MANSFIELD — Nathan Sims was teaching a lesson on St. Thomas Aquinas when his students asked a question he couldn’t answer.
The class was exploring the connection between the body and the soul during a theology class at St. Peter’s School.
“From that conversation, the 11th graders are like, ‘What happens to a person who’s on life support and in hospice? Do they still have their soul?'” Sims recalled.
He admitted he didn’t know the answer. His students weren’t satisfied, so they started debating.
It’s not the first time students in Sims’ theology courses got philosophical. He encourages them to wrestle with big questions and complicated texts.
Students began the school year with Plato’s allegory of the cave. Since then, they’ve read from Aquinas’ Summa Theologica and the biblical book of Ecclesiastes.
Sims said students have responded positively and are participating more in class than at the start of the school year.
“I have noticed an increase in their willingness and desire to learn,” he said.
“At the end of (Ecclesiastes), one of my ninth graders said, ‘Your class is really hard and it’s super confusing, but not in a bad way. It’s just really hard and confusing because you force us to think about things we’ve never thought about.’ ”
Sims joined the staff at St. Peter’s School last fall as a theology teacher. He’s since been promoted to director of theology and student formation, a position head of school Laurie McKeon created for him.
“It’s probably the most exciting thing St. Pete has done in a really long time,” McKeon said.
“Nathan’s got an incredible gifting in this area. As soon as I saw him in action I thought, we need to lock him into a much bigger role that will impact the entire school community.”
Sims studied theology, philosophy, political science and ethics at Ashland University. He worked in business before coming to St. Peter’s. He has continued teaching middle and high school theology courses in his new role, while also working to revamp the school’s theology curriculum for next school year.
“We are looking to build a comprehensive way to look at religious education and then human formation,” Sims said.
The curriculum will still include lessons on the sacraments, books of the Bible and church history. It will also touch on character development, morality and philosophy.
The goal is to equip students from all faiths find spirituality.
“I think there’s a lot of misconception that if you’re not Catholic, we’re going to do everything we can to convert you,” McKeon said. “We’re a Catholic school. We’re always going to be Catholic and that’s really important to us.
“(Yet) 66 percent of our kids are not Catholic and that’s cool, too. But every one of those kids needs to have a moral compass.”
Sims said he hopes to take a holistic, three-fold approach that focuses on spiritual, intellectual and physical development. The latter will take the form of lifting weights and engaging in community service.
“Weightlifting equips them in the virtue of fortitude, the ability to accomplish difficult things for extended periods of time,” he said.
“They can take that, translate it to their academic rigor, but also whatever pain they carry in life, working through those things and not just giving up because it’s hard. We train our bodies so that we can train our souls.”
Sims is currently designing a personal virtues plan to help K-12 students track their “growth in virtue.” The plan is based on the seven virtues identified by the catechism of the Catholic Church — prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, faith, hope and love.
Sims’ goal is that students will realize they are in control of the person they become.
“It’s a sort of tangible way for the students to understand that their actions have consequences and that they can actually grow as a person in real ways and that you can actually see the effects,” he said.
“You can become more virtuous and you can become less virtuous, and it’s your decision. You choose.”
Teachers will also be asked to track students’ virtuous actions via an online system. Students will be able to report their peers’ virtuous actions as well.
Sims said his time in the business world gave him an appreciation how numbers and analytics can tell a story.
“Having something tangible the students can actually look at and be like, ‘Oh, I’m super high in the virtue of justice, but I’m pretty low in the virtue of fortitude’ — they can actually sit down and say, ‘Okay, I need to make a conscious effort to increase my virtue of fortitude.’ They can actually document goals in that personal profile and work towards those goals each quarter,” he explained.
Students who earn enough “virtue points” will be able to advance through a system of orders, each with an honorary title. Scores will reset each quarter, but students won’t be able to lose their rank or move backwards. A select group of students, supervised by a teacher, will help oversee the program and create opportunities for students to take part in virtuous acts.
Sims said he hopes the program will incentivize students to be leaders, but acknowledged tracking one’s virtue could tempt some towards self-righteousness.
“The students who decide to take that action are probably not exhibiting virtue and other areas of their life, so there’s not a super high likelihood that they’ll actually be able to advance very far in the program,” he said. “In the school, and the church, virtue is based very heavily on the integrity of your character.”
He also admitted some teachers might be concerned about the extra responsibility of tracking student virtue, at least at the onset of the program.
“Yes, it may require more effort on the teachers’ part at first, but I think we’re really going to start seeing the benefits in the students, which will make the teachers job easier,” he said.
McKeon said the personalized approach is also meant to make students think about how they can live a life of purpose.
“’What are your gifts, talents and skills?’ They’ll assess that,” she said. “How do we use that in a way to serve God and others? What does that look like and how do I grow into that? What do I see my future being? We’re going to give them the space to explore those questions.”
An overhauled theology curriculum isn’t the only change St. Peter’s is implementing. Next year, students in grades 6 through 8 will get their own dedicated middle school space on the third floor of the junior high/high school building.
The self-contained middle school will include updated classrooms, a science lab, a homework space, an honors lounge and a space for students to learn practical life skills like cooking and personal finance.
McKeon said she believes middle school students will benefit from the specialized space, time and attention during a formative time in their lives.
“Research shows that academic and social outcomes in middle school are actually a greater predictor of college and career success than achievement in high school,” McKeon said, citing a report called The Forgotten Middle.
She hopes a new community gathering space will become a place where students can meet and hear from different career speakers.
“St. Pete’s has an enormous alumni base and a very successful one, so it’d be fun to bring a lot of them back and let them talk to these kids about all sorts of careers,” she said.
“There’s lots of things out there. We want our middle school kids to get a chance to explore those things.”
Focusing on positive character, virtue and habit building will be another core component of the middle school experience.
“Catholic education, particularly at St. Peter’s is all about developing the whole person,” McKeon said. “To get them to see themselves as learners and controlling their destiny and capable is like a really big part of education.
“We’ll never lower our expectations. I still expect greatness out of every kid here.”
In a letter to school families, McKeon assured that this year’s fifth graders — who will now end their time in elementary school a year earlier than expected — will receive extra care during the transition.
“We will be extremely attentive to ensuring they not only have all the experiences, traditions and milestones that they have been looking forward to, but that they also get the attention they need in our new Middle School space.
