The Vision                                    January 2012

The Patriots Ball

Before the semester break we announced that our annual Patriots Ball is coming soon! Saturday, March 10, 2012 at the Pechanga Resort!

If you were with us last year, you will remember what an incredible time it was and I am sure you will be there for this year's celebration of our great school.

 If you did not get a chance to join us last year, please come! We would love for you, your family and your friends to be part of what makes our school so special!

To order tickets and to find out more information about this year's Ball, please visit the Patriot Ball Website at:

or call the school office at 951-926-6776, ex. 6935.

 Can't wait to see you there!!

                                                                                                                                                                                     

The virtue for this quarter is "Fortitude." Fortitude means "having the courage to face challenges and obstacles; persevering when things get tough."

Focusing on fortitude is always appropriate for many reasons, but for this quarter in particular there is a definitive connection between this focus and our upcoming Patriots Ball in March.

You are probably wondering, "What has fortitude got to do with the ball?", and I can understand why you would ask.  It sounds like a cheesy sales pitch, but let me explain; I promise it is not.

As many of you know, last year was the celebration of TPS' 10th Anniversary as a school, and not just any school -- one of the most successful schools in the state and nationally recognized for its work.  In light of that celebration we knew it was time to begin investigating and planning for a more substantive facility, something that would speak to our determination to continue with our vision to build a heritage of virtue, wisdom and knowledge. So, we did some investigation and even developed preliminary plans with students, parents, teachers and staff taking part. These plans were unveiled during last year's Patriot's Ball.  But, unfortunately, due to budget constraints at the state level that flow -- like the Niagra Falls - down to the public schools, we are in somewhat of a holding pattern and movement is slow.

However, we have NOT given up our hopes, we continue to investigate other avenues, and we still maintain regular discussions about the future of the school, the campus and the facilities. Even this year you will see the efforts we have made to beautify and preserve the campus we have with new paint, shading for the students, and greenery.

It is in this particular effort that we maintain our fortitude as we "face challenges and obstacles" when "things get tough."

With this in mind, I thought I would take some time to share a story with you about someone whose life exemplified "fortitude". From her example we can be encouraged to press forward, but more importantly, we can be humbled, because her example makes what we are facing pale in comparison.

Irena was a young woman living in Poland at the time of the Holocaust. She was horrified to hear of the cruelty that had infected her homeland and had spread across Europe as stories from the Jewish concentration camps reached her ears.

She shuttered when she thought about the thousands of innocent people who were being beaten, starved, over-worked, and killed in the name of Nazi power. She began to have trouble sleeping at night.

When she closed her eyes, she saw the faces of children being packed onto trains that would take them away to the camps.  She imagined children standing in the snow, freezing, sleeping in disease-ridden barracks. She imagined them until she could not stand to imagine them any longer. She knew she had to do something, despite the imminent dangers she would face.

Irena applied and was hired as a plumbing/sewer specialist in the Warsaw ghetto. She purchased a slightly over-sized toolbox, and a number of burlap sacks that she would tell the Nazi officers were for carrying supplies back and forth from her vehicle.

As the months went on, Irena managed to sneak hundreds of Jewish infants out of the ghetto, swaddled in blankets and lying at the bottom of her toolbox. She used the burlap sacks for the older children, whom she instructed to curl up in a ball at the bottom of the bag and threw over her shoulder as she marched through the gates of the ghetto.

She had also purchased a large dog that she trained to bark every time the soldiers let her in and out of the camp. These barks deterred the officers from inspecting the contents of her bags, and kept them a safe distance away from the back of the truck, which was filled with hiding children. The bark of the dog also covered the cries of the infants as they lay in her toolbox.

In total, Irena managed to rescue over 2,500 children from the illness and death that awaited them in the camps.  She would have rescued more, but she was eventually caught by her supervising officers; imprisoned and severely beaten: a punishment resulting in two broken legs, two broken arms, and a number of other internal and external injuries.

However, her work was far from done. Irena had kept a glass jar filled with the names of the children she had rescued, buried beneath a tree in her yard. Following her release from prison she dug up the jar and, when the war ended, she used the names of the children to locate any parents that may have survived. Many families were reunited. Those children whose parents did not survive were found foster or adoptive families.

Mrs. Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and died in May 2008. Her story has been published and continues to serve as a testament to the depths of human fortitude in places all over the globe.

Temecula Prep

Mrs. Sendler's story offers a tremendous example of fortitude, the kind of fortitude TPS hopes to instill in our students. But, as they say in China, "talk does not cook rice". In other words, actions speak louder than words. So, we have a far better chance of teaching our students about fortitude by living it, as opposed to talking about it.

And, that is what we are doing as we continue to look forward to the future of TPS and the many things we desire to do, to provide a better education and campus for our students despite the state's budget woes.

I am sure you would agree that what Mrs. Sendler endured in her time is a far greater challenge than what we face in ours. However, we face a challenge nonetheless and we should be humbled and encouraged by her example.

It does take courage to look forward with hope in these times. We are facing newer and greater challenges each year as we try to provide more for our students with fewer resources than ever before, and still persevere with the hope of a bigger and better campus in the future.

Despite these challenges, we are still hopeful! Much of this comes from the hope we have realized in becoming a stronger community of students, teachers, parents and staff working together! We can do this, and we will see this through. The dreams we shared last year are real and alive and we would love for you to join us this year at the Patriots Ball so that we continue in this endeavor with you!

Scott S. Phillips, J.D.

Headmaster and Executive Director

The December 2011 TPS Vision

To keep us all in the holiday spirit this year, I thought it would be fun (and educational!) to put together a list of odd Christmas facts. These tidbits reveal interesting details about holiday celebrations all over the world and even right here at home. They may also put you ten points ahead in this year's Christmas dinner trivia competition. So, let the fun and education begin!

 

Did you know...

And lastly, a few surprising statistics about the Holiday season here in the United States:

 

In all seriousness, I would like to wish all of our families a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season.  As we close out our first semester over the next couple of weeks, take a moment to enjoy one another, remember what this season means to you individually, and remember the great variety of tradition from around the world that makes this time so special to so many. It is our varied traditions and celebrations that make the holiday season a wonderful experience and enhance the rich heritage of Christmas as we spread holiday cheer from one place and person to the next. I hope that this year, your Christmas will be a celebration of this spirit and a worthy testament to the TPS family.

Let the fun, food, and elbowing begin!

Scott Phillips

Headmaster and Executive Director