Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School issued the following announcement on September 15.
Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School’s mission statement it states that we are a school that is “rooted in the Ursuline and Marianist traditions.” In light of the troubling incidents that have occurred in our country that underscore the fact that we need to continue to address and combat racism, I believe that this rich tradition has empowered our students and graduates to help bring about a more just society. Protecting human life and promoting social justice are specifically addressed in areas of our curriculum, but even more so, the influence of our Ursuline and Marianist traditions create an environment that grounds our students in these principles as a part of their daily lives.
The Ursuline order identified a number of core values (UCVs) that are integral to how we educate. Likewise, the Society of Mary formulated characteristics of education (CME) that guide our mission as a school. These characteristics are not the domain of Religion classes but are infused in every curriculum area and in all interactions within the school. The Ursuline Core value of Community and Bondedness pairs with the Characteristic of Marianist Education of Educating in Family Spirit. These teach our students that the dignity of every person is to be protected, and even more so, that we see all as our brothers and sisters.
Several years ago in a Social Justice class, I was doing a unit on bullying. I asked my classes if they saw bullying as an issue at VASJ. Their reply was, “No. We are a family and family does not treat people that way.” I believe this anecdote reflects the mindset that VASJ seeks to engender. In discussions about what makes VASJ distinct from other schools, this sense of family is the first thing students identify. Students are then challenged to extend this value to all aspects of life.
In VASJ’s sponsorship agreements with the Ursulines and the Society of Mary, the school develops a four-year mission integration plan. Our past and current mission plans have focused on the development of virtues. Our plan focuses on helping students to develop the virtues of respect, responsibility and resiliency. We have entitled these the Viking Virtues. These go beyond developing traits as personal habits to seeing them in the context of the social dimension of the Gospel: promoting respect for all persons, our responsibility to promote justice, and having the resiliency to bear witness to Christian values even when it is difficult or in the face of opposition.
Another set of characteristics central to the Ursuline and Marianist charisms is the UCV emphasizing Service and Social Consciousness and the CME Educate for Service, Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation. These characteristics emphasize the importance of learning how to read the signs of the times and consider how we, as people of faith, can develop a more just society and promote the common good. Doing so helps to bring about and make evident the kingdom that Jesus came to proclaim. One of the school’s extracurricular activities is an organization called Students for Peace and Justice. Their purpose is to grow in awareness and promote social justice issues as well as educate their fellow students on significant social issues.
VASJ emphasizes the sanctity of human life. The school’s commitment to the sacredness of life sees all life issues as a part of a consistent ethic of life. Not only are those issues that attack life such as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment and the like addressed, but also those which do not allow people to live with dignity like racism and poverty. This is based on four foundational principles:
God is the author of life and therefore God alone has authority over life.
All persons are created in the image and likeness of God and have an eternal destiny.
All persons have inestimable worth and deserve to be treated with respect.
All people must be assured basic human rights in order to live with dignity.
The Religion curriculum, and even more specifically the Social Justice course, emphasizes these principles. In the Social Justice course, the sanctity of human life, the topic of racism and the means of bringing about social change in a nonviolent manner are units in that curriculum. In the racism unit, we study the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter titled “Brothers and Sisters to Us” and their most recent pastoral, “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love –A Pastoral Letter Against Racism,” issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. We look at both our failure as a country to effectively address issues of racial justice as well as our country’s steps toward promoting civil rights.
Through efforts like those listed above, VASJ students are grounded in a mindset and educated in a way that prepares them to examine, understand and advocate for racial justice and the creation of a just society. In light of the heartbreaking examples of racial injustice seen in various cities around the country, the failure to provide equal protection for all citizens, and the tensions surrounding these issue, VASJ students are being prepared to make a positive difference in our world.
Original source here.
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