Signs of Faith - Winter 2000- Our Everyday Work

Our Everyday Work
Lasallian Educators Carry on The Tradition of Innovation
Photography by Mark Johann

"Your zeal for the children you instruct would not have much success if it limited itself only to words. It is necessary that your example support your instructions, and this is one of the main signs of your zeal." -- Tenth Meditation for the Time of Retreat by John Baptist de La Salle

We continue our series on the everyday work of the District's educators as they provide "a human and Christian education." This mission, now three centuries old, has always led Lasallians to be alive to the changing needs of students. In France in 1700 this meant such innovations as teaching reading in French, not Latin; it meant giving a lesson to a whole class together rather than to one student at a time. In America in 2000 it entails new ways of teaching science, new ways of gathering and distributing information, and new ways of having students participate in their own education. Here we meet three District educators: Colbert Davis from Saint Mary's College High School in Berkeley, Judy Scudder from Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco, and Chuck Lafferty from De La Salle High School in Concord.

Colbert Davis || Judy Scudder || Chuck Lafferty || Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher

Judy Scudder: Shelf Space and Spiritual Space
Ask Judy Scudder if "the library" is a thing of the past -- now that a whole bookcase can be stored on a compact disk -- and she shakes her head firmly. "No. Far from it." And Judy Scudder should know. She earned a Master's degree in Library Science at U.C. Berkeley and intended to start a career as a university librarian, but a friend told her there was a job opening at a Catholic school in San Francisco called Sacred Heart, and she went to take a look. As she puts it, "I simply fell in love with the school." She was the first woman faculty member at the school.

That was 25 years ago, and she has been the school's librarian ever since. Trained in library design, she has helped to design libraries for other institutions, but her skills are perhaps best displayed in the current version of the library at Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep, which she calls "the best high school library in Northern California," with its 20,000 books, 900 films, and 50 computers that provide Internet access and e-mail.

Says Mrs. Scudder, "The challenge in this new era is to teach students not just to find information but also to evaluate its quality. A book is on a library shelf because it has been reviewed, approved, and purchased, because some expertise has already been brought to bear. But on the Internet anybody can put out anything and call it information. We have to teach students how to sort it out, how to make critical judgments."

"The challenge in this new era is to teach students not just to find information but also to evaluate its quality.

We have to teach students how to make critical judgments."

For Judy Scudder, giving students these technical and intellectual skills is part of the Lasallian tradition of responding to students' real needs: "Part of the wisdom of Saint La Salle is that he was concerned to teach students the skills that would let them take part more fully in the society of their time. His focus was on inclusion, and on training for greater freedom, and our library staff has that same focus today." But she also knows that in every age, even the Information Age, more is needed than the training of minds. There is also the touching of hearts. The library is abuzz with intellectual activity, but Judy Scudder has also designed into it a quiet place, a spiritual oasis, called the Founders' Room, which celebrates the double charism with which the school is blessed -- that of John Baptist de La Salle, Founder of the Christian Brothers, and that of Saint Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Daughters of Charity. "Students and staff can come to this quiet place to learn about our Founders and our history. They can meditate or do spiritual reading. People find the Founders' Room a good place in which to meet when they are planning a prayer service or liturgy."

"Energetic, generous, patient, gentle, always helpful, never negative" -- so Mrs. Scudder is described by colleagues and students. Dr. Bill Link, who teaches the Advanced Placement classes in Government and Psychology, says flatly, "I've been a teacher for 26 years and I've never seen anyone like Judy. She regularly fills the faculty mailboxes with information and updates of all kinds. She finds Web sites on the units I'm teaching, and we bring the whole class to the library for research and writing. I think she makes us all more effective teachers."

A large variety of students packs the library at Sacred Heart Cathedral every day. "That's a great thing to see, in an inner-city school like this one, with such a diversity of students," says Dr. Link. "We had to open the library earlier in the morning due to popular demand," says Mrs. Scudder. "Now we're open from 7 to 5, and it's always humming."

Judy Scudder is evidently good at her job, but she is happy to report that her job is not just a job: "The philosophy at Sacred Heart Cathedral," she says with a smile, "is that education is a family-inclusive experience. I think our family demonstrates that." They do indeed. Not long after the librarian had fallen in love with the school, a new history teacher came along, and he fell in love with the librarian. John Scudder is now the Principal, and the Scudders' two daughters are a sophomore and a freshman. Judy says quite simply, "John and I are two people who have committed ourselves to the Lasallian mission." Her title is Director of Library Services, but she says, "I prefer the simple word 'librarian.' It carries a heritage." As does Judy Scudder, who has carried the Lasallian heritage into a new era of educational innovation.

Colbert Davis || Judy Scudder || Chuck Lafferty || Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher