MY FAVORITE PRIEST

He accentuates what he unites

By Joseph K. Horn

n When he first met me on August 12, 1970, I was 14 years old, wearing the green suit my mother had bought for me, and feeling nervous. I had just gotten off a flight into Los Angeles International Airport. I was enrolling as a freshman in a boarding school I had never seen but knew was far away from my home in Deerfield, Illinois. Father Szanto saw my suit, smiled and spoke. I didn't understand a word he said.

Over the 25 years since then, I have come to understand many things about Father Szanto, first as one of his high school students, and now, as a colleague in education. His heavily accented English is but one facet of his personality that illuminates St. Michael's.

Hubert Szanto first taught in his native Hungary. But the newly established Communist government there was bent on eradicating religion and its values-centered education. Father Szanto, together with several other Norbertine priests, chose to forsake his country rather than his ideals. They reached America in 1954.

Father Szanto learned English idioms by reading Philadelphia's Sunday comics. He began teaching and writing within a few months of his arrival. By 1961 Father Szanto was in Southern California and co-founded St. Michael's College Preparatory High School.

Long before the U.S. government legislated non-discrimination policies in education, Father Szanto had them for St. Michael's. He knew firsthand what it felt like to be the butt of ignorance and viciousness. For this reason Father Szanto refuses to collect or give information on the ethnic composition of the student body. Our school brochure explains that this is "in order to give practical meaning to the motto on the Great Seal of the United States, E Pluribus Unum."

He accentuates what unites, not what divides. On official forms requiring the ethnic composition of the student body, Father Szanto specifies that the students are 100% "Other," often adding, "We are all God's children." He thereby encourages St. Michael's to be a rich amalgam of ethnic backgrounds. For example, the student body consists of only 83 students, but represents more than a dozen different mother tongues.

Father Szanto respects the students' futures as much as their origins. Since individual responsibility coupled with initiative and hard work is what is required for success in life, these are the same three ingredients he requires of St. Michael's students.

For example, much of the everyday running of the school is entrusted to the Student Body Government. The Student Government here is not simply a political position which looks good on a transcript, or the result of a popularity contest. Father Szanto believes these young men are his partners at St. Michael's. The school's success depends even more on them than on himself. He tells them this frequently. Father's level of trust is very high, as is his expectation. Our campus is drug free because students monitor themselves. Here you really are your brother's keeper.

Not only do the young men watch out for one another, they also handle all the ordinary maintenance needs of the school. This keeps the tuition low enough to enable families to send their sons here who otherwise couldn't afford such a quality education.

Father Szanto is always encouraging his students to be their best. In athletics, good sportsmanship is the key. Father Szanto consistently receives and repeats the praise of referees and coaches on what gentlemen our athletes are. This is remarkable considering the fact that the baseball team reversed a nine-year losing streak only last year.

Father has only compliments about the students' participation in interscholastic academic competitions, in which St. Michael's regularly does very well. We compete with schools 150 times our size, but the trophies we win are as big as theirs. At the 1991 Orange County Academic Pentathalon the team received a 100% on the "Super Quiz" event, the first time any school had ever done so! Father Szanto is always the primary motivator of the academic teams, giving them pep talks and treating them to dinner after every competition.

Father Szanto's vision of values-centered education motivates students and teachers alike. Six years ago when Mrs. Carol Grieves came to interview for a teaching position, she already had been offered a comfortable classroom in a large school. She was so impressed by Father Szanto she turned down the other position. Every school day she now travels farther, works harder, with longer hours and more class preparations, for less money. She was freed by his vision to be the innovative educator she always longed to be.

For his indefatigable work Father Szanto has received national and international acclaim, in the form of late night telephone calls from the alumni all over the world asking for advice; hallways filled with oversized pictures of each year's graduating classes and plaques gifted by seniors before they left his care. One plaque reads, "The fingerprints below are a symbol of our personal pledge to uphold the ideals of St. Michael's and to keep its teaching pure and intact, no matter what the cost. Also, these fingerprints symbolize the lasting mark you have made on each of us, preparing for the future." The fingerprints spell out the words, "We Love You."

In my high school years I came to understand Father Szanto's English well, but was never able to imitate it. In my years as a teacher I have spent much more time studying Father's accent on education. It bears repeating. n