By Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
Last Saturday, Jan 9, I had to privilege, as one of CREDI’s Directors, to address CREDI’s students at a conference entitled: “CREDItable Conversations: Integral human development”. Msgr Jason Gordon, Fr Joe Harris and Dr Launcelot Brown also presented papers.
Inter alia, I shared insights from Malcolm Baldrige’s Criteria for Performance Excellence: Characteristics of High Performing Schools (USA); the School self-evaluation framework from the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), (UK) and The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Education by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, former Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education in the Vatican (see: www.catholiceducation.org) .
I look forward to the day when we will have national education standards in T&T. In the meantime, Catholic schools could use the Ofsted template as a way of answering questions such as those posed by Archbishop Miller: “How does a Catholic school know whether it is achieving its specific mission? Should not Catholic schools engage in quality assurance?” His five essential marks of a Catholic school are worth sharing. He says a Catholic school should be:
* “Inspired by a supernatural vision”. The goal is to “foster the growth of good Catholic human beings who love God and neighbour, enrich society with the leaven of the Gospel and thus fulfil their destiny of becoming saints” – preparing students for “heavenly citizenship”.
* “Founded on a Christian anthropology”. There must be a clear understanding of who the human person is – made in the image and likeness of God. The school should be concerned with the development of the whole person, and, as Pope Benedict XVI said in Charity in Truth, “in all his/her dimensions and of every person”. Catholic education is the “perfection of children as images of God…Christ is not an afterthought or add on to Catholic educational philosophy but the centre and fulcrum of the entire enterprise.”
* “Animated by communion and community”. The school is “a community of persons; a genuine community of faith” in which there is teamwork, collaboration, interaction (e.g. between teachers, students, parents, the community), and an environment (e.g. the school’s physical plant and equipment and external signs of Catholic culture) that “safeguards the priority of the person”.
* “Imbued with the Catholic worldview across the curriculum”, Catholic schools should “transform the way we see reality”. They should present a “Christian vision of the world, of life, of culture, and of history.” Faith, culture and life are “intimately related.”
Catholicism should “permeate the entire curriculum.” Catholic schools should help students “search for wisdom and truth” and “free children from the insidious consequences of what Pope Benedict XVI called the dictatorship of relativism which cripples all genuine education. Catholic educators are to have in themselves and develop in others a passion for truth which defeats moral and cultural relativism.” They are to educate “in the truth.”
* “A place where committed Catholics teach”. Teachers play a “vital role in ensuring a school’s Catholic identity; for creating a unique Christian school climate, as individuals and as a community. Indeed, it depends chiefly on them whether the Catholic school achieves its purpose. Theirs is a calling and not simply the exercise of a profession.” If Catholic teachers are to be “witnesses for Christ”, they need to reflect on where they stand on issues such as unjustified teacher absenteeism and charging for lessons after school to focus on parts of the syllabus that could be covered during the school day.
Pope Paul VI said in Evangelii Nuntiandi: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. What educators do, and how they act are more significant than what they say – inside and outside the classroom.”
While we respect teachers from other faiths who teach in Catholic schools, it is essential that we do not compromise the identity of our schools. I urge all staff in Catholic schools to be good role models and mentors to our youths and to help them realise their potential; be the best educators you can be. Each of us in our parishes must work with our local schools to make a difference to the lives of the nation’s children. It still takes a village to raise a child.
Send feedback to: ccsjfeedback@gmail.com. To purchase: The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Take a Bite social justice programme on DVD, and the Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching, contact CCSJ at 622-2691 or 290-1635.
