My name is Peter Peabody and I am a retired member of the Moreau Catholic community. I was an educator for 45 years, 39 of which were at Moreau Catholic. I was hired as a Theology teacher/Counselor and had many different jobs from teacher and administrator to Bus Driver and Sports Announcer. I cherish my time at Moreau. When I was getting my Masters in Theology I had to give a lecture as part of the completion for my degree. I opened with the words of St. John’s Gospel (In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the word was God. John 1:1. ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. I shared it in Greek and was not surprised when many in the audience just stared at me; not understanding the greek. I went on to say that for the Gospel to be understood it must be in a language that we can understand and respond to. The word has no meaning unless it can elicit a response. I believe that in teaching we must meet the students where they are and speak to them in a language they can understand. All the scholarship in the world is useles unless there is a relationship between the presenter and the receiver. In fact it needs to be a dialogue rather than a presentation. I always tried to know my students as a person (much more than their grade in my class) who was on a journey with me to greater understanding, To this end I would attend their games, plays, activities, etc. so that I could learn much more about them than just the subject matter of my class. It made my time with them so much more meaningful. During my time at Moreau I was, as Activites Director, the emcee at Graduation. We would display a picture of each student on a large screen as they walked across the stage to try to share some of their personality with the audience rather than just ants walking across the stage. In my brief words on behalf of the Faculty and Administration I always shared the thought “ A little bit of me goes with you and a little bit of you remains in me.” I am a firm believer that part of the charism of a Holy Cross Educator is to build these relationship that will last forever. —

Bruce Cecil

bcecil@moreaucatholic.org Moreau Catholic High School A College Preparatory School in the Holy Cross Tradition 27170 Mission Blvd. Hayward, CA 94544 510.881.4300 http://www.moreaucatholic.org