Jesuit Education

JESUIT EDUCATION (excerpted from The Jesuit Institute, The Characteristics of Jesuit Education – An Abridged Version 2014, 14 August 2022)

The vision of Jesuit education 

Jesuit education affirms the radical goodness of the world ‘charged with the grandeur of God’, and it regards every element of creation as worthy of study and contemplation, capable of endless exploration. Education in a Jesuit school tries to create a sense of wonder and mystery in learning about God’s creation. God is especially revealed in the mystery of the human person, ‘created in the image and likeness of God.’ Jesuit education, therefore, probes the meaning of human life and is concerned with the total formation of each student as an individual personally loved by God.

Christ as the Model of Human Life

To all, whatever their beliefs, Christ is proposed as the model of human life. Everyone can draw inspiration and learn about commitment from the life and teaching of Jesus, who witnesses to the love and forgiveness of God, lives in solidarity with all who suffer, and pours out his life in the service of others.

For Christian members of the educational community to be Christian is to follow Christ and be like him, to share and promote his values and way of life as far as possible.

Preparation for Life and Eternal Life

Jesuit education is preparation for life, which is itself a preparation for eternal life. Jesuit education is also concerned with the ways in which students will make use of their formation in the service of others ‘for the praise, reverence, and service of God’. The success of Jesuit education is measured not in terms of academic performance of students or professional competence of teachers, but rather in terms of this quality of life.

Person-Centered Curriculum and Values Formation

The curriculum is centered on the person rather than on the material to be covered. Each student is allowed to develop and to accomplish objectives at a pace suited to individual ability and the characteristics of his or her own personality. The educational community, based on the example of Christ, and reflecting on today’s culture in the light of the teachings of the church, will promote:

-          - a spiritual vision of the world in the face of materialism;

-          - a concern for others in the face of egoism;

-          - simplicity in the face of consumerism;

-          - the cause of the poor in the face of social injustice.

            Excellence in Jesuit Education

          In Jesuit education, the criterion of excellence is applied to all areas of school life. School policies are such that they create an ambience or climate which will promote excellence. The pursuit of academic excellence is appropriate in a Jesuit school, but only within the larger context of human excellence.

Leadership in Service

A traditional aim of Jesuit education has been to train leaders. Today, our aim is to educate leaders in service. The Jesuit school will help students to develop the qualities of mind and heart that will enable them, in whatever station they assume in life, to work with others for the good of all in the service of the Kingdom of God.

Lifelong Learning

Jesuit education tries to instill a joy in learning and a desire to learn that will remain beyond the days in school. Education is a life-long process.

The Jesuit school

A Community of Faith

The Jesuit school is a community of faith, and expresses this faith through appropriate religious or spiritual celebrations. For Catholics, the Eucharist is the celebration of a faith community centered on Christ. All adult members of the community are encouraged to participate in these celebrations, not only as an expression of their own faith, but also to give witness to the purposes of the school.

Jesuit Schools as Apostolic Mission

Jesuit schools are a part of the apostolic mission of the church in building the Kingdom of God. Jesuit education is an instrument to help students know God better and respond to him. The school is available for use in response to emerging needs of the people of God. 

Formation of Principled Persons for Others 

The aim of Jesuit education is the formation of principled, value-oriented persons for others after the example of Jesus Christ. Teaching in a Jesuit school, therefore, is a ministry.

Harmony with Other Faiths

The purposes and ideals of members of other faiths can be in harmony with the goals of the Jesuit school and they can commit themselves to these goals for the development of the students and for the betterment of society.

Spiritual Exercises in Jesuit Education

Making the Spiritual Exercises is encouraged as a way of knowing Christ better, loving him, and following him. The Exercises will also help the members of the educational community understand the vision of Ignatius, which is the spirit that lies behind Jesuit education. They can be made in various ways, adapted to the time and the abilities of each person, whether adult or student.

Accessibility of Jesuit Education to All

Every Jesuit school does what it can to make Jesuit education available to everyone, including the poor and the disadvantaged.

Jesuit School Network and Collaboration

Jesuit schools form a network, joined by a common vision with common goals. Teachers and administrators in Jesuit schools share ideas and experiences in order to discover the principles and methods that will provide the most effective implementation of this common vision.

Faith and Justice in School Policies

The policies and programmes of a Jesuit school give concrete witness to the faith that does justice. They give a counter-witness to the values of the consumer society. School policy and school life encourage mutual respect; they promote the human dignity and human rights of each person, adult and young, in the educational community.

Service to the Church and the Local Community

As part of its service of the church, a Jesuit school will serve the local civil and religious community and co-operate with the local bishop. For greater effectiveness in its service of human needs, a Jesuit school works in cooperation with other Jesuit apostolic works, with local parishes and other Catholic and civic agencies, and with centres for the social apostolate. All members of the educational community are active in service as members of the local community and of their churches. All members of the educational community are concerned with one another and learn from one another.

