The ministry of education is truly
the most worthy, the most noble, the most meritorious, the most beneficial, the
most
- Memorial to Cardinal Tonti by St.
Joseph Calasanz
INTRODUCTION
Today,
there is a plethora of educational philosophies. Sometimes it is confusing
which among these educational philosophies one should choose. However, the dark
side of this overabundance is that some significant and founding educational
philosophies are left in oblivion. One of these is the educational philosophy
of St. Joseph Calasanz. [1]
That with too much emphasis on his religious contributions, according to Joseph
Domenech i Mira, his educational philosophy was overshadowed by others.
This
paper aims at highlighting the core educational philosophy of St. Joseph
Calasanz. In this relation, the paper is divided into two segments: the history section, which deals in brief the
life of St. Joseph Calasanz and his social milieu, and the expository section, which deals with the highlights of the
Calasanzian educational philosophy. The paper’s conclusion will summarize the
paper’s discussion and highlight the contributions of the Calasanzian
educational philosophy in the educational arena.
History
Calasanz’s Biography[2]
St. Joseph Calasanz was born in 1557 in the
Catalan-speaking Spanish town of Peralta de la Sal, located in Aragon, Spain,
near to Catalonia. He was the eighth and last son of a family belonging to the
lower ranks of the Aragon nobility, the infanzones,
and his father, who ran a foundry, was made mayor of Peralta. After
completing his primary studies in his hometown, the 11-year-old Calasanz, went
to Estadilla to study the humanities. In 1571, he moved to the nearby city of
Lerida, home of the most celebrated university of the ancient kingdom of
Aragon, drawing students from Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia, the three major
communities of Aragon. As was customary in the medieval era, the students were
divided into ‘nations’ and Calasanz was elected prior of the Aragonese. This
was the first recognition of his natural authority and moral stature.
At the University of Lerida, Calasanz studied philosophy
and law. He went on to study theology at the University of Valencia and at the
University of Alcala de Henares, and again in Lerida, finally obtaining his
doctoral degree. He was ordained as a priest in 1583 and during his
ecclesiastical career held various offices in the Catalan region. During that
period, Calasanz spent several years in La Seu d’Urgell, a dangerous town close
to the border with France. In those days, bandits were a serious problem in
Catalonia, and conditions were most extreme in the frontier regions: bands of
Gascons and Huguenots, involved in the turbulence in neighboring France, were
constantly crossing the border into Catalonia where they ran riots, committing
all kinds of outrages and crimes.
It was Calasanz’s lot to live in those threatening and
insecure times, and the situation was worsening in La Seu d’Urgell than
elsewhere because the diocese had been without a bishop for some time. The absence
of strong authority, which in that epoch was exercised by the bishops, simply
encouraged criminality. As secretary of the Cathedral Chapter, Calasanz had
broad administrative responsibilities, as may be seen from the letters he sent
to the viceroy of Catalonia in which he urgently requested help to deal with
the dire situation in the region where murder, pillage and extortion were rife.
Calasanz’s ties to Lerida were strengthened by other
posts he held in the region, including that of inspector of Tremp, a town where
a convent of Dominican monks offered instruction in reading and writing. In
those days, Calasanz was a young man whose tall and powerful physique reflected
the tremendous moral, intellectual and spiritual force that was to remain with
him throughout his life. The tenacity with which he dedicated himself to his
educational mission spoke of a Herculean strength – larger than life – that
only a man of extraordinary abilities could sustain.
In his early years in Spain, Calasanz had already shown
his concern for the poor and disadvantaged by establishing in Claverol a
foundation that distributed food to the destitute each year. The charity
remained in existence for nearly two-and-a-half centuries, until 1885. In that
revealing initiative taken in his youth, the great social concern that Calasanz
would later demonstrate in his educational work was already clear for all to
see.
In 1592, at the
age of 35, the future educator moved to Rome in the hope of furthering his
ecclesiastical career. He lived there for most of his remaining fifty-six
years. He became, during this long period, fully pledged Roman with strong ties
to both Rome and Italy, without ever losing touch with his Spanish roots.
