Throughout these several articles on the topic of Industrial-Age vs. New-Science-Thinking my thoughts have ranged in many directions. Taking this class on curriculum concurrently with the Philosophical Foundations of Education course has been a great deal to wrap my own mind around, for oftentimes I do not know where one ends and the other begins. I believe wholeheartedly that the task of Catholic education is to provide formation for young people, and to allow one to become the great person whom God has destined her or him to be, a person in service to others. This said, a Catholic school must be a place where the experience of God is present in the discovery and understanding of God's own Truth, an entity that we as individuals or even as Church cannot fully articulate no matter how much we try. God's Truth is our only ideal, and everything, values, goals, etc. comes from God. Now it is not as if we accept this Truth as a sort of fundamentalist would, and that God has given it to us in the form of a handbook, but that God has surrounded us with Truth and we must discover, formulate, and articulate it for one another in community as a shared experience of it. This is no easy task in the least. The Truth of God does not change, yet our own lived experience and understanding of it certainly does. What has been meaningful for past generations (their experience of Truth) will not necessarily be meaningful for future generations, yet the Truth itself does not change. This said, even though we must discover the Truth and derive its own meaning for ourselves, this cannot be done in a vacuum nor in some egotistical way that turns a deaf ear to that which has happened in the past. Oddly enough, this is where my own beliefs on the movement towards a new system and approach to education takes root, which includes the appropriate role of technology. Technology and its use can assist students well in their own discovery and experience of the Truth, yet it is a powerful means toward the goal of the experience of Truth as well as a means by which students articulate their personal experiences. The fact that the ever increasing means of technology provide new and different ways for students to create and communicate cannot be disputed by anyone with a grasp on reality.
My own experience in education has been one where computers and technology have been present, though understandably, not to the extent that they are now. I got my first e-mail address when I went to Saint Mary's College, but other than communicating with teachers in a quicker fashion, I cannot say that it would have been very useful for me as a high school student. The ways in which I have incorporated the ideas of the previous paragraph have been primarily engaged with the principle of discovery and experience of the Truth. This year I have been teaching geometry which can be taught in such a way that the principles (theorems and postulates) can be discovered anew by each student since they build sequentially and the system grows upon itself. I have made use of technology myself in designing lessons, but I have also attempted to show them the simplicity of technology in taking measurements and accomplishing a project such as measuring the height of our large cross in the midst of the Saint Mary's plaza. Students are welcome to use technology in ways that enhance their own expression of their understanding of our topics of study. As I said in class, I believe in a both/and situation for our students. For if by only paying attention to that which is technologically attention-grabbing, our students might merely relegate the past experience of God's Truth to a dark and dusty corner of the realm of education, and something within that past might prove of great personal value to an individual student. I welcome the coming days of greater availability of informtion through technological advances, however, the tactile experience of flipping through the pages of Dante's Divine Comedy is one which I am loathe to give up, only being able to read it on my iPhone.
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Br. David, your thoughts on God’s truth remind me of the real reason we choose (and in a real sense are called) to teach in a Catholic school. The idea of appropriate technology and not diverging from the original truth which brought the group together in a Catholic school in the first place gave me food for thought. We as educators need to constantly strive to understand our students, and meet their needs and the needs of the ever changing world- however, stay focused on the reality and on the reason we are there. The value of flipping through a book and of a hard day’s physical work can never be replaced by any virtual program. Recognizing this, and seeking that balance, I think, is a challenge for educators everywhere. That being said- as teachers and administrators are faced with new programs and technology daily, now is the need for a clear technology plan for Catholic schools and a plan to not throw the baby out with the bath water.
ReplyDeleteHi Brother David,
ReplyDeleteThe importance of incorporating current technology in our schools is clear. How best to use that technology, as part of an engaging learning experience which assists in imbuing the student with an invigorating sense of the Lord, is an evolving, complex question.
Your comment about reading Dante struck a chord. When I attended Lone Moutain College right up the hill from us here and when it was still a separate college run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, I took an individual study course that required reading the Divine Commedy in the vernacular Italian. In order to do that, I had to have a dictionary right by my side, so I could find the translation of each word I didn't know as I went along. Reading took hours, as did that 3 hour class. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that way of study to everyone. All I know, looking back, the manual and intellectual tasks at hand in that were some of the greatest learning tools I have ever received. I just hope that what we can achieve - how we learn through computers - can match the attention to detail, structure and ultimately analysis - powerful skills - resulting from such study. (I do love working with computers; this is just a rhetorical question.)
Also, the teacher for the course, a devout Catholic, Doctor Vittoria Vogric, went way beyond the Industrial Age teaching approaches of the day. While teaching Dante, she somehow managed to cover The Gulag Archipelago and made sure the violation of human rights was an issue of which we were aware. Hers was a compassionate, broad-based New Science methodology.
Br. David,
ReplyDeleteYour last comment especially resonated with me: how do provide students an opportunity to find God in their lives amidst attention-grabbing technology.
At my HS, we provide a four day silent retreat with the exception of small groups and afternoon breaks. Every time I go, I am deeply moved by how students start discerning what is really happening in their lives. With no phone or computer to use, they are left to be with themselves. For all the work we do with technology, Catholic schools must also provide students to be alone with themselves.
I once heard a great line... If you silence the world around you, you begin to listen to your mind. If you then silence your mind, you begin to listen to your heart.