2024 Catholic Schools Week Supplement
In her first year as a Catholic school educator, a woman finds joy and learns about the changing state of Catholic education
Emily Schuler, the principal of St. Patrick School in Terre Haute, helps students from kindergarten and first grade with an art project. (Photo courtesy of Kelli Carney, first-grade teacher at St. Patrick School)
By John Shaughnessy
If you need an extra touch of joy in your life today, it’s there in Emily Schuler’s voice.
In this moment, the principal of St. Patrick School in Terre Haute is describing the reaction of her kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students to a group of special visitors.
“They had three hours of sheer excitement today,” Schuler says. “We had a visit from the fire department. They brought the truck in, talked about what they do, and let them see their equipment. It’s that age when, ‘I want to be a firefighter!’ It was just super exciting for them.”
Schuler also uses “exciting” to describe her first year as an educator in a Catholic school community, a choice she made after working 15 years in public schools in Indiana and Mississippi.
“In my mind, I thought that maybe this would be an awkward transition from public to Catholic school, that maybe it wouldn’t be fulfilling or what I wanted. I couldn’t have been more wrong,” Schuler says. “I think it’s the best decision I’ve ever made professionally. It’s been really exciting right from the beginning.”
Part of that excitement for her stems from a change she sees in Catholic schools today from when she was a student at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Carmel, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese. And make no mistake, as a 2000 graduate of her elementary school, she holds a special place in her heart for her experience there.
“I loved it. I have friends that I have had since I was 5,” says 38-year-old Schuler. “It’s cool to look back as an adult and think about that school and how, from the age of 5, it had such an impactful experience on me.”
At the same time, “you almost took for granted that everyone believed the same things, and everyone had the same understandings, and we were all getting the exact same things at home. You almost took for granted that there was this spiritual experience we all kind of had.”
The experience that every student in a Catholic school is steeped in the Catholic faith is no longer the reality, Schuler says, and that’s part of the excitement for her.
The state of Catholic education and the story of a girl
“What’s really exciting now about Catholic schools is that we see families choosing to be here who aren’t Catholic, and they’re choosing it because of who we are and what we believe and how we live out our faith—and what that looks like in our families and our communities.
“The state of Catholic education right now is a real-life testament to the fact that we are literally introducing people to Christ and the Church on an everyday basis. You see kids who don’t have any religious background or knowledge or understanding, and they get so excited hearing about the faith, understanding what the Eucharist is, and understanding what the history of the Church is.
“To be even a small part of that for students and their families has been incredibly exciting.”
Her excitement and joy continue to overflow as she shares one incident involving a prospective student.
As she checked out the school, the girl was accompanied by a modern family of “multiple parents, partners and family members,” Schuler says. The family wasn’t Catholic, but everyone was open to the girl attending St. Patrick.
During a tour of the school and the campus, the girl noticed the church and asked if she could see what was inside that building.
“We go over there, all the lights are off, so we flip them on. Our church is beautiful, and to hear the reaction of the child to seeing all the different artwork, the stained glass and the altar was amazing,” Schuler recalls. “Everywhere they were turning, they were amazed by something else. Or they had questions.”
The girl had a question about one of the statues at the front of the church.
“She turns and points and says, ‘I see that man over there.’ I said, ‘That’s St. Patrick. That’s who our school and our parish are named after.’ I told them a little about him. They asked, ‘He was a normal man, right?’ I said, ‘He was a normal man, but he was able to do unnormal things with the help of God.’ The girl turned around to her family and said, ‘I want to go here.’ It was such a cool moment.”
The story doesn’t end there.
An opportunity for faith to blossom
“That student has maintained her interest and amazement in figuring out everything she can and learning everything she can,” Schuler says. “And she is really interested in the saints. It’s been fun to see her blossom, and to see all the ways the Catholic experience has taken shape for families and what it means for families.”
While the experience of being part of the St. Patrick School community of 350 students has been a time of blossoming for that girl, the same has been true for Schuler in her first year as an educator at a Catholic school.
She says it has deepened her faith and her relationship with Christ.
“Absolutely. I took a lot of aspects of my faith for granted.”
One area of her Catholic faith that she has stressed this year is eucharistic adoration and “the power of the Eucharist.”
Since St. Patrick Church has a eucharistic chapel, the school sets aside Wednesdays as a time when the different classes get to visit the chapel for adoration.
Schuler also has made eucharistic adoration a priority for the St. Patrick School staff.
“It was important for me to get my staff to understand the significance that it’s had for my life,” she says. “We have quite a few staff who are not Catholic. We did an instructional Mass, and after that, we did adoration.
“I spoke about the role it played in my life. It’s so significant to my own faith maintenance, development, strength and growth that I hadn’t really thought about it. For me to stand up and verbalize it was such a moment. I had never given my own story of the power of it for me.”
A gift of grace
Schuler has strived to make eucharistic adoration a continuing part of her life.
“If I have a stressful day, I’ll take 15-20 minutes, step out quickly, go to the adoration chapel and have some time in adoration. To me, that’s something I’ve been really able to explore and deepen. I’m incredibly thankful that I’m in a place to really be mindful about that. It’s made me closer in my relationship with Christ.”
She also believes it’s made her a better principal and even a better person.
“I don’t always find myself being patient or letting things settle a little bit,” she says. “I feel there’s been a lot of grace that has made its way into my decision process and my leadership style—to be a little more gracious, be a little more patient, be a little more willing to be vulnerable.”
For her, it’s all part of the grace of being an educator in a Catholic school.
“I’m incredibly thankful to be in this community,” she says.” It’s such a blessing.” †
