Kindergarten at Cristo Rey Jesuit
Life seemed a whole lot simpler when I was four. Every morning, Dad would head to the office, Mom would drop me off at kindergarten and my biggest worry was what we were going to have for dinner (if God loved me, I used to pray, He would make Mom make me hamburgers!). The house we lived in sat on a bend in a street that was aptly named “Sunshine Road,” and after returning from school, Mom would stop what she was doing and ask about my day. The Booths lived across the street and after dinner, I would walk over and work with Bobby – the eldest son, who at 17, dreamed of being a mechanic on a NASCAR pit crew. As he lay underneath his family’s yellow station wagon, he spoke to me as if I was his equal. I held socket wrenches and oil rags for him, ready to adhere to his slightest request, even if the only thing he asked me to do was to stand by the radio and move the dial to see if I could find “Dancing Machine” by the Jackson Five (I was the remote control before there was remote control!). At twilight, I would reluctantly head back home, knowing my mom was waiting for me to take my bath and slip into my Dallas Cowboy “footie” pajamas. Finally, crawling into bed under my Spiderman sheets, my parents stopped by; we said our prayers together; they carefully tucked me in; and all seemed right with the world. Life was good in my kindergarten days as I was surrounded by people who believed in and personally cared deeply for me.
I thought about Sunshine Road, Bobby Booth and my footie pajamas as I was watching the first drama production at Cristo Rey Jesuit – All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. While our students flawlessly executed their lines, and perfectly captured the range of emotions required of the play, it was the message of the production itself (and memories of my own earlier life) that reminded me why Cristo Rey Jesuit has been so successful in its first year. While we offer an outstanding college preparatory education, place students in blue-ribbon jobs across the city, and take Houston’s imagination by storm, the most important thing we do at this school is to surround our students with people who believe in and care deeply for them – a very simple, yet powerful lesson we all learned in kindergarten. The monumental strides so many of our students took this year happened not simply because of our challenging academic program, and not only because of our high expectations regarding behavior, but also and even most importantly because we make it a priority to treat every child as if he or she were our own. Among the many things that make our educational program unique, this personal approach to education, (what Jesuits call cura personalis) is why Cristo Rey Jesuit has quickly become the success that it is.
As we celebrate the end of the academic year at Cristo Rey Jesuit, I would also like to celebrate so many of you whom, through your time and your financial support, continue to show a deep care for our children and our program. Indeed, you treat me, the students and everyone at the school as if we were your own. In a very real way, I feel as if I’m back in kindergarten again, surrounded by so much belief and care, as you have given me and my staff the opportunity to provide that very experience for our own students.
With deep gratitude to you,
Father TJ Martinez, SJ
