Familiaris Podcast for Catholic School Leaders

Jaime Madison Vasquez, PhD

Mission-first professional formation to help Catholic school leaders forge extraordinary relationships with families familiaris.substack.com

  1. 21h ago

    Parents, Schools, & Responsible Technology Use

    Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements. Michael Marinaccio, executive director of the Center for Responsible Technology, and Peter Ryan, retired Navy captain and the Center’s co-founder, join Dr. Jaime Madison Vasquez to discuss their efforts to change the culture and promote healthy relationships with tech in schools, in families, and in communities across the United States. The two walk through the Center’s K–12 certification and its seven pillars, covering school-owned devices, student smartphones, platforms and parent access, artificial intelligence, obscenity and student data, active lifestyles, and purposeful technology. Both make the case that removing screens is only half the work, parents, teachers, and students each need the language to understand what the technology is doing to them. What You’ll Learn: * What the certification’s seven pillars cover, and how a whitelist approach to classroom technology differs from the blacklist approach most schools take * Why handwriting, outdoor play, and sleep are treated as cognitive requirements rather than nostalgia—and how to frame that for families * How to address evening screen habits that undo the school day without telling parents how to parent * What to ask your principal or IT director about whether student data is being sold through the platforms your school already uses * How the pilot certification works: who can sign up, what the rubric is meant to do, and what feedback participating schools receive Resources Mentioned: * Center for Responsible Technology * Get an Early Copy of the CRT Guidelines * Technology: The New Addiction by Captain Peter Ryan, U.S. Navy (Retired) * Plato’s Warning Has Been Vindicated: Why AI Has Brought Nothing More than the Conceit of Wisdom by Michael Marinaccio Chapters: * 00:00: Introduction—meet the Center for Responsible Technology * 01:57: Peter Ryan on screen addiction in his own family * 03:15: Michael Marinaccio’s background in technology and politics * 05:52: Why the schools, not Congress * 10:15: Parents as first educators—and where schools have to push * 16:10: Handwriting, the brain, and embodied learning * 19:53: Age appropriateness across K–12 * 25:28: Parents waking up and schools losing students * 28:59: Why student-facing AI chatbots are prohibited * 35:20: The smoking parallel—education as prevention * 40:57: Inside the seven pillars of the certification * 47:59: Joining the pilot and the ten-year vision Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios To receive new Familiaris posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe

    Parents, Schools, & Responsible Technology Use

  2. Aug 13

    St. Josemaría on Education with Dr. Madonna Murphy

    Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements. Dr. Madonna Murphy, Professor Emerita at University of St. Francis joins Dr. Jaime Madison Vasquez to talk about her new book A Treasure for the Church: St. Josemaría on Marriage, Family, and Education. The book draws on thirty videos of get-togethers with educators and parents filmed during Saint Josemaría’s catechesis trips through Spain and Latin America in the 1970s, translated from Spanish and available to English readers for the first time. The topics and questions remain relevant today in Catholic schools: the partnership between parents and teachers, the formation of character, helping young people grow in freedom and responsibility, and nurturing bright and cheerful family life. What You’ll Learn: * Why St. Josemaría told parents unhappy with their children’s school to get on the school board first, and to start their own school only if that failed * What St. Josemaría said to teachers about their work—artists and potters who take off what is superfluous and add what is lacking, examining every day the good qualities their students already have * Why he ranked a school’s priorities as parents first, then teachers, then students, and why he told teachers to help parents in their job of parenting * What he told parents about piety in the home: morning and evening prayer, a family rosary young children are free to join or leave, and example over enforcement Resources: A Treasure for the Church: St. Josemaría on Marriage, Family, and Education by Madonna Murphy (Scepter, Bookshop, Amazon) Chapters: * 00:00: Meet Dr. Madonna Murphy and A Treasure for the Church * 00:57: Three Principals, Aristotle, and a Career in Teacher Formation * 03:51: Notes from the Get-Togethers, Translated into English * 05:17: What a Get-Together Is and Where the Films Came From * 09:26: Thirty Videos, Now in English for the First Time * 11:35: The Schools He Founded and the Ones He Told Parents to Start * 14:50: Parents as Primary Educators, Schools as Partners * 17:48: What He Said to Parents and to Teachers * 21:33: Parents First, Then Teachers, Then Students * 27:41: Bright and Cheerful Homes * 32:27: Acts of Piety Without Burden * 35:06: The Father’s Share and the Blessing That Ends the Book Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios To receive new Familiaris posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe

