Teaching Wisdom: Religious Education and Young People's Moral and Spiritual development

TEACHING WISDOM: RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE

By Marisa Crawford and Graham Rossiter

Journal of Christian Education, 1992, Papers 101, 49-65.

Introduction

Our specialist area of study and inservice work is in Religious and Moral Education. We find that the aspect of Religious and Moral Education that is usually at the centre of debate, and prominent in the concerns of teachers, education authorities and parents, is the question of how classroom teaching can bring about personal change in young people. It is expressed in terms such as promoting their faith development, deepening their spirituality, inculcating moral values, changing their attitudes, instilling a sense of religious identity and improving their Mass attendance.

The literature shows that the educational aim to promote personal change is now relevant across the whole school curriculum. The following statement is typical of what can be found in any state education authority's current curriculum documents:

Schools must prepare students to accept their social responsibilities as members of a democratic society. Students must learn the knowledge and develop skills, values and attitudes which will enable them to contribute to society as active and informed and confident citizens.

In addition to providing a basis for personal fulfilment and positive citizenship, the curriculum must aim to prepare students for a changing society. [1]

Generally, the aims for schools that go beyond the acquisition of knowledge and cognitive skills are expressed in terms of promoting the growth and development of the whole person - the idea of a holistic education. [2] Since the genesis of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the late 1950s and 1960s, aims are often written in the form of cognitive and affective. [3] While this division has been useful for drawing attention to non-cognitive aims, it has some drawbacks that are examined briefly in the endnotes. [4]

The relevance and the value of holistic aims for education are not in question. However, there remains considerable ambiguity about how it can be done appropriately and effectively, and about how there can be comparability and coordination in the way these aims are promoted in different school learning areas. A clarification of educational practice aimed at promoting personal change is one of the major tasks for educators over the next decade. [5] If this is not done, then all the talk of holistic education will remain little more than ideological rhetoric covering up confused, patchy practice.

It is becoming more urgent for educators to articulate the possibilities and the limitations of the school's role in promoting students' full personal development. This is the area where we consider the experience of religious educators has much to offer education generally.

Because of the content of Religious and Moral Education at school, these areas of study have been subjected to greater pressure to resolve problems of education for personal change than have other subjects. We suggest that the answers that have already emerged and that are still emerging in Religious and Moral Education can be applied with advantage across the curriculum.

What follows is pitched at the level of philosophy of the school curriculum. It will attempt to use the theme 'teaching wisdom' as a way of giving perspective to diverse efforts of teachers to promote students' personal development (including physical, cognitive, emotional, attitudinal, values, commitment and spiritual aspects.) As well as clarifying aims and teaching strategies, we hope that this approach will help give a sense of integration, coherence, direction and cooperation to teachers in diverse curriculum learning areas who share common aims for students' personal development. We seek to address the problems associated with a relatively uneven movement across recognised key learning areas towards what might be called the personal domain. If moral/value issues are treated in a particular way in Religious Education, but quite differently, say, in Health, Australian Studies, English and Physical Education, and perhaps omitted or ignored in other learning areas, then a lack of coordination and vagueness of purpose may subvert the school's efforts to offer a holistic education.

Our aim is not the introduction of new methods, but the proposal of an overview and interpretation that can enhance and integrate the teaching aimed at the more personal side of young people's education; this may also help re-orient the educational process to highlight the dimensions of value, purpose and meaning. In addition, it may help students to look on their experience of education with a greater sense of its value; and thus help them develop as individuals who are proud of, and happy with, the knowledge and skills they have acquired and able to see the ways their school learning can be integrated into their lives.

We have set ourselves a difficult and complicated task. The concept, teaching wisdom, is one of a number of 'lenses' that might be used for analysing education. However, we consider that it is a useful one at this stage for giving perspective to the much misunderstood ideas and practice concerned with the way education influences personal development.

What is needed is an education, even at high school level, on personal relationships.

School curricula should include classes in "living" with such subjects as "making a marriage work", "responsibility of parenthood", "job-hunting", "family break-up" and "drug and alcohol abuse".

And why not also include counselling in responsible behaviour, self-confidence and self-esteem, and coping with life generally?

Some preparation for dealing with the problem of life is essential before our young people leave school and surely these subjects are relevant to everyday living and just as important as the subjects now taught in schools.

After all, a technical or academic education is not much use to those who have become anti-social and can't cope with life.

A common reaction of teachers to letters like this, is amusement and anger that society is trying to make the school more responsible for the solution of social problems. The idea of introducing school courses on matters such as sex, AIDS, toxic substances abuse, driving, leisure, careers, child abuse and more recently, domestic violence, is often the first response when people think about remedies for particular social problems.

This belief that schools can cure society's ills simply by running specific courses about them is regularly reinforced by the various media gurus who daily define our social realities for us. The conclusion is reached that the only answer to the problems is better education; schools must take more responsibility! This places teachers under enormous pressure. They are being submerged under what can be appropriately called an 'addition' curriculum, now with more additives than a dry packed dinner. [6]

We believe that schools can make an appropriate and effective educational contribution in relation to such problems. [7] However, our concern at this point is with another issue.

