By Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ
“Virtues inform values and values influence behaviour.” (Archbishop Edward J Gilbert CSsR)
On Tuesday 23, Archbishop Gilbert will launch the second edition of the Students’ Workbook for the Values and Virtues Formation Programme at the Parish Hall in Chaguanas. The Workbook comprises four modules: Self-awareness, Relationships, Being Responsible, Balance and Wholeness.
The launch will be followed by a two-day workshop to prepare RC Primary School teachers of post-SEA students to deliver this important aspect of the curriculum. Our students are made in the image and likeness of God. Each one is unique and has inherent dignity. We must do what we can to lead them to live holy and virtuous lives so that they will draw closer to God.
Derek Fields, composer and singer, will sing at the launch of the workbook. He has kindly granted permission for us to use his song, Child of God, as the theme song for the programme. The words of the song are appropriate e.g. “I want to love, to love as a child of God/ I want to be faithful in all I say and do/ Trusting my Father to bring me to holiness/To be the little child He wants me to be.”
The objectives of the programme are:
• To promote authentic integral human development, that is, the development of the young person in all his/her dimensions and of every young person in our Catholic Primary Schools. (Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth, 2009);
• To teach young people about “values, virtues, morality and personal and social relationships” in order to form their consciences and build their character;
• To “form young people of the archdiocese and nation so they can choose truth and authentic values for their lives”;
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As we have stated in the Teachers’ Guide to the Programme, “The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that: ‘Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good’ (no. 1803). St. Thomas defines virtue as ‘a good habit bearing on activity.’
“Therefore, throughout this Programme, students should be given the opportunity to practise the values and virtues that teachers are seeking to instil in them. Students should understand, though, that not all habits are virtuous.
“Catholics believe that moral truth is objective and that it is valid at all times and everywhere. We believe that God is the source of all moral truth and that He imprinted a moral order in our hearts and minds.”
The teachers’ task is to nurture this moral order in their students by making them aware of the values and virtues that form part of our moral code. They can only do so if they create values/virtues-driven classrooms. Schools are not value-free spaces. Values and virtues formation should permeate every aspect of the life of a school.
I urge everyone to read and re-read Fr Martin Sirju’s article last week, and indeed all the articles that he and Prof Spence have written about Education. As the saying goes, “Children learn what they live.” They bring to school with them all that they have learned at home and in the wider community.
Unless parents show an interest in their children’s education; unless we find some way of forging stronger links between home/school/community, we will continue to face challenges in nurturing the right kind of values and virtues in our students.
Too often there is a disconnect between what we are seeking to instil in students’ hearts and minds at school and what goes on at home and in the wider community. If Catholic families are to become what they are, we must help them embrace what the writer, Thomas Lickona, calls “the countercultural values of the Gospel.” He says: “A Catholic school must embody the character of Christ. It must be a moral and spiritual community in which all members support and care for each other.”
Let us build the characters of our young people so that they will realise their potential and be true witnesses to Christ. Families and schools, strengthen the prayer life and the faith of our youths so that they will be guided to do good and to build the common good.
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.
