EDFI 630
Studies: Catholic Education
Topic: Ignatian Education
5th week / February 13, 2002
1. Scheduling presentations
A series of questions related to the ethical dimension of Jesuit education:
Men should be formed who are not merely cultured but authentically Christian in both their public and private lives and are willing to live every day apostolically.
� The Epitome of Jesuit Education, adopted 1923
In Ignatius' day, being "authentically Christian" included selfless conduct towards others, participation in the sacraments, a desire to acquire a deeper faith, doctrinal fidelity, and, in the case of a "Christian gentleman," refinement of manners. By 1923, few of these had changed in the minds of the authors of the Epitome. And today, in your school�?
2. Morals and ethics at a Jesuit high school: Where do you go to get answers as to what these are? Who assesses your own performance? How do you assess your own performance?
3. Historically, schools of the SJ have attempted to educate "character." What does this term mean for you? How do you assess the character of your students?
4. Are you a role model to your students? Should you be?
5. Related to (4), how self-revealing are you to your students?
To do a thing well, a man needs power and competence.
� Ignatius, on the qualities of a good teacher
6. What sort of relationship do you want to cultivate with your students? Where do you look for guidelines in this? What are some risks and flashpoints as you establish this relationship? How do you regard the "student �centered classroom"?
7. What role does the corporate identity of the school play in the development of individual character?
8. How do we confront the gap between acceptable morality in the public sphere and the aspirations of a Jesuit school?
9. At SLU (the Univ.), the criticism has been made that by creating a "campus ministry," spiritual and even ethical issues have now been compartmentalized and even ghettoized. The older ideal was for an integrated encounter with spirituality and the active practice of ethics. How does this work at your school?
10. Do liturgy and retreats impact student conduct? Student thinking? How do you know?
11. What is the best way to train a future teacher for work in a Jesuit school? Would (has) your school hire(d) a graduate of a public university?
12. Traditionally, Jesuit schools have made use of "emulation," or competition between individuals or groups. Do you use this technique? What values and attitudes does it foster?
13. Reactons?
Those who come to the Society's secondary schools to learn their letters should have as their chief purpose the acquisition of virtue and piety rather than scholarship, although the latter must be also be matter for serious effort.
---Jacob Ledesma, a sixteenth century Jesuit educator
For next week, please bring in an assignment, activity or fragment of curriculum that you use by which you can explain for 3-5 minutes how ethics and morality are integrated into your own classroom, or into other contexts in which you teach.