Page 128 - Gonzaga at 60
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GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
the development of a man (now ‘person’ but this was sill an all-boys school, last ime I looked)
who can discern a way to proceed, who can apply an overall view to a paricular circumstance,
who knows when and how to use a rhetorical triad to emphasise a point. Deining educaion
in primarily economic terms – the direcion policy seems to be heading of late – will damage
its worth and hamper the development of the young men we are charged with forming. The
economy may well return to some level of prosperity; when the standards we set drop to
accommodate the most vulgar deiniions they will be nigh impossible to restore.
It’s interesing: in Studies, Autumn 1957, Fr Veale warned in defence of the Classics that
“…there is every sign that Ireland is eager to panic in the technological stampede” (323); the
stampede now seems to be for the exigencies of the business world. I have no problem with this
as long as there is a co-ordinated worldview to accompany the knowledge. Employing Rhetoric,
the “human way” of which Rev. Veale speaks, in the teaching and learning process is of the
utmost importance and is, I would contend, the diference between a Gonzaga educaion and
the soulless batery farming of a grind school. We should be to the Insitute of Educaion what
the Orient Express is to Ryanair: the joy is in the journey.
Rhetoric in Gonzaga is indicaive of an overall philosophy: the growth through discussion
and debate of a more rounded view of a topic. When a teacher is approachable to a student or
class, the student learns to form quesions and tailor his experience of the material to his own
needs. When students form study groups or tutor their younger schoolmates in homework clubs
they defend posiions and qualify uncertainies with each other. When a valedictory speech
inspires or a debate prompts a revision of opinion, or even policy, there is growth. We all get
beter at our jobs. Handing out notes and summaries, using syllabi to the exclusion of everything
else and making judgements on the quality of educaion solely on the basis of Leaving Cert.
metrics, all reduce the importance of process as well as result. That’s why we should hate league
tables all the more when we are at the top of them.
At its best, Rhetoric in Gonzaga in my experience displays in microcosm everything vibrant
about Jesuit educaion. It is characterised by teachers and students listening and ofering support
to those with important debates coming up: in the staf-room there is discussion of moions as
there is in the dining hall, common room or wherever it is the Sixth Years go to smoke (we never
did ind out). Teachers and students atend debates and, when the semi-inals of the Leinsters
happen during the Mocks, a student who asks the Headmaster for permission to fail one or two
because of the upcoming debate has been granted it freely. At a ime when I was most acively
involved, there were oten ity students in support at early rounds and a couple of hundred at
the Final. Everyone, from the Headmaster down, knew the upcoming moion as well as the latest
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
the development of a man (now ‘person’ but this was sill an all-boys school, last ime I looked)
who can discern a way to proceed, who can apply an overall view to a paricular circumstance,
who knows when and how to use a rhetorical triad to emphasise a point. Deining educaion
in primarily economic terms – the direcion policy seems to be heading of late – will damage
its worth and hamper the development of the young men we are charged with forming. The
economy may well return to some level of prosperity; when the standards we set drop to
accommodate the most vulgar deiniions they will be nigh impossible to restore.
It’s interesing: in Studies, Autumn 1957, Fr Veale warned in defence of the Classics that
“…there is every sign that Ireland is eager to panic in the technological stampede” (323); the
stampede now seems to be for the exigencies of the business world. I have no problem with this
as long as there is a co-ordinated worldview to accompany the knowledge. Employing Rhetoric,
the “human way” of which Rev. Veale speaks, in the teaching and learning process is of the
utmost importance and is, I would contend, the diference between a Gonzaga educaion and
the soulless batery farming of a grind school. We should be to the Insitute of Educaion what
the Orient Express is to Ryanair: the joy is in the journey.
Rhetoric in Gonzaga is indicaive of an overall philosophy: the growth through discussion
and debate of a more rounded view of a topic. When a teacher is approachable to a student or
class, the student learns to form quesions and tailor his experience of the material to his own
needs. When students form study groups or tutor their younger schoolmates in homework clubs
they defend posiions and qualify uncertainies with each other. When a valedictory speech
inspires or a debate prompts a revision of opinion, or even policy, there is growth. We all get
beter at our jobs. Handing out notes and summaries, using syllabi to the exclusion of everything
else and making judgements on the quality of educaion solely on the basis of Leaving Cert.
metrics, all reduce the importance of process as well as result. That’s why we should hate league
tables all the more when we are at the top of them.
At its best, Rhetoric in Gonzaga in my experience displays in microcosm everything vibrant
about Jesuit educaion. It is characterised by teachers and students listening and ofering support
to those with important debates coming up: in the staf-room there is discussion of moions as
there is in the dining hall, common room or wherever it is the Sixth Years go to smoke (we never
did ind out). Teachers and students atend debates and, when the semi-inals of the Leinsters
happen during the Mocks, a student who asks the Headmaster for permission to fail one or two
because of the upcoming debate has been granted it freely. At a ime when I was most acively
involved, there were oten ity students in support at early rounds and a couple of hundred at
the Final. Everyone, from the Headmaster down, knew the upcoming moion as well as the latest
