In Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer (1999) writes, “As young people, we are surrounded by expectations that may have little to do with who we really are, expectations held by people who are not trying to discern our selfhood but to fit us into slots” (p. 12). Are Palmer’s words an invitation to imagine a new rigor in Jesuit high schools, one oriented around purpose?
The Expectations of Others
Today’s high schoolers must grow up fast as they grapple with where they will go to college, how they will build their careers, where they ought to live, how to spend their time, and who to associate with (Parker, 2015). This is especially true for many students in rigorous “pressure-cooker” schools—including many Jesuit high schools—that adhere to narrow definitions of academic success, have majorities of students with high standardized test scores, provide an abundance of extracurricular and academic offerings, and produce graduates that go on to high-ranking colleges and universities (Wirth, 2007; Villeneuve et al., 2019).
There is a price for chasing success.
There is a price for chasing success. A study conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Wallace, 2019) deemed students in “pressure-cooker” schools an “at-risk” group, putting them in the same category as children with incarcerated parents and recent immigrants. According to multiple studies, many teens in “pressure-cooker” schools (nearly 50% or more) are trying to get ahead of their peers by working extremely hard but not finding value in their schoolwork (Villeneuve et. al., 2019), leading to high levels of stress and other health problems.
The experiences of students at “pressure-cooker” schools are shared across the broader American education ecosystem. Researchers at Yale University surveyed almost 22,000 U.S. high school students across all 50 states in urban, suburban, and rural school districts, in both public and private schools, about their feelings toward school (Wehner, 2022; Moeller, et al., 2020). A staggering 75% of the participants expressed negative responses to school, the most common of which were “tired,” “stressed,” and “bored” (Wehner, 2022; Moeller et al., 2020). Challenge Success, a non-profit affiliated with the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and their “Student Voice Report” (2024) shared findings based on data collected between 2010 and 2023 involving an uber-diverse mix of 270,000 students. The majority of students, but especially females and students of color, continue to experience high levels of achievement pressure and are not fully engaged in their learning.
Lecture-based instruction, high-stakes testing, traditional grading practices, large quantities of homework, and strict approaches to classroom management—all characteristics of prevailing teacher-centered education—risk stymying engagement, reinforcing a culture of rigor that exacerbates students’ negative emotional dispositions towards school.
Lecture-based instruction, high-stakes testing, traditional grading practices, large quantities of homework, and strict approaches to classroom management—all characteristics of prevailing teacher-centered education—risk stymying engagement, reinforcing a culture of rigor that exacerbates students’ negative emotional dispositions towards school. Rather than learning how to thrive, most students are fighting to survive the stringent expectations thrust upon them by their parents, school leaders, and teachers.
Journeying With Youth Down Their Path to Purpose
In his promulgation of the Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs) (2019), Superior General Arturo Sosa S.J. expounds on the third UAP, “Journeying with Youth Toward a Hope-Filled Future,” acknowledging that “youth is the stage in human life when individuals make the fundamental decisions by which they insert themselves into society, seek to give meaning to their existence, and realize their dreams” (p. 4). Educators and leaders, therefore, are called to “accompany the young in this process” and “show them the way to God that passes through solidarity with human beings and the construction of a more just world” (p. 4). However, in his book The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find Their Calling in Life (2008) psychologist and researcher William Damon writes, “What is too often missing — not altogether absent but evident only in a minority of today’s youth — is the kind of wholehearted dedication to an activity or interest that stems from a serious purpose, a purpose that can give meaning and direction to life,” (p. 7). The absence of purpose development in students’ learning - encouraging students to seek and discover their gifts and in turn come to know how to use them to serve others - demands attention and a response.
The absence of purpose development in students’ learning - encouraging students to seek and discover their gifts and in turn come to know how to use them to serve others - demands attention and a response.
Damon (2008) defines “purpose” as “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at the same time meaningful to the self and consequential for the world beyond the self” (p. 33). Damon’s definition can be broken down into three components. In our Jesuit schools, these three components of purpose could be framed as questions:
a) What do you love? b) What are you good at? And…c) How can you use what you love and your gifts to change the world?
A person with purpose can respond to all three with a degree of certainty. Heather Malin in Teaching for Purpose: Preparing Students for Lives of Meaning (2018) defines purpose as a “higher-order goal that is general and driving, such as a desire to help others or protect the environment, in contrast to more specific goals that provide avenues for pursuing purpose, such as getting into nursing school…” (p. 14). While Damon and Malin’s definitions differ, they share dimensions of meaningfulness, commitment, engagement with someone or something beyond oneself, and goal-driven action. In Catholic high school settings, purpose is called vocation, the belief that God calls each person to serve others uniquely. All Jesuit high schools are committed to developing vocation. It is written in each of their mission statements. Ideally, says King (2019), all Catholic high schools afford students rich ideological, social, and spiritual contexts. If well-designed, these contexts can positively contribute to students’ vocation development.