Teachers' readiness to challenge unrealistic expectations of schooling should not make them insensitive to some profound issues that have been raised for contemporary education by the letter quoted above. Does the average high school curriculum give so much attention to the main success/employment oriented subjects that students perceive that little if any value is ascribed to studying what it means to become fully human? If the evident concern of the school is to develop language, mathematical, scientific and other academic abilities, and if there is no comparable study of personal, moral and spiritual growth, then the very absence of academic attention to these areas can be saying to young people that there is no special educational interest in how they develop as persons; this can take care of itself, or it will happen incidentally while the 'real' education goes on. This may be affirming the images of success that are dominant in society which in turn are influencing the way students perceive (or do not perceive) value in their education. On this point, Brian Hill, a prominent philosopher of education at Murdoch University, WA, had this to say:

[this puts] more value on subject matter than on the persons being subjected to it. And this is a value in itself. Because it has been unfashionable to talk about values in education, or at least to do anything explicit about them, unexamined values which tend to dehumanise students have been a hidden curriculum in our schools. [8]

We noted earlier that the idea of education to promote full human development has become standard fare as far as official curriculum documents are concerned. However, there appears to be a credibility gap between the rhetoric of aims documents and what actually happens (or does not happen) in practice. Unfortunately, this is the case even when there are subjects like personal development and living skills in the curriculum. The causes of the credibility gap require urgent attention.

Part of the credibility gap is explained by the way that problems in society are reflected in schools. While different social problems relate to the school in different ways, the links often have one thing in common - the problems are mirrored in the values, or lack of particular values, within the school's structures, curriculum and social life. Brian Hill has referred to this problem as negative values education - often negative by default.

Apart from anything else they might learn, [school] students get the message that, in the things which it includes and excludes, the curriculum mirrors the priorities which the community sets on things such as personal worth, job preparation, 'the basics', 'the disciplines', the rights of minorities, and so on.

Values education goes on, therefore, even when we are not consciously planning for it. But when its effect is not acknowledged or controlled, the result is often that the wrong values for life are propagated by default. In schools where the emphasis is on learning subjects to gain good marks in order to beat others into higher education and better jobs, students are encouraged to develop a very self-centred and consumer-oriented value system. [9]

While we agree that efforts are needed to humanise this un-written curriculum where values are embedded in the school's structures and social/organisational life, at this point we will argue that one way of addressing the issue is to make sure that there is a credible, central part of the formal curriculum where these problems can be critically examined by students.

The Need for a Philosophically Central Subject Area in the Curriculum that Provides for a Study of Life Issues

When educators and parents think about ways of linking the school with society's attempts to address social problems, naive structuralism often emerges; that is, add a structure that apparently covers the problem while not looking realistically at how the intervention is expected to influence students personally. A recent cover story in the Bulletin on holistic education illustrates the point:

A Principal - supported by parents who, in the wake of the 'WA Inc.' financial fiasco, are disillusioned with businessmen and politicians alike - has introduced Ethics into his school's curriculum. . . [to help students recognise] the consequences of the shortsightedness, selfishness and greed that seemed to come to a head in the 80s.

It's certainly becoming more evident recently that there is a need for values teaching. We are looking to firming up on responsibilities and duty - duty to the community is coming back in. There is an increasing disenchantment with money-making in reaction to the Royal Commission over here, and the high flyers. Where we've always been considered a very secular school, 12 months ago we actually took a chaplain onto the staff. It went through without too much opposition. His main role is as a social worker, but there is hope he will work more and more in the values and ethics area. [10]

How times have changed! It was recorded that the only form of rehabilitation given to the convicts on the hulks in England in the nineteenth century was Religious Education. (We do not want to push this analogy too far).

The schools' role as part of the wider community's attempts to address social problems is related to what schools do best - helping students to be well informed and to learn how to think about the issues. Of fundamental importance then is the need for an established, credible subject area that can serve as a natural forum for studying such matters. The subject area should not be labelled 'social problems'. This is far too narrow. It needs to be part of a wider study that is more positive, concerned with the philosophy of life and with the answers to human questions that religion, philosophers, psychologists etc. have offered.

A subject that includes aspects of religion, philosophy, ethics and personal development could provide students with the opportunity to study questions of meaning and value with the same rigour as is expected in traditional subjects. (This is not to be confused with arrangements to have pastoral care structures). To have such a subject is a statement that a school regards any education that ignores the spiritual dimension as defective. Such a study provides the possibility for a correction to any trend in the curriculum to glorify the 'market oriented' subjects and to ignore education for the development of values.

A subject like this (for example religion or personal development) does not presume that questions of value will be addressed adequately when and where they arise in the ordinary curriculum. This in no way denies the importance of attending to moral and spiritual issues in all subjects; but it affirms that there should be a place where these issues are the main focus of study. Such a subject also provides a place where the purpose and value of students' education itself can be examined and debated; it is in a pivotal position in the curriculum where students can try to evaluate and integrate into their lives the diverse experiences, purposes and values in their schooling.

Some educators may argue that having such a subject is no easy solution to social problems. We agree. If the subject is to challenge students to look seriously at values, it needs to be supported by the school's structures and by public opinion.

There already are subjects like this in place in some schools: religion, personal development, living skills etc. But questions are often raised about their effectiveness.

At this point we will look at the experience of teachers in Religious Education which suggests that the potential of such subjects is often subverted by school structures and by what we call the "psychology of the learning environment".

School Structures and the Psychology of the Learning Environment: Subverting the Personal Dimension of the Curriculum

If teachers understand the difficulties that arise in Religious Education and Personal Development Education because of the nature of the subjects and their content, they will be better able to avoid and diminish the problems that are associated with teaching about issues of belief, values, morality and behaviour.

Student Perceptions of the Value of Subjects: Certain subjects are seen by students as having high status and importance in the curriculum. Even if they do not like studying these subjects, most students pay at least some attention to what is being taught, and in general try to understand the basics just on the off chance that "it may come in handy for a job".

