Part III: Characteristics of Jesuit Education

This is the final installment of the previous posts: Part I and Part II: Characteristics of Jesuit Education.

21. Jesuit education pursues excellence in its work of formation. Jesuit education aims at the fullest possible development of every dimension of the person, linked to the willingness to continue this development throughout life and the motivation to use those developed gifts for others. Students are expected to become leaders in service rather than socio-economic elites. Service is founded on a faith commitment to God, a decision to follow Christ, which leads to a desire to always do “more.” The desire is converted into the necessary personal preparation in which a student dedicates himself or herself to the pursuit of academic excellence, to personal formation, and ultimately to action.

22. Jesuit education witnesses to excellence. The school policies are such that they create a climate which will promote excellence. The adult members of the educational community witness to excellence by joining growth in professional competence to growth in dedication.

23. Jesuit education stresses lay-Jesuit collaboration. Lay people and Jesuits, in different appropriate capacities, share a common mission and work together as a single apostolic body in the formation of students. The legal structure of the school allows for the fullest possible collaboration in the management of the school.

24. Jesuit education relies on a spirit of community among teaching staff and administrators, the Jesuit community, governing boards, parents, former students, and benefactors. There should be free and frequent communication, including formal discussions and social gatherings, between different parties that make up the school in an attempt to implement the characteristics that result from the Ignatian vision.

25. Jesuit education takes place within a structure that promotes community. A Jesuit school should stress the cooperation of the Jesuit community, the lay teachers, the students, the parents, the alumni and the benefactors. Efforts should be made to ensure that all those involved have the opportunity to learn and share the vision of St. Ignatius. As far as possible, parents understand, value and accept the Ignatian world-view. There should preferably be consistency between the values promoted in the school and those promoted in the home.

26. Jesuit education adapts means and methods in order to achieve its purposes most effectively. An educator in the Jesuit tradition is encouraged to exercise great freedom and imagination in the choice of teaching techniques, pedagogical methods, etc. School policies and practices encourage reflection and evaluation.

27. Jesuit education is a “system” of schools with a common vision and common goals. Jesuit schools form a network, joined by a common vision with common goals. An ongoing exchange of ideas and experiences with other schools is encouraged.

28. Jesuit education assists in providing the professional training and ongoing formation that is needed, especially for teachers. All adult members of the education community need to take advantage of opportunities for continuing education and continued personal development.

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam

Part II: Characteristics of Jesuit Education

 

This is the continuation of the previous post: Part I: Characteristics of Jesuit Education.

11. Jesuit education provides a realistic knowledge of the world in which we live. Jesuit education emphasizes the recognition of the imperfections of the world as it is without neglecting the essential goodness of creation. It helps the students to realize that persons and structures can change and be committed to work for those changes to bring about human dignity and social justice.

12. Jesuit education proposes Christ as the model of human life. To be Christian is to follow Christ, imitating Him as a witness to the love and forgiveness of God, as one who lives in solidarity with all those who suffer, and as one who serves others without asking for rewards.

13. Jesuit education provides adequate pastoral care. Pastoral care enables each individual to respond to God’s message of divine love and deepens a person’s commitment to serve others. Jesuit education assists each student to respond to his or her own vocation of service in personal and professional life.

14. Jesuit education celebrates faith in personal and community prayer, worship and service. Prayer is an expression of faith, a continual reiteration of personal commitment, and a way to establish relationship with God. A faith relationship with God, personal and communal, promotes an imitation of Christ as a “Man for Others.” Catholic members of a Jesuit school are encouraged to express their faith in religious or spiritual celebrations to give witness to the purposes of the school.

15. Jesuit education is preparation for active life commitment. Father General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach addressed the Jesuit alumni at Versailles, France on July 20, 1986, “We … challenge you and try to inspire you to put into practice – in concrete activity – the values that you cherish, the values that you have received in your formation.”

16. Jesuit education serves the faith that does justice. The service of faith should include the promotion of justice through action for peace. The goal of the faith that does justice and works for peace is a new type of person in a new kind of society, in which each individual has the opportunity to be fully human and each one accepts the responsibility of promoting the human development of others. The focus of Jesuit education is on education for justice. Adequate knowledge joined to rigorous and critical thinking will make the commitment to work for justice in adult life more effective. In a Jesuit school, the treatment of justice issues should include a critical analysis of society; the policies and programmes should give counter-witness to the values of the consumer society; and there should be opportunities for actual contact with the world of injustice.

17. Jesuit education seeks to form “MEN AND WOMEN FOR OTHERS”. Jesuit education helps students to realize that talents are gifts to be developed, with the help of God, for the good of the human community. In order to promote an awareness of others, Jesuit education stresses community values. Teachers should manifest in their lives concern for others and esteem for human dignity.

