Institutional Development — PRAISE AND COMMENDATION OF THE IGNATIAN/JESUIT PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION FOR ITS COMMITMENT TO PURSUING ‘THE COMMON GOOD'

Given the UNESCO Constitution’s Preamble of 1945 that “since wars begin in the minds of men [and women], it is in the minds of men [and women] that the defences of peace must be constructed” (see?here), it is unambiguously already established that, indeed, “Education is like a double-edged sword [which] may be turned to dangerous uses if it is not properly handled” (see?here, p.294). Therefore, only Education that pursues “the common good” (e.g. the one designed, developed and implemented by the Ignatian/Jesuit?Boston College Lynch School of Education & Human Development) is the one that deserves to be called — because it indeed turns out to be — a Quality Education. Actually for it to be beneficial to Humanity, every Education ought to be of the latter type, and this is the reason that underpins the statement by James S. Page (2014, p.5)[1] that, “All education is implicitly peace education, in that there is a moral assumption within all education that we are training students to operate in and contribute to a peaceful world”.

The above-portrayed type of Education — i.e. deservedly identified as a Quality Education — is actually the one whose only way of attainment is the development of what is nowadays known as the 21st?Century Skills. These important skills are special in that they are spearheaded by Critical Thinking (see?here,?here,?here, and?here) with its classical key and sine qua non standards that include Clarity/Accuracy/Consistency/Logic on the one hand, and Completeness in terms of both Breadth and Depth on the other hand (see?here, or?here, and?here). And this actually education-induced Critical Thinking?is expected to only develop in “the student as a thinker who learns and achieves understanding or sense making” (Rwanamiza: 2009, p.7)[2] — More on Understanding as resulting from Critical Thinking and as being the only means/way of Education leading to Peace can be read from my many posts/articles available?here?including?this one?I’m particularly proposing to the readers’ Reflection, actually in alignment with the Ignatian Reflection integrated in Education in terms of “a?pedagogical?[sic] process: reflecting on experience and learning from it to make better decisions” (see?here, webpage).

In a nutshell, back to the beginning and from the perspective of the Ignatian/Jesuit Philosophy of Education already evoked in the title of the present article, the overall underpinning fundamental principle turns out to be that: He who wants peace must NOT prepare for war — or ‘si vis pacem para bellum’ ANY MORE — but he who wants peace must intentionally prepare for peace instead (see here).

Endnotes/References

[1] Page, J. S. (2014) Peace Education. Author’s version that was submitted and accepted for publication in D. Phillips (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy, Volume II. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, pp. 596-598. This author’s version is available here, on pp.1-7.

[2] Rwanamiza, E. (2009) Knowledge, Education, Learning and Teaching: Meanings and Relationships. In Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies [JAAACS] Vol.5 No.2, available here.