Gravissimum educationis (GE) is a conciliar decree of Vatican II promulgated by Pope Paul VI on Oct. 28, 1965. It treats the extremely grave importance of education, which is what Gravissimum educationis means. It has addressed many important concerns, including the indispensable role of parents in education, freedom in education, the importance of properly training educators, the importance of adapting education to contemporary times. For this posting, in exploration of the intersection between education, family life and society with the J.J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues (ICSI), I only reflect on the declaration by GE of the universal right of all human beings to appropriate education based on their human dignity. In the next posting we will reflect on the universal right of all Christians to Christian education based on their baptism.
The text of GE is as follows:
All men of every race, condition, and age, since they enjoy the dignity of a human being, have an inalienable right to an education that is in keeping with their ultimate goal, their ability, their sex, and the culture and tradition of their country, and also in harmony with their fraternal association with other peoples in the fostering of true unity and peace on earth. For a true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end and of the good of the societies of which, as man, he is a member, and in whose obligations, as an adult, he will share.
Therefore children and young people must be helped, with the aid of the latest advances in psychology and the arts and science of teaching, to develop harmoniously their physical, moral and intellectual endowments so that they may gradually acquire a mature sense of responsibility in striving endlessly to form their own lives properly and in pursuing true freedom as they surmount the vicissitudes of life with courage and constancy. Let them be given also, as they advance in years, a positive and prudent sexual education. Moreover, they should be so trained to take their part in social life that properly instructed in the necessary and opportune skills they can become actively involved in various community organizations, open to discourse with others and willing to do their best to promote the common good.
This sacred synod likewise declares that children and young people have a right to be motivated to appraise moral values with a right conscience, to embrace them with a personal adherence, together with a deeper knowledge and love of God. Consequently, it earnestly entreats all those who hold a position of public authority or who are in charge of education to see to it that youth is never deprived of this sacred right. It further exhorts the sons of the Church to give their attention with generosity to the entire field of education, having especially in mind the need of extending very soon the benefits of a suitable education and training to everyone in all parts of the world.[1]
In the open spirit of Vatican II, GE speaks of all men [and women] of every race, condition and time.[2] It speaks, therefore, not just of Catholics and Christians. It speaks of all human beings, women and men, in diverse countries and cultures of the globe.
All human beings have an inalienable right to education. Its statement is apodictic – spoken with the authority of the Vatican Council of the Catholic Church. It bases its statement on its insight into the dignity of the human being.
What is the dignity of the human being?
For the Church, the dignity of the human being is the quality of the person created in the image of God, endowed with intelligence, free will and creativity, the "center and crown of creation", a sinner before God but forgiven and redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ, called to the ultimate goal of eternal happiness with God and, on this earth, to loving one's neighbor, i.e., in the words of GE, to "fraternal association with other peoples in the fostering of true unity and peace on earth" essential to the pursuit of his ultimate end.[3]
For others who do not share the faith in the redeemer, Jesus Christ,[4] the dignity of the human being is affirmed already in his self-consciousness, intelligence, knowledge, freedom and capability of moral action, attained wisdom, that recognizes a transcendent ultimate end that differs from that of the Christian, e.g. the Egyptians' Field of Reeds, the Buddhists' Nirvana and Islam's eternal life. Or, the dignity of the human being is this-worldly, the way one thinks and behaves in this world appropriate to one's human self, one's care for self and other human beings that involves "a fraternal association with diverse peoples" whose ultimate end is "true unity and peace on earth."
Human dignity is the quality of the human being as created, whose truth must be achieved through the self-conscious free action of the human being seeking one's ultimate end. From the interiority of the human being, one's ultimate end calls forth the knowledge, wisdom and action, supported by nature or grace, that achieves one's ultimate end.
Human dignity is shared among human beings, in a dialogue of words and actions appropriate to that dignity. It is a historical unfolding, an assertion seeking its truth, a reality achieving it goal, its finality, inseparable from the actions and decisions which confirm its truth.
Without this historical unfolding, it is barren interiority, a yet empty assertion. Yet because of its end it is more than an empty assertion. The human embryo is more than an empty promise, pure potentiality, a disposable thing. The dignity of the human being necessitates its end. In freedom. And fraternity.
GE shares this insight with all who affirm the dignity of the human being, even though the faith necessary to appreciate the fullness of the Church's insight into this dignity may not be gifted to all. All women and men "enjoy the dignity of the human being." Therefore, they all have the right to education. It is an inalienable entitlement. It is not to be denied, as the dignity of the human being is not to be denied.
What is the education to which all human beings are entitled.
For GE, education is to be in keeping with[5] three affirmed realities: first, the human beings' ultimate goal; second, their ability, their sex, and the culture and traditions of their county; and, third, their "fraternal association with other peoples in the fostering of true unity and peace on earth." Let us look at these three realities more closely.
