At St. Benedict’s Prep, they’re called Fr. Ed-isms. They’re six “tested and true insights” into the mind of the adolescent boy. And Fr. Ed – Reverend Edwin Leahy, OSB – has seen a lot of teenage antics since he took on the role of headmaster of the Newark, N.J., boys’ high school in 1972.
Since appearing on an episode of 60 Minutes in March, Fr. Ed, a Benedictine monk, has written an e-book that describes his methods at the school. Starting in seventh grade, the boys are given the responsibility for over-seeing many aspects of St. Benedict’s. By senior year, they are in charge of taking attendance, running the morning assembly and managing tutoring and peer-counseling sessions.
“The students…learn to take charge of their education,” he writes in “Fr. Edisms: 6 Tested and True Insights to Raise Teenage Boys Into Responsible and Resilient Young Men.” “We are willing to let our kids screw things up to an appropriate degree before intervening in a constructive way."
After St. Benedict's was featured on the television show in March, I wrote "Why Are Democrats Against Allowing Poor Boys To Attend The Great School Profiled On '60 Minutes'?" Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had spoken out against tuition vouchers in an effort to get the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, with Clinton winning the nod from the public teachers' union. She told them: "I strongly oppose voucher schemes because they divert precious resources away from financially strapped public schools to private schools that are not subject to the same accountability standards or teacher quality standards."
As I detailed, the Newark public school system is not financially strapped. And Fr. Ed makes it clear that his standards are pretty darn high even without oversight from the public teachers' unions. The Newark public schools have a 69.59% graduation rate. St. Benedict's, which sits in a pretty tough neighborhood, graduates nearly 100% of its students.
So here is a taste of Fr. Ed's insights:
1. “If your sons are coming to school mad at you 75% of the time, you are doing something right.”
2. “The adolescent brain is not fully developed until the age of 25. No wonder your teenage son isn’t making good decisions.”
3. “Teach Your Teenage Son Like a Grandmother.”
4. “Never Do for a Student What He Can Do for Himself.”
5. “Give Up What You Want…For What Your Son Needs.”
6. “The advice your teenage son believes is stupid or irrelevant today, will seem incredibly wise after his first year of college.”
“The habits young men develop and practice at St. Benedict’s persist through college and beyond,” he writes. “87% of St. Benedict’s graduates (classes of 2005–2014) were enrolled and on track to graduate from college, according to a recent Alumni Tracking Report. The average six-year college graduation rate for men nationwide is 56%.”
