Issue Home Volume 11: Issue 4

Formation of the Whole Student
Leslie P. Wallace, Esq.
Assistant Professor Legal Research & Writing
Saint Louis University School of Law

As a student of Christian education during my formative years, I never realized the impact my faith made on my own education, until I began teaching. My faith is the core of who I am, the substance which pushes me to be the very best I can be for myself and towards others. I now find it to be the fuel by which I push my students to be the very best they can be. My faith experience tells me I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, so I do not want my students to believe they cannot succeed. “Education is not just intellectual formation nor instruction; it is the formation of the whole man.” 1

Our goal as educators is not simply to teach material, because truth be told, the technology and resources available to students can quite possibly enable them to teach themselves – in which case, we must ask ourselves, what then is our purpose ? What is our value in the classroom if but only to reiterate what the casebook sets forth? As a faith-filled educator, my value lies not simply in the concepts and abstract theories I make concrete, but in “the opportunity to form young souls.” 2 This is a calling much higher and greater than any masters or doctorate can capture, but a privilege to change the lives before us, to make our students more enriching human beings when they leave our classroom, then when they came.

As I reflect upon my own predominantly Christian education from Kindergarten to a Juris Doctorate, I can honestly say I don’t remember every book I read, every report written, nor even every speech prepared. However, I do remember my second grade teacher who took time after school to help me prevent my number “5s” from looking like the letter “S,” my fourth grade teacher who encouraged me to participate in Honors math, my fourth and sixth grade teacher who loved to hear me laugh, my Freshman World Studies teacher who encouraged my passion and comments, my Volleyball coach who showed me how to use my strong personality to influence my teammates positive direction, my college advisor who encouraged me to go to law school in the first place, and law school professors, practicing attorneys and judges who opened doors of growth and opportunity for me. Each person invested not just in my education, but in my life. They knew me outside the class roster or the seating chart – they knew me. That’s what the Jesuit philosophy of education is about.

“Paramount is the proper understanding of human nature as created by Almighty God and the ultimate destiny of man.” 3 Students today are arriving at schools just as “book smart” as some of their teachers. Certainly not because the educators are not intelligent, but the opportunities afforded this new generation are far greater than anything available to me only 10 years ago. So, what do I have to offer them beyond regurgitating what they can read in a book? To reach today’s student we must do more for them than what they can do for themselves, we must show them we care, we believe in them, we must push them to be better than what they think they can be. Not to benefit ourselves as educators, but to benefit them as students and help them find their place in this life that God has created for them.

A former student recently told me that by investing in his life I made him feel comfortable to talk to me, enough to share his struggles, hopes and desires beyond the four walls of law school. But the best part came when this same student told me his comfort increased “100 times” when I shared my faith. While they are in our class, they are our responsibility and it’s not a charge we should take lightly. “Our students are the ‘books’ that we must study. If we just have a superficial knowledge of them, if we don’t know whom we are dealing with, we are ‘beating the air.’” 4 “If you don’t know someone, you can’t affect them or properly direct them to a goal . . . . ” 5 And if not to direct them toward an identifiable goal, what are we teaching for?

1. Fr. Michael McMahon, The Jesuit Model of Education, Summer 2004, http://www.edocere.org/articles/jesuit_model_education.htm.

2. Id.

3. Id.

4. Id.

5. Id.

Last updated 04.28.09