Also, when subjects are fully accredited (and examinable in states where there are public examinations) at Year 11-12 level and count towards a Tertiary Entrance Score, students are more inclined to perceive these subjects as important and correspondingly they are more ready to work at them. Students' attitude to subjects becomes problematic for the ones that may not immediately have 'credibility' and 'mark status'. The point is well illustrated by the history of Religion as a subject.

In many Catholic schools, religion is counted as a full subject with assessment and examinations (an improvement on what happened in the days of ad hoc, disposable curricula and discussion sessions on bean bags). While there have been notable advances, there still remains a considerable discrepancy between the stated important place of religion in the school and the actual practice of the subject in the classroom. Although religion is officially given a top priority in the school, in some instances, religion lessons are still given over to Year level administration or guest speakers; unwilling, unqualified teachers are still 'strong-armed' into teaching it; little guidance or outspoken support may be given by the administration; as a result, other teachers see religion as a nominal adjunct to the curriculum; exams are seen more as rubber stamps than the genuine thing. All of this is not lost on the students.

To a great extent, student attitudes towards the study of religion at school mirror society's attitudes. The serious study of religion is not regarded by many as a necessary or valuable pursuit, certainly not one that could make a difference when getting a job; neither is it seen by most as making a major contribution to their quality of life. Though interestingly, most of the same students will say that religion as such is important - the sort of nominal religion that is better to have than not to have, just in case!

If school structures and community opinion are not supportive of the purposes and value of a subject like religion (or personal development), then they will subvert their value in the curriculum.

Added to this, there is a markedly different attitude of contemporary young people to religion. They see religion very much as an optional extra, rather than a part of their life that is taken on more or less unquestioningly, as was the case for earlier generations. Any teaching of religion that does not take this into account runs the risk of being dismissed 'without a proper hearing'.

Hence, to foster the further development of religion as a subject it needs well defined and highly visible support structures to help show its value to students - whether or not they anticipate becoming active members of some local community of faith. The problem of its perceived relevance needs to be addressed at different levels. If the subject matter is to be taken seriously, religion must be implemented in the same way as other 'status subjects'; it must be seen to be supported by the school philosophy and by the teaching staff; and, as noted earlier, there must be similar support from the community. For example, a recent publication in the United Kingdom showed that studying religion at school was of great value for jobs in tourism, medicine, nursing, law, education, police work and public service. [11]

It is not only this school experience that sheds light on student attitudes to 'non-subjects' At a Law school in a metropolitan university, Legal Ethics is a compulsory, but non-examinable subject. As the lecturer noted, "This is the subject when the paper planes come out." Lecturers in a course in medical ethics at another university faced the same problem. While the purpose of these courses is admirable, their value is subverted by the prevailing 'psychology of the learning environment'.

We are not suggesting that subjects like religion and personal development will only be acceptable when and if they are fully accredited - or that accreditation will solve most if not all the problems. However, any attempt to implement a learning area that does not take into account the psychology of the classroom learning environment runs the risk of being quickly marginalised along with the other 'fringe dwelling subjects' in the school. In addition to the aspects already noted, efforts are needed to address other factors that influence student expectations such as:- a comprehensive sequential program; enlightened, relevant student texts; and well trained teachers.

This is not a statement of unquestioned support for the system of examination-geared learning. But it is an acknowledgment of the realities within schools and community that have the potential to undermine any program that does not keep these issues in mind and does not attempt to address them.

There was a cryptic reference made above to the fringe dwelling subjects. This refers to the low status that students often give to areas like compulsory art, crafts, physical education, and music in the mid secondary school - no matter how much these subjects may be enjoyed. This negativity may apply even more strongly to subjects like personal development, living skills, careers education, religion and ethics.

This situation is ironic because over the last thirty years the tenor of official curriculum documents has changed more and more in the direction of emphasising personal aims and objectives for all subjects and in introducing studies that focus more directly on aspects of personal development. As the education authorities are turning more towards a holistic, personal curriculum, the practice indicates that the personal intentions are not necessarily taking root in the school. There is a hiatus between the personal purposes and the practices of education.

In addition to the more traditional goals of basic knowledge and skills, the aims in authoritative curriculum documents now commonly refer to development in the following areas:-

social, aesthetic, attitudinal, moral and spiritual development; abilities and interests; imparting/inculcating values; family values; cultural values; student maturation; individual needs; self identity; personal fulfilment; self confidence; sense of self worth and self esteem; independence; critical thinking; moral autonomy; human relations; sexuality; leisure; equity; awareness of one's place in the world; respect and consideration for others; access to cultural heritage and ethnic identity; cooperation with the educative role of parents; informed confident citizens; social and civic values; rights and responsibilities; communication skills; decision making skills for a democratic society; interpersonal skills; conflict resolution; problem solving skills; organisational ability; skills in oral and written communication; practical living skills; careers awareness; vocational skills; experience in the world of work; flexibility and adaptability for the future; community relations; awareness of and resistance to manipulation; awareness of pressure groups. [12]

Quite an imposing list! Will it remain just a lot of good intentioned rhetoric? no more than an attractive dream of the ideal Australian that the education system is trying to turn out? As hinted at earlier, we stress the need to identify the links and the discontinuities between the personal aims and current educational practice. This will inform more realistic efforts to work towards these personal goals - the core issue we are trying to address in this paper.

