Spring Hill College - Torch Yearbook (Mobile, AL)

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V V I I H H AM' H' I. I ,!,l!.f.,,'l V, I--l,.,4.L.,-.,l,,','. .,, csuil Education HE officers and teachers in the College are for the most part members of the Jesuit order, an organization which from its origin has devoted itself to the education of youth. It conducts high schools, colleges and uni- versities throughout the United States and has more than twen- ty-five thousand students in its various institutions. As understood by the Jesuits, education in its complete sense, is the full and harmonious de- velopment of all the faculties that are distinctive of man. It l fundamental in their system l at different studies have dis- tinct educational values. Mathe- REV' EDWARD AQESJMMINGS' S' J matics, the Natural Sciences, Language and History are complimentary instruments of education to which the doctrine of equivalent cannot be applied. The best educators of the present day are beginning to realize more fully than ever before that prescribed curricula, embracing well chosen and co-ordinate studies, afford the student the most efficient means of mental cultivation and development. While recognizing the importance of Mathematics and the Natural Sciences, which unfold the interdependence and laws of the world of time and space, the Jesuit System of education has unwaveringly kept Language in a position of honor, as an instrument of culture. Mathematics and the Natural Sciences bring the student into contact with the material aspects of nature, and exercise the deductive and inductive powers of reason. Language and History effect a higher union. They are manifestations of spirit to spirit and by their study and their acquirement the whole mind of man is brought into widest and subtlest play. Much stress is also laid on Mental and Moral philosophy, as well for the influence such study has in mental development, as for its power in steadying the judgment of the student in his outlook on the world and on life. But to obtain these results, Philosophy must not content itself with vague groping after light, with teaching merely the history of Philosophy: detailing the vagaries of the human mind without venturing to condemn themg it must present a logical, unified, complete system of mind-culture in accord with the established laws of human thoughtg it must take its stand on some definite propositions expressive of truth, it must rise to the dignity of a science. With such a definite system to defend against attack, the mind becomes more acute and plastic, the logical powers are 14

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'Ni qv REVEREND JOSEPH M. WALSH, S. J PRESIDENT OF SPMNG HILI. COLLEGE 13

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X mo0'HQl!Q9W'H::m:12w,ff REV. D. R .NEEDHAM. S. J., PREFECT OF DISCIPLINE REV, E. J. CASSIDY, S. J.. STUDENTS SPIRITUAL COUNSELLOR strengthened, the value of a proof is properly estimated, the vulnerable points of error are readily detected, and truth comes forth triumphant from every conflict of mind with mind. Finally, the Jesuit System does not share the delusion of those who seen to imagine that education understood as an en- riching and stimulating of the intellectual faculties, has of it- self a morally elevating influ- ence in human life. While con- ceding the effects of education in energizing and refining the student's imagination, taste, un- derstanding and powers of obser- vation, it has always held that knowledge and intellectual de- velopment of themselves have no moral efficacy. Religion alone can purify the heart and guide and strengthen the will. This being the case, the Jesuit Sys- tem aims at developing side by side the moral and intellectual faculties of the student, and sending forth into the world men of sound judgment, of acute and rounded intellect, of upright and manly conscience. It main- tains that to be effective, moral- ity is to be taught continuouslyg it must be the underlying base, the vital force, supporting and animating the whole organic structure of education. It must suffuse with its light all that is read, illuminating what is noble and exposing what is base, giv- ing to the true and false their relative light and shade. In a word, the purpose of Jesuit teaching is to lay a solid sub- structure in the whole mind and character for any superstructure of science, professional and spe- cial, as well as for the upbuild- ing of moral life, civil and re- ligious. I