As a nearly 500-year-old tradition of academic excellence around the world, it is interesting to ponder how Jesuit, Catholic liberal arts education will intersect with the future of higher education. There has been a striking decline in the value of a college degree in United States (U.S.) public opinion polls. The liberal arts are being threatened and, in some cases, completely abandoned as part of cost-cutting measures. Americans are wondering what the actual advantage of a liberal arts education is. In this issue, we explore the historical, contemporary, and future value of Jesuit, Catholic liberal arts education from multiple perspectives.
Market-driven industry forces are circling their wagons around higher education in the U.S. What will be the result? Might robots and 3D holograms replace the faculty? Could the development of an industry driven “knowledge core” harvested by artificial intelligence eliminate the need for human beings to develop their reading, writing, and critical thinking skills? Is it possible that campuses will detach from geographical locations, moving learning into a virtual reality aimed at digital and economic efficiency? There is no doubt that technological advancement always has a role to play in the future. However, the future of higher education should not be led by technology, only enhanced by it. Institutions of higher education must focus on helping students successfully navigate the contemporary world by giving them the tools and perspectives to create the circumstances for human flourishing.
American society is facing many challenges, including the proliferation of social media use linked to the youth mental health crisis, political polarization and the erosion of democracy, the geopolitical consequences of climate change, and for faith-based institutions, the “Great Dechurching,” which is the first time in American history that more adults in the U.S. do not attend church than those who do. Likewise, American higher education is confronting multiple challenges, such as the closure of college campuses, an impending demographic cliff of young people, the rising cost of tuition, shifting industry demands on the workforce, and public opinion devaluing higher education. However, Jesuit, Catholic higher education is perfectly suited to meet these challenges. It has proven its historical adaptability in the face of cultural, social, and technological changes while maintaining its deep roots in the meaningful exploration of what it means to be fully human, critically addressing the most enduring and universal questions of life.
To understand how our schools will meet the future, we have to look to our past. From 1548 to 1773, the Jesuits established 800 schools around the globe. Jesuits literally mapped the world—their missions spread throughout Asia and the Americas, exchanging knowledge in science, literature, and art. It was the Jesuits’ investment in educational excellence that saved the order under Russia’s Catherine the Great during its suppression in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Jesuit institutions produced great thinkers from Voltaire to Descartes, Diderot to Heidegger, and Joyce to de Saint-Exupéry. Today there is a network of 133 Jesuit institutions of higher education in 31 countries around the world. In the U.S., there are 27 Jesuit colleges and universities and 62 Jesuit high schools.
...the Jesuits’ educational model is more important than ever—accompanying our students as they do the hard work of learning who they are called to be in this world.
The Jesuits’ educational mission seeks to train individuals to do great things. Their mission and the core curriculum grounded in the liberal arts are intertwined with the character formation of young men and women who will live in service to other people. How? By achieving a standard of excellence, or magis, in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and the arts, and by methodically reflecting on what it means to be fully human. Operating in different historical contexts, the Jesuits’ educational model is more important than ever—accompanying our students as they do the hard work of learning who they are called to be in this world.
Central to this work is reflection that integrates what students learn with who they are becoming. Imagining and contemplating the ethical and philosophical frameworks of human existence require constant attention in order to create systems of equity and justice for all. Reflection becomes the bridge that links experience and action; it is an ongoing process. Through reflective practices like guided meditation, discernment, praying the examen, retreats, and journal writing, students process and adjust their personal knowledge. Reflection does not mean recall, memorization, or reaction. In the Jesuit context, it is much more significant. Faculty and school leaders must be intentional in designing and planning sessions of reflection. Reflection is active, not passive. It can bring about interior transformation as students find that “the place that God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet” (Frederick Buechner).
This leads to the question of how to assess the impact of reflection in the process. Some questions to consider: What are the real-life implications of the issue? Who do our students become in the long term? How are they using the tools of reflection in class, in the dorms, and in other areas of their lives? Each student is on his or her own path; reflection makes the journey all their own and allows them to fully live the questions along the way.
Complementary to its primary responsibility of educating students and helping them to achieve academic excellence, the special role of the faculty in a Jesuit, Catholic institution is to make each person on campus feel welcome and included because every single person counts. The distinctiveness of the social apostolate is the valuing of every person because the divine is present in every person, and we are compelled to promote the flourishing of each person for the good of the world. Working in this way, and centering reflection as a habit of mind, the college experience is more than transactional—it is fundamentally relational. Through those relationships with self and others, it becomes transformational. Because the Jesuit “way of proceeding” occurs in a dynamic feedback loop of experience, reflection, and action, continuous renewal, innovation, and reinterpretation are not only permissible but required. Jesuit pedagogy is indeed a living tradition.
In this issue of C21 Resources, we consider the contemporary issues facing our students and our institutions from the most virtuous to the most practical ways. We thoughtfully consider our traditions. With hope, we look toward future directions like Messina College, the Prison Education Program, and the Companions Program at Boston College that make Jesuit education more accessible. We intentionally include current student and alumni voices to address who our students become.
Listening to the leaders, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni in these pages, it is clear that our students are not only the products of our education. They are also the producers of social change in a larger network that embraces the invaluable ultimate freedom that a Jesuit, Catholic education provides.
Elizabeth H. Shlala is the guest editor of this issue of C21 Resources. She is associate dean and professor of the practice in the University Core Curriculum at Boston College.
Photo description: Convocation procession at Boston College, an annual tradition for first-year students.
