ALTON - This school year, Marquette Catholic High School (MCHS) will implement a new program to build community and encourage friendship among students.
This program, called the “house system” or “community system,” creates groups of students from different grade levels and puts them in conversation with each other. The school hopes this will facilitate conversations about faith and improve students’ relationships and interpersonal skills.
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“We’re trying to implement a little bit more relationship building between the students,” Tim Harmon, MCHS principal, explained. “All of it is centered around the idea that we’re trying to build a better community and build a better faith.”
Harmon worked with Father Paul Kallal, MCHS campus minister, to develop the program. There will be 16 houses with approximately 20 students in each house, ranging in age from freshmen to seniors. Every day, the students will meet for a “house period” and spend 40 minutes together.
“During this 40-minute period or 40-minute class, they are working on building community, building relationships and building faith,” Harmon said. “That can come in any number of different ways, whether it’s going over prayer intentions, talking about the Mass, doing daily readings, or maybe it’s just doing an icebreaker, getting to know each other, playing a board game together.”
Harmon explained that the house system began at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Several high schools in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, of which MCHS is a part, have since adapted versions of this system.
Many educators have expressed concerns about students’ interpersonal skills following the COVID-19 Pandemic. There is also evidence that increased technology and social media use can contribute to loneliness, isolation and mental health issues in teens. Harmon hopes the house system helps combat some of these concerns. Additionally, studies have shown that academic performance improves when students have positive relationships with one another.
“It’s a program meant to help work on students building relationships between each other, because we feel like that’s a really important aspect that young people need to work on developing, especially as we get more and more into technology,” Harmon said. “Building that in-person relationship with several students, we find, is very important…[and] I think it’s going to do wonders for our kids.”
The first full day of school is Aug. 17. Visit the official MCHS website for more information.
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