Reminiscing My High School: Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory

By Gregory John "G.J." Vitale on July 13, 2012

When I think back to my high school days, I first remember the personal relationships with faculty: there was always lots of laughter in the classroom between teachers and students. Chaminade-Madonna (C-M) really provided an environment where teachers could reach students intellectually without relying on material straight from the book. Learning isn’t about what 10 questions will be on the quiz tomorrow, but where that information will be in a month. I felt the C-M faculty taught by creating curiosity, and that really forges a desire to gain knowledge. I believe high school kids need breathing room, and the combination of the attitudes of the teachers and plan to teach the “mind, heart, body, and soul” gave students the balance required for learning and retaining.

Pivotal in this balance was smaller classes and more personal attention to individuals. This provided a scenario for students to learn from each other, the teacher, and themselves.  This is key at the college level where students are often left on their own to understand material. In college, a sort of social shock often hits students (there are a lot more kids, and they are just as smart, if not smarter). The subtle confidence from a solid high school education that encouraged individuality can successfully bat down such issues. That whole “big fish in a small pond, now a small fish in a big pond” metaphor is a great way to explain the transition from high school to college…if you want to scare kids from ever wanting to grow in life.

Like life and school, baseball is 90% mental, so I’d like to quote pitching great Greg Maddux to give a better approach; and it’s the approach I believe C-M gives to its seniors: “I’ve had some very good years in the past, and I’m proud of those years. Do I try to live up to them? No, I try to be as good as I can be. I don’t want to throw a good pitch so I can be as good as I was, I want to throw a good pitch to get that guy out. Just go out there everyday and try to make good pitches.” This quote can apply to life, not just baseball. Maddux believes you should concentrate on controlling what you can control, and what you can control is yourself at that moment, not your surroundings. In school, then, being a good student is what you can control, not who is in your class or even where you attend college. Those are variables out of your grasp at the end of the day. This is the mentality I believe my former high school lives by and now so do I.  It is a mindset I hope to live with my entire life.

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