First, education is to be in keeping with their "ultimate goal." As explained above, the ultimate goal is the transcendent goal mediated by faith, or the transcendent goal mediated by other types of beliefs, or the this-worldly goal of the non-believer expressing his human dignity in the pursuit of "true unity and peace on earth." Education is a means for the human being to attain one's end. It mediates the human being's self-understanding. It aids in elucidating one transcendent goal and its practical implications, however this may be manifest through faith, revelation or through self consciousness. It mediates the ability and necessity for human beings to come together in shared recognition of being human together, and a shared necessity to collaborate towards the attainment of one's end. Part of that collaboration is the fraternal "fostering of true peace on earth" as an ultimate this-worldly goal or as a this-worldly goal ultimately necessary for a transcendent goal. We will return to this below.
Second, education must be in keeping with the local particulars of human beings living on earth, their abilities and limitations, their strengths and weaknesses, their achievements and failures, the strengths and their weaknesses, their sex, their gender, and the culture and traditions of their country. Education would have to address the great diversity of ways people work, struggle, survive and thrive on earth in localities. This involves the necessary content of education[6] that is in keeping with the dignity of the human being and aids him in meeting the "vicissitudes" of life towards the attainment of his common goal.
Third: education must be in keeping "with their fraternal association with other peoples in the fostering of true unity and peace on earth." Based on the dignity of the human being, GE recognizes a this-worldly finality of "true unity and peace on earth" that is mediated by peoples' fraternal association with other peoples. This is not a static but a dynamic association. Pope Francis would call this fraternity. For fraternity, education is necessary: "By acknowledging the dignity of each human person, we can contribute to the rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity. Brotherhood between all men and women." (FT, 8).[7] This is not a merely conceptual brotherhood, but a fraternity promoted by "social friendship" – "a love capable of transcending social borders" (FT: 99) in lived solidarity. "Fraternity is born not only of a climate of respect for individual liberties, or even of a certain administratively guaranteed equality. Fraternity necessarily calls for something greater, which in turn enhances freedom and equality. What happens when fraternity is not consciously cultivated, when there is a lack of political will to promote it through education in fraternity, through dialogue and through the recognition of the values of reciprocity and mutual enrichment? Liberty becomes nothing more than a condition for living as we will, completely free to choose to whom or what we will belong, or simply to possess or exploit. This shallow understanding has little to do with the richness of a liberty directed above all to love" (FT, 103).
In this challenging context, what is the education to which they are entitled? For GE, "true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of one's ultimate end and of [one's this-worldly end, namely:] the good of the societies of which as man he is a member, and in whose obligations, he will share." It forms, molds, human freedom and knowledge to pursue his ultimate transcendent end and his this-worldly end, the "fraternal pursuit of true peace and unity."
The right to education therefore is based on the right to freely and competently contribute in accordance with one's human dignity to this this-worldly ultimate goal of genuine peace and unity among different people (fraternity), if not also to the achievement of one's transcendent finality in heaven. For based on Matthew's account of the Last Judgement, one is not admitted to one's ultimate heavenly goal if one has not practiced fraternity with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned…; for what one has done or not done to the least of the Lord's brothers and sisters (fraternity) one has done or not done to Jesus. (Cf Mt. 25, esp. 40,45). "For a true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end and of the good of the societies of which, as man he is a member, in in whose obligations, as an adult, he will share" (GE, 1).
Unto this common good, GE says the youth needs to be educated. Perhaps today where the standards and quality of education are so diverse, we would need also to include adults. Through the latest advances in the arts, in human sciences and pedagogy, they must be helped "to develop harmoniously their physical, moral and intellectual endowments so that they may gradually acquire a mature sense of responsibility in striving endlessly to form their own lives properly and in pursuing freedom as they surmount the vicissitudes of life with courage and constancy." Human dignity is inherent to the human being, but unfolds in history from within. Acknowledging its inherent character, it must be drawn out, led-out of the human being through education (<ex ducere, educare), harmoniously developing essential aspects of human life: e.g., the physical potentials of one's body, the sense of right and wrong, knowledge and its self-critical powers leading to wisdom, and the ability to translate envisioned goals into reality. It is drawn out, not forced into, not coerced, in full respect of its human dignity freshly unfolding, its autonomy, its freedom, and its ability to account for itself to itself and to the others, to make choices for itself and others in the world as it confronts "the vicissitudes" of life - the need to survive, to eat and drink, the need to interact and collaborate with others, even through unforeseen circumstances and predicaments, undesired misunderstandings and wrongdoing, the need to inspire or negotiate paths of cooperation towards the common good in at least the fraternity that achieves this-worldly peace and the continued life of the planet.
Meanwhile, human dignity demands that "children and young people have a right to be allowed to appraise moral values with a right conscience, to embrace them with personal adherence, together with a deeper knowledge and love of God." Right and wrong cannot be forced by political entities or simplistic teachers on children by rote, the rod, or robotization, but children and youth – and adults as well - must be allowed to weigh and affirm moral values based on their conscience in their deepening relationship with God.
