School started again this year. That seems like writing, “The sun came up in the east.” What else would it do? In a lot of ways, it was a non-event. There were no momentous firsts in our family this year, no one starting preschool or kindergarten or first grade or middle school, no one going to a new school or graduating from an old one. When I picked the kids up after school and asked how their day was, it was like a time machine had transported us to mid-October, well after any back-toschool excitement had worn off. Me: “How did it go today?” Frank: “Fine.” Caroline” “OK.” Me (trying to extract some little detail to grab on to): “Was it better than you expected? Worse than you expected?” Caroline: “It was just OK.” And that, most likely, was a conversation very similar to thousands happening after the first day of classes in Catholic schools throughout the archdiocese. That’s a good thing, because one reason the first day of school was such a non-event was that no families were forced to change schools because their former Catholic school closed. All 256 Catholic elementary and high schools that were in operation last school year reopened their doors for the 2010-11 school year. That has not always been the case in recent years. In 2005, a score of Catholic schools closed, including the one my children attended at the time. That was cataclysmic in the life of Caroline, who had just finished first grade but had already put in four years at her school. That August, starting at a new school came along with lots of anxiety and nerves. Five years later, it’s worked out all right. In a bigger school, both kids have had access to resources they would not have had at their old school, and they have taken advantage of both academic and extracurricular opportunities. They’ve made friends and, I think, influenced some people. I am profoundly grateful that their school is strong, and that strength is reflected in a more stable Catholic school system, where more students can continue to get an excellent academic education as well as a thorough grounding in their faith. For Caroline and Frank, all is not as boring as they like to make it seem. Day by day, more information seeps out from the been-there-done-that kids: new kids in class, what the spring musical will be, new books they are reading, a new sport for Frank. The new school year is still full of new beginnings. I give thanks that having to find a new school is not one of them.