For Just a Few Steps

From the Pages of Gilbert!
The Magazine of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton

By Richard Vigilante, Founder of Teach for Christ
From the January/February 2019 Issue of Gilbert!

Three years ago, Benito Mattias, principal of Ascension Catholic School in North Minneapolis, told a story that changed my life.

Ascension School is located in possibly the highest poverty, highest crime, neighborhood in the Twin Cities. Most Ascension students are African American, barely a quarter are Catholic. In the government K-8 school just across the street barely one percent (yes, one percent!) of eighth graders scored proficient on a recent standardized math test. At Ascension more than 90 percent of graduates go on to finish high school. In a recent year 100 percent did so.

I was at Ascension to ask Benito and his colleague Patrick Exner their thoughts on an idea some colleagues in the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton had been discussing. The idea, which we called “Teach for Christ,” was to recruit young Catholic men and women, recent college grads, to serve on mission for a year or more in Catholic Schools, working as tutors, teachers, coaches and mentors, with no salary.

We wanted to give these young men and women a special opportunity at this unique time of their lives, before they became occupied with marriage and a profession: to be like Simon of Cyrene, to step forward to help Jesus carry His Cross at least for just a few steps. The Missionaries would live in community and commit to a Plan of Life including daily Mass, morning and evening prayer, a weekly holy hour, and frequent confession. They would receive no salary, just room and board and a small monthly stipend, most of which they would raise themselves.

We were concerned about one point. Many of our Missionary Educators would have no formal training in education since they intended to go on to other careers outside teaching.

“So,” we asked Benito and Patrick, “would you have any use for our missionaries?”

Benito answered with a question: “How many are you talking about?”

“We were thinking four in the first year, teams of two serving in two schools.”

Benito smiled. Then he said “We need a dozen. We’ve been waiting and hoping for something like this and now you are here.”

We were pleased, but a little surprised. We asked why he was so sure our modest little idea would work? In reply he told us a story.

That very morning a young scholar had come to school utterly distraught, in tears of grief, in no condition to learn. Normally this boy was walked to school by an older, adult cousin. Today, on the way to school, the cousin had been arrested on an outstanding warrant. Somehow the young man made it to school anyway, but can you imagine, Benito asked us, the state that boy was in?

“Now here is the dilemma the teacher faces,” he continued. “That scholar’s teacher has a class of 20 students. What is she going to do now? Ignore the 19 until she can comfort the young man and get him ready to participate in class? Or ignore the young man in his misery, who will then likely end up disrupting class anyway?

“This was a dramatic situation. But in other ways our teachers face this dilemma every day. Who gets their attention: the fifteen who are on track or the five who are falling behind and will soon give up in frustration?

“This may be our biggest challenge. Any day a child is not learning he becomes at risk, and it gets harder and harder to get back on track. Soon there are so many not learning the whole class can be at risk. 

“Your idea for Teach for Christ could solve that problem. Give us a second caring adult in that classroom, on fire for the Lord and willing to serve, and great things can happen.

“You don’t need a lot of training to save a child’s life. One-on one-attention is one of the most powerful educational tools ever. It can power children ahead by multiple grade levels in a year. Do this. You will truly save lives.”

We went back to our office at Chesterton Academy of the Twin Cities, stared at each other and said: “We have to do this.” With a lot of help from a lot of people, and the Holy Spirit, we did.

Teach for Christ is now deep in its second year of service. We’ve put more than 20 Missionary Educators in the field. Today we are operating in five elementary and middle schools, four of which serve the inner-city. We also serve in the Chesterton Academy of the Twin Cities, especially helping underprepared minority students to catch up and power ahead.

Many of our missionaries discover vocations as teachers, though that was not their goal before. Of our first nine, seven remain professionally engaged in Catholic Education. Four are now full-time faculty in Catholic Schools. Last year we received an award from our Archbishop, Bernard Hebda, for our service to the poor. Early data show that we are raising test scores for at risk children. Replacing just our current missionaries with salaried teaching assistants would cost our schools hundreds of thousands of dollars they don’t have.

Our five-year goal: 500 missionaries in dioceses around the country. In 10 years: 5,000.

G.K. Chesterton was outraged at the neglect of the poor by both socialist and capitalist politicians. And he would be outraged, but not surprised, by inner-city government schools that spend billions but leave children as an illiterate offer for the criminal justice system. And that’s why we believe GKC would be very proud that Teach for Christ is a sponsored organization of The Apostolate of Common Sense. 

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Richard Vigilante is Founder of Teach for Christ, a missionary organization sponsored by the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. He is also a founding Board member of the original Chesterton Academy, the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, and the Chesterton Schools Network.