Saint Mary's Academy

Some Thoughts from Headmaster Ken Kaiser

by Mary E. Gentges

ON A WARM AFTERNOON in early June I sought out St. Mary's Headmaster, Ken Kaiser, in his office and asked him to provide some material for an Angelus article about the Academy. With the nonstop activity of graduation week over, and the visiting parents and students all gone for the summer, the campus seemed strangely quiet, and at my destination—Bellarmine Hall—the sunlit corridors of the school were silent.

However, for Ken Kaiser, the summer is as busy as the school year. He had spent the day meeting with teachers and with St. Mary's Rector, Father de la Tour, planning for this fall, working out the complex schedule of classes. Complex it is, for St. Mary's Academy is not one, but three schools: the Lower School (grades K through 4), and the Upper Girls' School and Upper Boys' School (each with grades 5 through 12). Finally, at the end of a long day, Mr. Kaiser had some time to talk with me about the Academy.

In Mr. Kaiser's office, St. Thomas More—in a copy of the famous Holbein painting—gazes at the visitor from behind the Headmaster's desk. A large Crucifix dominates the wall above the desk. The books—Catholic textbooks, Latin books, books on the philosophy of Catholic education—line the shelves. It is a Catholic room, a Catholic environment.

And the Catholic environment of St. Mary's is one of the uppermost thoughts in Ken Kaiser's mind, "We provide an environment here to which parents can entrust their children. In the environment of modern society, parents cannot always control the influences that affect their children, the temptations to which they are exposed in the hours away from home. What sort of kids are they hanging around with, and playing video games with, down at the corner drugstore? What sort of girlfriends are influencing parents' young sons? The parents find that the views they have on morality, divorce, abortion, are no longer commonly held—even by their neighbors on the same street. So, families find themselves isolated.

"What parents have to counteract most of the time is the effect that the social or local environment has on their children. Modern society is basically amoral, not Catholic—and opposed to the spiritual life. Modern life is very materialistic and pragmatic, and it does not develop the spiritual part of man. Here at St. Mary's we have the right priorities and the grace of the sacraments to help us."

Mr. Kaiser goes on to explain the importance of the Catholic environment, an environment that has virtually disappeared from modern life. This Catholic parish life is very much alive at St. Mary's. "We have here people who live the Faith as it was meant to be. These people—the priests, the brothers, the sisters, the lay people—they are examples to our students, examples of how Catholic life should be, and can be, lived in modern times."

He says, "The problem today is not just of instruction in the Faith, but of youngsters being able to see the reality of it, to see it lived, not only as words from a book. This isn't only a problem for traditionalist youth in far-flung chapels who may have the Tridentine Mass just once a week or once a month, but it is true everywhere with the New Mass. All the traditional ceremonies that surround the liturgical year and make the book learning come alive have been wiped out. There is no opportunity for the child to be active in the practice of the Faith.

"Whether it is in the practicing of the Faith, or practicing the piano, the only way to form habits is by doing. How can a youngster form habits necessary to a good spiritual life if he never sees the ceremonies that the Church uses to foster the spiritual life? How can he be attracted to the spiritual life if he doesn't know what it is? How can he build up his spiritual life if he never says the Rosary, or goes to Mass regularly, or makes the Stations of the Cross, or attends Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, or crowns Mary in May?

"We don't do these things here for ornamental purposes or nostalgia, but so that the kids can start to be active Catholics, so the practice of the Faith is integrated into their daily life as it was meant to be. In an apprenticeship you have to practice whatever it is you are learning to do. Likewise, you have to practice the Faith in order to grow into a good Catholic who keeps the Faith for your entire life.

"Out in the world it is embarrassing for a youngster to say grace before meals in public, or make the Sign of the Cross, or have his scapular come out of his shirt collar. Here on campus we have a Catholic community and students aren't ridiculed or embarrassed when they practice their Faith, because here everybody does it."

