Dear All Saints Families, 

I hope you all had a blessed weekend. As we near the end of our Lenten journey, the faculty and students continue to fulfill our Catholic obligation of prayer, abstinence, and alms to the poor.  We begin a collection of DVD's for St. Mary's Hospital Children's Ward.  Boxes will be placed throughout the hallways for this collection.  Second grade will also celebrate their First Reconciliation this Tuesday with a special prayer service at St. Peter.  Parents of the second graders are invited to celebrate this wonderful occasion.  Grades three through eight will follow second grade on Tuesday to fulfill their Lenten obligation to prepare their hearts and souls for the upcoming death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Last Friday report cards were sent home in student backpacks.  This Wednesday the school will have an early release day to allow for parent/teacher conferences in the afternoon.  Please make sure you have signed up for a conference through:

  http://www.allsaintsjupiter.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=248363&type=d&pREC_ID=660046   

I truly wish to discuss grades with our parents.  There is an ever increasing push for parents to have their child or children receive all A's and be on the honor roll.  Teachers are inundated with an ever-increasing number of aggressive and negative communications from parents questioning grades.  Please know our school and its teachers work very hard to work towards a high level of academics.  We raise the bar for our children and know they can reach that bar.  However, when parents question that bar and think all their child's work is worthy of an A, it lowers the bar.  When parents think a grade lower than an A is the teachers fault, it is wrong and also lowers the bar.  Teachers are teachers because they want to educate children.  Our teachers work extremely hard to excel in their profession and continue to learn through professional development and classes to ensure learning goes on in the classroom.  No teacher works hard to assist in student failure.  Our teachers work hard to help students master the given material.  At times students struggle and need extra help.  At times students willfully disregard the given work and time needed for success and then blame it on the teachers.  Students want to please their parents and often do not want to admit their lack of effort.  Our children are imperfect, like all humans, and we have to help them navigate life and their failures.  When parents fight for their children regardless of their effort or limitations, it is a disservice to the education process and the high bar of expectations we set for our students.  We need to have honest and real conversations with our children and ask them why they did not do as well as expected and how things can improve.  Parents need to help their children be accountable for their effort and subsequent success.  This could be the greatest gift parents give to their children.

Last week we had a wonderful session on Internet Safety.  We continue to work towards social media safety and general safe Internet practices.  We teach it in our classes and bring in great speakers for our children.  The biggest danger any parent can practice is the belief that their children are not doing unsafe things online and that they know better.  A great article on this topic is found at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-wealth/201703/why-social-media-is-not-smart-middle-school-kids.  It takes time, knowledge, and an openness for all parents and teachers to be vigilant about these dangers.  We will have further seminars on this topic in the new school year to help all stakeholders.