Disturbed by the moral and physical degradation of large
numbers of Roman children, Calasanz established in 1597 at the Church of Santa
Dorotea of Trastevere the first Pious School, which was the first free public school in modern
Europe.
In 1600, a Pious School opened in the center of Rome and
soon there were extensions in response to growing demands for enrolment from
students who flocked from all over. In 1610, Calasanz wrote the Documentum princeps in which he set out
the fundamental principles of his educational philosophy. The text was
accompanied by regulations for teachers and for students. In 1612, the school
moved to San Pantaleo which became the parent house of all the Pious Schools.
The first Pious Schools outside of Rome was established
in Frascati in 1616. One year later, Pope Paul V created the Order of the Pious Schools, the first
religious congregation dedicated essentially to teaching. During the
following years the Pious Schools were established in various parts of Italy,
including Geno (1625) and Naples (1626). During that period Calasanz drafted
the constitution for the Nazareno School in Rome and was in contact with
Galileo. In 1631, he founded the Mikulov School in Moravia where, soon
afterwards, he also established the Strasznice and Leipnik schools. Schools
were set up in many other cities in Italy. Because f his earlier ties to the
Lerida region in Spain, Calasanz tried in 1638 to establish his first Spanish
school in Guissona, but the outbreak of war two years later prevented the completion
of the project. In 1642, the Royal School of Warsaw and the Podoliniec School
were established in Poland, triggering off a great expansion of Pious Schools
in Poland.
In that same year, as a result of an internal crisis in
the Congregation and outside intrigues and pressures, Calasanz was briefly held
and interrogated by the Inquisition. The following year, the elderly educator,
drawn into a power struggle fuelled by political interest and personal
ambitions, was discredited and removed from his post as General of the
Religious Order that he had founded, to be replaced by one of his detractors.
In the following years, Calasanz continued to live in disgrace, his Religious
Order was demoted and the whole system built up over the years was in danger of
collapse. In 1648, still in disgrace, Calasanz died at the age of 91 and was
buried in San Pantaleo. Eight years after Calasanz’s death, Pope Alexander VII
cleared the name of the Pious Schools. Joseph Calasanz was beatified by the
Catholic Church in 1748 and canonized nineteen years later. On 13 August 1948,
Pope Pius XII declared him patron of all Christian public schools. Today, there
are Pious Schools in Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia.
Exposition
The Core Educational
Philosophy of St. Joseph Calasanz
The Calasanzian educational philosophy capitalizes on the
following pioneering educational cores namely piety and learning, preventive method, and didactics. By philosophy I
mean the system of thought on a
particular field e.g. education. Therefore, this segment of the paper tackles mainly
on the highlights of St. Joseph Calasanz’s ideas regarding popular education.
Needless to say, the saint is the founder of the first tuition-free public schooling in Europe, which many modern
public school systems has adopted with or without the awareness of its under-recognized
pioneer.
Calasanz in once said:
“… If children,
from their earliest years are instructed diligently in piety and letter, it
must undoubtedly be expected that their whole life will be a happy one.”[3]
St.
Joseph Calasanz’s educational philosophy stresses the importance of starting
education from the earliest stage of life. He further believes that if children
are given the proper education at an earlier stage of their lives, one can
expect a better society. For out of well-educated children lies the prevention
of the evils of the society.
St.
Joseph Calasanz’s philosophy of education aims at the reform of the society in
general. He realized that to effectively achieve the reformation of the society
one has to start with the individual person. He saw education as the best means
towards this noble goal. However, education, to be effective, should start at
the early stage of a person’s life. This is the reason why St. Joseph Calasanz
despite oppositions pursued the education for the young.
