How do you educate the whole person?

An Essay by Miranda R. Carter

Introduction
The concept of cura personalis, or caring for and educating the whole person, is a vital
concept for any instructor to adopt if they want their role within the classroom to be effective
for students while they have them, and after they have moved on. This concept is complex and
according to R.P. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach in The Characteristics of Jesuit Education cannot be
based off the individual Ignatian concepts, but the concepts together, and how they appear in
one another as well as apart (paragraph 18). This, to me, reflects the image of our complexities
as people. We are whole, but we can also distinguish the mental, emotional, physical and
spiritual parts of us as entities unique from the other, seeing as the functionality of these
entities do manifest in one another while fulfilling separate roles.

To educate and care for the whole person, it is vital that every angle of the individual be
approached at once within the appropriate boundaries for the professional setting and goals in
mind. Effective instructors offer resources that appeal to the mental and emotional parts of
their students, and of which support the physical and spiritual well-being of their students,
aware that if one of the four fails to function properly for an extended period, a student’s
ability to succeed becomes compromised.

Mental
The mental entity of an individual is the first part of a person most think of when they
visualize education. Students attend college to learn, which involves receiving, processing, and
holding onto information. But, as an instructor developing the mental part of a person is not as
simple as presenting them with information; it also involves how you present the information,
and which tactics you choose in interactions with students to psychologically imply standard,
authority, and engagement (Dannels, chpts. 5 and 6).
Peter-Hans Kolvenbach says a student’s “sound intellectual formation includes mastery
of basic humanistic and scientific disciplines through careful and sustained study that is based
on competent and well-motivated teaching. This intellectual formation includes a growing
ability to reason reflectively, logically and critically” (paragraph 26).
A wonderful example of engaging the students in a way that contextualizes their
learning is the scene in Ciao, Professore! where the instructor Marco Tullio Sperelli slaps
Raffaele, one of the children he attempts to connect with as an educator accidentally sent to a
poor, violent town in southern Italy, for threatening him. While in no way would this be an
acceptable course of action within the education system in modern-day America, we see that
Sperelli’s physical response to Raffaele’s inappropriate behavior reaps positive reactions from
both Raffaele and the community by setting a tone and creating standard. Though the action
was physical, driven by emotion, the result had a mental appeal to those of Raffaele and others
in his sphere. This set a conducive context for educational progress.
Gauging the culture of the atmosphere, the needs and weaknesses of those you are
educating, and developing an awareness for what your specific students respond best to are
the first steps to creating context that supports learning.

Emotional
Peter-Hans Kolvenbach says: “In Jesuit education, particular care is given to the
development of the imaginative, the affective, and the creative dimensions of each student in
all courses of study. These dimensions enrich learning and prevent it from being merely
intellectual. They are essential in the formation of the whole person and are a way to discover
God as He reveals Himself through beauty. For these same reasons, Jesuit education includes
opportunities - through course work and through extracurricular activities - for all students to
come to an appreciation of literature, aesthetics, music and the fine arts.”
In other words, learning is not limited to, nor is it complete, if the intellectual part of a
person is growing but the emotional part is not exercised through imagination, socializing, and
creative endeavor. In Rebekah Nathan’s My Freshman Year, she observes that the emotional
draw of collegiate life (getting involved in clubs and causes students are passionate about,
developing friendships and exploring romantic relationships, pursuing career fields/majors with
innovation, etc.) is a dominant attraction for students when it comes to collegiate life (chpt. 3).
It is our responsibility then, as educators, to nurture inquisitive thinking, creativity, and healthy
relationships in our students.
An activity that implements this trifecta is group projects. Group projects facilitated in
the classroom start with questions, progress into topic exploration, call for creative
presentation, and set platform for teamwork and other relational matters to take place. The
instructor can offer guidance without stifling creative expression or micromanaging relational
dynamics among group members.

Physical
An individual’s physicality is perhaps the most vulnerable to change, seeing as it is highly
dependent on the mental, emotional and spiritual entities to function well. For example, in R.F.
Delderfield’s To Serve Them All My Days, we see the main character, David Powlett-Jones,
having conversations with some of his boarding school students about bedwetting. Powlett-
Jones knows that the bedwetting itself is not a physical dysfunction in most cases, but rather a
physical manifestation of the emotional discomfort of being away from home for the first time.
A person’s physical state is prone to decline if a person is experiencing emotional
distress, is uneducated on how to take care of oneself, and/or isn’t exposed to an environment
in which physical activity and care is valued. Though physicality is certainly more sensitive to
the duress of the other parts of us, it is proven that to care for one’s body through healthy
eating, exercise, hygiene, etc. can improve an individual’s internal state, as well as develop
mental-physical partnerships, emotional-physical resilience, and social dynamics through
teamwork and competition.
A Jesuit education values the same. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach writes: “Education of the
whole person implies physical development in harmony with other aspects of the educational
process…. sports programs help young men and women learn to accept both success and
failure graciously; they become aware of the need to cooperate with others, using the best
qualities of each individual to contribute to the greater advantage of the whole group.”

Spiritual
Facilitating spiritual growth for students is the most difficult aspect of teaching and
caring for the whole person, partially because various institutions have limitations on spiritual
discussion, and partially because the spirit is a much more private entity than the other three.
However, it is possible to lay a comfortable foundation for students to partake in spiritual
questioning, exploration, and growth.
Peter-Hans Kolvenbach supports educational depth that “probes the meaning of human
life and is concerned with the total formation of each student as an individual personally loved
by God” (paragraph 25). Though some students may not believe in God, or are unsure as to
what they believe, it is possible to love and guide students in a way that exemplifies
characteristics of God’s nature and fosters the understanding that at the heart of every
educational endeavor, and every curiosity, are the questions of human existence and purpose.
These concepts are less measurable than quantitative physics or anthropologic data yet are
more powerful in the way that they are the driving force behind discovery.
To help students recognize this and give them the tools to explore it for themselves is to
properly facilitate spiritual learning.

Conclusion
Humans are complex parts of a whole attempting to live in harmony. These parts could
best be described as mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. When one entity struggles to
agree with another, all entities adapt to help keep the whole person functioning optimally.
Similarly complex, then, are the tactics instructors must build their establishments upon
in order to successfully impact and nurture students. Though instructors cannot take total
responsibility for the personal and professional success of a student, they should see
themselves as facilitators of social and intellectual development, as well as a resource for
emotional needs and spiritual exploration.
Sources

Dannels, D. P. (2015). Eight essential questions teachers ask: a guidebook for communicating with students. New
York: Oxford University Press.

Delderfield, R. F. (2009). To serve them all my days. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Landmark.

Nathan, R. (2006). My freshman year: what a professor learned by becoming a student. New York: Penguin.

Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, R.P. (1986). The Characteristics of Jesuit Education. Rome, Italy. International Commission
on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education.

Wertmuller, L. (Director). (1992). Ciao, Professore! [Motion picture on DVD]. Italy: Miramax.