S.P.I.C.E.—Endorsements

Listed below are letters of support from our parish as well as the Catholic Diocese of Columbus.

In St. Mark's Gospel (Ch. 10:13), Jesus says: "Let the little children come to me and do not discourage them.  Of such is the Kingdom of God."  It is not to say that Jesus played 'favorites,' but if we were to read through the Gospel narratives, Jesus did favor those who were widowed, the poor, and little children.  These people were the 'marginalized' of His society; they had no one to speak for them.  Hence, Jesus became their advocate.  Jesus could well have been speaking about some children in our day who have not had an advocate for their well being.

Specifically, catholic education and catholic schools have never had the financial means to offer special needs children a place to learn.  Children with special needs, and their families, have as strong a desire and right to receive the benefits of a catholic education as any other child or family.  Here at St. Catharine parish and school, we are trying to provide such an education for them.

S.P.I.C.E. is our hope to accomplish this goal, i.e., the ability to bring special needs children into our school and parish religious education programs to provide a catholic foundation for their lives in the future.  With your financial help we can afford special teachers, qualified and trained to work with children with special needs and give them the same religious foundation we give all our children.  Without your financial help, we cannot reach a significant portion of our population.

The range of needs for these children is wide.  The number of these children is also large.  You may be surprised to learn in our school program alone we have nearly fifty children with a variety of learning disabilities which can be addressed given the means to provide qualified instructors and aides.  It is our hope to provide such personnel as soon as possible.

I wholeheartedly endorse this program in our parish for all of our children, school and CCD students, and ask that you give serious and prayerful consideration to lending your financial support also.  Together we can help these children learn more about our God who had a special place in His heart for all children.

Sincerely,

Rev. Msgr. David V. Sorohan
Pastor Emeritus, St. Catharine Church

The following is the presentation by St. Catharine School principal, Mrs. Janet Weisner, at the School Town Meeting on April 21, 2002 explaining the vision for SPICE at St. Catharine School.

Sometimes student programs arise from a need and occupy a space in the St. Catharine School curriculum that is outside the instructional Diocesan Courses of Study.  Generally this need is seen by either a group or by individuals.  They react to this need by developing programs that meet the needs that they have seen.  A vision is formed from that need that gives direction to a particular program.

For example, Partners in Education was formed a few years ago when a few individuals within the school community saw a need to provide funds that would support enriching opportunities.  These opportunities would extend the classroom curriculum and give students exposure to a number of artists, authors, programs or materials that might not be available through the normal school curriculum.  The need gave way to a vision that provided direction to a program that has helped to enrich the lives of our students.  Their lives are enriched throughout the year in small groups, sometimes by grade levels only, and sometimes for the entire student body.

A few years ago, an Enrichment program was added to the school curriculum because an individual or individuals saw a need for helping students with special learning needs.  Their special learning needs were that they needed to be challenged and encouraged to think beyond the normal grade level curriculum.  This program impacted the lives of a group of children who presented needs—their special learning needs.

Three years ago, an Algebra program was added to the school’s basic curriculum because individuals saw a need to challenge a certain population of our school who had special learning needs—the need to be challenged and serviced in their advanced math needs.  A program was developed to provide this opportunity to service their needs as they began the middle school level of instruction.  The special learning needs of this small number of children were addressed through a program that gave direction and challenge to their lives.

So, too, with the newest of our programs, created for Special People in Catholic Education, the SPICE program.  This program was developed from a need that was seen by individuals who had a vision for this program. This program addresses the special learning needs of children with diagnosed learning disabilities, or developmental learning disabilities, or those who struggle with certain aspects of the regular curriculum.  These are children who have organizational issues of ADD, reading difficulties, auditory processing problems, writing difficulties, and other roadblocks to successful learning.  These are children that we openly accept as kindergarten students, yet along their educational journey, they stumble.  They, too, need and deserve a program that addresses their needs.  St. Catharine School is no different than any other private, or Catholic, or non-public school in the number of children who have learning issues or the number of children who need to be challenged beyond the normal curriculum or the children who lie somewhere on this learning continuum.  Just like Enrichment and Math programs address the special learning needs of children, or just as the classroom teachers address the needs of children who need encouragement or challenges, so also does the SPICE program.  You see, all of these programs address special learning needs. 

The interesting thing about the SPICE program, and maybe the reason why some feel that they didn’t realize that there was a need for this type of program, is that children who benefit from its funds are often not the children that we talk about.  Learning disabilities are like that—it really is a private life of struggles and successes that are shared between those students, their teachers, and their parents.  It’s a little easier to share with others that one has a child in an Enrichment program or one has a child that is successful in Math, or a child that reads above grade level, or a child that writes well for publication.  The SPICE program supports another level of special needs—those who struggle for the successes —those whose successes are difficult to achieve—those whose successes have been shared privately with their parents and that child—those who successes come in very small steps over a very long time—those who also have a right to the same level of service that all children at our school have and deserve.  That’s our responsibility as educators—to provide opportunities or programs that strive to meet needs of every child at St. Catharine School.

Only in operation since November, the SPICE program has started, as other programs have, with a look at the funding of the program.  We are currently in the process of developing a direction for its financial support for the next school year and years to come.  We hope to see its financial use in such ways as materials in classrooms, workshops for teachers on learning styles, and personnel support to alleviate some of the workload of our current educational specialist.

We appreciate the strength of our current educational programs and also the financial support of these additional support programs that have been established to meet the varied learning needs of all children at St. Catharine School.