An essential step in addressing the problem is to conceptualise teaching methods and content that relate in some constructive way with the stated aims. The difficulty is that anyone - professional educators and non professionals - after reading the above list, will be daunted and confused by such a large, wide-ranging, idealistic set of aims revolving in their heads as they try to work out what might be done about them in tomorrow's lessons. In the next section, we will suggest that some intermediate conceptual aim like the 'teaching of wisdom' can be interposed between the multiple, broad personal aims and the practice which has the role of orienting and integrating the diverse efforts to achieve those aims.

Our suggestions will not introduce any new elements to the long list of personal aims for education; rather, we propose a way of viewing the complicated process that may give more perspective and decisive purpose to the role of teachers. They need to see more clearly the points of contact between the high ideals for education (noted above) and what happens and can happen in their classroom teaching. On the other hand, the natural ambiguity and uncertainty in the idea of trying to teach wisdom at school can serve as a useful restraint on unrealistic teachers, administrators and parents who may think that provision of some new structure will automatically secure the achievement of personal aims like a change in attitudes or values. Clarification of the concept, teaching wisdom, can be a useful check on the rhetoric of holistic education which at times shows little appreciation of the complexity and mystery in the process of value formation.

The assertion - that wisdom can be taught - in the same way that one teaches English, Maths or Science presents a number of difficulties. In a sense, wisdom cannot be taught; the virtue presupposes age and experience. Those who are wise in most cases have acquired wisdom in ways that have little if anything to do with formal classroom learning - where the gaining of knowledge and skills are the main outcomes.

However, in exploring the concept briefly, we hope to show how it can be used as a shorthand for integrating the various parts of education concerned with promoting full human development, while not introducing further jargon as a new burden for teachers. It is an attempt to redress the hiatus between aims and practice. Connotation of the term, teaching wisdom, can include the general aims for Religious Education, Moral Education and Personal Development. And it can be used to highlight and coordinate the personal dimension in the teaching of other subjects. To begin we will look at the educational meaning that can be given to the concept.

Exploring the Concept, 'Teaching Wisdom': Wisdom can be described as a disposition to be informed about issues and to judge according to one's values and beliefs. Wisdom involves choosing after reflection and a weighing up of both reasoned and emotional responses. Wisdom articulates past and present experience; gives perspective to experience by looking at it in a larger context, trying to see the value and meaning of what has happened, what is happening and what might happen. Wisdom not only looks at the surface of events but it tries to savour the human and spiritual dimension of experience while responding as best it can at the time. Wisdom owns up to mistakes and sees what can be learned from them. Wisdom values history and heritage but is not antiquarian, knowing that flexibility and risk are essential for facing the future. Wisdom values the self and human relationships. It judges when to trust others, when to speak up and act and when to remain quiet and not to respond.

This catalogue of qualities embodies some ideal aspects of human development that can be related to school practices. While no school teaching methods can instil these virtues, various methods and appropriate content can provide the raw material from which students can glean wisdom. There must be teacher recognition that authentic personal growth has to be voluntary and from within, and it cannot be readily assessed even years down the track. The teacher can help provide a good learning environment, access to appropriate content and issues, and even a judicious stimulus to look at the value of what is being studied, but this is done with the hope that the study will lead to wisdom. [13]

Whatever is done at school, it will be home experience, friends and other non-school agencies that have a significant influence on the wisdom or lack of it that young people ultimately will acquire. Our concern here is to give a preliminary account of school teaching that has potential for fostering young people's growth in wisdom - i.e. growth in personal knowledge and skills, as well as in the clarification and development of attitudes, values, beliefs and commitments.

Teaching Wisdom: the Professionalism of the Teachers It is self-evident that if personal/values topics are to be taught well, they need to be taught by people who are confident and happy in their work, who see such teaching valued by their peers, charges and society.

The professionalism and competence of teachers have been much debated in recent years. One cause for concern is that fewer academically talented young people now choose teaching as a profession. Even for those who enter teacher training institutes, this choice is often not their first preference. It is a complex situation not within the scope of this paper, but we suggest that there needs to be a self-regulating process within the profession to ensure that high standards of competence and professional commitment are achieved and maintained. Not to do this runs the risk of steadily turning teaching into a ghetto profession for those who are academically inadequate, and for malcontents who tolerate their work for all the wrong reasons.

What has this to do with teaching wisdom? Simply this, that no one, especially the young, will learn wisdom from individuals they do not respect. They may learn some things, but wisdom - and related aspects like self-esteem - are not likely to figure prominently.

The teaching profession needs to identify the minimum professional ethical standards for its members. This is particularly relevant for those who will undertake the teaching of value-sensitive parts of the curriculum. Here any lack of congruence between the teaching philosophy/ideals and implementation can be more damaging for students.

The Role of Religious Education, Moral and Personal Development Education: From the theory and practice of Religious Education, mainly, we have drawn a review of methods and emphases that are appropriate for teaching about values and social issues in the classroom. The following list is an outline that is elaborated in other writings.

1. Teaching about personal issues in an open, inquiring study where the provision of up to date information extends students' horizons, challenging them to identify and evaluate arguments and evidence. Use of student materials that gives students access to the same information as the teacher; avoidance of an undue emphasis on teacher talk as the primary means of presentation of information, giving objectivity and encouraging students to learn how to find and sift information for themselves. [14]

2. Making the discussion of issues an integral part of the learning process; having discussions along the lines of informed debate, thus trying to avoid problems where discussion is little more than an exchange of uninformed opinions; respect for the privacy and freedom of students by focusing on intellectual inquiry, without expecting personal or faith responses. [15]

3. Approaching controversial issues in a way that looks at authoritative and conflicting views, and which models responsible criticism. [16]

4. Following a code of teacher ethics that is impartial (but not neutral) and which allows the teacher to make reference to his/her own beliefs and commitments when this is judged likely to make and educational contribution to the lesson. [17]

5. Making appropriate use of general values/moral education strategies such as:- values clarification; values analysis; moral dilemmas; exploration of moral biographies and of situations where moral decisions have to be made; appraising information and arguments about contemporary issues (including the potential influence of the media on the development of moral values in the individual); simulation games; conflict resolution activities; role plays; analysis of moral codes ( Eg. from world religions).

