Minneapolis, Minn., May 11, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Not everyone who goes to high school will go to college, the founders of a new Minnesota high school say, but everyone should be prepared for leadership, service, and virtuous lives.
Preparation for a good life, no matter what comes after graduation, is the goal of Unity High School set to open this fall in Burnsville, Minnesota.
The school was founded by Matt Birk, a retired football player who played with the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens, and Tom Bengtson, the owner of a small publishing company.
“At Unity, we are sure a lot of kids will go into college, some will go into the workforce, some will go into the military, some will discern religious vocations, and we think there is equal dignity in all of those things,” Birk told CNA.
“We are college prep but we are not only college prep. Not everybody is a candidate for college, people choose different paths and we believe that there is equal dignity in any of these paths. We are happy to prepare kids for post high school life regardless of what it looks like,” Bengtson added.
Birk has been involved with education programs in underprivileged communities since 2002, when he was playing professional football. As the father of eight, he said he knows that not all kids thrive in a competitive academic environment, noting that a “high-stakes” test-taking culture is not for everyone.
“If you look back at the genesis of the American education system, I think the original charter says the goal of education is to teach knowledge and develop character. As the U.S. keeps falling on the global list of test scores, we just keep focusing more and more on the testing,” he said.
“Character has been pushed out of mainstream education because it is all about the test now,” he added.
Birk said that because public school funding is tied to test scores, education models focus on test-taking skills, instead of adapting to the needs of each learner.
Birk added that while not every student is meant for college, but every person can be formed for success.
“If we are only doing it to show how well we can take a test, what’s the point?” he asked.
“If you go to an Ivy League schools is that a guarantee to a great life? No, no it’s not. I would say the most important thing to me … is that they would have a firm foundation in their Catholic faith, that would be number one, and then, number two, I would say to be equipped with some skills to be able to help them with whatever path they choose.”
Birk added that digital technology has been detrimental to some areas of ingenuity – communication, team work, and social and emotional intelligence. As a result of increased technology and media influence, he said students are suffering more narcissism and depression and incurring less empathy and abilities to handle anxiety.
Unity will aim to address those issues.
It will open this fall at Mary, Mother of the Church Parish in Burnsville. At first, the school will only teach high school freshmen, but it plans to add a new grade each year, until the first incoming class graduate as seniors.
The school will start small. It has about a dozen students enrolled right now, and its founders hope to bring in around 25 for the first year. It is also working to be recognized as an officially Catholic school in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Unity will focus on practical opportunities for students to develop skills in academics, character, leadership, and service.
Birk said the school will “be vigorously Catholic,” including opportunities for students to engage with an instructor who can foster “interior life and their personal relationship with Jesus.”
The former NFL center’s own faith is central to his life, he said. He is especially active in pro-life work. In 2013, after Birk’s team won Super Bowl XLVII, he declined to attend a reception at the White House.
“I have great respect for the office of the presidency, but about five or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood.’ Planned Parenthood performs about 330,000 abortions a year. I am Catholic, I am active in the pro-life movement and I just felt like I couldn’t deal with that. I couldn’t endorse that in any way,” Birk said.
He said he hopes Unity School will form students who are committed to faithful Catholicism.
“We really want the faith to be alive, to really be a part of the kids’ lives, not just taking a religion class,” said Birk.
Citing the cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude, Birk said, the Catholic faith has a great framework for building character. To foster character development, the school will be involved with long term service projects, like monthly outings to nursing homes, where the teens can get to know the people they are serving.
A major component of the school will be its “Real World Wednesdays.” On those days, the students will take “life skills” classes and character development, including opportunities to listen to guest speakers and undergo field trips and service projects.
The teens will learn entrepreneurship, leadership, interview techniques, resumes, and financial literacy. The students will also be exposed to trades, through courses and workshops in auto maintenance, metal or wood shop, or home economics.
The school will also partner with an organization called Pursuit Academy, which teaches ethical enterprise, encouraging students learn to become entrepreneurs, to plan and manage their future goals, and to be leaders in their communities. Among other things, the teens will learn about engaging with peer pressure, managing risk, and public speaking.
Birk said a focus of the “Real World Wednesdays” will be developing what Birk calls “the-other-people-matter” mindset.
By identifying the good in themselves and in other people, students will establish better relationships in the community and a better relationship with God, he said.
Developing leadership skills and character “might not necessarily help them get an A on a test or score higher on their SAT, but they are going to be equipped with skills that they can use in their lives, whether it is in the careers or their marriages or as parents or as communities members.”
“Let’s get them some of that stuff,” he added.
In light of the school’s emphasis on both academic and practical skills, Unity has chosen two patron saints: John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta. These saints are not only modern figures for students to model after but fantastic examples of the school’s goals, Bengston said.
“John Paul II had all this rich philosophy of the dignity of the human person, which we will be teaching at Unity High School, including Theology of the Body,” said Bengston. “Then you got someone like Mother Teresa who took that theology and put it into practice – reached out to the poorest of the poor and saw dignity in folks who were in extremely dire circumstances.”
