Symposium 2009:
An International Symposium in Commemoration of the
Fourth Centenary of the Death of Matteo Ricci, S.J.
Education for New Times:
Revisiting Pedagogical Models in the Jesuit Tradition
Macau,
25th - 27th November, 2009 |
On the eve of worldwide commemoration of the fourth hundred anniversary of Matteo Ricci’s death (1610), The Macau Ricci Institute, faithful to the cultural and intellectual heritage of its great patron, would like to hold an International Symposium dedicated to the intellectual and humanistic Jesuit formation that Matteo Ricci has brought to China.
For Ricci as well as for his Jesuit companions, trained to find God in all things, the world of their life adventures was one and undivided, religious and secular. While following the footsteps of their Master, Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuits, from very beginning, came to esteem education as an efficient way to serve people in their religious and ethical lives. With the help of the Spiritual Exercises, they learned to trust their hearts as a place of unique encounter with God, and consequently to trust the hearts of other people as places for similar encounters (S.E.22).
This kind of formation established a climate in which Jesuits expected to learn from one another. Consequently, a pattern of mutuality in learning began to characterize not only the life of the Jesuits but also the life of those with whom they shared their work and mission.
Such lifestyle was proper to Matteo Ricci who throughout well-established friendships based on mutual respect and appreciation, came to share his Western learning while accepting that coming from his Chinese friends. For him to be a man of learning and virtue meant to be a man who shared his learning and virtue with others while remaining open to the learning coming from his counterparts. This mutuality of learning exchange was a basic educational experience for Ignatius and his followers.
Nowadays, people care deeply about the tradition that has bound faith and culture together in an integrated view of education. Many want to reclaim its authenticity not only of goals but also of means. However, the secret of the success of Jesuit schools cannot be found in the Ratio Studiorum – it has been said that all the Renaissance school plans looked alike on paper. What made the 17th century Jesuit schools effective could only have been the element that is indispensable for every school that works well – good teaching. Nevertheless, it might be said that the Ignatian school of attention, reverence, and devotion is still capable of bridging gaps and translating competing values into generous, shared concerns of creating a new kind of learning community.
From the beginning, that inner experience was codified in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. There, Ignatius adapted divine wisdom to the secular reality of education and the schools. The Jesuits’ esteem for truth, their commitment to study and their ability to succeed academically eventually became part of the educational program for their schools called Ratio Studiorum. The empowerment of learning and professional competence integrated with the availability of service to all people, reach and poor, sophisticated and simple, young and old, produced a person of higher effectiveness and mobility, “a person with and for others “(Pedro Arrupe).
Main Themes
• |
The Ignatian Worldview and Jesuit Education |
• |
Ignatius' modus parisiensis and Ratio Studiorum |
• |
European praxis and Jesuit educational accommodation
in Asia |
• |
Confucian model of education and Asian conception of Man |
• |
Asian Modern Experiences in Education |
• |
A Globalized World and crisis of Public Education |
• |
Education of Excellence and Power versus
Alienating
Education
for less fortunate |
• |
Chicago Schools of Cristo Rey in service to the
Society
and Social Justice |
• |
New Trends: Distance Education |
• |
Emotional Intelligence and Education |
Organising Institution
|
