Abstract:

Education is not a way of growth or of life but it is growth and life. And Catholic education is to form each individual enabling him/her to love his/her neighbour and to live for others, leading a life ensuring justice and equality.  Students in our educational institutions should be men and women of integrity, conscience and compassion coupled with competence. The goal of Catholic education is to form each one a leader and the basic assumption is that each one is a potential leader. Hence through bringing to awareness each one’s self-awareness, ingenuity of optimistic innovation, love for work, and attitude of heroism each one is formed as a man or woman for others. Education should be imparted in an atmosphere of faith that does justice. Excellence in education is as important as social justice and hence in our Catholic institutions preferential option for the poor and the neglected and the marginalized should be given priority since such people were the preferred group both for Yahweh as well as Jesus. Teachers could take Jesus as the model who could see the world from the eyes of the common people and who was available for all at all times. Taking into account the students who cannot afford to enter the portals of Catholic educational institutions alternative arrangements should be made. For the dropouts Community Colleges could be thought of. If the students cannot come to the school, educational institutions should reach out to such students especially those who live in urban slums, children of migrant works. Thus there is more need for More Appropriate Education which makes the learning process relevant to life. Our commitment is people-oriented education, value-based education, education that forms individual as people of character and who in turn, as leaders, would transform the society.

Introduction:

Education is not a way of growth or of life but it is growth and life. Once Thoreau said: when the soldiers march to the beat of a drum, if one soldier hears a different beat, he should be able to follow his drum-beat. Can we say of this of our education? – Is our education a mass-production or tailored to the needs and capacity of individuals? A Catholic student would work, in his/her field of mission, as though everything depended on him/her but then would trust as though everything depended on God. Catholic education is to form each individual man and woman for others thereby enabling him/her to love his/her neighbour and to live for others, leading a life ensuring justice and equality, and thus attain faith gaining ascendance to the Almighty. He/she should become the voice of the voiceless – a voice in the wilderness crying out for social justice and human dignity and equality thus paving way for love of all. Students in our educational institutions should be men and women of integrity, conscience and compassion coupled with competence.

Purpose of Education:

Our education starts with imparting information, that is on the intellectual level, but it should be effective formation of the individual on the emotional level so that the students so formed could transform the society they live in – This implies they should be convinced of social values that promote social and religious harmony. They should be convinced that they should make the society they live in a better society – They might have come from an unequal society but they should establish equality and harmony.

A paradigm shift is needed in our education. The basis of education should be that each one in our educational institutions is a leader who is capable of leading others to betterment in life and society. The basic qualities of a leader (Cf. C. Lowney, Heroic Leadership, Loyola Press, Chicago 2003) are self-awareness, ingenuity, passion, and heroism:

1. Self-awareness: One should be aware of oneself – An understanding of one’s strength, weakness, values and world view are essential to constantly nourish leadership. Constant evaluation of oneself makes one get focused to the needs in the society.
2. Ingenuity: Overcoming prejudices and leading to optimistic innovation ingenuity picks up momentum for constant adaptability to the changing world. One should have the spirit of exploration and should have the guts to take risks for the betterment of people and society.
3. Passion (Love): The future leader should have clear focus on what he/she wants to do and achieve. They should be able to think globally but act locally. They should be able to put their heart and soul in what they do for the good of others without getting discouraged amidst challenges and failures. They would not hesitate in collaborating with others with positive and loving attitudes that resonate with their option. And they should have the option for the socio-economic poor in order to work for their upliftment.
4. Heroism: Our students should be driven by the inner dynamic spirit to doing ever more and ever greater things and they should dare to be different. They energize themselves and others through heroic ambition for the empowerment of the people.

All these qualities and character-formation should be imparted in and through our education since knowledge is power. Education is to know oneself with one’s abilities; to be for others in the society; and to become the leaders of others especially the needy. Hence our students should become men and women for others and they should stand with others in difficult times especially with the needy and the marginalized. It is our bounden duty, through our Catholic education, to impart such an education.

Review of our education imparted so far:

Christians in general and Catholic Missionaries in particular have been pioneers in education. In 1540 the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier founded a school in Goa for the Portuguese colonialists and for the native Indians and the first Catholic university college was founded in 1844 (St Joseph’s College at Nagapattinam and later shifted to Trichy). Since then thousands of schools and hundreds of colleges have been founded. But who have been our students and what have we prepared them for? It is a fact that we have not much taken in Catholic students – Today 50% of our Catholics study either in Government run institutions or in other private schools. We have been choosing the middle or upper middle class people as our target group. A simple examination would throw much light on our status: How much of our students, in our schools and colleges, are Catholics. The Catholic institutions, as minority institutions, should have at least 50% Catholics. Much needs to be done at least from now onwards. The majority of the Catholic Church in India is made up of poor people especially people from lower rung of social ladder. Have we taken care of them at all? In fact, many of them are not able to enter the portals of our educational institutions either because of the fee-structure or because we neglect them. We should realize that they also have the right to get educated in our institutions. Would it be an exaggeration to say that Catholic students in Catholic institutions would be minimal?

