Why Character and Virtue Education?
Ever since Saint John Baptist de La Salle inaugurated a new approach to education more than 300 years ago, the formation of the whole student has been the heart of Lasallian Catholic education. With a renewed focus on character and virtue education, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota continues to shape the lives of our students through holistic character development and the cultivation of intellectual, moral, and civic virtues.
Whether our 5,600 students are pursuing an undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degree at our residential college in Winona or at our Twin Cities campus or fully online, Saint Mary’s offers a transformational education. We help students discover the truths in the world around us and the character within us.
Welcome from the President
When I became president five years ago, I believed that character education and virtue formation are helpful foundations upon which to base our educational approach especially since it is clear these areas undergirded the pedagogy of Saint John Baptist de la Salle. I find it even more true today, with all the many challenges we face in society today. To this end, I believed it would be valuable to create a brief document to explain our university-wide initiative in character education and virtue formation. This Position Statement, the product of collaboration by faculty and staff throughout the university, seeks to introduce our particular approach at Saint Mary’s as well as ground it in our Lasallian Catholic mission.
As I reread this foundational document, I believe that it still helpfully articulates the value of a university education that integrates a virtue-based approach to character formation. It goes without saying that the state of higher education is rapidly changing, yet some things offer timeless value. As Patrick Henry, a founder of our country, put it, “The great pillars of all government and of social life (are) virtue, morality and religion. This is the armor…and this alone, that renders us invincible.” Thus, a comprehensive university education, particularly at Catholic universities, cannot be limited to intellectual formation alone; it must engage the whole human person. Developing one’s character is about helping others to seek the good in all things. Virtue is about the practice of living a good life so we can become who we are meant to be. Our explicit focus on character at Saint Mary’s prepares our graduates to succeed by being ethical witnesses in various professions and to live flourishing lives.
Again, as Aristotle famously wrote in the Nicomachean Ethics, “the purpose of our examination is not to know what virtue is, but to become good.” This Position Statement, therefore, is intended to be put into practice. It serves as a guide for our other initiatives to integrate character and virtue throughout the academic curriculum and campus life. We have moved then from a singular initiative to a university program in Character, Virtue and Ethics. I could not be happier or more grateful for the progress that we have achieved during the past five years. I am even more hopeful for the future as we remain committed to this vision.
God bless you!
Rev. James Patrick Burns, IVD, Ph.D.
President
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
Position Statement
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Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, a leader in a relationship-based, person-centered education, provides students and learners of all ages the opportunity to discover the truth through intense inquiry, utilizing reason, harnessing passion, and building character.
Founded in 1912 and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, Saint Mary’s enrolls a total of 5,600 students at its residential undergraduate college in Winona and in its Schools of Graduate and Professional Programs based in Minneapolis with programs offered in Rochester, other locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and fully online.
As a Lasallian Catholic university welcoming all students, Saint Mary’s offers respected and affordable programs in a variety of areas leading to bachelor’s, master’s, certificate, specialist, and doctoral degrees.
At Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, we understand that we live in a complex global society in which the ability to recognize ethical situations, apply critical thinking and sensitivity to decision making, and respond with goodness is vital for the growth of our students.
Our focus on ethics is also vital for thick discourse with our faculty and staff and for the flourishing of our global community. In fact, equipping students with the skills to lead ethical lives is essential for a flourishing society. Ethics has long been a part of the Saint Mary’s mission1 and at its core since 2004, when we presciently undertook the mission to “awaken, nurture, and empower learners to ethical lives of service and leadership.”2
Providing a high-quality education that intentionally teaches ethics within an increasingly rich virtue context is what we do — and who we are — at Saint Mary’s.
Ethics is about goodness. It is about what it means to be a good person and how to live a good life. A common misperception regards ethics as simply a list of rules. Yet there is also a richer, deeper way of thinking about ethics, which seeks an understanding of what will allow one to flourish as a person, become more resilient, and contribute to the common good. Each of these terms is incredibly important to understand, for the way in which we define them will allow for a more in-depth engagement.
A leader in character and virtue education, the Jubilee Centre at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, offers this definition of character education: “Human flourishing is the widely accepted goal of life. To flourish is not only to be happy, but to fulfill one’s potential.”3 Flourishing is thus a disposition rather than a state. In this view, moral goodness, or character, makes one more of who one is as a human being, rather than restricting the individual person. In this way the individual good and the common good “should work together harmoniously”4 and reciprocally. As an individual’s ethical behavior benefits society, so, too, “the common good embraces the sum total of all those conditions of social life which enable individuals, families, and organizations to achieve complete and effective fulfillment.”5
Further, as a particular approach to ethical living, virtue ethics is compatible with profound love and ultimate human flourishing as understood within the Catholic Intellectual Tradition6 and in the teachings of the Catholic Church.7 It is of note that the other two main approaches to normative ethics have an over-reliance on rules (deontology) or utilitarian outcomes (consequentialism).8 As understood within the Catholic tradition, the virtues approach is predicated on a deep respect for the dignity of the human person and concern for the personal and collective flourishing of all people. Far from a set of mandates or situation-specific rules, this approach focuses on the internal formation of the person that finds its fullest expression manifested in externally good actions. It is about fostering habits of character that help people act justly out of love, for virtue is aligned with personal flourishing and the common good.