The Preventive Method: Hallmark of the Calasanz’s Educational
Philosophy
The saint once noted that the ministry of the
Piarist education is “a meritorious ministry to establish and to practice, with
the plenitude of charity in the Church, an efficacious, preventive and healing evil, to induce and illumine the good.”[4] Notably,
education in the brilliant mind of the saint-educator is no other than the act
of saving, recovering, and preventing. One can therefore understand that in
this educational philosophy of Calasanz teachers educate for the welfare of the
individual and the transformation of the society. Teaching profession is
precisely not about acquiring wealth and fame in this vein. It is about the
transformation of the society that can be best attained in the prevention of
evil and its concomitant manifestations viz. crimes and others.
The
purpose of the preventive method is not only to prevent evil acts of children
but also that good be done to them in a positive way.[5] As
a renown proverb states: it is best to straighten up a tree while it is young
than when it is already old and crooked. The preventive method pioneered by
Calasanz has an integral effect in the person. First, it keeps the person from
vices. Second, it produces and effects in the person the good.
It
is not enough therefore to preserve children from doing evil at the start of
their educational training but more importantly it must be sustained all
throughout their study. By doing so, the person will be able to internalize the
good values and virtues for the rest of his or her life. Typical for this
originally Calasanzian pedagogy is “helping to abandon bad habits of the past”[6] to
produce from the students virtues by “continuous insistence upon the good
upbringing.”[7]
At Piarist schools, they do it this way:
The students
should put off the idleness, the dangerous games on the streets and squares,
the blasphemies, the imprecations, the offenses and injuries, the fights and
lies, and become accustomed, little by little, to the industrious daily work,
dominating the passions, modesty, gentle words, the respect towards the
superiors and to oneself.[8]
Abiding
this method is the emphasis of the saint-educator on role modeling by the educators, discipline,
and the utility of books that promote good manners and good upbringing. And
at the further end of this method is the inculcation of the fear of God.
One may ask why is the “fear of God” essential in
the educational philosophy of Calasanz. On this regard, he believes that when
children obtain the “holy fear of God” they will cease doing bad and will even
watch after themselves not to commit one. It is noteworthy however that this
notion of fear of God is not about
fearing due to definite punishments but fearing to offend the God who loves
unconditionally the entire person. Thus, Calasanz made it clear, theologically,
in emphasizing this aspect of the preventive method that the children or
students fear God in the sense of avoiding hurting God who is loving not because they are afraid of the
punishment. Calasanz taught it well that the person’s picture of God must be
that God is a loving God not a punishing God! Individuals with this correct
notion of God will eventually be beneficial in the maintenance and promotion of
the good of the society. Because they will do good out of love not out fear for
the punishment of failing to do good. This is consequently the aim and after
effects of the preventive method.
The preventive method is also carried out by the diligent exercise of the teaching ministry. If nowadays, we hear teachers
claiming that the teaching profession a vocation, Calasanz four hundred years
ago had already conceived this notion! By considering the teaching profession
as a vocation the educator himself/herself will develop the passion and
dedication for his or her work. Hence, he or she will teach students with
diligence. For only teachers who understood the significance of their educating
ministry will perform the noble task diligently. Tantamount to being a diligent
teacher is the fact of role modeling. The
exact term did not really exist in the words of Calasanz, as far as my
knowledge is concerned, but putting it in today’s parlance it will probably be
so. Diligent teaching demands that the educator walks his or her talk. Profound
teaching amounts to nothing if it is not accompanied by good example. This section
of the paper is augmented in these words of Calasanz:
The reformation
of Christian society consists in the diligent exercise of the teaching
profession. The good education of youth is the most effective remedy for
persevering and curing youth from evil. It is, at the same time, the induction
and illumination of good. From it depends the peace and tranquility of people,
good government, the propagation of the faith, conversion, and preservation
from heresies, and, lastly, the reform of Christian society, because it teaches
people to live well.[9]
Calasanzian Educational
Philosophy in Didactics
Calasanz,
in his genius, invented some educational strategies such as arranging the
students into classes into different grades (which was not done in his time),
accompanying the students in their way back home (school buses are its nearest modern
equivalent), the preventive method, the education of the young children in
contrast to the fashion of providing education only to the elite in Calasanz’s
time, the acceleration program for those deserving students who progress in
learning faster than other students, and the teacher-seminar. Most of these are
well known in today’s modern educational systems. But, again, Calasanz is often
forgotten in the educational arena of contributors for he never produced a formal
opus on education on this matter. Most of the contents of his educational
philosophy are found in his thousand letters to confreres, teachers, students,
officials, etc. Unfortunately, this section of the paper will not deal with
these contributions for it is beyond the purpose and scope of the paper.