    St. Josemaría on Education with Dr. Madonna Murphy

  3. Aug 6

    Practical Wisdom with Dr. Karen Bohlin

    Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements. Dr. Karen Bohlin joins Dr. Jaime Madison Vasquez to make the case that practical wisdom is the master virtue for anyone who leads and forms others. Dr. Bohlin is the Director of the Practical Wisdom Project at the Abigail Adams Institute, research affiliate at Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, and was a head of school for many years. She walks through the four R’s of the Practical Wisdom Framework and shares the practices that can help leaders, teachers, and parents move toward proactively responding to circumstances with wisdom and hope. What You’ll Learn: * The four R’s of the Practical Wisdom Framework—recognize, recalibrate, reflect, respond—and how to move through them in real time * How to practice reflective listening with a parent or student instead of reacting to a first reaction * What a mind-body-spirit recalibration toolkit looks like at 30 seconds, three minutes, 30 minutes, and longer * The four questions that discipline any decision: what do we know, what do we need to know, who can help, and what are we aiming at * How to prepare a teacher for a parent meeting so it builds relationship and trust rather than defensiveness Resources: * Wisdom at Work -Abigail Adams Institute * Email Dr. Karen Bohlin * Bohlin, K. E. (2022). “The Practical Wisdom Framework: A Compass for School Leaders”. Journal of Education, 202(2), 156-165. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220574211028828 Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios To receive new Familiaris posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe

    Practical Wisdom with Dr. Karen Bohlin

  4. Jul 30

    Forming Families, Forming Saints with Fr. Carter Griffin

    Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements. Fr. Carter Griffin, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington and former seminary formator, joins Jaime Madison Vasquez to talk about his book Forming Families, Forming Saints (Emmaus Road). Fr. Griffin’s claim is that the four pillars structuring seminary formation—human, spiritual, intellectual, and apostolic—give parents a framework they can actually use at home. For Catholic school leaders, it offers a shared vocabulary for the work of forming parents as the first educators of their children. What You’ll Learn: * How the four pillars of seminary formation translate into a structure parents can use, and why the fourth pillar is called apostolic in the book rather than pastoral * Why human formation is the pillar best formed early, and what that means for how schools counsel families with young children * What Fr. Griffin says to parents who arrive convinced that imperfect parenting means everything is lost * What a supernatural outlook is, why he gave seminarians a talk on it at the start of every year, and how it reframes ordinary family joys and struggles * Why families cannot hold the line on smartphones and social media alone, and the role parishes and schools play in making a shared standard possible Resources: * Forming Families, Forming Saints by Fr. Carter Griffin (Emmaus Road, Amazon) * Pastores Dabos Vobis Pope St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation on the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day * Reclaimed: Win the War of Freedom, Self-Mastery, and Holy Purity by Fr. Carter Griffin (Scepter, Bookshop, Amazon) * Why Celibacy?: Reclaiming the Fatherhood of the Priest by Fr. Carter Griffin (Emmaus Road, Amazon) Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios Chapters: * 00:00: Meet Fr. Carter Griffin and Forming Families, Forming Saints * 04:47: Formed by Family: Trust, Sincerity, and a Thirst for Answers * 08:05: For Parents Who Feel They Have Already Failed * 10:15: Four Pillars, Twenty Chapters * 14:17: Why Families Have to Build Their Own Scaffolding * 17:53: Human Formation: The Ground the Crucifix Stands In * 23:17: Spiritual Formation: Baptismal Grace and a Supernatural Outlook * 29:02: Intellectual Formation: Wisdom, Humility, and Beauty * 38:06: Apostolic Formation: Getting Outside Yourself * 45:52: Forming Priests to Support Families * 52:57: Meeting Parents in a Moment of Crisis * 57:52: Why St. Joseph To receive new Familiaris posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe

    Forming Families, Forming Saints with Fr. Carter Griffin

  5. Jul 23

    How to Have a Better Back-to-School Night

    Learn more and register: Jumpstart Your Plan for Parent Partnership Back-to-school night sets the tone for the entire year, yet it is often planned in the rush of staff development and the first week of classes. In this solo episode, Dr. Jaime Madison Vasquez gives Catholic school leaders three verbs for shaping a beginning-of-year parent night: envision, encourage, and invite. Each one reframes the evening around families as the first educators of their children and draws them into the shared mission of the school. What You’ll Learn: * Why vision language centered on the graduate—rather than a recited mission statement—engages parents in the shared goal for their children * How to spotlight parents as the primary educators of their children instead of opening with logistics and control * Ways to keep the year’s vision or theme visible through calendar reminders, bulletin boards, conference invitations, and annual-fund letters * How the Latin root of “family,” famulus, reframes the school community as a household rooted in mutual service * Practical cues—tone, stories, and repeated invitations—that make families feel genuinely welcomed rather than buried in logistics Chapters: * 00:00: Welcome and the Jumpstart Your Plan for Parent Partnership workshop * 02:25: Verb one—envision: casting a shared vision for students * 04:47: Making the vision tangible throughout the year * 07:06: Verb two—encourage: parents as primary educators * 09:34: Verb three—invite: welcoming families into the community * 11:50: The tone of invitation and a recap of the three verbs * 14:09: Applying the verbs beyond the talk, and closing Learn more and register: Jumpstart Your Plan for Parent Partnership Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe

    How to Have a Better Back-to-School Night

  6. Jul 16

    (Re-Air) 7 Principles for Making School-Family Relationships Work

    This episode is re-aired for summer as an invitation to refocus and recommit before the new school year, with a companion live workshop, Jumpstart Your Plan for Parent Partnership, on Thursday, July 30th. Turn your school’s mission into a practical plan for extraordinary relationships with families next year by registering here. What You’ll Learn: * How the Gottman Institute’s Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work applies to your school-family partnerships. * Practical ways to nurture appreciation and counter criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling with their antidotes * How the four pillars of “shared meaning” (rituals of connection, mutual support of roles, shared goals, and shared values and symbols) translate a school’s mission into everyday partnership with families * Why knowing each family’s hopes, background, and aims, build the trust that carries a relationship through hard moments * How to “turn toward” families through small, asynchronous mini-moments—and how to keep reaching out when parents don’t respond * The difference between solvable and perpetual problems, and how to welcome problem-solving as an ongoing relationship rather than a one-and-done fix Chapters * 00:00: Re-Air Introduction & Upcoming Workshop * 01:44: Why Gottman’s Marriage Research Applies to Schools * 06:19: Principle 1 — Create Shared Meaning * 11:01: Principle 2 — Get to Know Your Families * 15:34: Principle 3 — Nurture Your Appreciation * 20:21: Principle 4 — Turn Toward Each Other * 29:54: Principle 5 — Let Your Families Influence You * 34:44: Principle 6 — Solve Your Solvable Problems * 41:17: Principle 7 — Welcome Problem Solving * 47:39: Listener Q&A Q&A * When a parent comes to us already upset or critical, how do we respond without falling into defensiveness right away? * If a parent rarely responds to emails or school communication, how should we interpret that—do we keep reaching out, or give them space? * What about new teachers, fresh out of college, who are nervous about dealing with parents? * What are some small ways teachers can show appreciation to parents without it becoming another big task on their plate? Learn more and register: Jumpstart Your Plan for Parent Partnership Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios To receive new Familiaris posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe

    (Re-Air) 7 Principles for Making School-Family Relationships Work

  7. Jul 9

    Four Questions to Strengthen Parent Partnership Next Year

    In this solo episode, Dr. Jaime Madison Vasquez offers Catholic school leaders four questions for reflecting on parent partnership before the next school year, structured around the four pillars of the Familiaris Framework. Under each question she shares a few points to consider and a curated set of past episodes worth revisiting over the summer, turning the archive into a playlist for personal reflection and team planning. She also invites leaders to go deeper at a virtual workshop on planning for parent partnership on Thursday, July 30th, 2026. Chapters: * 03:03: Question 1: Does our school have a vision for parent partnership and do we share it with families? * 09:32: Question 2: Does ongoing school-family communication illustrate our mission in action and invite families into dialogue? * 15:26: Question 3: Does our school community inspire, guide, and accompany parents through parent formation, friendship, and fellowship? * 18:40: Question 4: Is parent partnership a priority in our faculty and staff roles, responsibilities, and professional formation? Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! ______ Full Breakdown of the Episode and References Below: Overview of the Familiaris Framework: * Episode 7: The Familiaris Framework: A Blueprint for School-Family Partnership Question 1: Does our school have a vision for parent partnership and do we share it with families? What is Integral Formation of the Whole Person? * Episode 1: Why Parents Matter: Through the Lens of Familiaris Consortio * Episode 12: Created in His Image: A Catholic Vision for Students with Disabilities with Mark Bradford * Episode 13: Quo vadis, humanitas? Why Catholic Schools Need a Vision of the Human Person (Part 1) * Episode 14: Quo vadis, humanitas? Vocation, Identity, and the Gift of Freedom (Part 2) How to invite families into the mission and embrace their role as primary educators: * Episode 11: Partnering with Families Through the Admissions Process with Tyler Deschamps and John Rocha * Episode 4: Midtown-Metro Parent Programs: Strengthening Families, Forming Character with Low-Income Youth * Episode 17: A History of American Homeschooling with Dixie Dillon Lane Does ongoing school-family communication illustrate our mission in action and invite families into dialogue? How to communicate with families as a professional practice: * Episode 18: Four Personas for School-Family Communication * Episode 5:7 Principles for Making School-Family Relationships Work Communication about teaching and learning: * Episode 8: Quirky Catholic Kids: Supporting Parents with Ginny Kochis * Episode 16: Speech and Debate as Whole Person Formation * Episode 3: Physical Education: Patrick Whalen with Iliad Athletics Does our school community inspire, guide, and accompany parents through parent formation, friendship, and fellowship? * Episode 2: Forming Parents: A Leader Insights Panel Discussion * Episode 15: The Case Study Method for Parent Formation with Leticia Rodriguez of IFFD * Episode 19: The Heart of the Family: A Resource for the Domestic Church Is parent partnership a priority in our faculty and staff roles, responsibilities, and professional formation? * Episode 20: Unreasonable Hospitality: 6 Lessons for Catholic School Leaders * Episode 6: Nurturing Teachers Who Build Parent Trust with Faustin Weber and Mike Kendrick * Episode 9: The School Office with Jeremie Solak * Episode 10: Building a Culture of Giving: Development as Parent Partnership with Susan Mangels Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios To receive new Familiaris posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe

    Four Questions to Strengthen Parent Partnership Next Year

  8. Jul 2

    Unreasonable Hospitality: 6 Lessons for Catholic School Leaders

    Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements. Dr. Jaime Madison Vasquez unpacks six practical lessons from Will Guidara’s bestselling book Unreasonable Hospitality, applying the leadership philosophy behind Eleven Madison Park to the world of Catholic school leadership. The episode explores how hospitality can become a driving core value in relationships with families, staff, and students alike. What You’ll Learn: * How to define and apply hospitality as a core value in a Catholic school setting * Why being fully present with parents matters more than pure efficiency * How to build practical toolkits for recurring hospitality moments like admissions, transfers, and difficult meetings * How to delegate hospitality initiatives by tapping into the passions of staff and parent leaders * How intentional budget choices can create meaningful, memorable experiences for families Six Lessons: * Hospitality is a core value * Be present and pay attention * Create a toolkit * Tap into their passions and then give them the keys * Finish strong: the one-inch rule * Rule of 95/5 Book referenced: Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara (Amazon, Bookshop, Thrift Books) Chapters * 00:00: Welcome and introducing Unreasonable Hospitality * 02:22: Six reasonable lessons for school leaders * 04:41: Defining hospitality for Catholic schools * 06:59: Balancing hospitality and academic excellence * 09:19: Everyday encounters as opportunities for hospitality * 11:35: Lesson two—be present and pay attention * 14:00: Attentive versus present: two kinds of servers * 18:48: Lesson three—create a hospitality toolkit * 23:27: Lesson four—tap into passions and delegate * 30:18: Lesson five—finish strong, the one-inch rule * 34:18: Lesson six—the rule of 95.5 * 39:08: Closing thoughts on generous stewardship Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios To receive new Familiaris posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe

    Unreasonable Hospitality: 6 Lessons for Catholic School Leaders
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Mission-first professional formation to help Catholic school leaders forge extraordinary relationships with families familiaris.substack.com

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