Companions in Mission
International Meeting of Ignatian Educators
St. Peter Claver High School, Dodoma, Tanzania
11-15 July 2011
What follows is the result of the reflection on the experiences of educators from schools representing Jesuit schools of the Chicago-Detroit Province and Eastern Africa Province.
One simple description for justice is right relationships. As we spent the morning of our fourth day together at Upendo (“love” in Swahili) a home for the elderly and the disabled run by Mother Theresa’s Missionary of Charity Brothers, the conversations and emotions among the 20-plus educators from Jesuit schools gathered in Dodoma, Tanzania, felt like right companionship. This is important for us educators from Jesuit schools because the first Jesuits referred to themselves as “companions in the Lord.” One principal question we have asked ourselves in this regard during these days together in Dodoma has been “How are we educators who are working in very different situations both within countries and among different countries companions in the common work of Jesuit/Ignatian education?”
Near the close of our time together, we took the opportunity to begin to craft this document meant to serve as a sort of textual artifact to represent the spirit-filled activities of the previous days. What you will find below represents the fruits of communal reflection based on our experiences at our home schools, our experience of discussing foundational documents relative to Jesuit education, and other experiences. The points form a sort of constellation: We realize there are other schools that espouse many of the same values that we do, and yet we recognize a certain pattern, a certain arrangement of these characteristics that makes our schools what they are.
We realize the incomplete nature of what follows; please help us by adding your thoughts no matter where in the world you find yourself, no matter your circumstances.
Here are some things that we think mark Jesuit schools:
Christo-Centric
Jesuit schools are Christ-centered communities that form members to praise, reverence, and serve God. To love as Jesus did – unconditionally – is the challenge set before Ignatian educators. Such love demands a certain authenticity and depth. Jesus Christ is the model for everything we do in our schools. For those who do not profess Jesus Christ as Lord, we ask that they commit themselves to the Way of God, to the Truth, and to Life-giving values.
Classrooms as Communities
Jesuit schools are committed to creating communities of learners where the duty of the teacher is not simply to talk and the duty of students to listen and repeat. As a community of learners/leaders, the classroom in a Jesuit school encourages a certain freedom and dialogue. Classrooms are meant to serve as learning environments for the sake of preparing competent leaders for tomorrow’s world.
Cura Personalis
All employees at Jesuit schools dedicate themselves to caring for each student as an individual in his/her particular life situation. It is easy to love in the abstract, but St. Ignatius counsels us to love in the most concrete situations in which we find our students – as Jesus does; in this regard cura personalis is intimately related both to the Christo-centric nature of our schools and to the commitment to creating community among our students. In this regard, Ignatian educators commit themselves to special care for those in our school communities who are at the margins, and they take measures to ensure the inclusion of all in the benefits of community.
Magis
Ignatius insisted on the pursuit of excellence, and for Jesuits and their colleagues the desire to achieve “great things” captures the ethos of Jesuit schools. The focus of this commitment to excellence is on different levels: We strive to do great things in the simplest, most local situations, but we also strive to do great things at the global level. Jesuit schools seek to offer students of diverse abilities opportunities to achieve excellence in various facets of life – not just the intellectual facet. In this regard, Jesuit education is committed to an integral formation of our students.
Reflective Learning
As part of their formation, our students learn to be on the lookout for God’s grace active in even the smallest events unfolding in the world. Analogously, even the chance offerings of the moment in classrooms serve as resources for learning if there are opportunities for reflection. Reflection here is not understood simply as a personal, self-centred exercise but also as a communal activity involving conversational narratives that serve as social ways of making meaning.
Justice-Based Service
At Jesuit schools, service is intimately connected to a commitment to justice – to right relationships. Service in Jesuit schools is not an end in itself; it has a formative function: Our students do service because they meet Christ in the poor and learn about Christ as they do what he does: offering themselves for the welfare of others. They also do service to see where the will of God is thwarted so that they might begin to consider ways to “right” the relationships that make the poor poor. Educating men and women for others means in part educating them to strive for justice at every level of life – from local to global. Jesuit schools can be understood as institutions that promote personal and institutional conversion towards the living God; being so disposed to conversion, they stand as institutions that meet the ever-changing challenges of their particular localities and the global community.
In Conclusion: A Global Network
We participants in this international meeting of Ignatian educators have come to an appreciation of the fact that we are part of an international Ignatian community united by the characteristics and values listed above. This gives us certain advantages. For instance, if taken seriously our international connections provide us with a resource to create an awareness of the world and an appreciation of the virtue of solidarity (the disposition to see the other as sister and brother and to see the interdependence of people and communities locally and globally). Such a commitment to fostering solidarity should issue forth in a desire among our students and graduates to act for change when they see injustice, see threats to human dignity, etc.
What would you and your colleagues add?
I left Dodoma for Morogoro on Friday afternoon with our friends from St. Ignatius College, Enfield, London, UK. This group of students and teachers makes their annual trip to Dodoma in the second half of July. The students spend most of their time at St. Ignatius Preparatory and Primary School, teaching some lessons to the students and generally playing the role of older brothers (who speak good English, providing the students a chance to hone their own English skills). The students are hosted by families, which provides them some insight into living in TZ.