Nonetheless, this segment will present some for the benefit of qualifying the
tenets of Calasanzian educational philosophy.
St. Joseph Calasanz made it sure that in order to
safeguard the quality of education of students there must also be quality teaching method. If the teacher
knew much, but he did not know how to teach the students his knowledge was
nothing.[10]
On this matter, he stressed in his Constitutions for the Order of the Pious
Schools that
For teaching
grammar or other subjects, it is very useful for students if the teacher uses a
simple, efficient and, if possible brief
method. Therefore, a great effort must be made to choose a method on the
subject recognized to be the best by competent knowledgeable experts.[11]
A good example on this
is Calasanz’s request for the expertise of Fr. Apa to compose a simple and
brief Latin grammar book for the students.[12]
As much as possible, Calasanz desired that methods employed in the classroom
are simple yet approved by experts or educational specialists. This will assure
the quality of education in Piarist Schools and the better learning of
students. Addition to the reason behind this proposal is the recognition that
poor students could not stay long in the school for they have to help their
families or for some personal reasons.[13]
Hence, simple, effective, and well-studied teaching method will be best for
learning and for them. Moreover, education to be best must have quality; quality in the sense that the
teaching method is approved by experts. For the saint-educator this also includes
the teacher himself/herself and the books or other educational tools.
The other contribution of Calasanz in didactics will be his
insistence on good teaching preparation.
This is known today as teacher-seminars and lesson planning preparation. In this line, Calasanz
wrote one to his teachers: “I want you to attend the profit of the students,
not only of the First Class, but also taking care of the others and teaching
the method of teaching (italicization is mine), the rules, to those who
give lessons.”[14]
Although, this promotion of Calasanz of teaching the pedagogy is not as refined
as we have today but it is nonetheless pioneering. Part of this teacher
training is the stress of Calasanz on not giving work to teachers that will
hinder their study.[15]
He therefore wanted that his teachers are well prepared prior to class.
Logically, the teacher who is not well prepared in his lesson bears the risk of
teaching erroneously. This will, in the end, endanger the education of children
who has the lesser capacity to critically segregate the good from bad education.
On the other hand, the saint-educator firmly cautioned his teachers not to give
in to the whims of ignorant students.[16]
Because doing so will hinder the proper delivery of lessons and, therefore,
jeopardizes the quality of education. The teacher, thus, has to be firm on this
aspect of educating the young but without forgetting compassion.
Good teaching methodology, according to St. Joseph
Calasanz, demands discipline.[17]
For the saint-educator any teacher who did not develop any personal discipline
cannot be an effective educator. By being disciplined the teacher can call for
respect and emulation from his students.
The Calasanzian educator should try to be esteemed, respected,
venerated, obeyed, and loved by the students.[18]
However, this authority of the teacher should not be based on an excessive
disciplinary action and exercise of authority but through the combination of
“severity and amiability, authority and discretion, to be more loved than
feared”.[19]
It is in the educational philosophy of the saint-educator that the teacher does
not induce learning through fear or severe discipline. Here comes the issue on
disciplinary method. He once noted that erring students should be handled
compassionately. That the students should learn through “love of a father than
with shouts and offensive words”.[20]
Calasanz completely value charity in educating students. It is because charity
creates in the students the love and joy for learning. Thus, learning at its
heart must be motivated by the love for learning than fear. For example to
emulate the good performing students and to encourage the poor performing
students would be ideal in the praxis of this educational tenet. The
saint-educator therefore repeatedly discouraged corporal punishments to
students unless necessary. His approach on educational discipline is very
humanistic, which in his time is significantly revolutionary.