What have we done with the students we took in? Our institutions are known for disciplines and Convent schools are identified with English medium schools. A glance of our alumni/alumnae would show that we have prepared efficient burocrats and administrators. Have we prepared charismatic leaders who stand out for reformation of society and who bring in religious harmony? Academically we have prepared excellent people but we have missed turning them into entrepreneurs especially the Catholics. Our system perhaps has made us and our students think rigidly and act as per the letter of the law.  A heart to the needy should have been developed instead.

It is high time for us to think of what we should do to create a better educational system to evolve better world to live in. We should prepare men and women in our institutions who could create counter culture. We need to form men and women with values that would enliven and enlighten the society through social and religious harmony. It should be our future option to form, in our institutions, men and women of conviction, students who could think clearly and act decisively – We do not any longer need people who follow just the conventions in the society. We need to infuse new life into the society and such breathing persons of the society should be our students.

Faith that does justice:

In the 1960s the Jesuits, after their 32^nd General Congregation, came out with the beautiful paradigm: Faith that promotes justice. Faith that does justice should be the hallmark of Catholic educational institutions. The Catholic institutions, as could be gleaned from vision statements, have been mostly founded to impart education in a Catholic atmosphere. While we impart Catholic faith we should also realize that social reformation should be the outcome and the medium is the education. We often insist on excellence in education. Excellence in Education is as important as social justice. Preferential optional of the poor and the neglected is the remedy we need today.

Let us look at the Bible: Both God of the Old Testament and the Lord of the New Testament have preferential option for the poor. Out of Egypt Yahweh leads out the Israelites from slavery and leads them with outstretched arm and raised hand. The outstretched arm is to protect the Israelites and the raised arm is to smash any force that would rise against his chosen people. Yahweh chooses people suffering in slavery and brings them out in freedom and makes them a great nation. Even among them Yahweh expresses very often His preferential option for the poor – Again and again he would mention that he would protect the orphans, the widows, the refugees because they were poor – economically and socially. And in the New Testament Jesus goes after the poor – His whole life would be summarized as: He went around the villages and did good. He seeks out people though people thronged around him. He looks for the untouchables: He touches the leper and heals him. He strikes an illuminating conversation with a Samaritan woman who was considered socially untouchable. And the same low caste Samaritan is depicted in his story of the Good Samaritan as a model to the society. Jesus drives home the point – All are good and each one would do something beautiful to the society if they could be accepted and treated equally and treated with love and care.

In order to strengthen the faith element in our educational institutions we could introduce in our curriculum courses that would be very much change the face of the world. Our Catholic students should have courses on Catholic doctrines. Other Christians could have the Scriptures and other non-Christians could have a course on Ethics. This way all could grow in faith – faith in one’s religion and faith in oneself to do good for others. In order to ensure religious harmony our students should be offered a course on World Religions. They would thus find out that the basic teachings of all religious boil down to: be good and do good. They could get cleared of their doubts about other religions and they could overcome their prejudices against other religions and people of other religions.  And to bring social equality there could be a course on Human Rights and other elements that is needed for the society’s acceptance and tolerance of others. Wherever the course on human rights was taught the students not only showed interest but also took active part in ensuring the rights of people in their neighbourhood.

Model:

The teachers play an important role in realizing the new vision of education. The best model for a teacher is Jesus Christ. Vat II draws attention to the teachers in the following words:

Possessed by charity both towards each other and towards their pupils, and inspired by an apostolic spirit, they (the teachers) should bear testimony by their lives and by their teaching to the one teacher, who is Christ (Christian Education, No. 8).

Thus a Catholic teacher should be a replica of the greatest teacher of all times, namely Jesus Christ. His way of teaching is worth observing:

1. He identified himself with the lives of the ordinary people and saw the world and reality through their eyes. Thus he could predict seasons from leaves falling off and new blades coming forth – He could distinguish the good and the evil as the wheat and the weed. He could look at the skies and predict the climate. Thus he could read the signs of the times – not only physical times but also the times of grace and redemption.
2. He could come down to the level of the ordinary people and think in their terms – He always taught through short stories that could be observed in daily life and through popular proverbs. He never spoke without parables. Parables like the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are parables for excellence.
3. He was identified and recognized by his compassion. He was moved by the needy. When he saw someone lying down paralyzed for 38 years he went on his own and healed him. When people were so taken up by his teaching and followed him for three days he was so moved and he felt it was his duty to feed the thousands of people who followed him.
4. He was making friendship with all. He could mingle freely with children. He easily could shed tears when he heard his friend Lazarus was dead. He could change his philosophy of ‘not giving the dogs what was meant for children’ on encounter with a Canaanite woman of faith. He could be ready to go and heal the servant of the Roman official. Nothing is a barrier for him when it comes to extending a helping hand to the needy.
5. He stood for justice and righteousness. When he was convinced he would meet with any opposition. When he saw the Temple of Jerusalem as a commercial centre he became so furious that he drove away those who made the house of prayer into a den of thieves.
6. Above all he was the first one who taught the simple prayer to his disciples. He taught wisdom to the simple people. Learned people like Nicodemus could discuss philosophy with him and at the same time sinners like Zachaeus could learn forgiveness from him.
7. He could walk on the water and he could calm the rough sea but he could also share the simple meal of his friends as he did with the disciples of Emmaus.
8. He went in search of those who were in need. He was on the move all the time. He was restless searching for the needy and fulfilling their needs.