Intellectual formation

Mastery of Humanistic and Scientific Disciplines 

Intellectual formation includes mastery of basic humanistic and scientific disciplines through careful and sustained study that is based on competent and well-motivated teaching. 

Development of Reflective and Critical Thinking

This intellectual formation includes a growing ability to reason reflectively, logically, and critically. 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.

Study of Technology and Sciences 

Jesuit education also includes a careful and critical study of technology together with the physical and social sciences.

Creative and Aesthetic Dimensions

In Jesuit education, particular care is given to the development of the imaginative, the affective, and the creative dimensions of each student in all courses of study. These dimensions are essential in the formation of the whole person and are a way to discover God as he reveals himself through beauty. For these same reasons, Jesuit education includes opportunities for all students to come to an appreciation of literature, aesthetics, music and the fine arts.

Communication Skills and Media Literacy

Jesuit schools of the 17th century were noted for their development of communication skills or eloquence, achieved through an emphasis on essays, drama, speeches, debates, etc. In today’s world, Jesuit education develops traditional skills in speaking and writing and also with modern means of communication. Jesuit education enables students to understand and critically evaluate the influence of mass media. Through proper education, these instruments of modern life can help men and women to become more, rather than less, human. 

Sports and Physical Education

Jesuit education includes a well-developed programme of sports and physical education. In addition to strengthening the body, sports programmes help young men and women learn to accept both success and failure graciously; they become aware of the need to cooperate with others, using the best qualities of each individual to contribute to the greater advantage of the whole group.

Formation of a Balanced Person

All of these distinct aspects of the educational process have one common purpose: the formation of the balanced person with a personally developed philosophy of life that includes ongoing habits of reflection. To assist in this formation, individual courses are related to one another within a well-planned educational programme. Every aspect of school life contributes to the total development of each individual person.

Cura personalis

Individual-Centered Education

Cura personalis (care for the individual) remains a basic characteristic of Jesuit education. Jesuit education recognizes the developmental stages of intellectual, affective and spiritual growth and assists each student to mature gradually in all these areas. 

Character and Will Formation

Thus, the curriculum is centred on the person rather than on the material to be covered. Each student is allowed to develop and to accomplish objectives at a pace suited to individual ability and the characteristics of his or her own personality.

Freedom, Discipline, and Responsibility

Personal development through the training of character and will, overcoming selfishness and lack of concern for others and the other effects of sinfulness, and developing the freedom that respects others and accepts responsibility, is all aided by the necessary and fair regulations of the school; these include a fair system of discipline. Of equal importance is the self-discipline expected of each student, manifested in intellectual rigour, persevering application to serious study, and conduct toward others that recognizes the human dignity of each individual.

Confronting Sin and Seeking Conversion

Concern for total human development emphasizes the happiness in life that is the result of a responsible use of freedom, but it also recognizes the reality of sin and its effects in the life of each person. It therefore tries to encourage each student to confront this obstacle to freedom honestly, in a growing self-awareness and a growing realization that forgiveness and conversion are possible through the redemptive love and the help of God.

Self-Discovery and Overcoming Prejudices

Students are helped in their efforts to discover prejudice and limited vision on the one hand and to evaluate relative goods and competing values on the other. While they accept their gifts and develop them, students also accept limitations and overcome these as far as possible.

Religious formation

Commitment to Religious Development

Jesuit education is committed to the religious development of all students. They will receive instruction in the basic truths of their faith.

Christian and Catholic Faith Education

For Christian students, this includes a knowledge of the Scriptures, especially the Gospels. For Catholic students, Jesuit education offers a knowledge of and love for the church and the sacraments, as privileged opportunities to encounter Christ. In ways proper to a school, concrete experiences of church life are available to all students, through participation in church projects and activities.

Integration of Theology in Education

Since every programme in the school can be a means to discover God, all teachers share a responsibility for the religious dimension of the school. However, the integrating factor in the process of discovering God and understanding the true meaning of human life is theology as presented through religious and spiritual education. Religious and spiritual formation is integral to Jesuit education; it is not added to, or separate from, the educational process.

Faith and Reason in Jesuit Education

Jesuit education tries to foster the creative Spirit at work in each person, offering the opportunity for a faith response to God while at the same time recognizing that faith cannot be imposed. 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.

Worship and Reverence in School Life

Every aspect of the educational process can lead, ultimately, to worship of God present and at work in creation, and to reverence for creation as it mirrors God. Worship and reverence are parts of the life of the school community; they are expressed in personal prayer and in appropriate community forms of worship. The intellectual, the imaginative and affective, the creative, and the physical development of each student, along with the sense of wonder that is an aspect of every course, and of the life of the school as a whole, can all help students to discover God, active in history and in creation.

[School chaplaincy] is a dimension of cura personalis that enables the seeds of religious faith and religious commitment to grow in each individual by enabling each one to recognize and respond to the message of divine love: seeing God at work in his or her life, in the lives of others, and in all of creation; then responding to this discovery through a commitment to service within the community. [Chaplaincy programmes] are available to all members of the educational community in order to awaken and strengthen this personal faith commitment. 

