I was up much of the night trying to figure out how we can get Bishop Maginn some Texas Instrument T1-84 Plus Ce Graphing Calculators the school so desperately needs. These machines would  transform the teaching in the school, for faculty and students.

I decided I’d just ask for help.

It is not easy being a Catholic School in America in 2019 in an urban neighborhood with a student body of poor minority and refugee children whose parents can only occasionally afford to pay the full tuition.

Then there is the perpetual scandal engulfing the Catholic Church, understandably horrifying but also obscuring the very good people like Mike Nolan and Art Teacher Sue Silverstein who have found their faith in devoting their lives to helping the needy and the vulnerable.

I feel they are my brothers and sisters in this work, much more on the front lines than I am.

Everywhere, the Church is hurting for money, distracted by scandal and struggles over faith. At Bishop Maginn, they do not proselytize or turn away the needy, few of their students are Catholics. In recent years, the school moved to smaller quarters and now has about 130 students. In a sense, refugees are their future.

The school follows Christic teachings about helping the needy and the vulnerable, something many Christian seem to have forgotten. We are helping them with art supplies, setting up a choir and hopefully, helping with tuition shortfalls.

Yesterday, Mike put up a new Bishop Maginn Amazon Wish List, and was somewhat nervous about asking for a dozen Texas Instrument T1-84 Plus CE Graphing Calculators. He is not used to getting help, and he immediately knocked the number down to five, in fear of asking too much. I know he needs more of them.

The calculators cost $132 each.

(Principal Mike Tolan)

So I saw awake wondering how to get the school the dozen calculators – right now there are only five on the new Bishop Maginn High School Wish List.

I thought I might ask people to send donations to me via Paypal, [email protected]. That would be fine. Sending them directly to Principal Tolan is also fine.

But then, I also thought I just needed to explain why they are so important. I read scores of reviews on Amazon and also some technical magazine reviews. This graphing calculator is revolutionary and would transform teaching at the school.

“Works very well and does math well” said one student. “As soon as you pick up this product you will be at the head of your class so matter the subject. Math=Calculator, Science=Calculator, English=Calculator for heavens sakes even in gym if you whip this thing out and start mathing it up your peers and teachers will be so impressed that you will never get that super wedgie again along with a perfect A+ keeping your GPA at the best it can be.”

I liked that review. I liked thinking how these students, who have suffered a great deal, might react to being around a device like that.

And this one from a college student:

“Imagine my surprise when I found out that my old TI-83 didn’t have enough power to do everything I needed it to do for my next three math classes, College Algebra (math 114), Calculus for Business and Stats! After a lengthy conversation with my Math Professor, she recommended I pick up a TI-84 and if i was willing to pay a bit more get the color version. Man, I am I glad I did. This Calculator is so much fun. It’s like walking around with a mini computer in my pocket.”

Bishop Maginn is a poor school with a poor student body, set in the heart of a poor urban neighborhood, the last Catholic High School in a city. To me, they are an important symbol of the kind of institution that needs to be around.

There used to be a lot more Catholic schools, and they had a lot more money. It would be great to offer some useful fun.

Bishop Maginn takes the idea of faith seriously, and they have accepted more than 35 refugee children as well as many poor minority children. These are not kids with Ipads  or smart phones or desktop computers. These families can’t afford Wi-Fi.

Our immediate goals are to provide the school with much-needed art supplies, help them set up a choir, and assisted with some tuition shortfalls. As always we will be transparent and practical, and you will see where the money is going and what for.

One of the teachers explained to me the school desperately needs this modern, portable and efficient technology to teach students there what they need to know.  The technology the teachers have there is old and fraying.

We all know how hard this world will be for these students without a grounding in technology, but their families do not have the means to buy them the latest technological tools.

And sadly, neither do their teachers. I see from the professional and buyer reviews on Amazon and elsewhere that these sophisticated graphing calculators are as functional and useful as larger and much more expensive computers.

These devices will be something of a miracle at Bishop Maginn, they will help the teachers teach and the kids learn math, algebra, calculating and engineering in ways that are beyond their technological means.

I see why Mike Tolan wants them so badly he put them at the top of the new list, at $132 by far the most expensive things he has asked for.

I’m buying one for the school and I hope some of you can consider it. You can buy one here on the Wish List or you can send a donation to the school (it is tax-deductible) to help them buy more of these machines. The school address is: Mike Tolan, Bishop Maginn High School, 75 Park Avenue, Albany, N.Y. 12202.

If you are busy or in a hurry, you can also send your donations to me via Paypal, [email protected], or to Jon Katz, Bishop Maginn Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. I’ll buy them for you and get them to the school.

Mike is off at a meeting this morning, I hope to surprise him with good news about his calculators when he gets back. Maybe he’ll put up the other five he took down.

The above painting is by Bishop Maginn student Paw Lway Shee, and has been sold for $50.