A careful analysis and review of the diverse approaches noted here are needed if these are to be used with coherence and harmony as regards their purposes in promoting wisdom. Teachers need to have an idea of when and how to use effectively the various strategies; and to be aware of their possibilities and limitations.

The Dimensions of Meaning, Value and the Spiritual in Subjects within the General Curriculum: We have considered already the place for a philosophically central subject area for examining value/spiritual issues directly. Our concern now is with the way in which all subjects make a contribution to the personal development of students.

We have commented earlier on the personalism in contemporary aims for education. Here we wish to draw attention to the expectation that all teachers share a responsibility for students' moral and spiritual development:

The moral, ethical and spiritual development of students is a fundamental goal of education. It is clearly not confined to one area of the curriculum. All teachers, across all areas of the curriculum have a responsibility to inculcate in their students positive values and a capacity for moral and ethical judgment.

Government schools should actively promote the moral values which are shared by the majority of people in our community. There is merit in the clear statement of this responsibility.

In particular, this document will give greater emphasis to the link between education, work and personal fulfilment, as well as encouraging imagination, creativity, excellence and the search for meaning and purpose in life. It will give more recognition to the place of the family and family values in our society and the rights and responsibilities of parents in the area of morals and values. Greater stress will be placed on students achieving high standards of self-discipline, personal conduct and social responsibility. As recommended by the Carrick Committee Report the document will also acknowledge the importance of all students developing spiritual values. [18]

While not opposed to the idea that schools can contribute to students' personal, moral and spiritual development, teachers understandably ask how can this be done within the confines of their ordinary teaching? They also ask: how much teacher responsibility is reasonable and realistic? If their response is to be constructive, what they need is a scheme that shows how this personal development can be linked with all the key learning areas at school. Besides the distinctive knowledge and skills that a subject is specially concerned with, it needs to be able to show how it can also contribute to general aspects of personal development.

These questions are the concerns of curriculum theory. With a curriculum theory that is student-centred, it will no longer be appropriate to presume that a subject should have a place in the school curriculum simply because it represents a traditional academic discipline. Rather, the justification of its place requires that it shows how it contributes in both general and distinctive ways to the personal development of students. [19]

Complementing the way these issues are discussed in the literature of curriculum theory, we offer the following interpretation based on our earlier discussion of the concept of teaching wisdom. One central way in which the study of particular subjects fosters the personal development of students is through showing them how this study is ultimately valuable for them in the larger context of their own lives; that is, part of the teaching should challenge students by trying to alert them to the greater meaning of their learning and not just to the outward signs or proofs of their learning as shown in assessment/achievement results. Hopefully, as a result of attempts to help students integrate their learning, they may be able to site what they know and can do through their schooling within the context of the meaning and purpose of their lives.

We can label this dimension of a learning area as its wisdom or spiritual dimension. It has two aspects:-

1. Showing how it contributes to general skills for personal development as do all subjects, Eg. collecting and analysing data; identifying and evaluating arguments, and learning how to articulate an informed point of view with logic and with supporting evidence; empathasising with the situation and point of view of others; identifying moral and political issues; differentiating emotional and reasoned responses to an issue; identifying conflict and its sources with reflection on possibilities for non-violent conflict resolution; speculating on short term and long term human consequences of particular actions; reflecting on implications for quality of life and respect for the environment; showing how events in the past can help illuminate and interpret what is happening at present. (to name some of the general skills that schooling can help promote).

2. Showing how learning from this subject contributes in a distinctive way to students' understanding of the larger context of life; this learning has a spiritual or purpose dimension in the way it adds to the range of an individual's openness to physical and cultural inheritance. It has some ultimate value and meaning in equipping students to respond to life. Eg. learning a foreign language enhances the capacity to enter into another culture and literature; health education can be a prerequisite to a life long sensitivity to health issues; from a study of geology and biology can come a capacity to 'read' the ecology of any physical environment.

Every now and again teachers should attempt to alert students to the larger meaning of their current learning (its wisdom dimension), even if this seems to fall on uninterested ears. Whether they agree with it or not at this stage, it is important for students to know that the teacher has reasons why this study is valuable for their personal development. (It is like good discipline: it may be perceived by students as reasonable if teachers have good reasons for it, even if the students do not agree with those reasons.) This is our interpretation of what standard curriculum documents say about the aim for students "to achieve maximum personal benefit from their educational experience. . .[and] a sense of self worth and respect and consideration for others as a basis for understanding themselves and their world." [20]

The idea of fostering wisdom through education is as old as education itself. We reiterate that we have not introduced anything new or revolutionary here - just a way of using the concept to help give perspective and practical help to teachers trying to implement the aims of education for full human development. Within this discussion it is not inappropriate to point briefly to connections with the references to wisdom in the Judeo Christian religious tradition.

As recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures: "Wisdom is the principal thing: therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding." (Proverbs, 4:7). Knowledge is also highly prized; "as valuable as choice gold". (Proverbs, 8:10), However, knowledge alone is seen as not enough. Knowledge without understanding is sterile, and without the tempering quality of wisdom, potentially dangerous.

The Sapiential literature in the Hebrew Bible is a source of images for the human and religious significance of wisdom. Even more pertinent for Christians is the wisdom theme in the New Testament. Not only are there links with the older wisdom literature, but scripture scholars suggest that research on the 'sayings of Jesus' indicates that the image of Jesus as a 'wisdom figure' is one of the most significant descriptions of the way he presented himself publicly.

Attempts to peel back the formative layers of the Gospels to recover the historical Jesus highlight his sharply focused, cryptic comments. We could translate: "What gain, then, is it for a man to win the whole world and ruin his life? And indeed, what can a man exchange for his life?" (What does it profit people if they get to the top of their career field and become an eminent, wealthy success, if in the process they lose their own spirit?) (After Mark 8:36-38) "Man does not live on bread alone" (People cannot truly live just on success and money) (After Matthew, 4:4) The Parable, where the story ends in a way that is contrary to the usual expectations of the listeners and which challenges them to look at the whole issue in a new and larger way, is also very distinctive of Jesus. [21]

You will often hear it said that "Jesus the Teacher is our model for teaching." There is surely truth in this; however, we need to be very careful and discriminating about the applications. Jesus' parabolic teaching was for adults - volunteers, not a captive audience of children corralled within the four walls of a classroom in groups of twenty five. He did not have a Board determined curriculum or diocesan guidelines to follow; neither did he have to use audiovisuals, whiteboards, assessment tasks or text books; needless to say he did not have to deal with the daily pile of administrative paperwork in his pigeonhole!

We have barely alluded here to theological themes that support and enrich the idea of education for wisdom. However, this may be sufficient to signpost a valuable line of inquiry. We conclude this section by referring to the documents of the Second Vatican Council which had this to say about wisdom:

The intellectual nature of people finds at last its perfection, as it should, in wisdom, which gently draws the human mind to look for and to love what is true and good. Filled with wisdom, people are led through visible realities to those which cannot be seen.

Our age, more than any of the past, needs such wisdom if all that humankind discovers is to be ennobled through human effort. Indeed, the future of the world is in danger unless provision is made for people of greater wisdom. It should also be pointed out that many nations, poorer as far as material goods are concerned yet richer as regards wisdom, can be of the greatest advantage to others." [22] (Gaudium et Spes, # 15.)

And the Vatican document on the Religious Dimension of Education in Catholic Schools points to wisdom as an integrating virtue that is needed if so much of young people's learning is to have enduring value.

These young people absorb a wide and varied assortment of knowledge from all kinds of sources, including the school. But they are not yet capable of ordering or prioritising what they have learned. Often enough, they do not yet have the critical ability [wisdom] needed to distinguish the true and good from their opposites. They have not yet acquired the necessary religious and moral criteria that will enable them to remain objective and independent when faced with the prevailing attitudes and habits of society. Concepts such as truth, beauty and goodness have become so vague today that young people do not know where to turn to find help; Even when they are able to hold onto certain values, they do not yet have the capacity to develop these values into a way of life; all too often they are more inclined simply to go their own way, accepting whatever is popular at the moment. [23] ( # 9.)

Following this outline of how the concept teaching wisdom might be used in education, together with a note on theological underpinnings, we want to look again at the question raised earlier about the school's role in addressing social problems.

Teaching Wisdom: The School's Role in Society and in Addressing Social Problems

Earlier we looked at unrealistic expectations of schools as agencies of reform in society. Here we want to examine realistic expectations.

The school is not a social service organisation. Its main function is to transmit the intellectual culture of a society and of civilisation; this above all else, it must do well. However, the school is not apart from society; it exists within a particular social context and if it is to be accepted as one of its important contributing institutions, it needs to respond to societal needs.

In determining how it addresses social problems, the school must filter the demands made on it, selecting what can be covered appropriately within its educational framework. Schools can thus be a useful part of society's attempted solutions.

Given that the history of universal education over the last century has shown it to be so successful (especially in what it set out to do in developing knowledge and skills), it is not surprising that people have high hopes that schools can be successful in addressing social problems. During this period many desirable social changes have occurred - one of the most influential factors must be judged to be universal education. Hence it is not unreasonable that many educators are, as Postman and Weingartner described, "simple, romantic people who risk contributing to the mental-health problem by maintaining a [stubborn] belief in the improvability of the human condition through education". [24] They hastened to add that they were not so simple and romantic as to think that all social problems are susceptible to solutions through any means including education. However, they suggested that education is one of the best long term investments for minimising some social problems.

Today's society has gradually changed the rules about what is expected of schooling. From the 1960s it became more evident that schools were reflecting the profound changes that were occurring in society. Sex education, transition education, driver education, AIDS education etc. were introduced as part of the community's response to immediate problems. Some argue that the demands on the school have been too many and inappropriate, claiming that the primary role of education has been, and should always be, the study of traditional subjects and that it should not be influenced or undermined by calls to take up new interests or fads. There is some justification for this criticism. Particular innovations have not always been judicious, often serving the purposes of misguided enthusiasts or unscrupulous careerists.

Given that only realistic and important social demands should be made of schools, educators need to think about the direction of schooling to meet the needs of young people into the next century. This must take into account not only the needs to be addressed but an understanding of what schools do best in relation to promoting personal change.