Furthermore Calasanz believes that mixing students will
not achieve the greatest profit in learning. By segregating students in
different grades according to age and learning acquisition,[21]
teachers have become effective in helping students learn. Moreover, Calasanz
has pioneered in his schools, in this connection, what is known today as the acceleration program. In principle, he
believes on the importance of readiness in
the student. He accelerated students who are ready enough for higher grade
level. He does it only after intensive tests in order to assure the quality of
learning and mastery of the student. Only then would he deemed it right to
recommend students to the next and higher level of learning. On the other hand,
he has intelligently observed that learners vary in knowledge acquisition and
mastery. Thus, not all students got this privilege. As expected, along with
this pedagogy is the use of periodical tests, which is a standard operating
procedure today in almost all schools.
Learning,
stressed by Calasanz, is highly connected to readiness and mastery. The teacher
cannot therefore force the learner to take new or higher level of studies if he
or she is not yet ready. One way to measure the readiness of the learner is by
checking his or her mastery of the previous lesson(s). Only when the learner’s
mastery of the subject matter is achieved can he or she be introduced to the
next lesson. Forcing the student(s) to learn advance lessons without readiness
and mastery will only create in the student(s) the hate towards learning, which
shouldn’t be the case and aim of education.
Calasanzian Educational
Philosophy in Piety and Letters
The words piety and letters is a dominant theme in
the educational philosophy of St. Joseph Calasanz. Simply put, piety is equated
with the Christian life[22]
and letters to that of the sciences and the humanities.[23]
The saint-educator strongly believes that the human person must develop
integrally. Consequently, in his schools, he promoted diligently not only
religious instructions to students but also the teaching of the sciences. One
noteworthy aspect on the letters was
his adherence to the Galilean teachings despite the ban of the Church imposed
on the doctrines held by Galileo.[24]
By teaching the
Christian doctrine (piety) and sciences (learning/letters), Calasanzian
education targets the dual dimension of the human person, that is, the
spiritual and the temporal. It is not enough, believed Calasanz, to teach
catechism to students but also the sciences such arithmetic, reading, writing,
etc. to make their lives better and happier. His attention on this matter
considerably focuses on poor children. Thus he once noted clearly:
The Pious
Schools were founded to teach and instruct poor children. Many, because of
poverty or paternal negligence, do not go to school. They do not dedicate
themselves to any art or job, but, rather, they live like vagabonds or in
idleness. In this way, they easily give in to a variety of games, especially to
cards, and it happens that when they do not have money to play, they steal in
their own houses, first, and later on where they can. Or they find money by
other bad means… We must help these poor children. In this way, they will be
spared from the gallows and the galleys, where generally those go who during childhood
live with these vices. [25]
One
can already notice the possible strong impact of the Calasanzian education, in
its educational tenets, in the improvement of the society. It is undeniable
that when a person is well integrated, that is in the fear and love of the God
(which is the ultimate end of the teaching of the Christian doctrine) and in
the sciences and humanities, he or she will become an asset to the community
and society. In this way, as what Calasanz argued in his writings, evil is
prevented. By forming good and able people, we form good society.
Conclusion
The educational
philosophy of St. Joseph Calasanz is unique in the sense that it has pioneered
many of the well adopted pedagogies today. It promoted primarily the education
of the young on the principle that to prevent evils in the society the molding
for the good and its living out must start and taught to the young. Calasanzian
education argues that prevention for evil deeds is very important for the welfare
not only of the society in general but most importantly to the person. If the
society wants its members to do the good, they must be taught to do and learn
the good from childhood. This is his most commended original contribution: the preventive method. This was later
adopted by many founding educators such the John Baptist dela Salle and St.
John Don Bosco.
The good education of the young depends highly to the
quality of education given them. By quality education, Calasanzian education
means the role modeling and expertise of the teacher, good and quality books,
and effective yet simple methodology. Added up to this pioneering educational
philosophy is his emphasis on the integral education of the children or the
person. Thus, he provided not only the scientific education but also the
religious education. This is where his educational motto piety and learning comes into the fore. In fact, in the annals of history we find excellent products from
this noble and esteemed education in the persons of Pius IX, Francisco Goya,
and many others.
