Latest / Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza / Ep.97 - Rich Meyer: Rip The Bandaid Off And Ban Phones From Your School | Catholic High School Leadership | Digital Detox Education | Student Flourishing Strategies

Transcript

Ep.97 - Rich Meyer: Rip The Bandaid Off And Ban Phones From Your School | Catholic High School Leadership | Digital Detox Education | Student Flourishing Strategies · Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza

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  My encouragement would be to RIP the Band-Aid off like be be not
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  be not afraid, right? And and you'll get you may have
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  initial pushback from even some parents.
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  I mean, we did we get pushed back from parents about well,
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  how am I going to get in touch with my son or daughter if
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  there's an emergency? This is.
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  Virtuous Leaders, the podcast for based Catholics who will
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  speak truth, do good, or die trying.
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  Here's the show. You're the head of one of the
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  largest, most successful Catholic High schools in
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  California. What's your vision for Jay
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  Sarah? OK, wow, that's a coming out of
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  the gate strong. We, we've got, you know, we've
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  got such an opportunity here, Johanna, Jay Sarah because of
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  where we find ourselves. I think in our in our country
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  here, we're in a really influential place for culture
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  here in Southern California, which is beautiful in one
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  regard, but also challenging another.
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  I think. So when I think about Jay Sarah
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  and our vision for Jay Sarah, I mean to be quite simple.
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  Our our vision is to lead as many students to, to Jesus
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  Christ as we can, right? To help students flourish in
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  this world, to be happy in this world on their journey,
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  hopefully to the next World, right to, to enjoy eternal
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  happiness. But but part of that is is also
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  seeking a way to help influence culture and shape culture by the
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  work influence for our graduates too.
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  Simply put. What do you say is the biggest
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  challenges to accomplishing that goal?
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  And I mean, there are, I mean, there are a lot of, I mean,
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  there are a lot of unique cultural forces right at, at
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  play, you know, from, I don't know, from, from a culture that
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  emphasizes maybe achievement over maybe even over character
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  growth in some ways, shape or form.
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  Like we're very metrics at least.
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  Maybe we could even speak for just Southern California or even
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  sort of the Orange County Millie that we find ourselves in.
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  We have a lot of a lot of success.
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  We're we're missed a lot of affluence and a lot of blessings
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  and, and amongst those blessings allows JCR to do a lot of great
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  things on. But we're constantly sort of
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  coming up against helping students to see that who they
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  are as as a young man or young woman isn't necessarily defined
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  by test scores, isn't defined by grades in class, isn't defined
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  by the college that they've been accepted to or or haven't been
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  accepted to. That they have personal worth
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  and personal dignity outside of the accomplishments.
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  And, and that's, and that's hard, right, because parents
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  want, you know, parents want their kids to be successful and
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  want to see them thrive. And, and I think a lot of this
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  is all well-intentioned and well meeting.
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  At the same time, we're also trying to help educate our
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  students and our families and, and their dignity is their
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  dignity and their worth. Their worth is infinite, you
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  know, regardless, independent of, of their, of their success,
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  if you will, and athletics, academics, the arts, whatever.
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  How do you save your students from digital destruction?
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  That's, that's, I'll tell you what we've been, we've been on a
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  bit of a journey the last few years.
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  We, you know, we've been very, very mindful of how we create
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  culture here at the school around devices, around
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  technology. I, I won't say that we've
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  unlocked the, the magic, I would say the magic formula per SE for
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  high schools and we live our 1200 students on our campus.
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  But if, if I could maybe offer a little bit of a longer answer
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  about, I've been at the school for 13 years and I want to say
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  it was about year, maybe it was about year three that we, and
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  again, this would have been what 2015 or so.
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  And cell phones and smartphones were certainly by then
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  ubiquitous enough where, you know, we saw their presence on
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  our campus significantly. And so at that time, we, we, we,
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  we only allowed cell phones before the 1st bell of the
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  school day and then after the last bell of the school day.
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  So they weren't, they weren't allowed to be used on campus.
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  And, and for the most part, over a period of time, we've helped,
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  we helped pretty strong and, and had a pretty good culture
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  surrounding that sort of framework of, of cell phones on
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  campus. But especially post COVID, there
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  was a bit of an erosion around the edges of that.