18. Jesuit education manifests a particular concern for the poor. Responding to the call of Christ who had a special love and concern for the poor, the church and the Society of Jesus have made a preferential option for the poor. Jesuit schools do not exist for any one class of students. Special services should be made available to those in need. Jesuit schools provide students with opportunities for contact with the poor and for service to them, coupled with reflection so that students may understand the causes of poverty.

19. Jesuit education is an apostolic instrument, in service of the church as it serves human society. The aim of Jesuit education is the formation of principled, value-oriented persons for others. As part of its service of the church a Jesuit school will serve the local civil and religious community and cooperate with the local bishop. The school community encourages collaboration and dialogue with all men and women of good will, whatever their faith and beliefs. Christians are a witness to the Gospel, in service to the human community.

20. Jesuit education prepares students for active participation in the church and the local community, for the service of others. Jesuit education is committed to the religious development of all students. Concrete experiences of church life are available to all students. Catholic students are taught to understand and love the church and the sacraments. Opportunities are provided for other students to learn more about the Christian faith.

Part I: Characteristics of Jesuit Education

 

On the 400th anniversary of the Jesuit document on education, the Ratio Studiorum, the International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education (ICAJE) published The Characteristics of Jesuit Education. I am publishing a simple outline of the 28 characteristics for all who are interested to know what makes an educational institution Jesuit in character. This document is intended to give a “common vision and a common sense of purpose; it can be a standard against which we measure ourselves” (Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ, Superior General, 8 Dec 1986).

I am publishing this specifically for our collaborators (students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni) of Ateneo de Manila High School. I have given this talk to class moderators as part of the over-all formation of the high school. However, this is dedicated to all those involved in Jesuit education and those who are interested to know our vision.

I do hope that each characteristic is not just read, but prayed and reflected on.

Below is the first ten characteristics.

1. Jesuit education is world-affirming. Jesuit education affirms the radical goodness of the world. It tries to create a sense of wonder and mystery in learning about God’s creation.

2. Jesuit education assists in the total formation of each individual within the community. Jesuit education probes the meaning of life. Its objective is to assist in the fullest possible development of all the God-given talents of each individual person as a member of the human community.

3. Jesuit education includes a religious dimension that permeates the entire education. Religious and spiritual formation is integral to Jesuit education. It is not added to, or separate from, the educational process. In all classes, in the climate of the school, and most especially in formal classes in religion, every attempt is made to present the possibility of a faith response to God as something truly human and not opposed to reason, as well as to develop those values which are able to resist the secularism of modern life.

4. Jesuit education is an apostolic instrument. Formation of the individual is not an abstract end; Jesuit education is also concerned with the ways in which students will make use of their formation within the human community, in the service of others.

5. Jesuit education promotes dialogue between faith and culture. Persons and cultural structures are human, imperfect, and sometimes affected by sin and in need of conversion. Being active in all creation and in all human history, God reveals Himself in various distinct cultural ways. Jesuit education encourages contact with and a genuine appreciation of all cultures, which include the sciences, in the hope that students will become creatively critical of the contributions and deficiencies of each.

6. Jesuit education insists on individual care and concern for each person. The curriculum is centred on the person rather than on the material to be covered. Growth in the responsible use of freedom is facilitated by the personal relationship between student and teacher. While respecting the privacy of students, teachers and administrators are ready to listen to their cares and concerns, to share with them life experiences, to help them with personal growth and interpersonal relationships.

7. Jesuit education emphasizes activity on the part of the student. The task of a teacher is to help each student to become an independent learner who is ready to assume the responsibility for his or her own education. Active participation on the part of the student is promoted by programmes which encourage personal study and reflection, and which provide opportunities for personal discovery and creativity.

8. Jesuit education encourages life-long openness to growth. Jesuit education tries to instill a joy in learning and a desire to learn that will remain beyond the days in school.

9. Jesuit education is value-oriented. Jesuit education includes formation in values, in attitudes and in an ability to evaluate criteria. Self discipline, manifested in intellectual rigour, persevering application to serious study, and responsible conduct towards others that recognizes the human dignity of each individual, is expected of each student. In a Jesuit school, a framework of inquiry in which a value system is acquired through a process of wrestling with competing points of view is legitimate.

10. Jesuit education encourages a realistic knowledge, love, and acceptance of self. While emphasizing the happiness in life resulting from a responsible use of freedom, Jesuit education recognizes the reality of sin and the consequent obstacles to freedom. Students are encouraged to discern and remove such obstacles to growth through an examination of personal prejudice and an evaluation of relative goods and competing values. They are helped to reflect on their own personal experiences, accept their own gifts, accept their own limitations and overcome these as far as possible.