The Dignity of My Students and ACTs


“Thanks for your response. Your last line is perfect! "Faith is both a relationship and engagement with God's truths". Indeed, the concept of Faith as an invitation into a relationship with God where one experiences Transcendent Love is one we do not earn or accomplish; it is simple given. In this way, Faith is a gift. Further, as we seek ways in which to respond to this invitation, we act on that Faith. This action, as you suggest, is using other revealed or freely given Truths of God so we can grow deeper in our understanding of God's Love for us and how we can extend that same invitation of Love to others. Of course, as a Catholic, myself, and as a teacher, my goal is to extend that invitation to my students, letting them know they are Loved, and helping them to discover ways in which they can act on that same Faith-invitation.”

The job of the Catholic school teacher or administrator or admissions counselor or really anyone in the school community is “to invite”. I learned a long time ago that “education” literally means “to bring out”, as in, there is already a Truth within the student, and the role of the teacher is help the student to draw forth from within that Truth. Christian theology tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God, therefore, there is written on our very person the Truth of who God is. As teachers, we are called to help our students to reveal the Truth of God to themselves and to everyone they may encounter. But it is not a Truth that we can teach from without; it is Truth that we can only help our students to recognize and then to engage. Like I wrote to my online student above, “my goal is to extend that invitation”. We invite our students to become what they God calls them to be. Primarily, we are all called to Love and to be Loved, but we express that Love and Belovedness in diverse ways.
St. John Francis Regis, Regis Jesuit High School (P. Smith)

Lately, I have been talking to my students about the nature of and philosophy of education. I wrote earlier about their perception of the injustices of education, especially in terms of the ACTs and SATs. But the other day we were talking again and the general sense I get from them is they do not see how the methodology and assessment strategies we use do not seem to match their character or what we might call their secondary vocation. That is, what they feel their gifts are in art, athletics, Faith, etc…, they feel are not necessarily supported or fostered in their school. They consider the only skill of value to be academics and scoring well on tests. The result is, my students who do not do as well in the classroom feel a sense of diminishment or a lack of equality with more academically adept students. They are equating self-worth with grades. This is not just my less-adept students who are noticing this; my “advanced” students see this injustice, too. Of course this cannot be True. The dignity of our students cannot be measured with a test or a grade, at least not the way we do it now. The worst part of it is they know this is not a realistic way to support their vocation. Shouldn’t the goal of Catholic education be to “bring out” the unique and Beautiful Vocations of our students? Maybe we need to start thinking about how we can promote the dignity of each student in alternative manners. Maybe we need to start thinking about the real purpose of education again. Maybe we need to work as an educational community to create a sense of complementarity of vocations and not try to just make everyone “equal” under the same pedagogical standard.

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