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  And in so last year, last school year, we shifted our approach to
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  cell phones was, was not just, well, they can't be seen, but
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  after they're not even to be on your person, your locker,
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  they're in your car, maybe on You've seen some of these same
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  studies where even proximity to a cell phone can be a
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  distraction. So even if it's often in your
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  pocket or if it's often in your backpack, just the fact that
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  it's there close by is sort of sucking away at mental energy.
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  So we we shifted on that last year and had a really profound
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  impact on our, I would say on our culture and enthusiastic
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  response from right from her parents too.
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  And a lot of it was influenced. Maybe you've heard of this book
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  called The Shallows by Nicholas Carr that the first edition he
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  wrote came out either the 2011 or 12, which just spoke a lot
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  about, you know, the fact that there are a lot of good uses of
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  technology. But we're, I think the subtitle
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  of his book The Shallows is how the Internet is Rewiring our
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  Brains and right. And helping students to
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  recognize that you can really flourish and have so much more
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  freedom to think and to dream and to explore ideas without
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  having that connectivity, right. Even the temptation of
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  connectivity, even if it's off. Well done.
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  Yeah, very happy to hear that. Yeah.
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  So it's not, I mean, it's not a one and done.
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  I mean it's a constant, it's a constant effort, right.
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  And even as adults, Johann, I mean we've had to you know,
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  we've as adults, we we remind our staff, our faculty to hey,
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  we also want to live this and model this for our students as
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  well. So don't walk in.
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  We're in Southern California, so we have outdoor campus.
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  And so don't walk between buildings using your cell phone,
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  making phone calls or don't pull out your cell phone in between
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  classes and text and and get up. I mean, let's model the behavior
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  that we want our students to have to be and most importantly
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  to you, want to be fully present with the people that are before
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  us, right? To be fully present.
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  So what? Would you say to you ahead of
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  school? Who's hasn't taken the, I'd say,
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  correct decision that you've you've made?
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  They're still struggling with this.
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  How would you encourage them? Oh, I mean, I suppose my
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  encouragement would be to RIP the Band-Aid off like be, be,
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  not, be not afraid, right. And and you'll get, you may have
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  initial pushback from even some parents.
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  I mean, we did, we get pushed back from parents about, well,
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  how am I going to get in touch with my son or daughter if
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  there's an emergency? You know, and we had answers to
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  that. We, you know, we have there used
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  to be a day and age when you could call the school and you
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  could get a message to your son or daughter, right?
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  So there are, there are things that we can do and kids can
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  communicate with their parents after school.
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  We're not saying that they can't bring a cell phone to the
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  school. We just want to kept in their
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  locker or if they're old enough to drive in their car.
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  My advice would just be being afraid, right?
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  There's this is a winning issue. And I think the tides have
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  turned on this front where more and more parents, if not the
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  majority of parents or adults recognize maybe because of their
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  own, quite their own proclivity toward rampant technology use,
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  that this isn't ideal for their sons and their daughters.
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  So I think we're almost people are going to start to be behind
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  the curve if they're not taking steps like these.
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  I hope so. It isn't part of being a true
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  leader to do what's right, even even if it's uncomfortable.
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  Yeah, yeah there, you know, there's some there's some things
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  we've made decisions we've made at the school over the over the
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  years, Johann where we found ourselves I mean really, really
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  convicted and with great conviction.
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  It doesn't mean that the implementation necessarily is
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  easy, but it's not hard to pull the trigger right like this like
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  this decision when we did this a year plus ago, we knew students
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  were going to be happy initially we knew some parents were we
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  would be uncomfortable by this. But I mean, we're so deeply
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  convicted that this is right for young people, right?
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  This is, this is, this is what they need to to flourish and to
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  be fully human. That that with that conviction
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  came almost an ease of execution.
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  What do you think is the number one thing that most Catholic
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  schools are getting wrong? Wow, that's a great that's a
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  great question. What do I think this is the
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  number one thing most Catholic schools are getting wrong now?
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  I can't I can't say that I've been in all Catholic schools
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  right we're part of J Sir helped to found a number of years ago
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  this grassroots group of Catholic schools across the
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  country called Duke and Alton Schools collaborative Duke and
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  Alton standing our meeting from Latin go out into the deep and
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  in our conversations with a lot of these schools at this annual
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  conference that we hold in October.
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  I think what we, what we see is if you're a Catholic school that
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  doesn't fully embrace the full richness and beauty and truth of
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  our Catholic faith and this sort and lean into that, then not try
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  to soften it around the edges to make people help people who may
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  not fully embrace this Catholic worldview comfortable in your
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  environment. I, I think that's maybe the
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  biggest mistake like, and, and it's not it.
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  It's not. We found the Lisa J Sarah that
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  there's that that passionately living our faith and and
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  bringing forth this Catholic Rover to our students in a real
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  joyful way that that where they see our students and our
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  families see the joy that's lived by by leading a what's a
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  Catholic lifestyle, if you will, is is attractive and we have a
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  lot of non Catholics on families and students on our campus.
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  We're probably about 6040, maybe 5545% Catholic versus non
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  Catholic given on in any given school year.
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  And as a result of that, we've had about 100 students or the
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  last couple of years be baptized into the church and to who came
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  from maybe a faith, a position of non Catholic faith or maybe
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  no faith. And by virtue of just seeing
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  the, the, the witness of the faith lived on campus and not
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  being sort of, I don't know, not filled with caveats or, or well,
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  Catholics believe this, but we know a lot of other people
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  believe this and both are OK. I mean, we just, we just present
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  the faith with a lot of joy. And I, and I think if more
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  Catholic schools were embraced the, the uniqueness of, of our
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  Catholic faith and how it's all, it's all joy, right?
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  And it's a it's this beautiful, coherent plan within God's
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  design. I think more, more Catholic
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  schools will continue to thrive. So you mentioned, you mentioned
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  Duke and Altom, What's that all about?
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  Yeah. I mean, gosh, this was, let me
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  think about, this was about 2015.
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  And you know, Jay, Sarah, Johan, Jay Sarah's a bit of a unique
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  school in the sense that we're an independent Catholic school.
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  You know, there are a lot of schools that are diocesan
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  schools reporting up through the maybe the Superintendent of of
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  the diocese or schools or religious based school, maybe
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  schools run by perhaps the Jesuits or Augustinians or
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  Dominicans. But it's an independent Catholic
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  school, especially one of our size of, you know, we're about
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  12-13 hundred students. We find ourselves in these
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  unique niche where there weren't other Catholic independent
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  schools right in our immediate vicinity.
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  And so we wound up getting to know, I wound up getting to know
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  a few other school leaders like myself, A gentleman by the name
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  of Todd Flanders in Minnesota runs Providence Academy, Andy
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  Tulicki, who runs Saint James it just outside of Kansas City, KS,
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  and then Kyle Pietra Antonio who ran Holy Spirit Prep in Atlanta.
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  And we wound up getting together in Denver for for a couple of
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  days and a weekend, I guess. Yeah, this would've been 10-11
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  years ago talking about hey, how do we how do we collaborate?
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  And out of that three or four day conversation was born this
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  idea of DIA or or the Duke and Alton schools collaborative.
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  And we are posting and we still to this day, we continue to host
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  a fall conference. With the last couple years we've
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  had 250 or 300 Catholic school leaders, teachers, campus
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  ministers, athletic directors sort of attend to kind of fuel
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  the kind of fill the fuel tank, if you will.
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  So we do a three day conference and this will be in Kansas City
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  in, in mid-october for that. But it's been a great support
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  system. And so it what started as a
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  conversation amongst 4 colleagues in four different
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  parts of the country sort of quickly melded into a a bit of a
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  grassroots informal organization that that now puts on this
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  annual conference and provides support for schools that really
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  want to thrive in their Catholic heritage.
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  Anything. Any last things you want to
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  share about your school or vision?
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  Oh boy. Well, I, you know, I just, I
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  feel that we are really terrifically blessed here at JCR
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  to have this, this vision of our founders to be a force for good
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  in society, to be relevant. You know, where if you came on
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  our campus, you on, you would see a school that would look
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  like a contemporary American high school.
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  We got football games, we have cheerleaders and we have, you
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  know, young men and young women and we do sports and arts and
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  athletics with unique academic programs.
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  I think that at the heart of what we're striving to do is is
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  to bring our students to Jesus Christ and, and we feel that
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  this, this beautiful Catholic world view on that, that is,
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  that is part and parcel to our mission is, is, is the right
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  formula for doing so. Keep up the day work.
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  All right. Thanks.
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  Thanks, John. Thanks for listening.
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  Please like, subscribe and share with your friends.
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  See you next time.