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Midwest News
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Written by Tom Masters - Chicago
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Monday, April 19, 2010 |
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 The Chicago Mariapolis Center hosted a seminar on April 11, 2010 to introduce the New City Press title Education’s Highest Aim. The sixty participants, including professional educators, parents, students, and other interested community members, listened to an introductory talk by Dr. Thomas Masters, Midwest director of "Education and Unity," the Focolare’s educational research group. Masters, a co-author of Education’s Highest Aim, noted the many "problems" found in education today, but explained that in the light of a spirituality of communion, “these problems become opportunities for ongoing reflection and action, action that leads not to solutions, but to engagement, renewal and the formation of moral identity.”
 He offered samples of the more than fifty experiences contained in the book, and then turned to three members of Education and Unity who shared how they brought a spirituality of communion to bear in their particular educational environments. Mary McLennon described how the "Cube of Love" generated a new spirit among her first-graders and among other students and staff at her school. Katie Kelley explained the effects of the spirituality on their family as they homeschooled their five children. Francis Rogg, a high-school senior, spoke of how his work as a one-on-one aide for a young adult with autism was transformed by applying principles of reciprocity.
 Workshop groups examined specific chapters, discussing how they might translate its theory into practice in their own circumstances. The program concluded with a quick summary of the main ideas that each workshop generated. Participant Van Bensett, a member of his parish’s school board, commented, "Usually we respond to problems by developing new policies, but doing so doesn’t touch on the true fundamental issues. Putting the ideas in Education’s Highest Aim into effect will help us develop a new culture of communion."
 Similar programs will be held this spring in Toronto and New York, and other presentations about Education’s Highest Aim are planned for late summer and throughout the fall.
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