Redefining Excellence

LA SALLE = Academic Excellence

“Poverty and inequality have increased over the past 30 years. A new form of moral leadership – focused on reducing poverty and maximizing human potential is imperative. . . .These leaders must inspire others to mobilise for their own futures.”

Joan Dassin, Executive DirectorFord Foundation Int’l. Fellowships

Corruption which kills the poor calls for a morally enlightened and determined citizenry to resist it.

“I believe there’s a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride. . . even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want most . . . even our dreams.”

there’s a hero in all of us

We need a better definition of excellence.

EXCELLENCE OF CHARACTER

EXCELLENCE = ARETÉ

Can our schools become VIRTUOUS COMMUNITIES with moral education and

character formation as their unifying focus?

Character is the established pattern of dispositions ,

attitudes and motivations that shape our way of perceiving,

feeling, judging, and acting.

Why Character Counts

Academic performance rests on the foundation of sound character.

Moral rules and

regulations keep me

from being truly free.

Being good is no fun. Morality is

anti-happiness.

Morality vs. Freedom

Morality vs. Happiness

a way of living

that actualizes what is specifically human to us -

our powers of knowing, loving, and creating -

so that human beings attain the excellence and fulfillment proper to them,

and so fulfill the purpose of life.

The desire to be happy and the desire to be good are not different desires. The desire to live a moral life is as intrinsic to us as the desire to be happy.

• Goodness

• Truthfulness

• Preserving life

• Marital union and child rearing

• Friendship and life in society

Properly developed and directed, these inclinations lead to freedom and happiness. But they can also be corrupted or destroyed.

The moral life is rooted in natural inclinations which move us towards . . .

Freedom is the capacity to do whatever I want.

Freedom is the exercise of the will without constraint or external pressure.

To be free is to be able to choose either good or evil equally. Thus, freedom must be constrained in order for good to flourish.

• Favors compliance over personal initiative.

• Happiness is at most irrelevant to morality.

• Engenders an “extrinsicist” and “minimalist” morality.

Freedom of indifference engenders an ethic of rules and obligations meant to constrain freedom and prevent us from making bad choices.

When disciplinary policy is formulated within the framework of freedom of indifference, discipline becomes power assertion which doesn’t favor internalization and leads to resentment.

Freedom is the exercise of reason and will in pursuit of the happiness and excellence proper to humans.

Freedom is not given to us whole and complete. It is given to us in embryo. The development of freedom is the project of a lifetime that involves overcoming the forces of unfreedom within us and outside of us.

Human acts are our steps towards or away from freedom and happiness.

Good acts done well free us by strengthening our inclinations to the good and forming virtues.

Acts which are evil or poorly executed diminish our freedom by corrupting the inclinations and fostering vices.

A stable disposition to act well in pursuit of the excellence proper to human nature.

“When anyone both possesses and exercises the virtues, that person is brought to the wholeness proper to human nature; conversely a lack of virtue constitutes a deprived nature and a diminished self.”

P. Waddell

1. Human excellence is not a given. Virtues perfect human nature.

2. Virtues perfect freedom.

3. Virtues set us free from our vices.

All voluntary evil is self-sabotage, a self-inflicted wound that diminishes our freedom to achieve life’s purpose.

Moral formation involves the education and strengthening of our natural inclinations though the cultivation of the virtues.

This education for freedom requires a combination of modeling, instruction, apprenticeship, and practice.

Who am I ?What has life taught me about my strengths and weaknesses?

What kind of person should I be ?What does becoming a better person mean in my case? What virtues do I need to develop?

How do I become this?What practices and actions will help me grow in virtue and thus become the person I believe I should be?

Education should free people to attain the excellence and perfection proper to them as humans—physically, intellectually, relationally, politically, morally, spiritually.

Every member of the school community is a moral formator.

The moral life is training for happiness. Therefore . . .

• Examine and if necessary revise the underlying paradigm of moral formation in the community.

• Create programs for helping persons to grow in reflectiveness and self-possession.

We are attracted by the witness of moral exemplars. Therefore . . .

• Inspire! - celebrate moral heroes.

• Get in touch with your own moral core.

• Witness! Witness! Witness!

Virtues grow through practice. Therefore . . .

• Promote practices for growth in self-awareness and virtue.

• Recognize the formative dimension inherent in all work and human interaction – we become what we do!

• Reformulate existing policies to encourage moral initiative and growth in virtue.

• Provide special opportunities to practice virtue together.

Virtues are acquired as we buildcaring relationships. Therefore . . .

• Create opportunities for “bonding” and community-building.

• Create opportunities for persons to reconnect with shared dreams and visions through quality conversations.

• Encourage mentoring.

The virtuous life requires a community of virtue. Therefore . . .

• Create awareness: every stakeholder a formator!

• Agree on a schoolwide code of ethical conduct and courtesy

1. They are loved.

2. They have gifts.

3. God calls them to serve his love and justice in the world.

4. Each has a responsibility to society and to the poor.

5. We will all be judged by how well we have loved.

CONTEMPLATIVE

CURRICULUM

MINISTERIAL

CURRICULUM

RELATIONAL

CURRICULUM

INSTRUCTIONAL

CURRICULUM

The quality of our relationships constitutes the most powerful formative influence. Human love, care and friendship are sacramental— potential instruments of grace. Character friendships are the most fertile ground for moral and spiritual growth.

Teachers/ministers /friends often take on the roles of

• Moral Mentors

• Witnesses

• Caregivers-Counselors

This embraces all opportunities for embodying love through service to corporal and spiritual needs within and outside the school community.

Embraces all personal and communal opportunities for prayer , devotion, and worship.

It fosters communion between God and one another by nurturing the awareness that we are never apart from God but that he is the Hidden Ground of Love that holds all of us in existence.

This embraces all forms of instruction and runs the entire continuum from humanization, through the dialogue of faith and culture to explicit catechesis/ religious education.

Explicit catechesis clarifies, deepens and purifies the spiritual insights and values acquired from human experiences and secular learning.

CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

LEADERSHIP & ADMIN

WORK

LITURGY & WORSHIP

RETREATS & PRAYER GRPS

SOCIAL ACTION COMTY SERVICE

YOUTH GROUPS, TEAMS &

ORGS

COUNSELING & SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

1. To understand and own this paradigm of formation so that the responsibility for formation becomes shared by the entire community.

2. To democratize ministry by awakening all members of the community to the diverse ways and contexts in which they can and do minister through word, action/service and relationship and to empower them to take more initiative in these areas.

3. To orchestrate the interplay of these four curricula so that formation can be more intentional and holistic.