Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Thursday, March 9, 2006
Sheen: One person can make a difference
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
DAYTON — Martin Sheen was 14, a Chaminade High School freshman with a bad smoking habit, standing on the corner by the school sucking down a last drag before heading to class one morning.
Up pulled a car and out came Chris Kuhn, a classmate Sheen disliked for bragging about his fighter pilot father.
“He’d bring in his father’s head gear or the whole pilot outfit,� Sheen recounted Wednesday at Chaminade-Julienne High School. “He made us all feel so insignificant and jealous.�
But there on the sidewalk that day, the unnoticed Sheen watched as Kuhn’s father put the car in park, got out, walked around to the sidewalk and kissed his son on the lips.
“What a public display of parental love,� Sheen said. “I was struck by it. And to this day if any one of my children or grandchildren comes through the door I kiss them right smack on the lips.�
The lesson Wednesday for an auditorium packed with an estimated 500 students?
“You never know when you are doing something that is affecting someone,â€? Sheen said.
That was the actor and Dayton native’s call to arms for social activism. After a ceremony honoring Sister Dorothy Stang, a nun killed last year in Brazil, Sheen and Sister Rebecca Spires, who worked with Stang in Brazil, and Emily Goldman, a human rights lobbyist, spoke to the students.
Answering a question from senior Krista Seaman, Spires said she first realized she could make a difference through activism when family and friends disapproved of her first black friend.
“Right then and there I decided I was going to be on the other side of this whole society,� she said.
Another student asked why work for social change when it seems hopeless that one person could make a difference?
“This is really the fundamental question for all of us,� Sheen said. “How do you make a difference and what difference does it make? This has to be highly personal. The only thing you can change is you.�
Sheen, who has been arrested dozens of times for protesting on behalf of social issues, urged the students to look inward for what they might do to help their communities or the world.
“You have to look inside and say, ‘I cannot not do this and be myself,’ � he said. “I don’t even think about trying to change other people’s minds. I do it for myself.�
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Why not Dorothy Stang Catholic School?
So, suppose you had to choose name for a new Catholic school in Dayton and I told you this:
There’s a Dayton native, a nun, educated in Catholic schools here, who spent her life helping the poor and was named an official martyr by the Vatican little more than a month ago. Oh, and her family really likes the idea of naming a school for her.
What would you think about using her name?
On Wednesday, Martin Sheen, a Chaminade High School grad, was back at his old school to unveil a painting he commissioned of Sister Dorothy Stang.
It was a very nice event, with members of Stang’s family on hand along with friends and members of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur order of nuns to which she belonged. Sheen later spoke to the students, urging them to follow Sister Dorothy’s example by working for social justice.
Meanwhile, earlier this week the name was announced for a new inner-city Catholic school formed by the merger of five schools together — Mary Queen of Peace Catholic School.
At the event for Sister Dorothy, I spoke with one of her relatives who said the family had offered her name for the school and was a bit disappointed the committee leading the merger passed.
So I decided to ask why. The person handling publicity for the new school explained that Stang’s name was one of five finalists out of 60 suggested names. They put the list to a vote of the elementary kids in the five merging schools and they picked Mary Queen of Peace.
A committee made up of the four parish priests overseeing the merger went with that. She said they felt Mary Queen of Peace might be more inclusive to the whole city, and that it would avoid giving the impression the school was more identified with the parishes and schools Sister Dorothy attended.
But some think an opportunity to honor a real hometown Catholic hero was wasted. What do you think?
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