Jesuit Heritage

A God Who Teaches: Educating the Person

Like other Renaissance educators, early Jesuits sought through their schools to educate the whole person - mind, body, and spirit; thus Georgetown focuses not only on conveying information and intellectual content, but also on building a home for wisdom, where all dimensions of students' lives will be enriched. Early Jesuit educators tried to follow the pattern found in God's providential dealings with Ignatius. During the time of his conversion, Ignatius experienced God not as distant and removed, but as a teacher personally involved in his life. God worked directly with Ignatius to educate him in the ways of prayer. Early Jesuit educators similarly worked to develop a reverent familiarity with their students, which allowed Jesuits to educate them on an individual basis, according to the particular needs and gifts of each student. The Latin phrase associated with this Jesuit focus on the individual is "cura personalis," (literally meaning "care of the person"). Caring for the person means knowing the student beyond what a transcript can reveal. Georgetown faculty and administrators strive to know students personally - their backgrounds and life histories, their strengths and limitations, their struggles and hopes. They seek to build personal, trusting relationships with students so that they will be free to ask questions, take intellectual risks, make mistakes and learn from them.

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