While I am not an expert on many things there is an area in which I excel. If practice indeed makes perfect, then I have honed this craft exquisitely. While I wish I was talking about the field of education or a particular love for history, or even bicycle maintenance, what I am referring to is my ability to make mistakes on a regular and frequent basis.
As I attended principal meetings for Catholic school administrators in August, there was no one in the room that day that was there at my first meeting in August 1989 except for me. The rest have moved on- to other professions, retirement, their heavenly reward. When I am asked for advice about this educational matter or that, I can speak confidently, not because of my accomplishments but because, as I tell them humbly, I have made every mistake that a principal can make, sometimes more than once.
And while I look back and cringe on some of the errors I have made, I also wear my faults as a badge of honor. Making mistakes is how we learn. It is how we grow. Show me a person who proclaims that his work is flawless, and I will point out that his perfection is indeed his greatest shortcoming.
We all make mistakes. Students make mistakes. Teachers make mistakes. Even parents make mistakes. It is part and parcel of living, of trying to accomplish anything of value. In order to grow it is essential that we learn more from our failures than by our success.
I dedicate this 2025-2026 school year to the mistakes that we are all going to make this year. And I challenge us all not only to acknowledge, learn and grow from our errors but to support each other in those errors. If we readily condemn each other when we see that someone has made a mistake, we encourage that person to be paralyzed with fear. “If I don’t try, then I can’t mess up,” is a common reaction to having someone jump down our throats when we are less than our best.
Some mistakes that we make can be hurtful to others. We may say something that is not very nice. We may lash out in anger when we feel that we have been wronged. Many times, we want to be the first to let each other know about their faults, their failings, the mistakes that they made. I don’t know about you, but no one usually has to tell me when I have got it wrong. At that moment I don’t need moralizing or “I told you so,” but the chance to self-reflect, to recognize what I need to do to fix the error and to ask pardon to others who have been impacted by my mistake.
Let us do that for each other this year. Let’s not make a person’s mistakes define our entire opinion about him. Let’s think about all the times that he has done well rather than when he has done badly. Let’s give him the opportunity to grow, and, when the time is right, assist him in learning how to avoid going down the same path in the same way.
In a community of 233 students, thirty teachers and staff members, 450 parents and guardians each one of us will make mistakes. Let us support each other. Let us see the face of Christ in each other. Let us pray for one another. And let us not beat ourselves up or each other.
Have a terrific year!!