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Is the sole purpose
of higher education to impart knowledge in various disciplines or to
do that and provide a framework that allows students to
discuss, discern and discover what they value in their personal and
professional life?
How is it that a
Jesuit Priest, Father Donald J. Kirby of Le Moyne College in
Syracuse, New York, wrote: Compass for Uncharted Lives, A
Model for Values Education, for such a wide audience in such
a clear, concise and convincing style?
Kirby, Professor of
Religious Studies and Le Moyne’s former Director of the Center for
the Advancement of Values Education (CAVE), had a personal discovery
in 1969 as a second-year master of divinity Jesuit theologian at
Woodstock College in Manhattan. He was living in an apartment with
other Jesuits. It was early in the morning and he was struck by the
rush of traffic outside his window as commuters were dashing to
train stations and taxi stands to get to work. He thought to
himself, “What is the connection between the lives of these
people and what I am doing in theology and my sophisticated
education in the humanities? Like a song you can’t get out of
your head, he repeatedly heard the question, “How the secular and
sacred are related?”
Then the seventies
arrived -- Watergate, impeachment hearings, foreign policy failures,
high gas prices, inflation, and President Carter turning down the
thermostat in the White House. During this decade Catholic higher
education and all private higher education, according to Kirby,
worked to establish their academic credentials so they could compete
for the best students and faculty. “These institutions hired PhD’s
from top institutions, some of whom knew little or nothing about the
Catholic faith or Catholic intellectual tradition.” As a result, it
became increasingly difficult to discuss the moral and religious
dimensions of issues, even at Catholic institutions, says Kirby.
More recently, the
nineties brought the excesses of Wall Street and with
9-11 (2001)
Americans became more conscious of other cultures, religions, ideals
and the implications of globalization.
Today, as we
approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century,
China, despite its dismal record on human rights, is hosting the
Summer Olympic Games on a world-wide stage. The price of gasoline is
unaffordable for millions of us and we have a presidential campaign
of historic proportions with Senators McCain and Obama.
Over these volatile
decades Kirby and his colleagues involved in the values program at
Le Moyne College realized “that an increasing number of students
were prepared to tackle technical tasks, but not prepared to meet
the moral and spiritual challenges of their professional and
personal lives.” In short, the values program needed to be a
“journey of discovery” if these students (future leaders) are to
make a difference in a world that places little or no value on human
life, the starving, victims of aids and human rights abuse,
breathable air, and drinkable water.
Kirby first
addressed the subject of values education in Ambitious Dreams,
the Values Program at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, a collection
of essays edited by Kirby. The nationally and internationally
acclaimed anthology outlines the ideas and models of values
education embraced by the faculty and students in the late eighties
and early nineties. In contrast, Kirby’s new book, Compass for
Uncharted Lives: A Model for Values Education, has a single
voice - his. More importantly, it differs from the first book in
style, structure, content and purpose.
Kirby has been
involved in all aspects of the ongoing research, refinement, and
testing of values education. In Compass for Uncharted Lives,
Kirby not only fine-tunes the values program, he also makes the case
that if higher education today is not nurturing and training people
to ask, “What ought I do”, there won’t be a need for a
compass for young people to navigate. Young lives will drift in the
narcissistic waters of me, me and me!
Kirby firmly
believes institutions of higher education can change that.
Teachers, professors and administrators can all play a role in
enhancing values and spiritual sensitivity in students and their
understanding and commitment to actions that are ethical. He
presents an all inclusive model with listening sessions, discussion,
and a selection of topics to be discussed throughout the academic
year in all disciplines of study from the arts to zoology.
This can be
done by following the voluntary and collaborative model developed by
Kirby when he was the director of the Center for the Advancement of
Values Education (CAVE) at Le Moyne College. The three pillars of
this model are:
·
Working Group on Values
·
Values Institute
·
Academic Forum
The respective
objective of each group is to:
a.
Identify what is missing
in the classroom in terms of values education
b.
Convene and engage the
academic community
c.
Make connections
beyond the classroom
Kirby discusses in
great detail the components of each pillar. More importantly, he
provides step-by-step instructions for planning and implementing a
values program for various types of institutions with special
emphasis on business, medical, and law schools - the last stop in
education for the future leaders of these sectors of society.
What a remarkable
accomplishment and publication Kirby has provided for those
interested in proven methods of values education for higher
education today. The challenges I see for the implementation of
these methods and model are three-fold.
First, it will take
a passionate educator to volunteer to lead this effort at his/her
institution. An already overworked faculty member won’t be the
first to raise his/her hand.
Second, a how-to
workbook manual is needed for the volunteer leader that outlines,
with charts and graphs, the steps that must be taken to implement
the values program from start to finish.
Thirdly, funding is
scarce right now for many colleges and universities due to cuts in
government spending and increased competition for philanthropic
grants. Hopefully, grant making foundations will help those
institutions who want to begin a values program by providing a seed
grant like the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities did for the
Le Moyne program years ago.
Speaking of
philanthropy, Kirby did not mention the philanthropic sector as
another forum where the values programs could apply. I believe it
can and should be implemented there. After all, philanthropy is
voluntary action directed for the common good of society. It’s no
secret that the leaders of major grant making foundations give out
billions of dollars each year to nonprofit groups that strive to
help people, pets and the planet. In doing so they make value
judgments each time they consider the pool of applicants.
In closing, I
return to my opening Jesuit theme. Remember a young soldier,
Ignatius of Loyola? He was badly wounded by a cannon ball in 1521
in the siege of Pamplona Fortress. During his long recovery he
didn’t have any secular publications to read to pass the time, only
sacred books on the Fathers of the Church and Saints. His long
recovery period gave him ample time to read these works. It was
this recuperative time in his uncharted life that his compass
pointed to the “value” of a life of self-denial and the emulation of
heroic deeds. The rest is history.
Imagine how much
can be accomplished if this new age Jesuit’s model for values
education is adopted by colleges, universities, institutes and
professional associations at home and abroad. We can only hope
that, like Ignatius of Loyola, the compass will point the uncharted
lives of this generation in the direction of doing the most good for
the secular and the sacred.
*********************************************************************
How to order: Compass
for Uncharted Lives: A Model for Values Education
By phone:
315-443-2597 or toll-free 1-800-365-8929
By mail or fax:
printable order form
By fax: 315-443-5545 or toll-free 1-866-536-4771
Online: go to:
www.SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu
*********************************************************************
James A. Donovan
James A. Donovan
is CEO of Donovan Management, a Central Florida firm that
assists organizations engaged in philanthropy. Donovan’s writing
includes two best selling books: Take the Fear Out of Asking for
Major Gifts and 50 Ways to Motivate Your Board. He has
published articles on philanthropy in: Fund Raising Management
Magazine; The Chronicle of Philanthropy; Case
Currents; Charitable Giving and Solicitation; and The
Orlando Sentinel. His last book review was, The Ethics of
Asking: Dilemmas in Higher Education Fund Raising by Deni
Elliot, for Metropolitan Universities Quarterly.
A graduate of
Wadhams Hall Seminary College in Ogdensburg, New York, Donovan
served a ten year term as college trustee, five as Vice Chair of the
Board. He met Father Kirby when he was elected trustee.
Donovan serves on
the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Institute of the St.
Thomas University School of Law in Miami and Executive Committee of
the Board of Pax Romana / Catholic Movement for Intellectual &
Cultural Affairs / USA an NGO of the United Nations with formal
recognition by the Holy See (Vatican).
Donovan is the son
of the late Senator James H. and Esther R. Donovan of Chadwicks, New
York.
He can be reached
at:
www.donovanmanagement.com
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