Home Again

I just returned home about one half hour ago.

I was so happy to be greeted by our students returning from an outing to the NaneNane grounds (tomorrow, after all, is nane nane or 8/8, the national holiday honouring farmers). They raced up the road to greet me and refused to let me carry my own luggage (I had taken the bus, the driver of which kindly dropped me off at our corner rather than making me go all the way into town to the depot.)

I enjoyed my holidays immensely (and in many ways wish the time could have been longer), but I am indeed happy to be back home.

A highlight yesterday was the chance to spend time with my friend Veronica Sarungi and her parents, the Honourable Professor Sarungi, retired member of parliament, and Mama Sarungi. It really was a delightful time. Veronica was concerned that I had been taken hostage by her father because of the two hours I spent with him. For me it was fascinating -- he was TZ's first orthopaedic surgeon; served as the defense minister, the education minister, and the minister of health; and has countless stories about Nyerere, my hero.

Time to Think

These days at the beach have been restful, even retreat-like. I've managed to read a lot, to sleep a little more than usual. But they have also provided me a chance to really think about some short-term and long-term issues facing SPCHS and OLQP.

I have been thinking in particular about Loyola Teachers College and just what a difference this could make for the TZ. I'm very thankful to my friend Professor Vicki Graf (who recently visited us) for an an article she sent me that confirms not only my concerns about the present state of things here but also some of my initial thoughts about what's to be done relative to teacher education.

But I've also spent time thinking about how it is I can help our present teachers imagine different ways of being in the classroom, imagine different ways for their students to be in the classroom. That is a more immediate and more pressing concern -- and not an easy one. I think having teachers here who could model different possibilities would be a tremendous help, and I'm hoping the imminent arrival of a volunteer professionally trained as a mathematics teacher might be a good start. I'm also thankful for the kind offer of JP Morrison, the headmaster of St. Ignatius College, Enfield, London, UK, to have some of his best teachers come during the time the students from his school are here so that they could provide demonstration lessons.

It is hard for people to change without models for such. As I used to tell folks in my leadership classes, change for teachers is analogous to 19th century America -- no settler would leave the comforts of, say, Albany to settle in the West until the trailblazers had trailblazed and the pioneers had pioneered and a certain number of trustworthy settlers had settled and had written accounts assuring those they'd left behind in Albany that it was all worth the risk. I have to figure out a way to do this for our teachers, who for the most part are content with providing instruction the way it is customarily done here. And what does a typical classroom presently look like in TZ? According to a recent UNICEF study, something like this:

Teacher-directed activities (explaining, question and answer, writing on the chalk board, reading to the class, asking pupils to read, lesson summary) took up over half (55%) of the lesson time. Individual seatwork, where pupils worked on exercises from the chalkboard or textbooks and teachers marked the exercises, accounted for 25% of the lesson time. More pupil-centred forms of learning (i.e. paired or group work, pupil demonstration) accounted for just 14% of the lesson time, with paired/group work making up 6% of the lesson time. Non-curricular activities (i.e. administration, no teaching activity taking place) took up a further 6% of the time.

Obviously something must be done.

Gone Fishin'

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.

The gift for me is not only to meet some very committed young men but to meet their equally committed teachers as well. The trip has been organized by Fr. Tim Byron, sj, a Jesuit's Jesuit.

We spent Saturday reflecting on their experience in Dodoma, and tomorrow we'll head to Mikumi National Park, hoping to see lions among other animals. (I earnestly hope we do, for I have counselled the group that there is no need to leave here earlier than 6:00 a.m. in order to have a chance to see the lion.) After the trip to Mikumi we'll all head to Dar es Salaam. It is there that our paths will diverge. They'll spend one day in the city proper, and I will head to Kipepeo Beach for some r 'n r.

Quite frankly, I'm exhausted and need this time to re-energize. I've brought my Kindle and some books with me to read, some movies (if the power outages permit), and paper for some brainstorming/planning for the next steps for SPCHS and OLQP.

I might even manage to catch up on some more entries here!

What a Summer!

I am headed to the beach for a few days of rest. The summer (no corrections, please, about season given my living south of the equator, etc.) has been an absolutely exhausting one. But it's been exhilarating, too.

The meeting of educators from Jesuit schools in Tanzania, Kenya, and USA was amazing. It took a lot of work, but it was all work that was well worth it. And we could not have had better guests. The folks from the US were "go with the flow" types -- and that's exactly what is needed even on good days here (and a grace that I'm short of at times, I confess). Our residence was still very "rough," but they acted as if it were a palace.

And how open they were to the various experiences that I'd designed for them! I'm not a big fan of immersion programs when they are conceived of as "sink or swim," preferring instead to let people put their big toe in the water to test it first, wade a bit, and then dive in when they are ready. I think it was a profitable time for the participants from the States, a chance to see that there is more to Africa than pictures of children with distended bellies. They did see the hope, but they saw the misery, too.

I posted some days ago the results of our hard thinking. I am so proud of what we managed as a group, of how we took what has been given and made it our own.

My hope is that this experience my serve as a model for others who want to do something other than just talk at teachers about what it means to be at a Jesuit school.

Thanks Be to God!

My internet problem has been fixed. Now it's just a matter of the time-management problem!

What Does It Mean to Be a Jesuit School?

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?

Apologies

A lot of internet problems.

Have had some great, busy days. My friend Vicki Graf visited from LA -- what a great honour to host her. And now we have 12 American colleagues with us talking about what it means to be a Jesuit school. Great conversations.

Okay, gotta head back to Ihumwa from the city. Say a prayer the connectivity gets better.