Fr. Edwin Leahy, the Headmaster at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, New Jersey, often reminds his community, "Never Do for Students What They Can Do for Themselves.” Known as a Fr. Ed-ism, this way of operating has led to a specific identity for the school and unique programming at St. Benedict's. Not something that can be done overnight and/or without appropriate structures and systems to provide students authentic learning, leadership, and real-life opportunities, this maxim is the result of many years of tweaking, adjusting, and improving.
I came across this concept from St. Benedict's Prep as a principal in 2016. I rediscovered it on an immersion trip to that school in 2018 and over the course of the next few years. I came across this once again last week I did some work in my current role.
*For more on St. Benedict's Prep, go here: https://www.sbp.org/ and/or watch below:
This, along with a handful of other situations over the past few weeks, has caused the principle of subsidiarity to surface multiple times during my prayerful reflections as of late.
Many of my efforts center on connecting, collaborating, and coordinating efforts across and among schools, offices within the diocese, groups such as boards and committees, as well as stakeholders from within the Office of Catholic education and across elementary and high school personnel.
In trying to fulfill my role more effectively, this teaching of subsidiarity from the Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church acts as an important concept and approach to understand and apply.
Many view subsidiarity as empowering groups and even individuals to decide and act for themselves. Efforts should be taken to allow the most local level possible to think, decide, and act for themselves.
However, one other - and often overlooked - complementary component of subsidiarity is that the larger group, organization, or institution should provide the resources necessary for as much local level/individual autonomy as possible.
A third branch that is also often missed and/or mistaken is that the individual and or smaller group should actively participate and contribute to the larger organization as well.
So, what does all of this have to do with Catholic school leadership?
Simply, a lot.
More complexly, this principle is at the heart of my efforts as the associate superintendent of secondary schools in the Diocese of Cleveland. Our efforts to collect data - teacher observations, enrollment trends, student behavior, finances, advancement moves, faith formation activities - are intended to give all stakeholders concrete evidence on which decisions can be made, and actions can be taken.
Similarly, strengthening the functionality of our advisory boards with systems of strong by-laws and functioning committees, should provide greater accountability, invite more support and creativity, and allow for the amplification and intensification of our efforts to advance our missions.
Designing ways in which the diocese can more effectively and efficiently support schools in the areas of academic excellence, Catholic identity and faith formation, legal, human resources, financial, and construction require my efforts as connector, coordinator, and collaborator to exercise the principle of subsidiarity.
These processes, systems, and collections of data should provide local level leadership greater clarity about leading their schools. Additionally, it should also provide key diocesan decision-makers ample information to maintain oversight of and confidence in what is taking place at each school, within each program and department, during each class period, and throughout every interaction between and among adults and students.
From both perspectives, I can understand that these efforts can seem too meddlesome and/or heavy-handed on one hand, or too loose to maintain aspects of control and/or influence on the other. The principle of subsidiarity can help us to thread this needle and balance between being too involved and being too disconnected.
In this way, this principle requires an ongoing dance and oscillation on the continuum of influence. At some times, we may need to reign in spending or lesson planning or praying, and at other times we will need to offer more freedom, flexibility and discretion.
As we exercise subsidiarity and manage all of its complexity, may we continue to drill down to the most local level possible within our schools: our students. As we prioritize their formation, let us continue to consider the impact that all of our decisions and actions have on their good, and let us build structures and systems within our schools and across our diocese that allow them to thrive.
Like Fr. Ed says, "Never do for students what they can do for themselves." By employing the principle of subsidiarity, we can do just that.
