As a child, Didier Aur hated school.
A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, he moved to Memphis when he was just 5 years old. His grandparents were Lebanese—so at a young age he grew up hearing Lebanese Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese and American English. It made learning to read difficult.
Those challenges were even further enhanced by his dyslexia—and schools did not understand the effects of dyslexia on reading and learning until the late 1970s and ’80s.
Aur’s shift from disdain to passion for education was inspired by the Christian Brothers. At Memphis’ Christian Brothers High School, one of Aur’s teachers saw he had difficulty reading but pushed him to continue by letting him choose books on topics he enjoyed. This ignited his joy for learning, and in 1988 he graduated from the University of Memphis with a bachelor’s degree in education—and later a master’s degree in special education.
Today, Aur is a leader in Catholic education in the Diocese of Memphis—a career that has spanned 37 years.
“Learning is for everyone,” Aur said.
That child who was behind was me, and I made it.”
He is currently the principal at St. Ann’s Catholic School in Bartlett, Tennessee. The parish at St. Ann’s was founded over 65 years ago through support from Catholic Extension Society. Seven years ago, the parish school, opened in 1960, faced closure. But since Aur took over, enrollment has doubled.
What’s more, in 2022 he started the Erika Center at St. Ann Catholic School, which educates 20 students with dyslexia each year. This fall, he plans to expand this operation to double the center’s enrollment to 40 and to rename it the St. Ann Dyslexia Center.
“The students with dyslexia are very smart. Their brains just see letters or words differently,” Aur said. “And the idea is to graduate the child out of the dyslexia center.”
Didier Aur is a finalist for our Lumen Christi Award, our highest honor given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ present in the communities where they serve. Click here to read the stories of our eight finalists this year.
Teaching students how to manage their dyslexia and their eventual graduations from the dyslexia center are just the latest example in a long career of Aur helping children reach new milestones in their education.
Opening educational pathways to all
Aur feels that every stop in his career in Catholic education has properly prepared him for the next job he takes on.
“My wife and I talk about it – every place where I’ve been built me up for the next place. And all the work that I’ve done has led me to this part of my career with the dyslexia center here at St. Ann’s.”
The first of these formative stops brought him back to his alma mater – Christian Brothers High School – teaching at the place that sparked his now lifelong passion for reading and learning. After 10 years teaching at the high school, in 2002 Aur was asked to become principal of one of the diocese’s “jubilee schools.” The jubilee schools were a network of Catholic schools serving Memphis’ low-income families and under-resourced areas. In just four years, enrollment at Holy Names Catholic School, where Aur served, was at full capacity.
“As Catholic school educators, we need to provide direct service to the poor. Well, what better opportunity than a jubilee school,” Aur said. “We took a leap of faith and opened Holy Names with a group of wonderful people. The first day of school we only had a handful of kids in every class. But by year four we were full. Kids from the neighborhood were all coming in. It was beautiful.”
As principal, he led two more jubilee schools over 19 years: Resurrection Catholic School and Memphis Catholic Middle and High School.
“These students were not only getting an elementary and middle school education, they were going to a good high school and going to college,” Aur said. “Nobody in their family had ever dreamed of going to college.”
Missionary approach lives on
Although the jubilee schools no longer exist, Aur feels that their spirit which advocated for under-dog or overlooked students remains strong in the DNA of the diocese’s schools. “We feel like that mission [of the jubilee schools] is still with us,” Aur explained.
Speaking of his current school, St. Ann, he remarked,
When a family comes to us with little to no money, we’re not going to turn them away. That’s where our passion and where our heart is—we’re not going to turn people away.”
It’s a missionary approach to education that doesn’t turn away but rather goes out and finds more ways to help. Aur has certainly put this into place at St. Ann’s, especially in his efforts providing resources to assist even more children with dyslexia—so that they, too, can love to learn and read as he did.
Seeing the transformation of the child makes it all worthwhile.
“When you get a child who gets a piece of paper and they can’t read, and by the time they go through the dyslexia center they can’t wait to read—it’s incredible,” Aur said.
Their self-esteem goes from no self-esteem to where ‘I’m loving this,’ and those students come to school with a smile on their face; that’s the neatest thing.”
Click here to read the stories behind all eight of our Lumen Christi Award finalists.
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