by Sr. Marie Caritas, C.K.
I never thought of trout as beautiful, until recently. Our fifth-grade classroom at St. James School in Crete began the second semester with a 50-gallon tank and water chiller, ready for a batch of about 150 trout eggs.
Snow delayed delivery of the eggs by nearly two weeks. The extra anticipation, however, made the arrival of the small, orange eggs even more exciting for both students and teachers!
A few days after arrival, our trout babies began hatching. In this stage of development, the trout are known as ‘alevin’ and carry a visible yolk-sac full of nourishment. We observed our alevin carefully as they moved slowly near the bottom of their hatch basket, huddling closely together most of the time.
Over the course of several more days, we watched as the young trout became more independent. They absorbed their yolk-sac (reaching the ‘fry’ stage) and needed an outside food source, so we began feeding them. About one month later, our trout now measure a whopping 1 ½ in. long and can be called ‘fingerlings.’
As Catholic educators, we know that we are working with parents to prepare our children for heaven, but sometimes we may think that that is separate from their academic work. I have really good news – it’s not!
What is heaven? Face-to-face contemplation of God – forever. In this eternal exchange, we will be fully alive and perfectly enthralled by His beauty. We will be completely content to gaze on His loveliness and totally receptive to His reciprocal gaze. This is our great destiny and, as educators, we are invited to help our students prepare for it.
Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged this when he said, “a good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints.” Whether we are reading Dickens (or Dr. Seuss) or solving a complex math problem (or trying to count to five), the whole of education in our Catholic schools is at the service of becoming saints, or rightly said another way, becoming contemplatives.
St. Thomas Aquinas says that contemplation is “the simple act of gazing on the truth,” specifically divine truth. He explains further that the true contemplative not only sees the truth, but also loves it. Day in and day out, our Catholic schools are forming our children (and ourselves!) as contemplatives, and this is not only happening in religion class. In fact, every subject is the privileged place where we are coming to know truth and fall in love with it. Ultimately, we are led to the realization that the Creator provides everything in this world for us to be drawn into relationship with Him, a face-to-face gaze of limitless love.
Before learning about trout, I did not find them particularly interesting. I have never had a special affinity for trout, but these weeks of caring for and studying their habitat, life cycle and anatomy, including the opportunity to dissect adult trout, has led my students —and me—to marvel at their peculiarities. Did you know that trout smell their way back to their place of birth when they are ready to spawn? Or, did you know that when trout first begin life inside the egg, they have all of the scales that they will need for their lifetime? Did you know that a trout’s eyes can move independently of each other? They are simply amazing!
The more we learn, the more questions arise. Since our trout hatched in our classroom tank and we will release them next month, where will they choose to spawn when the time comes? Why did God give them an adipose fin? How many teeth do they really have? We have certainly stretched our capacity for contemplation and wonder through time spent with these humble critters. We have pondered the goodness of God in creating these trout for our enjoyment. I can honestly say that pondering the truths of trout together has led us to a deeper love of God, who is Truth Itself.
Education nurtures our capacity for contemplation, which requires the mind and soul working together to see, observe, be amazed and love! As we near the completion of another academic year, I praise and thank God for inviting me to share in the adventure of Catholic education, through which my students and I prepare for heaven together. What a delight ‘to gaze on the truth’ alongside my fifth-graders as we study and care for our beautiful fish. Who knew that trout would bring us all one step closer to heaven?
