, service, love, personal virtue, and academic excellence.
The St. Mary's Way is a multi-pronged approach to not just academic excellence (IQ) but challenging each student to become the best version of themselves with a well-rounded intelligence that includes EQ, emotional intelligence, MQ, moral intelligence, and (as evidenced by our outstanding NJHS and Student Council) LQ, leadership intelligence.
EQ - help our students develop self-awareness, self-management, relationship management, and social awareness.
MQ - Build robust character, personal discipline, strong positive values, and a secure sense of self.
LQ - includes a clear vision, courage, priorities, big-picture perspective, others mindset, and planning skills.
What our teachers do matters. Teachers, the unsung architects of the future, find themselves navigating a landscape of increasing classroom complexities. We recognize the transformative power of connection. We are collectively on a journey towards understanding and empathy. Our teachers view their job as so much more than a job—it is a ministry. The three "R's" at St. Mary's include Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. We all believe that our students are capable of doing great things! Some people juxtapose high expectations and rigor with compassion and empathy. I argue that genuine compassion and kindness do not lower standards because of laziness. They aren't contradictory; they actually complement each other. Holding high expectations means you highly value relationships; expecting students to improve in EQ, MQ, and LQ while we work on IQ is precisely what will help them find and strive to reach the best version of themselves. Expecting students to achieve things that require grit doesn't mean we are taskmasters and don't value them, but quite the opposite. We become their cheerleaders for their untapped potential. Otherwise, why are we even doing this work? Our teachers' mission is to help the students of tomorrow be better than they are today. Teachers didn't enter this profession to become wealthy or famous. Most teachers entered this profession because someone made a profound and lasting impact on their lives, and they want to pay it forward and make tomorrow better than today for their students.
The St. Mary's Way is to keep doing the right things in the right way. If we do this, we are confident we will positively impact our students, the fruits of which may take years to come back to us, or we may never see. We are mindful that if we do the wrong things (or the right things in the wrong way), we can make a negative impact that can last a long time, and we are sure we will learn about it right away.
The modern education system seems laser-focused on academic knowledge and test scores. Why? Because those are easy to measure. The “St. Mary's way” is to focus on leading students to become the best version of themselves while enjoying learning, and enjoying education. This is much harder to measure. Why do humans look at a Michelangelo painting and literally say "WOW" out loud? Why and how do we appreciate what's amazing around us? We exist as educators to hear our students say WOW, that book was excellent, or WOW, that classical music performance moved me, and WOW, that math formula makes sense; it's so elegant. Our ideal graduates understand so much more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic, and they graduate with more than just getting that diploma or certificate to move on to the next stage; they will leave here valuing the experience and cherishing their memories. This is the ideal, but how do you measure or encapsulate that? If we could bottle and sell it, thousands would sacrifice a new car to buy it for their kids. It would be flying off the shelves. Many parents dream of a school experience that helps their child graduate with a passion for their faith and a life-long love of learning after ten happy years of education. This is why our families sacrifice to ensure a St. Mary's education for their children.
The preceding paragraphs and the fact that Jesus Christ is the ever-present teacher in every classroom are precisely why most of our families sacrifice so much to ensure their children are at a school where they are loved, cared for (and prayed for) more than they can imagine. What if we could concisely post this message on billboards in front of every public school within driving distance? If we could get this message out to the Catholic community in central Texas, we would have too many students and a waitlist for every classroom.
The ideal student who adopts the St. Mary's Way will say: I strive for my spiritual development toward a life of prayer, service, love, personal virtue, and academic excellence.
Learning empowerment
I seek intellectual growth through study, questioning, listening, and debate. I recognize that learning is a lifelong endeavor.
I will also come to realize that we—members of this academic and faith community—are all teachers, and we are all learners.
Integrity, Honesty & Trust
Integrity is the most valued trait of members of this community. Honesty is the foundation for interactions with others.
I strive to earn trust.
I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do.
Character
I strive to become the best version of myself while growing in virtue.
I don't highlight the faults of others; instead, I look for ways to compliment and build my classmates up.
I accept responsibility for my actions. I acknowledge and amend my mistakes, and I try to do better.
My teenage years are only about 7% of my life. There is so much more ahead for me. My emotions are temporary:
* I will Feel them
*I will Recognize them
*I will control them instead of reacting emotionally
Social media can be fun, until it isn’t. If I become stuck or addicted, I'll put it down. I am strong enough. I am enough!
Diversity, Respect
I respect the rights and property of others. I believe in and support a community where all are welcome and made to feel like they belong.
I am intolerant of the harassment of individuals or groups.
Attitude
I am here because this is where I belong. I recognize my obligation to be a positive contributor to the community and I make this a better place for my being here.
I strive to develop a tough, can-do attitude and a growth mindset.
Testing
No other person may assist, observe, or interfere with my testing.
My submitted test is my work only. I will not use anything to give or receive assistance during a test, and I will not discuss any test with other students before all tests are submitted.