In short he was a man for all seasons and he was a source of inspiration and fountain of enlightenment to whoever came to him. He took upon himself to proclaim the good news to the poor. First he thought his mission was to address physical infirmities but later he realized that it has to be holistic, namely psychological and spiritual healing as well. He consequently healed the possessed. Further he realized that freedom should transcend social and religious and political barriers. He seeks such people and takes care of their need. We as teachers should be men and women for all people with preference to those who are ignored or sidelined in the society. It could be a marginalized student in our class or a slow learner in our course or a first generation in our lecture or a student with psychological problem in our midst. For such student we should not be mere course-teachers but accompanying persons of formation and mentors of guidance. We should be able to see the world through the eyes of our students. We should be able to understand the aspiration and frustration of our students and we should be able to accept them as they are. Only then we could lead them and mould them as reformers of the society. Thus the model of Jesus is to love all and to accept all as they are and form them for the society.

Catholic education today:

If we want to impart education in the true ‘Catholic’ sense we should cater to the needs of all especially the Catholics. Christian virtue is to love the neighbour and hence Catholics in the neighbourhood should be well taken care of with regard to imparting education. Our education should give importance to value-based education – Value to respect and accept others and to be of help to the needy.  The curriculum should be so designed that our students would be well placed with regard to employment. The problem in India is not lack of employment but absence of employability. Hence skill-based training is very much needed. Communication skills and computer literacy should be taken care of in our institutions. Utmost preference and importance should be given, in admissions, to the economically poor, socially crippled, religiously ignored, politically sidelined, culturally overlooked. Such people need our Catholic educational institutions to be formed as leaders of the society.

For those who cannot afford to come to our Catholic institutions we could make arrangements for their effective study. Neighbourhood ministry is the hall-mark of Catholic or religious call. There should be study centres where children who cannot afford to study in our institutions – Some children do not even have place to sit and study at home. Such students could be collected and coached, with the help of part-time teachers, so that they could also come up in education and consequently in life. Even where we do not have our educational institutions we could start hostels for boys and girls who are poor so that they could pursue their studies in the nearby schools but stay in one place with facility for additional tuition. For the school drop out alternatives could be thought of – In the current situation Community College is one such alternative.

If the students cannot come to schools and colleges, education could reach them. This is the mobile schools which operate in slums or in places where migrant workers are employed for a few months – During this period the children could study well. Today we think of More Appropriate Education. This kind of education, popularly known as MAP, is very much effective in Mumbai (Cf. N. D’Silva, Education for Transformation towards More Appropriate Education, DRTC, St Pius X College, Mumbai, p. 2f):

MAP seeks to make the learning process relevant to the lives of the 60 % of the urban population who live in worker colonies (slums), on the street, railway platforms, etc. The course content is designed to take into account the needs of the students, as well as the environmental and cultural situation. Teachers are encouraged to engage with the community to that all that is feasible and good (stories, songs, etc) can be incorporated into the curriculum. A constant updating of the curriculum is necessary to keep it as relevant and interesting as possible.

In this system students may be admitted at any time and into any stage of the educational programme. In this system the problem-solving approach is emphasized and the teacher undergoes a constant process of self-searching and adaptation. This approach prepares one to face the challenges of life and living and helps produce people with a vision of the world that will enable them to work for a just, participatory and sustainable society as the system seeks to equip a person to fulfill oneself by playing a responsible and liberating role in the community and the environment.

Conclusion:

Today Catholic education aims not only at excellence but also person-oriented education especially the needy and the marginalized. Though all should be formed as elements of social change the poor, economically, socially and intellectually, should be given special care and attention. The inspiration is from Yahweh and Jesus of Nazareth – Yahweh and Jesus opted for the have-nots. They deliberately chose the weak to make them strong in order to become a formidable force in the society and to transform the society leading to a meaningful life of participation. It is time that we become enlightened. Our commitment is people-oriented education, value-based education, education that forms individual as people of character and who in turn, as leaders, would transform the society.

Talk delivered at Stella Maris College, Chennai – Feb2007.