In a United Nations' exhibition on the future of our planet, four main issues were identified as being crucial to the survival of humankind and of the world in the 21st century:- The threat to life and dignity through hunger, health and education problems; apartheid; the refugee problem; the fragile balance of the environment. [25] Further it was observed that for many of the young people leaving schools today the skills and knowledge they acquire at school would not be as durable or as useful as was the case when their parents left school. It will not be unusual for next year's school graduates to change the nature of their jobs substantively two or three times before they retire. This situation reminds educators that what young people need at school is not simply knowledge and skills, but wisdom in the way they will use and apply those skills; but even more, a wisdom to chart for themselves a fulfilling life that will have benefits for themselves and for others.

Parental and Business Expectations of Schooling: A senior education administrator, Garth Boomer, pointed to one of the anomalies in parental expectations of education:

I'm talking to parents all the time and there is a certain schizophrenia at large. They want kids to get jobs but, on the other hand, they fear for the moral and human qualities. It's just a hunch, but I believe the second urge is the stronger. [26]

Boomer's 'hunch' suggests there is parental support for the trend towards more personal aims for general education. Previously, the personal or holistic curriculum was more the province of specialist schools - like the Rudolph Steiner schools. Now the call is to incorporate that personalism into mainstream education.

While it might be expected that business interests will be luke-warm as regards this trend, the evidence is surprising. Sectors of the business world are apparently revising ideas about the personal dimension of the workplace where job performance and market success have long dominated. This will inevitably have consequences for public expectations of education.

Fortune magazine (May 1991) devoted two leading articles to the problems arising from the inhumane workplace. The cover story read "Can your career hurt your kids? Yes, say many experts. But smart parents - and smart companies - won't let it happen." The articles detailed changes in the work practice of some of the largest corporations in the United States to accommodate the personal and family concerns of employees. The icon of 'success at all cost and career before everything', no longer remains unassailable, even though in real terms the changes being implemented are small.

Enforcing business practices that keep people away from their families and situations where they must choose between work and personal needs are being challenged. Even top management are encouraged in some firms to take flexi-time, paternal leave, maternal leave, in order to integrate their work within the context of their whole lives. Where it has been tried, the results have been excellent: more efficient work practices, less stressed employees, higher efficiency. The article quoted a senior vice president of a major firm, "Business used to feel that you ought to leave your personal problems at home." and it suggested that "We can no longer afford to take that view. The psychic welfare of workers - and of their children - is increasingly a legitimate management concern, and companies that ignore it risk their employees future as well as their own." [27]

How do we interpolate this shift in emphasis in the image of successful business in relation to schooling? Clearly, this is one of the issues that is essential content for study at school in the area of religion or personal development. The following line of thought should be considered by students.

In the comment below, a school principal reflected the common view of success at an inner city school; in the main this would be applicable to most schools:

Parents and teachers expect kids to learn the sort of things that help them to get jobs and be part of a community. As long as society defines people's worth in terms of paid work, we've got an obligation in working-class schools to deliver that. I'm not in favour of knitting on the dole queue. [28]

The school's image of success in terms of good marks is a straight reflection of what is happening in the business world and the job market. As long as people are judged to be successful in terms of these visible signs and are applauded for this success, then alternative models will get little credibility. Any damage done to one's personal or family life is often seen by the 'world' as necessary and mostly acceptable - the price one has to pay for success. It is an ethic that should have been systematically challenged a long time ago. In the past, critics of this system were readily dismissed as "star-gazing tree-huggers, out of touch with the real world and clearly not capable of mixing it with the big boys."

But now even in the hard world of big-business the alarm bells are beginning to sound. Increasingly it has become evident that a philosophy of total, uncompromising commitment to work is damaging more than the 'expendable' immediate family. Mid-life crisis and all it entails is having far reaching effects in the community and, 'more importantly', on the efficient running of business. As one New York researcher observed:

We can only guess at the damage being done to young children. From the perspective of American business, that is very, very disturbing. As jobs get more and more complex, the U.S. work force is less and less prepared to handle them. . . I'm seeing a lot more emptiness, lack of ability to attach, no sense of real pleasure. I'm not sure a lot of these kids are going to be effective adults. With more workaholic parents of both sexes, children are increasingly left to fend for themselves . . . we are cannibalising children . . they are dying in this system, never mind achieving optimum development. [29]

Sobering thoughts! Our review of the expectations of education show the vulnerability of schooling to pressures from outside the institution. This can make teachers cynical about their comprehensive aims for education. On the other hand, they need to understand that their efforts to foster a wisdom dimension in students must realistically take into account the social pressures that are influencing the thinking of young people. This means helping students themselves to become more critically aware of the social expectations that are having a shaping influence on their lives. [30] Not the least important here is a study of the ways in which the media, and television in particular, tend to shape people's values and life expectations. [31] In a colourful way, this critical role for education has been described by Postman and Weingartner as the responsibility educators have for refining students' inbuilt "crap detectors":

the history of the human group has been a continual struggle against the veneration of 'crap'. Our intellectual history is a chronicle of the anguish and suffering of people who tried to help their contemporaries see that some part of their fondest beliefs were misconceptions, faulty assumptions, superstitions and even outright lies. [32]

The experience of universal education, which in historical terms is a relatively recent occurrence, has presented educators, parents, students, governments and society with a startling array of what such a process can achieve. At no other time in history have so many people been exposed to so much information and knowledge, so many ideas, and as a consequence, so many options.

It would not be over-zealous to state that this more democratic experience of education has been a significant influence in the many technological, medical, and social advances in the last 100 years. It is no wonder that educators are so consistently called on to be in the forefront of bringing about desired changes in society.