Ken Kaiser's belief is that when a youth tries to practice the Faith and is ridiculed or has to defend it at an early age without yet having acquired sufficient instruction and experience, then, by peer pressure, the youngster will give up and quit. In other words, the young person has to learn to practice the Faith before he can be an effective apologist for it.

As he says, "It is the social environment that discourages the practice that is required for the forming of good habits of the Faith. Consequently, the acquiring of these habits is discouraged, and, as a result, bad habits are formed. That is the way environment works, and parents—through no fault of their own—find themselves and their children victims of it. One family can't compete with fifty. Either the family has to be very strong spiritually and closely united, or they are obliged to leave their area and move to a traditional Catholic center, or they have to send their children to a traditional Catholic center.

"We're not trying to separate families by encouraging parents to send their children to school here. Instead, many parents think their families have been strengthened because of the kids being here. The children bring back to the family the spiritual elements the parents wanted to instill in their children in the first place, but had to fight the world to do it. For example, kids go home from St. Mary's wanting to say the family Rosary at night."

So far we've been talking about why parents want to send their children to St. Mary's; but what about the kids themselves? Why do they like St. Mary's and want to come back after being here in school awhile? The Headmaster remarks: "The average child from a good family will have a good time here. He's got all these other kids to make friends with and to have good times with. He can make good friends, knowing that they will meet with Mom and Dad's approval."

With the Catholic community and parish here, Mr. Kaiser sees St. Mary's as a good place to have a school. Students have the opportunity to participate in traditional parish life and all its functions: feast days, processions, festivals, pot-luck dinners, jog-a-thons, and so forth. Families of the parish invite the students for outings to their homes and farms, for dinner, for picnics, or they take them to cultural presentations such as orchestra concerts in nearby towns. In these ways the parish families make the boarders feel "at home."

The rural location of St. Mary's and the acreage adjoining the campus allow the students to take hikes as a change from study. They can observe an abundance of birds and wildlife—a source of new experiences for youngsters who come from cities. Sometimes the sisters and priests accompany the students on day-long hikes.

The opportunities to be with people in various vocations of Catholic life help students to develop a right perspective on marriage, on the religious life, and helps them to choose the vocation they want to follow in life. Ken Kaiser says, "For the young person out in the world to develop into what God wants him to be is very hard because he's competing with worldly distractions—places of entertainment, rock music, peer pressure. The longer a student is at St. Mary's the more easily he or she comes to realize the difference in what is real in life and what is artificial."

Parents will ask, "What about discipline?" Students of St. Mary's are governed by the spiritual guidance of three resident priests of the Society of St. Pius X, five nuns and two brothers of the Society, the teaching staff of the Academy and their dormitory "house parents."

Ken Kaiser believes in applying discipline when necessary, "a discipline rooted in charity and aimed at being motivated internally by the grace of God, through His sacraments and the example of superiors." In other words, he believes very much in instilling self-discipline and responsibility in St. Mary's students.

He says, "We distinguish between good actions and bad ones; we teach that actions lacking in goodness are not desirable and are not to be pursued. We desire excellence and quality in actions, not doing just 'good enough' to get by. You either form good habits or bad ones; there is no in-between. We as educators will be judged on the formation of these children's souls—an awesome responsibility. We require students' good will and cooperation but they must be disciplined, corrected for bad actions and sloppy ones. Punishment takes the form of 'detention,' that is, time spent doing some work or extra writing, and is given to the student as an act of charity for his own good. It is not easy to convince a child that you punish him for his own good—he lacks the long sight to see this—but he can't do well academically without self-discipline.

"Formation of the intellect is only one part; formation of the will and soul is most important, to prepare children not only for short term goals, but for the ultimate goal of eternal life. We want to instill a sense of Catholic life, of a Catholic world, and we must start by living the life of Christ."

