|
|||||
 Oral
Comps"Mr. DeMars! Sometimes I wonder if you can think past the end of your nose!" Believe me, these are not words that you want to hear as you stand fully exposed in front of the English Department head. My stomach already hurt and my hands were sweating profusely. My throat was dry and my voice sounded like a soprano at Christmas time. The very last thing I needed was such words of ‘encouragement’. Fortunately, no known outward signs could be seen. However, on the inside I was in meltdown. The scene unfolding took place within the offices of the English Department at Regis College. After four years of English and Essay classes, I was asked to ‘strut my stuff’, orally…….directly in front of the Department Head, a Jesuit priest with credentials extending down both sleeves of his black vestment and tapering off further into each rear pocket. Oral comprehensives on your Major course of interest counted for 50% of your ending grade. Essentially, they determined whether or not you would not only pass the course but receive a diploma in the area of interest that one designated. It was ‘crunch’ time and I was not doing well……and, he knew it. I had learned that simple stories such as Stephen Crane’s "The Red Badge of Courage" were not quite as simple as one would think at the outset. Watching Hester Prynne perform her daily tasks following her liaison with a particular minister, Mr. Dimmesdale, in "The Scarlet Letter" caused me to consider her actions from different perspectives. What one discovered was that there may not have been ‘answers’, rather there may have been only ‘interpretations’. In essence, this priest was asking me to ‘think’, to use my eyes and my ears and have them interact with my brain. He simply wished to hear the results. "I’m not real sure Fr. Boyle, whether the "A" stands for adulterer or "America", but she does seem to have worn it rather proudly." "Thank you Mr. DeMars! That will be all!" The tile floor then echoed my exit and the word "Next!" thundered past my right ear as I opened the door. During the next few months, we will be asking ourselves some very difficult questions regarding our Catholic schools, our facilities, our teachers, our curriculum, our endowments and yes, our Development office. There are a number of items in which we are in need and they need to be addressed. But more than that, we will be asking ourselves to look into the future. What and who do we wish to be in 20, 30, 40 years? How can we improve our facilities, our teachers, our students? How might we improve our enrollment, our technology, our funding? How are we not only going to survive, but prosper? In a depressed economy? Depressed enrollment? These are some very tough questions but ignoring them is not an option. We need to think and visualize, reflect, consider, analyze, plan, pray and act on a strategy that might result from using that item located between our two ears called a brain. It’s ‘crunch time’. Where are we going and how are we going to get there? by Roy DeMars |
|||||
|