By way of conclusion we return to what was said earlier about the growing concern to expand the school curriculum to include areas for study that have previously existed on the margins of school life, even though they were said to be of vital importance for young people - areas like religion and personal development; and to our view that all subjects have a role in developing a wisdom or spiritual dimension in young people. To summarise, we offer a rewrite of the earlier quoted statement on Values and Education from the NSW Ministry of Education. We consider that this reinterpretation, in the light of ideas on teaching wisdom, is a more realistic view of the complex but important role of schools in the moral and spiritual development of young people.

[2] . While the indexes of books on curriculum and philosophy of education rarely include the term 'holistic education', the idea of education for the development of the whole human person is usually prominent. See for example:- H. Dufty, and D. Dufty, Thinking Whole: The Quest for a New Educational Paradigm, Social Education Association of Australia, Sydney, 1989; T. Lovat, and D. Smith, Curriculum: Action on Reflection, Social Science Press, Wentworth Falls, 1990, p. viii; H. Beare, The Curriculum for the 1990s: A New Package or a New Spirit? The Australian College of Education, Canberra, 1989; G. Boomer, Negotiating the Curriculum: A Teacher-Student Partnership, Ashton Scholastic, Gosford, 1982; L. Brady, Curriculum Development, Prentice Hall, Sydney, 1990; J. Dawkins, Strengthening Australian Schools: A Consideration of the Focus and Content of Schooling, Department of Employment, Education and Training (Australian Government Publishing Service), Canberra, 1988; E. Eisner, Cognition and Curriculum: A Basis for Deciding What to Teach, Longman, New York, 1982.

[4] . Affective aims for education tend to include aspects of human development that are apparently non-cognitive, for example: emotions; aesthetic sense; attitudes; values; beliefs; etc. There is a danger that this classification tends to equate emotions with values/attitudes/beliefs. This can in turn promote the idea that values and morals are just matters of emotion - perhaps that morality itself is a matter of emotion. This ignores the dimensions of moral reasoning, volition (or willing) and commitment that are key elements in the holding of moral values. The affective category in being too broad and non specific can simplistically lump together aspects of human development that are very complex in their genesis. A discerning discussion of this issue is presented by Brian Hill, The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Is it a Faded Bloom?, Unpublished Paper, Murdoch University, WA, 1989; B.V. Hill, A Time to Plant and a Time to Uproot: Values Education in the Secondary School, Sydney Anglican Diocesan Education Commission, Sydney, 1990; and by Stella Eversden, A Critical Review of Approaches to Affective Evaluation in the Teaching of Religious Education in Australian Government Schools at Upper Secondary Level, Unpublished Honours Thesis, BA Education Studies, Murdoch University, Murdoch WA, 1989.

Also a problem with the cognitive/affective division is the tendency towards a dualism that does not reflect the complex interrelationships that exist between the cognitive and the affective in the human person. This division does not always advert to the way in which both cognitive and affective learning occur together. Some educators talk about 'affective learning procedures' as if it is just a matter of the teacher's choice of methods - as if with the 'flick of a switch' a teacher can intentionally 'change gear' and the learning environment begins to engage students' emotions, attitudes and values. This sort of thinking, even if it is not always clearly expressed, can be at the basis of particular approaches to classroom teaching that make gross presumptions about the processes of attitude and value formation in young people.

In our own writings we have used the cognitive/affective terminology (1985, 1988). While we would not want to equate values with emotion or to obscure the complex relationships between rational and non-rational aspects of the human person, we acknowledge the problems with the terminology, particularly those indicated by Hill and Eversden. We tended to use the term "personal domain" or "personal/affective domain" rather than "affective" by itself to avoid these difficulties while maintaining continuity with the earlier use of the "cognitive / affective" terms in the literature.

One of our special interests is the contention that in the classroom there is a cognitive 'slant' or 'contextual emphasis' that naturally governs all the learning that takes place, no matter how personal this is. This view implies that all of education in school classrooms is basically concerned with helping students to be informed and to learn how to think about what is being taught. This is the most appropriate and effective context for touching matters relating to emotions, values, beliefs etc. Our suggestions about how these personal areas are best treated in the classroom (as well as how to conduct discussions and to treat controversial topics) are presented in M.L. Crawford and G.M. Rossiter, Teaching Religion in the Secondary School: Theory and Practice, Christian Brothers Province Resource Group, Sydney, 1985, (chapters 4, 6) and M.L. Crawford and G.M. Rossiter, Missionaries to a Teenage Culture: Religious Education in a Time of Rapid Change, Christian Brothers Province Resource Group, Sydney, 1988, (chapters 4, 5, 6, 10, 19, 20)

Just as educators can use the cognitive/affective terminology in a naive and 'fundamentalist' way, we find that the same problem can be just as evident in those who talk about 'holistic education' or 'education of the whole person'. Our interest is to encourage educators to much more specific and realistic about how they understand actual teaching procedures are related to young people's personal and spiritual development. This is the over-riding concern of this paper. It is the reason that we have experimented with the concept of 'teaching wisdom' to draw more attention to the ways in which we hope that classroom teaching will provide educational experience that can occasion some growth in the inner, personal lives of students.

	Cardinal Clancy Centre for Research in the Spiritual, Moral, Religious and Pastoral Dimensions of Education.
Spiritual, Moral and Religious Education is a Flagship area for Research in Australian Catholic University

By Marisa Crawford and Graham Rossiter

Journal of Christian Education, 1992, Papers 101, 49-65.

Introduction