Fostering Purpose Abundance
Classrooms in “pressure-cooker” schools can be places of desolation for students. But they can also be hope-filled places where students take steps down their purpose path. Good teachers possess a host of “superpowers” for purpose development…
Not every Jesuit high school student partakes in immersion trips, retreat programs, or liturgical celebrations. But every student must attend class, their primary setting throughout high school. Classrooms in “pressure-cooker” schools can be places of desolation for students. But they can also be hope-filled places where students take steps down their purpose path. Good teachers possess a host of “superpowers” for purpose development, such as pedagogical skills; an understanding of the cognitive, social, and emotional processes that support student learning; and abilities to adapt to changing circumstances to enhance academic achievement (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). They help students to forecast their futures, critically examine the consequences of their actions, reflect and engage their empathic capacities, and draw connections between their learning and what is important to their lives (Bundick & Tirri, 2014; Damon, 2020).
A family of student-centered pedagogies is optimal for purpose development.
A family of student-centered pedagogies is optimal for purpose development. Brazilian researchers Ulisses Araújo et al. (2016) support “purposeful pedagogies” for PDSCL, namely project-based learning, problem-based learning, and design thinking:
These three methodologies, when applied to schools, give purpose to schoolwork and to individual students. They empower students and support the development of purpose in its moral, beyond-the-self dimension. Students become immersed in real-world situations, so purpose is contextualised and not an abstract concept. Students listen to the needs, desires, and necessities of others, so purpose becomes other-oriented. Students search for effective ways to make the world better through creative and innovative solutions, so purpose results in prosocial effects. These educational experiences support students to take an active role in constructing purposes based on moral values. (p. 5)
Araújo et al. believe “these learning methodologies bring coherence to values, goals, and meanings important to the person” (p. 4) and offer students opportunities to fuse their experiences into personal beacons for their futures (Araújo, 2012; Araújo & Arantes, 2014; Araújo et al., 2014).
In Teaching for Purpose (2018), Malin similarly advocates for “purposeful projects”—in other words, project-based learning. Purposeful projects are:
inquiry-driven and meaningful to students (they respond to and engage with students’ questions and interests, connecting their inner selves with the greater world)
sustained over time (to develop a sense of commitment that purpose requires)
involve reflection throughout the project process (pausing for meaning-making)
require collaboration and community building (to show students how to play a part in solutions to real-world problems, rather than being the solution)
elevate student’s social awareness of peoples’ experiences and events happening around the world
set high expectations for students
Combined, these ingredients make for a potent means for purpose development in the classroom.
Ignatian Pedagogy: Ever Ancient, Ever New
The first Jesuits were moved by their deep desire to share with the world the same spiritual transformation that shaped them into better Christians and more authentic human beings (Go & Atienza, 2019). Fast forward to the 20th century, the Characteristics of Jesuit Education (1986) and Ignatian Pedagogy: A Practical Approach (1993) produced versions of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP), a student-centered framework for learning that involves setting a context for the content to be learned, followed by an interrogation of experience, reflection, action, and evaluation (Traub, 2022; Go & Atienza, 2019). More recently, Fr. Johnny Go and Rita Atienza’s book Learning by Refraction: A Practitioner's Guide to 21st Century Ignatian Pedagogy (2019) presented a nuanced version of the IPP to more appropriately meet today’s challenges.
Yet, the question of what will ground and guide Jesuit high schools in complicated and unpredictable times ahead remains. In a 2015 interview, William Damon said:
Purpose is the pre-eminent long-term motivator of learning and achievement. Any school that fails to encourage purpose among its students risks becoming irrelevant to the choices those students will make in their lives. Schools that encourage purpose will see their students energized, diligent, and resilient in the face of challenges and obstacles. (Parker, n.p.)
…teachers and leaders at Jesuit high schools must consider the questions Pope Francis asked the Jesuits when celebrating the canonization of Peter Faber a decade ago: “Do we have great visions and desires? Are we risking anything? Are we flying high? Does zeal for the Lord consume us?...Or are we mediocre, content with repeating apostolic programs that don’t reach individuals or address their needs?”
It is certainly more convenient to continue implementing the traditional, teacher-centered practices that have garnered past success. However, the landscape is changing. In the face of an ongoing crisis in education (a teen mental health crisis, the rise of artificial intelligence, schools and classrooms becoming political battlegrounds, et cetera), teachers and leaders at Jesuit high schools must consider the questions Pope Francis asked the Jesuits when celebrating the canonization of Peter Faber a decade ago: “Do we have great visions and desires? Are we risking anything? Are we flying high? Does zeal for the Lord consume us?...Or are we mediocre, content with repeating apostolic programs that don’t reach individuals or address their needs?” (Glatz, 2014, n.p.). To not listen to the voices of our students, to not critically engage with the latest and top research, to not position the development of purpose as one of our primary pedagogical aims, and to dismiss the unassuming yet powerful IPP framework seems to leave the Jesuit educational mission to chance.
By integrating “purposeful pedagogies” with the principles and practices of the IPP framework in classrooms and beyond, Jesuit high schools can promote purpose underpinned by an Ignatian worldview— a new rigor. Nothing could be more important for the students attending Jesuit high schools, who each deserve to be afforded exactly what their school’s mission statements say they provide: abundant opportunities in classrooms and beyond to explore who God is calling them to be, opportunities to decide whether their life is a mere possession to be kept for themselves, or a gift that has been freely given to them and, therefore, meant to be given back to the world in spades.
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