Saint John Baptist De La Salle, priest and founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers), revolutionized education in France and beyond. In addition to his considerable advancements in pedagogical theory and practice, he also fashioned an educational spirituality, in large part, by cultivating virtuous dispositions within his teachers by his own personal example and instruction. De La Salle understood the value of virtue: when his teachers nourished habits of goodness and excellence in themselves, they could better recognize and encourage them in their students.
In The Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher,9 De La Salle called attention to the virtues that he believed to be most essential for educators. These virtues, three centuries later, continue to be foundational to the charism and ethos of Lasallian schools worldwide including at Saint Mary’s. Ever since De La Salle first invited teachers into his home, treated them like brothers, and cared about their formation as human beings, character education and virtue formation have been an integral part of Lasallian life and practice.
Virtues are “firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life.”21 Saint Thomas Aquinas understood the virtues to have an empowering quality, whereby inherent in each virtue is also the capacity to bring about morally good action.22 Thus, a person of character displays actions directed toward the good and possesses dispositions ordered toward the good that help make those actions possible.
Although there is no single definitive list of virtues, certain categories of virtues have special relevance to Saint Mary’s. Given our Lasallian Catholic mission and identity, we begin our focus with three intersecting sets of virtues: the Cardinal Virtues, the Theological Virtues, and the Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher. Additionally, performance virtues, such as perseverance, resilience, and teamwork are modes of engagement that enable the practice of the other virtues. All of these are especially suited to our context as an institution of higher education.
The Cardinal Virtues
The cardinal virtues are natural virtues in the sense that they can be acquired and developed through one’s own efforts. The four cardinal virtues are prusdence (practical wisdom), temperance, courage (fortitude), and justice. Because virtue acts in accord with reason, prudence is of principal importance because it is most closely associated with reason and thus governs the other three cardinal virtues. The essence of each virtue is evident in the good to which it is ordered: temperance, toward the regulation of the concupiscible appetites;23 courage, toward the regulation of our irascible appetites;24 and, justice, toward what is properly due to achieve reasonable equity among persons. The cardinal virtues are foundational and comprehensive such that all other natural virtues can be understood as subsidiary to one of the cardinal virtues.25
True virtue exists within the “golden mean,” that is, between the extremes of deficiency and excess.26 For example, virtuous courage is neither cowardice (deficiency) nor foolhardiness (excess). Determining the golden mean requires prudence; moreover, virtuous behavior typically necessitates the other virtues act in symphony. Courage, for example, has been said to be the “form of every virtue at the testing point.”27 Thus, the virtues are deeply interrelated.
The Theological Virtues
The theological virtues are faith, hope, and love (charity) and are understood as supernatural virtues in the sense that they are gifts from God and are ordered to God. By responding to God’s invitation and through cooperation with grace, Christians practice these virtues such that they are “infused by God into the souls of the faithful.”28 The theological virtues elevate the cardinal virtues by orienting them more perfectly toward God, who is the perfect exemplar of all of the natural virtues.29 Whereas living out the cardinal virtues can help us attain some measure of natural happiness, our ultimate end—the supernatural eternal happiness of union with God—is only ever possible with God’s help. God exceeds our natural capacities by infusing within us faith, hope, and love and offering us knowledge of himself through revelation. The theological virtues enable us to achieve the happiness for which we were created—to achieve our true calling as human beings. In the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas:
And first of all, with regard to the intellect, there is added to us certain supernatural principles, which are grasped through a divine illumination, and these are the things we believe through the virtue of faith. Secondly, the will is ordered toward the end by way of a movement of intention, both as toward something which is actually possible to achieve, which is what hope is all about and (third) as ordered toward a certain spiritual union, through which the soul is in a sense transformed into that end, and this pertains to charity.30
The Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher
The Twelve Virtues of a Good Teacher as identified by Saint John Baptist De La Salle are: gravity, silence, humility, prudence, wisdom, patience, reserve, gentleness, zeal, vigilance, piety, and generosity.31 These specific virtues are elevated as a valuable part of our educational culture at Saint Mary’s. They are integrated within the four cardinal virtues and also serve as a bridge between those broad virtues and our educational milieu as they are exemplified in the teaching at Saint Mary’s. Moreover, the practice of these virtues is not limited to teachers alone; we believe that everyone in our university community is called to adopt and practice these virtues.