“In my mind, I seem them as both the hands and the heart at work together,” he added.
Bengston said the school is convenient financially and geographically. Tuition will be $6,500 for the first year, which is half or even a third of the prices at other Catholic schools, Bengston said. He also said the school will fill a neighborhood need in the southern metro area of the Twin Cities.
“It’s a large geographic area with 10 Catholic grade schools, through eighth grade, who collectively are graduating 300 students per year. Most of those students will go into public schools,” he said.
“About 75 students will stay in the Catholic school system and they have to travel quite a distance to Catholic high school.”
The lower price does mean there will be tradeoffs, Bengston said, noting that the school will have to improvise for a gymnasium, science lab, and auditorium. However, the school will have a thoroughly Catholic culture, he said, with Mass three times a week and a holy hour once a week, which is not offered at all Catholic schools.
Birk expressed enthusiasm for the new venture.
“We are still very much like a typical school in a lot of ways, but we are tweaking the model. I don’t know where this goes, but hopefully it will show people that there is a better way to do it.”
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Does every single person over the age of 65 get to have a paid housekeeper? What gives?
Indeed we do, Deacon!
And we appreciate the rest of you paying for them via the federal Cleaning Up After Old People program.
Brineyman, I’ll soon be expecting my housekeeper to show up at my door any day now. When I get the bill, I’ll be sending it off to my diocese and recommend everyone else do the same.
A number of priests have had housekeepers. My son in law’s mother did that at one time. I don’t think it’s especially unusual for a bishop to have help in housekeeping or yardwork. But I suppose this illustrates you have to be very careful about who you let into your home.
Mrscracker, a great many things aren’t unusual in the Church. Where should I begin? I’d recommend that if you don’t have one yourself, that you get one and send the bill off to your bishop. No doubt he’ll be quite receptive to the idea.
Deacon Edward, what I meant was that a rectory housekeeper was a pretty traditional thing back in the day and not unusual now where we live.
I don’t see a problem if the late bishop needed help at home.
Please spare me but…
#1. Yes, a housekeeper was not unusual in the days of our youth when, for instance, my parish had a rectory of FIVE priests, confessions frequently, visits to the parish school and neighborhood hospital daily, daily Masses at 6 AM, many Sunday Masses (we had an “upstairs church” AND a “downstairs church” where Masses were celebrated simultaneously. It made sense then that there was a housekeeper.
#2. We are told that this was a very activitist bishop who kept busy with all sorts of social justice activities. He was in no way infirm. He was an able-bodied male. Many men still work at age 65 as they are still vibrant and robust. So it escapes me why this man could not throw a load of wash in the machine, change the bedsheets, run an occasional vacuum, clean the toilets and the shower once in awhile, and throw a burger on the grill.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as sorry as the next guy to hear he was murdered but this is no excuse for submitting to a clericalism that smacks of an elitism that clergy, including bishops, cannot do their own housecleaning because they’re too busy doing God’s work. After all, making your bed in the morning is an act of humility and THAT is God’s work.
Well, it seems like he was not a martyr for faith, but just another victim of urban American lawlessness which he helped to foster with his political advocacy. Apparently, he was murdered by a member of one the marginalized groups he championed to the detriment of society. As usual, to get a full account of the man, we must go to the foreign press – in this case the Irish Times, which describes his excellency as a supporter of the LGBTQ movement and women priests besides being a standard leftist on immigration, crime and all the other “social justice” causes. His murder was a terrible crime, and we should pray for his soul, but let’s not make him out to be something he wasn’t.
Circumstances fit for a television whodunit.
Sad.
The fact that he had a housekeeper, really is not a topic for conversation. So, what if he did! As a matter of fact, bringing it up, is causing scandal, which is a sin. Unfortunately, it brought his demise. Just Pray for the repose of his soul.
Deacon Edward Peitler, I have only commented on social media one other time but your post compels me to do so. Unless you have inside information, how do you know that the Bishop did, “not throw a load of wash in the machine, change the bedsheets, run an occasional vacuum, clean the toilets and the shower once in awhile, and throw a burger on the grill?” I was a housekeeper for many years. I never did laundry, rarely made beds, and never grilled food. I worked maybe 2 hours a week to 16 hours for one family. I worked for some people that didn’t seem to be able to pay their bills but hired me. I guarantee if my husband a very able bodied man that is certainly not lazy was left to clean our house, I would wish he hired a housekeeper. Shame on you, if you don’t know exactly how much work this housekeeper did and you are blasting insults about the bishop. He might have only had her do minimum work and maybe to only give her the dignity of earning some money instead of a free handout. I don’t know anything about this housekeeping arrangement, so if you happen to know that what the bishop paid for was over the top then I apologize. If not, I cannot understand why it is wrong for a man that probably puts in more then full time hours to have a little help around the house. There is so much evil in this world it seems petty to make this a point to discredit a man that cannot even explain his actions.