Sunday, January 6, 2013

St Joseph's Seminary

I spent seven years of my young life at St. Joseph's Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.  The priest teachers and fellow students were a formative part of my youth. As a teacher I have worn it as a badge of honor that it took me five years to make it through high school. It was 1963 when myself, Seth (from Georgia) and Dennis (from Brooklyn, NY) joined in taking Freshman classes again.

I was stunned when I happened upon the location on Google maps. It showed the Wilberforce School, instead of St. Joseph's as the Princeton lakeside location. Sure enough it appears that the Vincentians sold the property to a Christian private school. William Wilberforce, having almost single-handedly eliminated slavery from Great Britain and its colonies, appears to have an awesome resume. Yet I was somewhat irritated watching the school video, watching young scrubbed teachers listen to little children recite the story of Noah's ark.  I am still not that certain about the degree of protestant fundamentalism taught to children, but it appears by the video heavily so.

I also was moved to see where some of my former classmates ended up. Some were still not far from home: Philadelphia, New York and Maryland. Greetings former classmates! Have you watched the Wiberforce video?