Here's a copy of this week's print column, lamenting the continuing struggles of archdiocesan schools in the eastern end of the county.
Whenever I am speaking in public, especially when I’m being interrogated by a group of students, one question inevitably pops up.
Even if they are not reading newspapers (and all studies tell us they are doing just that in increasing numbers), they are intrigued by this notion of newsgathering and just how one becomes a newspaper editor.
So one of them usually works up the gumption to ask. “Mr. Heron, why do you think you became a newspaper editor?”
It’s a good question. Luckily, I have what I think is a good answer. It wasn’t for the glory. I toil here, thankfully, pretty much anonymously much of the time. And it’s not for the pay. Remember all the fanfare about Alycia Lane and her $800,000 TV anchor gig? Well, let’s just say I’m not in that neighborhood.
But I think I know exactly why it is that do what I do. Yes, I grew up in a house where newspaper reading was the norm. My mother and father would not dream of a day without devouring several daily newspapers. My father used to brag that he often would read every word in the paper, the ads included. Of course all of that was simply pretext to his real passion, the entries to that day’s horse-racing card at Delaware Park.
Today, I’m sure a lot of kids grow up in similar homes. That doesn’t mean they pick up the newspaper habit.
Actually, “habit” has everything to do with it. I believe I do what I do in large part because for the first eight years of my education, I was schooled at the firm hand (and brass ruler) of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I can diagram a sentence like nobody’s business. I know my subject, predicate and object. You know, the one that takes the slanted line.
The nuns instilled in me a love of reading and words, and what they can accomplish when you string enough of them together. To this day I am a voracious reader, on the increasingly rare occasions when I can pick up a book without nodding off 15 minutes later.
I know of no one who is a good writer who is not also a prolific reader. They go hand in hand.
Which is a roundabout way of bringing me to my point: I am what I am today in large part because of the lessons I learned those eight years.
Which is also the reason why it pains me to see what is happening in all too many archdiocesan elementary schools in the county, especially the eastern end of the county.
Those schools mirror many of the towns where they are located. Enrollment, similar to population, is down. Costs remain the same or go up. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (by the way this might be a good spot to mention that all that love for language and writing was done at the expense of math and science) to figure out what happens next.
Parishes are being squeezed. They are looking to cut costs. The parish school is one possibility.
At St. Cyril’s of Alexandria in East Lansdowne, the school got national attention a few years back when one of its students, Tommy Geromichalos, penned a letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Tommy, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, wanted his school to stay open so he could graduate. His appeal struck a note in the community, which rallied around his cause and raised the funds to keep St. Cyril’s afloat. Tommy will graduate in June. But whether St. Cyril’s will survive is once again in question.
The pastor has again recommended that the school be closed.
Not far away, in Milmont Park, families with kids attending Our Lady of Peace School are looking at a similar bleak picture. They want the school to stay open. They might have to fork over a big tuition hike to do it.
It’s not just the grade schools. Last week the archdiocese announced a tuition hike of $240 a year to attend one of their high schools.
Cardinal Justin Rigali also announced two new high schools will be built. They will service booming areas in once-rural Montgomery and Bucks counties. That’s where the population is moving. And that’s where the archdiocese is going, literally where their customers are.
Back here in eastern Delaware County, many families with kids in struggling parish schools can see the writing on the wall.
Or at least the Palmer Penmanship.
The nuns taught me well. Granted, math is not my strong suit. Words are. This newspaper wrote tons of them to describe what many described as the “miracle” at St. Cyril’s. And we also offered a sad farewell to St. Charles Borromeo, which closed its doors last June.
It looks like several more miracles are needed. Writing about them is a lot easier than getting them done.
Philip E. Heron is editor of the Daily Times. Call him at (610) 622-8818. E-mail him at editor@delcotimes.com. To visit his daily blog, the Heron’s Nest, go to
www3.allaroundphilly.com/blogs/delcotimes/philh/blog.html.
Whenever I am speaking in public, especially when I’m being interrogated by a group of students, one question inevitably pops up.
Even if they are not reading newspapers (and all studies tell us they are doing just that in increasing numbers), they are intrigued by this notion of newsgathering and just how one becomes a newspaper editor.
So one of them usually works up the gumption to ask. “Mr. Heron, why do you think you became a newspaper editor?”
It’s a good question. Luckily, I have what I think is a good answer. It wasn’t for the glory. I toil here, thankfully, pretty much anonymously much of the time. And it’s not for the pay. Remember all the fanfare about Alycia Lane and her $800,000 TV anchor gig? Well, let’s just say I’m not in that neighborhood.
But I think I know exactly why it is that do what I do. Yes, I grew up in a house where newspaper reading was the norm. My mother and father would not dream of a day without devouring several daily newspapers. My father used to brag that he often would read every word in the paper, the ads included. Of course all of that was simply pretext to his real passion, the entries to that day’s horse-racing card at Delaware Park.
Today, I’m sure a lot of kids grow up in similar homes. That doesn’t mean they pick up the newspaper habit.
Actually, “habit” has everything to do with it. I believe I do what I do in large part because for the first eight years of my education, I was schooled at the firm hand (and brass ruler) of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I can diagram a sentence like nobody’s business. I know my subject, predicate and object. You know, the one that takes the slanted line.
The nuns instilled in me a love of reading and words, and what they can accomplish when you string enough of them together. To this day I am a voracious reader, on the increasingly rare occasions when I can pick up a book without nodding off 15 minutes later.
I know of no one who is a good writer who is not also a prolific reader. They go hand in hand.
Which is a roundabout way of bringing me to my point: I am what I am today in large part because of the lessons I learned those eight years.
Which is also the reason why it pains me to see what is happening in all too many archdiocesan elementary schools in the county, especially the eastern end of the county.
Those schools mirror many of the towns where they are located. Enrollment, similar to population, is down. Costs remain the same or go up. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (by the way this might be a good spot to mention that all that love for language and writing was done at the expense of math and science) to figure out what happens next.
Parishes are being squeezed. They are looking to cut costs. The parish school is one possibility.
At St. Cyril’s of Alexandria in East Lansdowne, the school got national attention a few years back when one of its students, Tommy Geromichalos, penned a letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Tommy, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, wanted his school to stay open so he could graduate. His appeal struck a note in the community, which rallied around his cause and raised the funds to keep St. Cyril’s afloat. Tommy will graduate in June. But whether St. Cyril’s will survive is once again in question.
The pastor has again recommended that the school be closed.
Not far away, in Milmont Park, families with kids attending Our Lady of Peace School are looking at a similar bleak picture. They want the school to stay open. They might have to fork over a big tuition hike to do it.
It’s not just the grade schools. Last week the archdiocese announced a tuition hike of $240 a year to attend one of their high schools.
Cardinal Justin Rigali also announced two new high schools will be built. They will service booming areas in once-rural Montgomery and Bucks counties. That’s where the population is moving. And that’s where the archdiocese is going, literally where their customers are.
Back here in eastern Delaware County, many families with kids in struggling parish schools can see the writing on the wall.
Or at least the Palmer Penmanship.
The nuns taught me well. Granted, math is not my strong suit. Words are. This newspaper wrote tons of them to describe what many described as the “miracle” at St. Cyril’s. And we also offered a sad farewell to St. Charles Borromeo, which closed its doors last June.
It looks like several more miracles are needed. Writing about them is a lot easier than getting them done.
Philip E. Heron is editor of the Daily Times. Call him at (610) 622-8818. E-mail him at editor@delcotimes.com. To visit his daily blog, the Heron’s Nest, go to
www3.allaroundphilly.com/blogs/delcotimes/philh/blog.html.
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