Performance Virtues
Performance virtues are essential to all spheres of a university community because they are competencies necessary for high-level achievement. They include virtues such as: determination, motivation, resilience, perseverance, adaptability, teamwork, confidence, and creativity. To be in service of the good that is perfective (not the apparent good), the performance virtues are to be practiced in tandem with the moral virtues. As stated by the Jubilee Centre, “All good programmes of character education will include the cultivation of performance virtues, but they will also explain to students that those virtues derive their ultimate value from serving morally acceptable ends.”32
Character education should be “intentional, organised, and reflective.”33 While virtues, the building blocks of good character, can be taught, they can also be caught and sought.34 Research shows that direct instruction, modeling, and lived experience are all necessary for virtue formation.35
Virtues are Taught
The aspect of virtue formation most conducive to direct instruction is virtue literacy, which is an understanding of what the virtues are, how they are interrelated, and what their proper end is. With this foundation, then can begin the more sophisticated work of virtue reasoning, which involves thinking through and applying virtues to specific situations. The Jubilee Centre believes that this is possible in all subjects, although it may require greater creativity in some. Further, “Teachers should encourage ethical discussions and debate issues of morality, ethics and character that come up in their subjects in a critically reflective— as opposed to a didactic—way.”36
At Saint Mary’s, we respect diversity of conscience. Moreover, we reject a rigid, unquestioned application of broad categories of virtue to complex and specific ethical situations as this would not suit university-level pedagogy. Thus, we encourage our faculty toward a sensitive, creative, and nuanced approach to teaching ethics with a special focus on the first principle of doing good and avoiding evil. In the words of the Jubilee Centre:
Good teaching is underpinned by an ethos and language that enables a public discussion of character within the school community so that good character permeates all subject teaching and learning. It also models commitment to the forms of excellence or goodness inherent in the subject matter.37
Saint Mary’s is deeply committed to empowering students for ethical lives of service and leadership—for being people of integrity who bring goodness into the world.43 Our guiding framework is virtue ethics because of its unparalleled longevity, global relevance, empirical support, cross-cultural application, and congruence with our Lasallian Catholic mission and identity.
We intend that virtue ethics is taught in the classroom, caught within our rich Lasallian Catholic school culture, and sought because of the good example of others and ample opportunities for growth. The character education and virtue formation that we offer equips students to respond with wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice in the service of the common good and to the transcendent invitation of an ethical life.
Program Genesis
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota received a $1.7 million grant from the Kern Family Foundation in November 2019 to support the character and virtue initiative in the School of Education. The genesis of how Saint Mary’s University embraced this initiative includes several providential opportunities and relationships.
One year earlier, Ms. Liz Huntley, child advocate, litigation attorney, and author of More than a Bird, spoke at University Convocation in August 2018. Her keynote address called for greater attention to the role of character education, especially in the lives of young people who are marginalized racially or socio-economically. Sharing her life experiences, Huntley described how communities of character and virtue contributed to her triumph over poverty and abuse toward a flourishing life.
As faculty and staff discussed Huntley’s presentation, they began to ask: how can we become more intentional and deliberate about the character education that we provide at Saint Mary’s University? At the same time, Father James P. Burns, IVD, Ph.D. became the fourteenth president of the university. In his inaugural address in October 2018, Father Burns said, “What is most critical for us to focus on is our distinctive difference; what we uniquely have to offer. That is none other than our Lasallian and Catholic identity. An identity that has embedded in it the key import of virtue, ethics, and character education.”
This renewed vision for Saint Mary’s University was shaped by several years of involvement by Father Burns with the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtue at the University of Birmingham (UK). Realizing the impact of the Centre’s teaching, research, and programs in the United Kingdom, Father Burns proposed a similar initiative, yet in the context of American higher education, and grounded in the Catholic mission and identity as well as the three century-rich tradition of the Lasallian virtues as lived at Saint Mary’s University.
Sharing a commitment to character formation, quality education, and dynamic programs that create long-term, systemic impact, Saint Mary’s University was encouraged to submit a grant proposal to the Kern Family Foundation. Building on its strong reputation among our state’s educators and educational administrators, Saint Mary’s University in partnership with the Kern Family Foundation is enhancing its curriculum to ensure that character and ethics are at the foundation.
Alongside this initiative in the School of Education, the university’s strategic plan “Building a Future Full of Hope 2025,” unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees in October 2019, introduced a university-wide initiative on character education and virtue formation. Comprising faculty and staff throughout the university, the Character Education Advisory Council, the committee appointed to oversee this effort, is working to expand the integration of character and virtue throughout the academic curriculum and campus life. An early achievement of the Character Education Advisory Council is the authoring of the Position Statement, a foundational document that explains the approach to character education and virtue formation at Saint Mary’s University. Several key anonymous donors have offered their support and significant financial resources to extend the reach of this work throughout Saint Mary’s University.
Guiding this work is the shared conviction that today, more than ever, school leaders require formative opportunities aimed at strengthening their leadership and decision-making skills from a virtue and character perspective. Students desire schools that not only impart knowledge but develop their character, model virtuous living, and foster community. Therefore, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota aspires to become known nationally as a leader in character education and virtue formation to foster the flourishing of our students, establish new partnerships with school leaders, and better serve our community.