University of San Francisco - USF Don Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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THE AIM OF JESUIT EDUCATION qpHE aim of the Jesuit system of training is the development of the whole man, man completely considered: man as a physical, an emotional, an intellectual, a volitional and a religious being. Discipline of these distinctive human powers of the student is the keynote in the process of development. The aim of Jesuit instruction and training is formative as well as informative. Information, the acquisition of knowledge and facts, is emphatically insisted on; but, for the most part, as an instrument employed in a process, not as the final purpose to be achieved. The formation of character, the development of the student’s moral conscience for a life of honor, integrity and usefulness in this world and preparation of his immortal soul for the next life, is given the enormous attention and consideration it deserves. Modern education too often neglects to administer to the whole man. The Jesuits apply education to the whole personality of the student. Spiritual values are made superior to the over-emphasized money-values of modern education. The Jesuit fathers keep in mind the ultimate object of all education: the eternal life. Preparation for the earthly happiness of the student is stressed, but the eyes of the student are directed upward and not fixed downward. The frailty of human nature is realized by these eminent teachers. The proper environment for education and circumstances conducive to good mental and moral training are established or created. These great teachers are well aware of the fact that the sea of life is filled with many human derelicts, human derelicts whose capacities, talents and abilities are misguided and misspent. They see these derelicts drifting from port to port, sometimes filled with poor educational cargo. They see these human souls sailing their ships under false banners and dangerous philosophical cargo. They see a world of numerous intellectual and moral diseases, diseases that spread in everwidening contagious circles. They see the materialism, the agnosticism, the scepticism, and the cynicism of secular education biting deeply into the perplexed minds of multitudes of students. They see the cracks in the decaying codes of morality; they see religion taking on an egocentric tinge. The Jesuits aim to equip their students to fight against, to resist and to overcome these intellectual and moral diseases in the world. They aim to equip each student with a ship filled with precious cargo. They aim to make each student the pilot of that ship, to train the pilot to navigate in troubled waters, to train the pilot to be alert and vigilant of dangerous reefs and barriers, to train the pilot to watch and look to The Supreme God of All who stands as a lighthouse beacon shedding light to illuminate the way. The Jesuit system of training aims to give the student pilot a rich, useful, eternally true philosophical cargo. This cargo—scholastic phi-

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FACULTY ADMINISTRATION 1

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losophy is one of the most invaluable products of Jesuit education. It reaches the student how to analyze, how to discriminate, how to distinguish, how to detect the true from the false, how to detect sophistry, how to define and clarify, how to discard the irrelevant. This cargo grounds the student pilot in the Christian beliefs and principles that concern his ultimate destiny, that lay down the rules for his conduct in the attainment of his last end. Jesuit training aims to produce a well-balanced personality, a well-balanced education, in the student. The one-sided, one-track-mind specialist is not the product desired by the Jesuits. Man, they believe, is a being who possesses latent powers for the pursuit and attainment of many intellectual pleasures. Man, they believe, is capable of greater intellectual achievement, of greater understanding, of more harmonious living. Phe ideal student that the Jesuit system of training aims to turn out is pretty well exemplified in Cardinal Newman’s Ideal Man: “He is at home in any society, he has common ground with every class; he knows when to speak and when to be silent; he is able to converse, he is able to listen; lie can ask a question pertinently, and gain a lesson seasonably, when he has nothing to impart himself; he is ever ready, yet never in the way; he is a pleasant companion and a comrade you can depend on; he knows when to be serious and when to trille, and he has a sure tact which enables him to trifle with gracefulness and to be serious with effect. He has the repose of a mind, which lives in itself, while it lives in the world, and which has resources for its happiness at home when it cannot go abroad. He has a gift which serves him in public, and supports him in retirement, without which good fortune is but vulgar, and with which failure and disappointment have a charm. Phe art which tends to make a man all this is in its idea as useful as the art of wealth or the art of health, though it is less susceptible of method, and less tangible, less certain, less complete in its result.” 'Phe Jesuits aim to approach this Ideal Man. However, while aiming to develop all these human attributes and virtues in the student they have in mind the last end of the human being, the most important end, the end to which all other ends are subordinated. So Jesuit training disciplines the mind and will of the student, builds strong moral fibre, develops self-control and volitional habits that teach the student to do what he is supposed to do in spite of any discomfort or pain it may bring. Thus equipped the student is sent out into the world, fitted to meet the tasks that come before him, fitted to become a useful and loyal citizen of domestic, civil and state society. Into the fields of labor, of business, of professional life, of government and of every phase of human activity the Jesuit student is sent, armed with knowledge and discipline that seeks to ennoble and to benefit human society. The aim of Jesuit training is deep and wide and embraces the whole man. The world will be made a better place to live in because of it.