Catholic Commission for Social Justice
During the Year of Faith, it is imperative that we remind ourselves of the teachings of our Church with regard to key elements of a just society. “The Church’s social Magisterium constantly calls for the most classical forms of justice to be respected: commutative, distributive and legal justice. Ever greater importance has been given to social justice…” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church #201).
“The Catholic school has a single Christian vision, an integrated concept of what makes a fully authentic and mature human being. The educational process is not confined to the curriculum, nor to the academic, technical, artistic and sporting achievements of the school. The Catholic school should be seen as offering the possibility not only of exploring the mystery which God is, but also of demonstrating the Gospel in action. It must be consistent throughout and in every aspect reflect the Christian faith, which is its soul, its inspiration and its justification.” (late Cardinal Basil Hume).
What are Catholic schools for? What makes Catholic schools different from e.g. Government schools?
On Friday 9th September, five of the seven persons who completed the 2010 Social Justice online course with the University of Dayton (UD) – in partnership with CREDI – The Catholic Institute, and CCSJ, graduated at St Finbar’s Auditorium along with those who had completed their Masters in Educational Leadership course with UD.
Leela Ramdeen, Chair of CCSJ, presented the five students and recommended them to receive certification to Dr Kevin Kelly, Dean of UD’s School of Education. Sr Angela Zukowski, Director for the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives, presented each student with his/her Certificate.
“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” (Diogenes Laertius)
Our Education system continues to be in the throes of “educational reform” with no clear philosophy about the kind of person we want to see at the end of the process. Let’s draw on the work of researchers such as Malcolm Baldrige (see: Characteristics of High Performing Schools) and Howard Gardner (see his theory of Multiple Intelligences) and Robert Marzano et al (see their Nine Instructional Strategies that “are most likely to improve student achievement across all content areas and across all grade levels”), and the standards of achievements and evaluation/inspection schedules for schools that have been developed by various countries?
“What greater work is there than training the mind and forming the habits of the young?” (St John Chrysostom).
As I prepare my paper to participate in a panel discussion during the Ministry of Education’s National Consultation on the Primary School Curriculum (Apr 5-6), I ponder over the way in which God works. The topic that I shall address is: “Addressing the need for morals, ethics, virtues and values in society”.