Besides the integral formation of the person and the
prevention from evil, the reform of the society is the aim the educational
genius of St. Joseph Calasanz. This is the reason why all Calasanzian-Piarist
institutions diligently educate the young. It is in the young, as envisioned by
Calasanz, where the future of the society and humanity rest. Thus, to educate
them is of significant value in the existence of humanity and the preservation
of culture and values.
Long live the Calasanzian-Piarist education!
Bibliography
Constitutions
of St. Joseph Calasanz
Gyorgy
Santha, Sch. P. “Saint Joseph Calsanz Pedagogical Work.” In Calasanzian Formation. Philippines: The
Piarist Fathers, 2011.
Joseph
Domenech i Mira in UNESCO Paris
International Bureau of Education.
Manuel
Rodriguez Espejo, Sch. P. St. Joseph
Calasanz: A Man for the Future. Cebu City: Piarist Fathers, 2002.
Miguel
Angel Asiain, Sch. P. Calasanz Educator. Trans.
Fr. Jesus Lacarra, Sch. P. Quezon
City, Philippines: The Piarist Fathers-Philippines, 2011.
Miguel
Giraldez. The Spirit that the Lord has
given Him. Rome: ICCE, 2015.
Pedro
Aguado, Sch. P. “Piety and Letters.” In Calasanzian
Formation. Philippines: The Piarist Fathers, 2011.
[1]
Cf. Joseph Domenech i Mira in UNESCO
Paris International Bureau of Education.
[2]
The following account of the life of St. Joseph Calasanz is taken from the
published opus of Joseph Domenech i Mira in UNESCO
Paris International Bureau of Education.
[3]
Constitutions St. Joseph Calasanz n. 2.
[4]
Fr. Miguel Angel Asiain, Sch. P., Calasanz
Educator trans. Fr. Jesus Lacarra, Sch. P. (Quezon City, Philippines: The Piarist Fathers-Philippines, 2011),
163.
[5]
Ibid., 164.
[6]
Fr. Gyorgy Santha, Sch. P., “Saint Joseph Calsanz Pedagogical Work,” in Calasanzian Formation (Philippines: The
Piarist Fathers, 2011), 137.
[7]
Ibid.
[8]
Ibid.
[9]
Fr. Manuel Rodriguez Espejo, Sch. P., St.
Joseph Calasanz: A Man for the Future (Cebu City: Piarist Fathers, 2002),
19.
[10]
Asiain, Sch. P., Calasanz Educator, 171.
[11]
Constitutions of St. Joseph Calasanz n. 216.
[12]
See Asiain, Sch. P., Calasanz Educator, 171-174.
[13]
Ibid., 172.
[14]
Letter of Calasanz 1254 as quoted in Fr. Miguel Asiain, Sch. P.’s Calasanz Educator.
[15]
Ibid., Letter of Calasanz 1306.
[16]
Ibid., Letter of Calasanz 364.
[17]
Asiain, Sch. P., Calasanz Educator, 176.
[18]
Santha, Sch. P., “Saint Joseph Calasanz Pedagogical Work,” 128.
[19]
Cf. Santha, Sch. P., “Saint Joseph Calsanz Pedagogical Work,” 129.
[20]
Ibid.
[21]
Miguel Giraldez, The Spirit that the Lord
has given Him (Rome: ICCE, 2015), 132.
[22]
See Asiain, Sch. P., Calasanz Educator, 195
and Fr. Pedro Aguado, Sch. P., “Piety and Letters,” in Calasanzian Formation (Philippines: The Piarist Fathers, 2011),
50-57.
[23]
Asiain, Sch. P., Calasanz Educator, 217-224.
[24]
See Giraldez, The Spirit that the Lord
has given Him, 132 and Domenech i Mira’s article on Comparative Education
in UNESCO Paris International Bureau of
Education.
[25]
Espejo, Sch. P., St. Joseph Calasanz: A
Man for the Future, 54-55.
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