Extension magazine - Spring 2023

38
IGNITE
Feature Story
Extension | Spring 2023 39
How is this for a mission statement?
“Help young people and their families
discover their beloved identity as
children of God.”
It sounds simple, but it isn’t.
Have you ever spent
time with an
11-year-old?
Junior high
students are an
enigma wrapped in
a mystery. They are alternatingly
boisterous or silent whenever it
suits them. They are romantic
idealists who sometimes pretend
they are world-weary cynics. They
can lift our hearts one moment
and break them the next. They
are foals on wobbly legs. They can
no more figure out themselves
than we can. How can we help
them sort out the puzzle of who
they are? How can we “help them
discover their beloved identity as
children of God”?
Michael Armstrong has a strategy.
He is the director of the Don
Bosco Center in Lawrenceburg,
Kentucky and the author of this
challenging mission statement.
He believes that all young people
have the same question: “Is this
adult going to love me?”
Armstrong believes that kids
are longing to be known. If adults
are willing to enter into relationship
with them in sincere admiration
and respect, if adults can
authentically know them, celebrate
them and love them
through all their ups and downs,
through their multiple iterations,
then young people will discover
their beloved identity as children
of God.
After
school
matters
The Don Bosco Center
shows students
their worth in
Lawrenceburg,
Kentucky
A natural starting point
Armstrong is a teacher. He
comes by it naturally. He studied
classics and philosophy as an
undergraduate and earned master’s
degrees in theology and biblical
studies. He taught Latin and
Christian studies for four years at a
small private school. He loved the
daily interaction with his students
and the chance to be truly present
as a mentor and guide.
When he left the school, he
became a youth minister at St.
Lawrence Parish in Lawrenceburg.
He was jarred by how little time
he got to spend with young people
and decided to merge his twin
passions of teaching and ministry.
It seemed like a natural starting
point. What junior high student
doesn’t need help with math and
English? Who doesn’t need help
with homework and test prep?
Why not start there and see what
happens?
So, with some funding from
Catholic Extension, Armstrong
was able to employ a few teachers
and open an afterschool tutoring
program in a
Father Jack
Wall visits
Michael Armstrong,
director
of the Don
Bosco Center.
space loaned by
the United Methodist
Church. The program
was open four
days a week from 3
to 6 p.m. and served
students from kindergarten
to eighth grade. Armstrong
named it the Don Bosco
Center after the patron saint of
schoolchildren and magicians.
(Adults who work with young people
must absolutely be magicians.)
St. Don Bosco developed powerful
teaching methods based on
love. He, like Armstrong, knew the
answer to every child’s question,
“Is this adult going to love me?”
PHOTOS CHRIS STRONG
Young people
are encouraged
to discover
their potential
and overcome
their struggles
at the Catholic
Extensionsupported
center.
The game of Solitaire
A few weeks ago, one of Armstrong’s
regulars came in. Tim’s
normal, noisy exuberance was
replaced by a sullen, irritated
silence that bordered on disrespect.
When a teacher asked Tim
what was wrong, he snapped and
noisily refused to do any work.
Armstrong, knowing not to
sanction symptoms, chose to dig
down to the root causes of this
puzzling behavior. Instead of
demanding an immediate public
apology and lecturing Tim, Armstrong
met him where he was, the
sacred space between a caring
adult and a hurting child.
Armstrong took Tim to the
computer room and invited him to
play a game of Solitaire. After all,
that was what Tim was really playing.
“Leave me alone in my misery.”
It is one of those things preteens
often say but never mean.
Tim was looking for an answer to
the question, “Is Mr. Armstrong
going to love me even when I act
like this?”