A day off from school for our pupils…

And we, teachers at a Jesuit high school (Sint-Jozefscollege, Aalst, Belgium), took time off to reflect on today’s challenges in education. Not surprisingly in our case, the legacy of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) continues to provide the guiding principles to make this reflection possible.

The core of Ignatian spirituality, as well as the source of Jesuit pedagogy, consists of the Discernment of Spirits. Sometimes we’re guided by bad motivations, which ultimately lead us towards an inability to love ourselves, others, the world and God. Good motivations, on the other hand, facilitate our ability to love. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, became a master in discerning good from bad inner movements. A good introduction to the Discernment of Spirits can be found by clicking here.

Our school tried to summarize different aspects of this Ignatian spirituality of discernment in four pillars:

1. CURA PERSONALIS

2. NON MULTA SED MULTUM

3. FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

4. MAGIS

I made the following video clip to show a glimpse of the potentially emancipatory power of these four pillars, especially in the face of some of today’s challenges and conventional “mindframes”. It was initially meant to ignite reflection on our behavior in school, but it could inspire other contexts as well. After all, we’re all each other’s teachers, we’re all each other’s “example”…

CLICK TO WATCH: