An Investigatory Trip

I'm headed to visit Tanzania in late May, returning in time for the Detroit Province/Chicago Province gathering in Cleveland on 13 June.

Malkia wa Amani: Utuombe.

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere

I promised I'd write something about the writings of Nyerere on education. Actually, I'm simply going to provide some quotations from his important work, Education for Self Reliance (1968) with some commentary from me.

This means that the educational system of Tanzania must emphasize cooperative endeavor, not individual advancement; it must stress concepts of equality and the responsibility to give service which goes with any special ability, whether it be in carpentry, in animal husbandry, or in academic pursuits. And in particular, our education must counteract the temptation to intellectual arrogance; for this leads to the well-educated despising those whose abilities are non-academic or who have no special abilities but are just human beings. Such arrogance has no place in a society of equal citizens.

The virtue of solidarity is obviously important here, and it is a virtue to be cultivated in school communities, where students contribute to the common good of all. Nyerere's words provide a huge challenge to late modern industrial society which is so marked by individualism and competition.

This does not mean that education in Tanzania should be designed just to produce passive agricultural workers of different levels of skill who simply carry out plans or directions received from above. It must produce good farmers; it has to prepare people for their responsibilities as free workers and citizens n a free and democratic society... They must be able to think for themselves, to make judgments on all the issues affecting them; they have to be able to interpret the decisions made through democratic institutions of our society, and to implement them in the light of peculiar local circumstances where they happen to live. It would thus be a gross misinterpretation of our needs to suggest that the educational system should be designed to produce robots who work hard but never question the leaders in Government or TANU [Tanganyika African National Union party] are doing or saying.

The above quotation is another great one -- It is reminiscent of Catholic Action in Europe, and it certainly echoes Blessed Pope John XXIII's idea in Mater et Magistra commending the threefold action relative to social justice: see-judge-act (para. 236).

In the quotation that follows, Nyerere makes it clear that education is about the development of individuals for democratic citizenship:

The education provided must therefore encourage the development in each citizen of three things: an enquiring mind; an ability to learn from what others do, and reject or adapt to his own needs; and a basic confidence in his own position as a free and equal member of the society, who values others and is valued by them for what he does and not for what he obtains.

Nyerere would have had a great conversation with Paolo Freire, a contemporary on another continent. Like Freire, Nyerere sees educating as a moral and political act. What he advocates is a sort of system in which students are treated like subjects rather than objects.

I'll be reading more, I know.

Malkia wa Amani: Utuombe.

****31 March: FYI "Mwalimu" is "Teacher"

An Important Meeting

On Friday, 27 March, I had lunch in Berkeley with Fr. Sosthenes Luyembe, sj, the parish priest in Dodomo, who has been in the States for some weeks visiting benefactors of the Society's works in Dodomo and getting some much needed rest and relaxation; and Fr. Deogratias "Deo" Mutayoba Rwezaura, sj, a doctoral student in social ethics at the Jesuit School and a member of the East Africa Province. Deo served at the Dodoma parish after ordination.

It was an opportunity to hear more about the project from Sosthenes, more about Tanzania and Dodoma from both of them -- and for them to hear from me what my interests, background, skills, and dispositions are (along with my excitement and apprehension, too).

I was moved by the story of the generosity of the Doherty family, the benefactors supporting this apostolic venture. Their own involvement in the education of children in Dodoma is its own story of getting caught in the crosshairs of providence -- all starting with hearing about the establishment of a primary school in Dodoma at Mass in Arizona. I have not met them yet, but it is clear that St. Ignatius Loyola's prayer to be taught how to be generous is a prayer that's been answered in their own lives.

I was surprised to learn that the high school will be a boarding school. Yikes: I have no experience with the administration of a boarding school. The reason for its being designed as such is clear: Otherwise, the girls will be disadvantaged because of the expectation that when they return home from school at the end of the day they will devote themselves to assisting with domestic duties.

I had a chance to articulate how unrealistic a mid-January 2010 start is from my perspective. Here is my reasoning in part. First, the medium of instruction will be English, but that doesn't mean that it will be the only language spoken otherwise outside of classrooms: especially given that it will be a boarding school means that Swahili will be spoken a large portion of the day outside of classrooms -- and that means I should have some facility with the language, which in turn means some months of intensive language preparation. Also, I need to get to know community members involved in education in Dodoma. This will be essential in terms of hiring, recruiting students, etc. As I mentioned to my companions at lunch: Starting a school is not a matter of "just adding water and stirring!" It will take time. The proposal is that we start the school year in 2011 but that we have a pre-session beginning in June 2010 to sharpen the skills for those students who might need such sharpening -- this will be an opportunity to "test" the structures before the official start, too.

My own reading of the Secondary Education Development Plan (SEDP) of the Tanzanian government makes it clear how needed the OLQP center is. The country's successful implementation of such a plan for primary schools has created an "upward demand for access to secondary education." As well, it is clear in the 21st century that secondary education will play an important role in improving the country's economic and social development. (Incidentally, a lot of the information about the current state of educational affairs in Tanzania comes from what seems like a very important voice in such matters: Hakielimu -- www.hakielimu.org)

The enrollment in secondary schools went from 350,000 students in 2003 to 675,000 by 2006! It has been noted that this increase has not been without problems, especially a detrimental change in student-teacher ratio. OLQP is meant not only to address the need but also to help serve -- in the fashion of the Jesuit school in Dar es Salaam (Loyola High School) -- as an exemplar for what might be done.

