Education to promote social change

On August 15, 1534, at the Chapel of St. Denis, Rue Yvonne le Tac in Paris, two Basque gentlemen by the names of Ignatius of Loyola and Francisco Xavier met with Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Lainez, Nicolas Bobadilla of Spain; Peter Faber of France and Simao Rodrigues of Portugal and established the Company of Jesus. This group evolved into the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. Today, the Jesuits number 18,815 members and are the largest male order in the Catholic Church. It is a group that has been instrumental in spreading the Roman Catholic faith throughout the world. In Asia, where over 20 percent of Jesuits work today, Jesuit missionaries have opened India, Japan and have made great headway in China.

They are an order that prides itself on scholarship; historically, they have been credited with spurring a scientific revolution in China in the 16th and 17th century. Jesuit schools have produced some of the finest thinkers in history: Moliere, Voltaire, Hapsburg emperors and Jose Rizal. They continue to operate one of the finest educational systems in the world. They not only run schools dedicated to educating the impoverished, but also some of the finest private educational institutions in the world. Prestigious schools such as Georgetown University and Boston College in the United States and of course, the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines are under their auspices. The Jesuits curriculum is focused on not only producing fine students, but agents for social change.

Education is and always will be one of the best vehicles for social change. However, education as a means to eliminate poverty not only begins at the bottom, but also has to start at the top. A recent issue of Newsweek (August 18-25, 2008) dedicated an entire article to the Jesuit concept of educating from the bottom and the top. Naturally, the university they highlighted in the article was the Ateneo de Manila University. In the article, written by Alexandra A. Seno, Father Bienvenido Nebres, S.J., president of the Ateneo since 1993 and board member of Georgetown University, was quoted as saying, “We don’t need to be taking down those at the top; what we need to do is be a bridge.”

A core element of the Jesuit curriculum in the Philippines is developing a sense of social entrepreneurship among their privileged students; essentially introducing them to the realities of the life of the impoverished. One way they do this is by requiring all graduates of the Ateneo to work in “menial” jobs: bagging groceries, working as a fisherman and so forth. These types of relative immersion programs are geared towards opening the eyes of their students and creating a sense of empathy for the poor.

Education is what we consider one of the inalienable rights of any person in civil society. It has the power to give the less-fortunate opportunities they may have never had before. But education as a means for social change has to cover the entire socio-economic spectrum. Social change has to begin at the top and it has to begin in school. Institutions such as the Ateneo de Manila University and the entire Jesuit system are attempting to do this. They are trying to craft leaders and thinkers who will become agents for social change. Philippine Jesuits such as Father Nebres, Father Alberto Ampil (head of the Ateneo High School Parent Relations Program), Father James B. Reuter, Father Ismael Zuloaga (of Basque descent), among many fine priests, are working to enact lasting social change through the power of education. Their cause is just and we are proud that the work of Jesuits in the Philippines is being recognized and emulated worldwide.