The right stuff: Education for virtue
By Dr Gerard Gaskin, Director of Catholic Education Tasmania
Have you noticed that almost everyone always has an opinion about education? That’s because almost everyone went to school! We all have firm views about what we think works (or doesn’t work) in education.
However, I have noticed that there are a few things that everyone seems to agree about. One of these is that we all want our children to be good people. In all my years of education I have never heard a parent say that they wanted their child to come out of Catholic education worse than they went in. I hope I never will.
Catholic education is only ever successful when there is a mutual partnership between parents (caregivers) and the school. This idea is enshrined in many Church documents about Catholic education, and it is why our Catholic schools see themselves as collaborating with parents and supporting them in their primary role as educators of their children.
As a team, we want the child to grow in the Catholic faith, and in their knowledge and understanding across the curriculum. Also important is the kind of person we want them to become – people of virtue.
Education in virtue produces Catholic men and women who will serve the people around them gladly, people whose Catholic faith will be alive and radiant, people who work bravely for noble causes and who strive every day to be better today than they were the day before.
It was Aristotle and the ancient Greeks that established our first understanding of the four cardinal virtues:
PRUDENCE to judge correctly what is right and what is wrong in any given situation.
JUSTICE the constant and permanent determination to give everyone her or his rightful due.
COURAGE (Fortitude) the reasoned ability to overcome fear and to remain steady in our will in the face of obstacles.
TEMPERANCE the restraint of our desires or passions for our own good and the good of others – self-control.
Today, more than ever, we need to help our children grow in these good habits of behavior. We will be proud parents and grandparents indeed if, together with Catholic schools, we can foster the “right stuff” of virtue in our students.
In future editions of this column, we will explore practical ways that families and schools can foster these virtues to form young men and women of character, faith and commitment.