Personal Reflection:
As presented above, GE's right to education is based on the dignity of the human being. One achieves one's ultimate transcendent end also in fostering one's this-worldly end, "true unity and peace on earth." We elucidated this using Francis' concept of social friendship seeking fraternity, where all peoples coming from diverse cultures and continents are brothers and sisters. Social friendship breaks down barriers to achieving fraternity. It translates into action what is necessary to achieve "true unity and peace on earth" lest the human being live and act below the dignity that is his. Education is a right because it is necessary for the human being to achieve the end that is worthy of one's dignity. Education mediates the true understanding of the human being and its finality. It provides the human being the necessary knowledge and wisdom to navigate the vicissitudes of this world in order to achieve one's end.
It is vision that is lofty, ideal and apodictic. It invites individuals, families and civil society to take it seriously, and to ensure that the education that is imparted to youth and adults alike be appropriate to their ultimate end.
While all this can be affirmed and admired, the Church that articulates the right to education does not have an ability to fully enforce it. It can appeal that various actors in the family and in civil society recognize it, and so commit themselves to it. But where key actors in a nation's educational system do not recognize it, and, for instance, consider the practical finality of the educational enterprise not an affirmation of human dignity but private profit and so demand money for education, the lofty right appears hollow. For of what good is the right if the kid doesn't have money? More problematic are the educators who wish to provide education in full recognition of the right of the human being to education based on his human dignity, but must nevertheless charge fees for education because quality education has legitimate costs, e.g., the remuneration of teachers appropriate to their specialized training for competent instruction, the construction and maintenance of educational facilities, the costs of administration and appropriate staffing, in an environment where public schools with public money compete with private faith-based schools jacking its cost up. For the human being, especially the believer, who desires the quality of this education, including its faith-enhancing promise, but is excluded from it because he or she cannot pay for it, the right to education based on one's dignity rings hollow. For the educators who engage such education in recognition of the ideal right but also of the costly realities necessary to deliver education, the ideal right is compromised sadly in the realities of education's expensive conditions of historical delivery.
Nevertheless, the affirmation of the universal right to education based on human dignity, e.g., through its affirmation in the vision and mission of the school and its earnest efforts to implement this, is an affirmation of an ideal that is seeking not to be hollow but real, whatever the costs are. It is a basis for exchange and dialogue among educational institutions, to assist each other in delivering education not just based on its promised advantages in a marketplace where human beings are alienated from themselves, but on the advocated dignity of the human being in challenging praxis. In the Philippines this includes finding remedies to the unsatisfactory educational outputs in elementary schools, but also finding the practical meaning of social friendship towards realizing fraternity. This means education towards breaking down barriers between Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, agnostics and atheists, between the Philippines and its Asian neighbors, between the Philippines and diverse peoples on the globe.
Unto the life of this human fraternity it also means attending to the needs of the planet, working against climate change, and moving on from a false anthropocentricism to environmental conversion, that is, from the notion of the environment being there for the human being, to the notion of a fraternity of humanity thriving with all created species and the created universe called as brother and sister[8] by a loving God.
Finally, in the family this means working towards education based on human dignity as discussed in GE. It means parents taking responsibility for providing appropriate education to their children in consultation with the Church in view of their finality as children of God. Education is not outsourced to schools. It is not more valuable, nor more excellent, the more one pays for it. Its success is not measured on how much one can make after graduation, nor on the score one achieves in a professional exam. Its finality is not a job. Education begins in the family and remains in the family. The family educates through its nuptial sacramentality: through the love of the husband for the spouse, i.e., the father for the mother, the child learns God's love for his children; through the love of the mother for the father, the child learns how we love God in a community of faith, humility, service, self-sacrifice. Parents convinced of their dignity before God teach their children of the human dignity they share – especially in being called to everlasting fellowship with God in heaven. This ought never be omitted nor betrayed in an exaggerated concern for worldly possessions and social honors. At the same time, parents also teach their children the dignity of living as human in this world, of being loving and kind to all creatures, and of ultimately taking responsibility to build fraternity in this world.
[1] Gravissimum Educationis, 7
[2] Despite the time-bound non-inclusive language. Whenever possible I have sought to remedy this with texts in brackets. Occasionally, instead of his or her, I have opted for a briefer though more impersonal "one's"
[3] Cf. Gaudium et Spes, Chapter 1 on the Dignity of the Human Being. …
[4] Faith is the graced response to God's free self-revelation to him or her through the Holy Spirit in the Church.
[5] "in keeping with" – appropriate to, responsive to, in keeping with responsibilities relative to…
[6] The ideal responsibility for determining the content of education in keeping with the God'-given dignity and ultimate goal of the human being is shared between the family, civil society and the Church. "Education which is concerned with man as a whole, individually and socially, in the order of nature and in the order of grace, necessary belongs to all these three societies [the family, civile society and the Church], in due proportion, corresponding, according to the disposition of Divine Providence, to the coordination of their respective ends" (Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri, 14). Today in the Philippines, curricula are developed according to the State-driven goals of elementary education, and/or the goals articulated and pursued by higher educational institutions in pursuit of their mission and vision exercised in state-guaranteed academic freedom.
[7] References are to P. Francis, Fratelli Tutti, On Fraternity and Social Friendship, (Vatican: 2020) [FT].
[8] This fraternity is celebrated in Francis' Laudato Si! through images such as Brother Sun and Sister Moon in St. Francis' Canticle of the Creatures, (LS, 1).
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