I envision the school taking up the government's mandates with a "Jesuit twist." For instance, the SEDP calls for a new curriculum that is "focused and streamlined" and which addresses the development of analytic skills. There is a great desire in Tanzania to move from reliance on rote memorization and on "chalk and talk" to a more inquiry-based curriculum. Among the skills that alumni of Jesuit schools often note about their education is that they had a chance to develop analytic skills, to develop critical faculties. To help to build a curriculum based on inquiry is an exciting thing.

This will all depend on high quality teaching, of course. (The national need for good teaching in the face of the almost exponential growth in the number of schools is the reason for opening a teachers college as part of the OLQP center in a few years.)

In a separate post, I'll share how happy I was that Sossy and Deo agreed that this school should find its foundation not only on Ignatian pedagogy and principles of Catholic social teaching but also on the philosophy of education of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania (who had been a teacher himself) whose ideas about the role of education in society are very important to attend to (not only for Tanzanians but for anyone dedicated to education as it relates to democracy and justice).

In the meantime, here's something from Decree Three of the Jesuits' 35th General Congregation that's been commended for the reflection of Detroit Province Jesuits during the Fifth Week of Lent:

While respecting provincial or regional priorities, these [apostolic] "preferences" indicate apostolic areas requiring "special or privileged attention." In our present context, we may confidently say that they offer areas for the realization of the mission orientations provided by this decree. In consultation with the Conferences of Major Superiors, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach decided on the following apostolic preferences:

(i) Africa. Aware of the cultural, social, and economic differences in Africa and Madagascar, but also conscious of great opportunities, challenges, and variety of Jesuit ministries, we acknowledge the Society's responsibility to present a more integral and human vision of this continent. In addition, all Jesuits are invited to greater solidarity with and effective support of the Society's mission of inculturating faith and promoting more justice in this continent.

Caught in the crosshairs of providence...

Our Lady Queen of Peace: Pray for us!

In the Crosshairs of Providence

The title of this blog comes from the words of Fr. Joe Daoust, sj, to me at the end of a conversation with me and Fr. Tim Kesicki, sj, the provincial of the Detroit Province of the Jesuits last Thursday, 19 March. Joe was the provincial of the Detroit Province (my home province) during much of my formation, and I've known him since I was a novice in Berkely, MI, and he was in law school at Michigan. He's now in Rome, serving as our superior general's delegate to the Jesuits' international communities in Rome and as a counselor to the general, but he also continues an involvement with the apostolic endeavors of our East Africa Province, dating back to his time as provincial. The conversation was about one such project

At the end of this conversation among the three of us about the possibility of my moving to Dodoma, capital of Tanzania, in order to help start an educational project, Joe said to me, "Marty, you have been caught in the crosshairs of providence." The project is the Our Lady Queen of Peace Educational Center, which ultimately will include not only a secondary school but also a two-year, post secondary vocation college and a two-year teachers college (preparing elementary school teachers).

Earlier that Thursday (at 06h15 to be exact!) Tim had called me to talk about this. We had over the course of the last several months talked about my involvement in such a project, but neither Tim nor I was aware that the need was more immediate and that a move to Dodoma might be more proximate (like this summer!) than distant (We were thinking 2011, if it happened at all). Both my experience (I've been an administrator at two Jesuit high schools -- St. Ignatius HS in Cleveland and the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy) and my academic training (I have a Ph.D. in teaching and learning from UC Santa Barbara) along with my commitment to making things better for kids and for teachers are what brought my name to mind relative to this project, from what I gather. Add to that my unease with the choice of some Jesuits who seem to have taken personal vows of stability and my being inspired by the recent visit of our Father General to Los Angeles and his recent letter on the nature of our Society as universal and on the need to cultivate the virtue of availability, and, well -- caught in the crosshairs of providence.

In the ensuing days since those phone conversations, I've been unable to contain my excitement (even as I admit my apprehensions -- Europe is the only continent other than North America that my feet have ever touched). I'd expected to be as discreet about this as I am with others' such information, but it's been impossible to keep still. People whom I've blathered on with about the possibility and who care about me and my welfare have encouraged me to slow down a bit, not let romantic notions of "apostolic availability" cloud my discernment. I've appreciated the concern; honestly, I have. But here's the thing: I do feel that I've been caught in the crosshairs of providence.

Let me explain a little bit more: When I was a student at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, I was on an eight-day retreat and having a difficult time with a meditation commended by St. Ignatius: The Kingdom Meditation. I won't go into details about the meditation except to say that my difficulty was due in part to the anachronism of imagining Jesus as a king inviting me into his regal project. (I'm all for Christ the King, but Jesus the King is just too much.) In any case, I ended up with a different sort of meditation: the Voyageur Meditation. In this meditation Jesus and I are both in a canoe (I'm up front and he's in back). Jesus reminds me that his paddle serves as the rudder, that he steers, and he says to me, "I'll take you only to places where I can show you my glory." I've returned to those words "in good times and in bad." But even as I've heard Jesus' words and been consoled or challenged by them at different points in my life since that retreat 15+ years ago, I've always had a sense there was something more to them than I was imagining, that a meaning deeper than what I had access at the moment would somehow be revealed to me. I think this invitation is the something more, and I trust Jesus that he'll steer me only to places where he can show me his glory.

So I head up to Berkeley this weekend to meet Fr. Sosthenes Luyembe, sj, pastor of the "airport parish" in Dodoma, who has spearheaded this project. And next week I head to Colombiere Center in Clarkston, MI, where I'll meet with Fr. Dick Twohig, sj, one of the greats of the Detroit Province who, after serving for many years as the principal of U of D Jesuit, went to Dar es Salaam to start Loyola High School there (and was the rector at U of D Jesuit upon his return to the states -- during my tenure as principal at the school).

Stay tuned: More as it unfolds.

Our Lady, Queen of Peace: Pray for us!