The separation of boys and girls of the upper schools at St. Mary's is a topic that usually comes up next! This separation is not only consistent with Church teaching, but is also regarded as vitally important to the successful cultivation of boys' and girls' respective aptitudes. "Being together," Mr. Kaiser explains, "is a distraction to them; boys and girls learn better and at a pace commensurate to each when separated. In the early years, the Academy was co-ed, but in furthering the separation between the schools we noted that students improved academically. Another thing to consider is that at this age boys and girls have different literary tastes. Later on, perhaps they will appreciate all good literature, but at this age it is important to teach boys what is appropriate to boys and girls what is appropriate to girls.

"When boys and girls are instructed together, they are distracted by each other and are concerned with things that they needn't be bothered with at that age. Take away that distraction, and they learn much better."

At St. Mary's, piety is not forced on students. It doesn't have to be. Headmaster Ken Kaiser has observed that kids tend to want to do what everybody else is doing. In an atmosphere where spiritual functions are taking place and people are attending them, the young want to go also. Students are required to attend certain spiritual functions and daily prayers, and they are required to attend Mass a few days a week; but they are not required to attend Mass daily. If they go every day, but with a sulky attitude, it can do more harm than good, and will not make them appreciate the Mass. It is not surprising, given the spiritual atmosphere here, that many students freely choose to attend daily Mass; they voluntarily make visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and some choose to attend evening Compline sung by the religious.

"We don't go in for gloomy faces or a stiff artificial piety. Our students are normal kids. They have a lot of fun and laugh a lot, but also they have the seriousness about life that is necessary to them as they mature and develop. We want to build virtuous and manly young men, virtuous and feminine young women—our priests, nuns, and parents of the future."

On the subject of curriculum, at St. Mary's the students in all grades are taught to read well (phonics are taught from the very beginning and emphasis is placed on reading aloud), to understand what they read, and to draw inferences from written material. They are taught to write and speak clearly and well, to develop their memory, and to solve basic math and science problems by means of algebra and geometry. To animate the basic disciplines, students receive, through the study of history, religion, literature, and the arts, an understanding and appreciation for western civilization and its foundation—the Church. The nature of the curriculum teaches students to wonder, infer, deduce and comprehend.

Specifically, as regards the high school curriculum—the age of most of St. Mary's boarding students—Mr. Kaiser outlined the basic course: four years of literature; two years of writing and grammar; four years of history covering ancient history, medieval and Church history, U.S. history and Constitution, and papal social encyclicals. Needless to say, all history is taught from a traditional Catholic view.

The math program includes algebra I and II, geometry and calculus; while the science department covers general science, biology I and II, physics, and chemistry. In the area of language, Latin is offered to both boys and girls and they may take it for four years if they wish. Latin is taught because of its importance as the root of our English language, and also because of its place in our Catholic heritage; a textbook is used that ties in the lessons with Mass and Catholic life. French is also offered in the girls' school.

In the area of religion, which all students study every year, and which is entirely taught by priests and sisters, ninth-graders and all new students cover a review of the basic catechism. In subsequent years the course goes into the sacraments, the life of Christ and apologetics.

Physical education is of course included in the curriculum, with basketball, softball, and volleyball being sports that are used in the P.E. classes.

Additional studies which are offered as an extra-curricular or free time activity include art and calligraphy. For the girls there is folk singing and folk dancing and a cooking club; for boys there is the basketball team and Boy Scout activities. This year the boys went on a week-long camping trip to New Mexico for their spring break; in the coming year it is planned that the girls will also have a similar trip of their own.

Since our time was running short and suppertime was nearing, I asked Mr. Kaiser if he could sum up the aims of St. Mary's Academy: "Our purpose is to prepare each student for the fulfillment of his vocation in cooperation with the proper formation of his soul—to awaken, nourish, and direct his intellect; to instill virtuous habits and build character; to make a youth strong, holy, and pleasing to God."

Headmaster, St. Mary's Academy
P.O. Box 159
St. Marys, KS 66536
(913) 437-2471

http://www.smac.edu/