Saints

When the Saints Go Marching In: A reflection on the Church’s Great Solemnity

Ivy Schmalzried2023-10-30T10:04:22-04:00

In two short days, hundreds of little saints will fill Saint Benedict Classical Academy’s classrooms and hallways. If this year is anything like years past, there will be no shortage of Saint Michaels wielding swords or Saint Lucys bearing crowns of candles. November 1st is always one of my favorite days of the year. I love watching the younger students proudly parade by the older ones, smiling from ear to ear. I watch from the sidelines as a five-year-old Saint George tightly grips a stuffed dragon under his arm. I smile as a little Saint Gianna Beretta Molla carefully holds a [...]

When the Saints Go Marching In: A reflection on the Church’s Great SolemnityIvy Schmalzried2023-10-30T10:04:22-04:00

Embracing the Extraordinary in the Ordinary: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux

Ivy Schmalzried2023-10-10T12:28:29-04:00

Each year during the first week of school, everyone in my class chooses a patron saint to intercede for them throughout the year as they grow as scholars and future saints. Every week a different student has the opportunity to teach the class about their saint as they lead our morning meeting and prayer. Learning from the lives of the saints and praying for their intercessions has always been a beautiful and concrete way to see that heaven isn’t just for extraordinary, perfect men and women entirely unlike us but is full of real people who lived real human lives. My [...]

Embracing the Extraordinary in the Ordinary: A Year with St. Therese of LisieuxIvy Schmalzried2023-10-10T12:28:29-04:00

Teaching with Grace

Ivy Schmalzried2023-10-10T12:30:05-04:00

“To be entrusted with the teaching of the young is a great gift and grace of God.”- St. John Baptist de la Salle St. John Baptist de la Salle, patron saint of teachers known for his innovative approach to training and mentoring high-quality educators, inspired my initial vocation to teach and has sustained my current mission to serve as Dean of Students. I first received this "grace of God" in 2013 when I took my first job as a teacher at Coates Elementary School in Herndon, Virginia. In 2021, my wife, two children, and I moved to New England for a [...]

Teaching with GraceIvy Schmalzried2023-10-10T12:30:05-04:00

Finding Our Calcutta

Ivy Schmalzried2023-04-03T11:07:54-04:00

One recent February day just before the dawn of Lent, in our St. Benedict Classical Academy (SBCA) Pre-Kindergarten classroom at our St Placid Campus, I was preparing to lead an activity that would help our little ones begin to have an understanding of the Beatitudes. Truthfully I am just as much a learner about our Catholic faith as even our youngest student - our Faith is an ongoing and lifelong pursuit. I started by pondering and praying about each Beatitude and each of the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and how they applied to my role in the classroom. [...]

Finding Our CalcuttaIvy Schmalzried2023-04-03T11:07:54-04:00

Keep It Simple

Ivy Schmalzried2023-03-12T20:09:25-04:00

“Lent is a time to grow and change for Christ”, reads the bulletin board outside our kindergarten classroom. Twelve flowers decorate the board, each with a Lenten promise written by a student. “I will play with my baby sister”, “I will give up sweets”, and “I will pray for the poor” are just a few examples. The promises, like the children who wrote them, are small. However, they contain a larger truth that is worth contemplating throughout our Lenten journey, a truth expressed by the Little Flower herself, St Therese: “Nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that [...]

Keep It SimpleIvy Schmalzried2023-03-12T20:09:25-04:00

Mary, Our Perfect Mother

Ivy Schmalzried2022-12-08T12:29:56-05:00

When I was a kid, social media had yet to be invented - and so when two people were having a fight, they did it not by posting nasty messages or unfriending each other, but by insulting each other face to face. And the worst possible thing, which would risk transitioning the fight from words into a physical altercation, would be to insult someone’s mother. It was like the nuclear option because even kids understand intuitively that there is something sacred about one’s mother. She was probably the first one to hold you when you came into this world. She probably [...]

Mary, Our Perfect MotherIvy Schmalzried2022-12-08T12:29:56-05:00

St. John Bosco & Discipline

Ivy Schmalzried2023-03-10T11:47:43-05:00

As a father of two toddlers, proper discipline is something I often think and pray about. Discipline and the way that I respond to their behaviors are paramount in their development and will be crucial to shaping them as human beings. The concept of “discipline” in education is often associated with a list of things we don’t want children to do. Because of this, parents and educators are often tasked with enforcing a list of rules and handing out necessary consequences if they aren’t followed. When taking over as Dean of Students at St. Benedict's, I knew that student discipline was going to [...]

St. John Bosco & DisciplineIvy Schmalzried2023-03-10T11:47:43-05:00

Saints

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