Happy New Year!  

     I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break and a wonderful beginning for 2016.  As we make our New Year's resolutions, it is a perfect time to remember the corporal and spiritual works of mercy that are being emphasized in this Jubilee Year of Mercy!  The season of advent was an exceptional way to kick off the year and we can renew our promises with our New Year's resolutions!  In the monthly guidance lessons, we will be applying the works of mercy into our Guidelines for Success.  

     At the K-3 Campus, we will focus on "Imitate Christ in All Things."  The various stories I will be reading will demonstrate at least one work of mercy if not more.  I hope to encourage the students to apply what they are learning in class to their everyday lives.

    At the 4-6 Campus, the 4th and 5th grades are reviewing "Respect Others and Yourself."  As I have said before, this is a difficult concept for students to define in their own words.  I look forward to teaching about respect through the works of mercy!  The 6th grade will be wrapping up the bullying curriculum.  I plan to incorporate the works of mercy in these classes as well.  After many attempts to find a working link to a perfect article about respect and failing to do so, I am resorting to the old fashioned way and typing the article I found in the Wall Street Journal, posted on December 17, 2015:

                                                     Parenting in the Age of Awfulness 

        Children are immersed in a culture that stokes disrespect.  Here's how to install some civility. 

                                                               by Leonard Sax

     Kyle was absorbed in a video game on his cell phone, so I asked his mom, "How long has Kyle had a stomach ache?"  Mom said, "I'm thinking it's been about two days."  Then Kyle replied, "Shut up mom.  You don't know what you're talking about."  And he gave a snorty laugh, without looking up from his video game.  Kyle is 10 years old.

     I have been a physician for 29 years.  This sort of language and behavior from a 10-year-old was very rare in the 1980s and the 1990s.  It would have been unusual a decade ago.  It is common today.  America's children are immersed in a culture of disrespect: for parents, teachers and one another.  They learn it from television, even on the Disney Channel, where parents are portrayed as clueless, out-of-touch or absent.  They learn it from celebrities or the Internet.  They learn it from social media.  They teach it to one another.  They wear t-shirts emblazoned with slogans like "I'm not shy.  I just don't like you."

     The challenge of raising children in America today is different from 30 or 50 years ago.  Back then, popular culture supported the authority of parents, whether it was the "Andy Griffith Show" in the 1960s or "Family Ties" in the 1980s.  Kids are not born knowing how to be respectful.  They have to be taught.  

     Multiple lines of evidence, including cohort studies such as the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, now demonstrates that disrespectful children are more likely to grow up anxious and depressed, three times more likely to be overweight, more likely to be fragile, less healthy and less creative, compared with respectful children.

     But don't give up hope.  Just as I see children like Kyle in my office, I also see children who are courteous, respectful, happy and confident.  Same race, ethnicity and household income.  But the parents are different, and they parent differently.

     For the past seven years, I've been talking with parents and their children, trying to understand why some children are respectful even though most of their peers are not.  The difference is in the parents.

     Here's some of what those parents have taught me: Require respectful behaviors at all times.  It's OK to disagree.  It's never OK to be disrespectful.  Prioritize the family.  The family meal at home is more important than piling on after-school extracurricular activities.  Instead of boosting self-esteem, teach humility.  Fight the cultural imperative to be "awesome."

     Moreover, no screens when you are with your child.  Put your cellphone away.  No electronic devices at the dinner table.  Teach the art of face-to-face conversation.  No devices in a public setting, such as the doctor's office.  Govern your children's use of social media, television and any device with a screen.

     If your going to make a change, don't be subtle.  New Year's Day is a good time as any to sit down with your children and explain that there are going to be some changes in how we talk, in how we behave, in how we treat one another.  It is possible to create a culture of respect in the home while living in the U.S. today.  It isn't easy, but it can be done.

     -Dr. Sax is a practicing physician in West Chester, P.A., and the author of "The Collapse of Parenting," out this month from Basic Books.

That article could not have come at a better time!  I'm as guilty as the next parent in doing some of these faux pas (playing on my phone in front of my kids-guilty)!  But it is never too late and it is a great time to make some changes!
     I am also including some resources about the Jubilee Year of Mercy.  Through this website, you can also sign up to receive monthly updates. http://info.americancatholic.org/year-of-mercy?portalId=465210&hsFormKey=b5c60689874480804a2fae470e80acbe&submissionGuid=0ee7f7b3-2aa3-45b0-9603-d0af999abe66#module_144909626408712921 
 Matthew Kelly's website ( http://dynamiccatholic.com/  ) could be another resource.  Matthew Kelly offered a wonderful program during advent, in which he sent out daily emails that reflected not only on advent but the works of mercy as well.  I am hoping that he will have another program for the upcoming Lenten season.  These websites offer explanation and encouragement for me, which I then pass on to the kids.  

    Here's to the new year-2016!  Have a wonderful month!