Program teaches human dignity to the kids the culture forgot
Central School in Atchison, Kansas, isn’t a school for bad kids. Every student in the school is born with the
same inherent human dignity as dwelt in Mahatma Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr., or Abraham Lincoln. Maybe nobody ever told them that before. That’s changing, thanks to exceptional Raven alumni, the Human Dignity Curriculum and the Benedictine College Center for Family Life.
“Here, the students are seen,” said LaTisha Downing ’00, Principal of Central School. “They are taught about their dignity, and that of others, and they succeed.”
LaTisha Downing is Atchison, Kansas, born and raised. After excelling through the Atchison school system, LaTisha attended Benedictine College and graduated with her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and special education. She has 23 years of experience in education, 18 of which were with Atchison Public Schools, primarily teaching English as a second language and special education. This is her fourth year as Principal at Central School, a K-12 public school.
The longest tenured members of LaTisha’s faculty are Kelsey ’13 and Keenan ’13 Martin, identical twin brothers, Atchison natives and proud alumni of the Benedictine College education department. The brothers have taught
special education at Central School for 10 years, but noted a particular change in the winds when LaTisha joined the school as Principal.
“Miss Downing came in,” said Kelsey, “and she dives in. She knows these kids. She knows the community and can relate to them. And she knows how we can get great news about what’s going on at Central out into the community.”
What LaTisha knows about her students is that they are not bad kids. They may have made bad choices. They may have experienced bad circumstances. These factors led to outcomes which have removed them from the traditional public schools and placed them at Central, where the faculty has the tools to take a different approach to learning.
“There is more support in place here,” said LaTisha. “The staff, the paras, they are better equipped to help the students succeed, and they do succeed here.”
In some students’ minds, though, there’s a stigma that follows them to their new environment. That’s where the Benedictine College Center for Family Life and the Human Dignity Curriculum are making a world of difference.
For the past two years, LaTisha and the Martin brothers have partnered with the John Paul II Fellows from Benedictine College. The Fellows are a formation outreach of the Center for Family Life. They are trained to help restore healthy relationships, aid wounded families and be ambassadors for the fundamental building block of society. Around 10 Fellows, Benedictine College students, have come into the classrooms at Central School to begin the process of introducing students to their own self-worth, and the dignity of each human person.
This past October, Central School became the first public school in the world to implement the Human Dignity Curriculum, which was developed by World Youth Alliance under the leadership of Anna Halpine. The curriculum is being implemented at Central School in cooperation with Halpine and Dr. Tory Baucum, the director of the Center for Family Life. The curriculum is rooted in Judeo-Christian tradition of the dignity of each person, but designed for public schools.
“This is a pilot study,” said LaTisha. “The curriculum director gave the go-ahead, and we’ve seen good success so far.”
The Martin brothers have already seen positive effects of the curriculum in just a few short months.
“It works really well with our character education program,” said Kelsey. “It’s things they’ve never been told. That they are born with a dignity that can’t be taken away. That they have natural self-worth. That they have the power to think and the power to decide how to treat others. It’s been so well-received that they are recognizing elements of human dignity being taught in other subjects.”
Keenan says the curriculum has changed the way his students relate to him, and he has learned things from it
that has positively affected his own life, as well.
“They see me more now as a person than as an object,” he said. “They are learning to recognize thinking traps, where they focus on the negative. I’ve fallen into those traps, too, and this program has helped me to recognize those and make choices to get out of them. I tell them, ‘I’m in this with you. I’m learning as you do.'”
“Many of them hadn’t thought of their own dignity before,” said Kelsey. “Now they are learning it in a straightforward, easy to follow way that’s easy to teach.”
According to Tory Baucum, transforming culture starts at home. That is why he is thrilled to see the Human
Dignity Curriculum implemented at Central School, in the same town which Benedictine College calls home. But his long-term vision is to see the principles being shared through the John Paul II Fellows and the Center for Family Life spread throughout the country, and even the world.
the Center for Family Life
Tory was recently elected to the Polish Academy of Sciences and appointed by the President of Poland to the
Copernicus Academy. Tory is being recognized for his humanitarian and education efforts throughout Poland,
which has been an unsung hero and bastion of faithfulness over and over throughout the war-ravaged history of Europe. Tory plans to have John Paul II Fellows provide support and service to the people of Poland.
“The Polish people are the heroes of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine,” said Tory. “There are two-to-three million refugees of this war in Poland, and no refugee camps. The people are living John Paul II’s vision for the Domestic Church by taking these people into their homes. Poland is propping up the Ukrainians. We need to be propping up Poland.”
Thanks to Tory’s work, the Center for Family Life received a major gift this past fall to help develop the programs that will transform culture in America and in the world. Current Raven parents, Dr. Leonard and Barbara Rice, presented the center with a gift of $100,000.
It’s that kind of generosity that makes the vision of both the Center for Family Life, and Central School, a reality. That vision is summed up in excerpts from a poem by Raven alumnus and teacher, William Patterson ’98, which appears above the door of the Central School Building:
“Here, we preach a growth mindset. We celebrate grit and gratitude every week. A Family that roots for each other, A community that cares and shares, A place for becoming Better versions of ourselves.”
Raven alumnus and teacher, William Patterson ’98, which
appears above the door of the Central School Building:
Original Article from Benedictine College • Center For Family Life
For more information, please visit Benedictine.edu/familylife and Humandignitycurriculum.org.