Catholic schools shape teacher’s vocation

May 22, 2015
Tom Burke

Allison Pheatt now stands before her own class as teacher. She says her Catholic school education showed her the way.

Allison teaches fourth grade at St. Anselm School and is a graduate of St. Isabella School, San Rafael and St. Ignatius College Preparatory, San Francisco. She holds an undergraduate degree in art history from St. Louis University as well as a certificate in Christian Intellectual Tradition. She received a graduate degree in education with a specialty in teacher leadership May 16 from Dominican University, San Rafael.

“As the youngest of four children and preceded by my three older siblings, all my teachers at St. Isabella knew my family well,” Allison told me in an email. “It was within this loving and nurturing environment that I grew to respect the teaching profession.”

Allison said she always enjoyed school but it was in high school that she “acknowledged and appreciated” a love for education. She said faculty at St. Ignatius “had a special way of letting each student know that we were cared for” and “found new and interesting ways to challenge us.”

A Catholic school classroom seems the right place for Allison, she said. Her three siblings have all taught in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

“In addition to our loving parents Jeff and Ginny, my siblings Kendra, Kelly and Rob were my biggest cheerleaders when I set out to apply for a teaching position.”

Their “devotion to education empowered” her to follow their model, she said.

She has been at St. Anselm’s for three years. “I cannot imagine being at any other school. The moment I stepped foot on the campus and met the administration and faculty, it felt like home. I could not ask to spend my day with a more curious and charming group of students.”

Though Allison calls herself a “meticulous planner and organizer” noting students would exclaim “making lists” as among her favorite things, she says one of the things most exciting about teaching is “that every day is a different adventure and you never know what is going to happen.”

Another favorite is laughing with her class. “My students and I always find a way to joke around and a reason to laugh. There is no sweeter sound than children laughing together.”

“I have such vivid memories of my teachers growing up; I can only hope that my students will remember me in their later years. I can think of no better way to serve God than to teach the future leaders.”

CONSECRATED LIVES: “Women and Spirit” a documentary on the work of women religious in the United States will be shown June 4 as part of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael “Gathering@Grand” series, 1520 Grand Ave., San Rafael, and June 11 in Foudy Hall at St. Monica Parish, 23rd Avenue and Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. Both showings begin at 7 p.m.

The showing at St. Monica’s will be followed by a panel of men and women religious speaking about religious life, and refreshments. “We, women and men religious, are all called to continue the mission of the church,” Sister Noreen O’Connor, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet for 61 years, told me. Sister Noreen is RCIA coordinator at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, now partnering with St. Monica’s. Visit www.stthomasapostlechurchsf.org.

The showing in San Rafael will be followed by a panel of four sisters speaking on their work in affordable housing, preschool education, ecology, sustainability and the use of social media to promote peace and justice, and refreshments Call (415) 453-8303; email CommunityRelations@sanrafaelop.org.

“Women and Spirit” chronicles the history of the thousands of sisters who came to the United States and founded the Catholic school system, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the poor, mental institutions, and many more programs.

Email items and electronic pictures – jpegs at no less than 300 dpi – to burket@sfarchdiocese.org or mail to Street, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109. Include a follow-up phone number. Street is toll-free. My phone number is (415) 614-5634.