[Chaplaincy] is centred on Christ present in the Christian community. Students encounter the person of Christ as friend and guide; they come to know him through Scripture, sacraments, personal and communal prayer, in play and work, in other persons; they are led to the service of others in imitation of Christ the ‘man for others’.

Making the Spiritual Exercises is encouraged as a way of knowing Christ better, loving him, and following him. They can be made in various ways, adapted to the abilities of each person. The Jesuit school encourages and assists each student to respond to his or her own personal call from God, a vocation of service in personal and professional life, whether in marriage, religious or priestly life, or a single life.

Prayer is an expression of faith and an effective way toward establishing the personal relationship with God that leads to a commitment to serve others. Jesuit education offers a progressive initiation to prayer, following the example of Christ, who prayed regularly to his Father. All are encouraged to praise and thank God in prayer, to pray for one another within the school community, and to ask God’s help in meeting the needs of the larger human community.

The faith relationship with God is communal as well as personal; the educational community in a Jesuit school is united by bonds that are more than merely human: it is a community of faith, and expresses this faith through appropriate religious or spiritual celebrations. For Catholics, the Eucharist is the celebration of a faith community centred on Christ. 

Catholic members of the educational community receive and celebrate the loving forgiveness of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Depending on local circumstances, the Jesuit school prepares students, and also adults, for the reception of other sacraments.

The obedience of Christ to his Father’s will led him to give of himself totally in the service of others; a relationship to God necessarily involves a relationship to other persons. Jesuit education promotes a faith that is centred on the historical person of Christ, which therefore leads to a commitment to imitate him as the ‘man for others’.

Students in a Jesuit school

Active Participation in Growth and Freedom

Growth in the maturity and independence that are necessary for growth in freedom depends on the active participation of students rather than passive reception.

Commitment to Religious Development

Jesuit education is committed to the religious development of all students. They will receive instruction in the basic truths of their faith. Concrete experiences of church life are available to all students, through participation in church projects and activities.

Personal Vocation and Service 

The Jesuit school encourages and assists each student to respond to his or her own personal call from God, a vocation of service in personal and professional life.

Formation in Values and Character

Jesuit education includes formation in values and attitudes. Jesuit education takes place in a moral context where knowledge is joined to virtue. Jesuit education includes personal development through the training of character.

Developing a Personal Value System

In a Jesuit school, pupils are encouraged to develop a value system acquired through a process of wrestling with competing points of view. Students are helped in their efforts to discover prejudice and limited vision on the one hand and to evaluate relative goods and competing values on the other. While they accept their gifts and develop them, students also accept limitations and overcome these as far as possible.

Critical Awareness and Social Change

Jesuit education tries to develop in students an ability to know reality and to evaluate it critically. This awareness includes a realization that persons and structures can change, together with a commitment to work for those changes in a way that will help to build more just human structures.

Christ-Centered Education and Community

The Jesuit school is centered on Christ present in the Christian community. Students encounter the person of Christ as friend and guide; they come to know him through Scripture, sacraments, personal and communal prayer, in play and work, in other persons; they are led to the service of others in imitation of Christ the ‘man for others’.

Love in Action through Service

‘Love is shown in deeds.’ The free human response of love to the redeeming love of God is shown in an active life of service. Jesuit education assists in the formation of men and women who will put their beliefs and attitudes into practice throughout their lives.

Faith that Does Justice

The decisive action called for today is the faith that does justice. The Jesuit school provides students with opportunities for contact with the world of injustice, with the poor and for service to them, both in the school and in outside service projects. To be educational, this contact is joined to reflection – an analysis of the causes of poverty.

Talents as Gifts for the Community

Jesuit education helps students to realize that talents are gifts to be developed, not for self-satisfaction or self-gain, but rather, with the help of God, for the good of the human community. Today our prime educational objective must be to form ‘men and women for others’.

The Magis and Lifelong Growth

The magis (the ‘more’) is it the fullest possible development of each person’s individual capacities at each stage of life, joined to the willingness to continue this development throughout life and the motivation to use those developed gifts for others.

Graduates as Witnesses of Faith and Justice

Those who graduate from our schools should have acquired, in ways proportional to their age and maturity, a way of life that is a proclamation of the charity of Christ, of the faith that comes from him and leads back to him, and of the justice which he announced.

Conclusion

A description of the characteristics of Jesuit education can never be perfect, and can never be final. But a growing understanding of the heritage of these schools, the Ignatian vision applied to education, can be the impetus to renewed dedication to this work, and renewed willingness to undertake those tasks which will make it ever more effective.

Point for Reflection

                How has the emphasis on holistic education and the Ignatian values in Jesuit education shaped your personal growth and approach to life, fostering a deeper understanding of social justice and a commitment to service?