A SPICE 2004 Program
St. Thomas the Apostle Preschool
Tucson, Arizona
St. Thomas the Apostle Preschool was founded ten years ago by a determined group of women from the parish and Father Todd O'Leary. The goal of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Preschool is to develop a well-rounded Catholic child. For us this means we must first and foremost nurture the "whole" child. Nurturing the child includes creating a balance of activities and experiences that celebrate each child's spiritual, social, emotional, cognitive and physical growth.
These activities and experiences are presented within the context of a fun educational environment. In addition, every child is encouraged to develop an awareness of the need for commitment to others. We believe that it is through the combination of these two essential parts, the self and the connection to the world community, that a whole child is realized.
Our program operates successfully because each of the staff believes this is our vocation, our calling. We have said "Yes" to the journey that God has offered us. This includes not only our call to teaching, but also our call to be connected to the individual school families. Our relationships with the children and families reflect our belief of how Christ would want us to model Him. These components create a Catholic environment that permeates our community with respect, value, willingness to share and support of all. This means that each person in our community is interdependent on each other.
In others words we believe in the African legend that "it takes a village to raise a child."
Teaching the children that they are part of a "village" and that they can be responsible and caring Catholics is achieved through an extensive Social Justice curriculum. This curriculum is based on the seven major themes of Catholic Social Teaching from the U.S. Bishops statement, "Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions." Each year the entire school is involved in several community service projects that provide a hands-on approach for the children.
