The Montessori School of Dentistry
November 23, 2009, 7:56 am
Posted by Cathleen Kaveny
One of the major tasks of professional education of all sorts is to help students see that their education is no longer “all about them.” It never was, of course–but professional school education has a more immediate -connection to the well-being of vulnerable people, whom the students will be responsible for in a few short years. It’s hard to make that point with law school– it’s still school, it’s only words.
But think about what dental education would look like if it were only about enriching the minds and spirits of the dental students. The Onion rarely disappoints.
(BTW: I know this is not fair to Montessori–which never meant to control professional training).
This reminds me of Prof. Kaveny’s remarks about graduation from (several?) years ago in Commonweal, where the same point – about the education “no longer being about you” – was made. It’s a great point, and something of an ice bath for students of my age when they most need it (even theology students have this problem!).
It also seems to be something that coheres nicely with the tradition of service in the Catholic Church – one’s education is meant to help serve others. I suppose one could say this is even something of a distinct focus for Catholic schools, at least ideally.
Are there any statistics, I wonder, to suggest that graduates of Catholic colleges, with their traditions of service, are less likely to migrate like lemmings to high paying jobs in the financial sector (if any such remain) than their colleagues from secular institutions? Or are more likely to go into the Peace Corps or Teach for America, or take part in other such pro bono activities? It would be heartening to know if such exists.
A second, unrelated point, in the Tu quoque category: Prof. Kaveny, some weeks ago you asked us to refrain from posting pictures of great hairy spiders because of your irrational fear of such beasts. Might you to refrain from posting pictures of blood-spattered dentists for those of us with a different kind of irrational fear? (I am all for the Onion, but there are limits).
Nicholas–
I would also like to know if there are any such statistics. I’m a statistic of one, if that isn’t a contradiction in terms…Jesuit college and the Peace Corps. Certainly my Catholic education played at least some role in my decision to give the Peace Corps a try. And while neither of my children has (yet) joined the Peace Corps, one is considering the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and the other has worked in health care for NGOs in Romania and Brazil. I like to think their Catholic educations have influenced their service choices.
One correction…The Peace Corps isn’t technically pro bono. I made the princely sum of U.S. $150 per month. That was quite a bit of money for a guy stationed on an isolated island in the South Pacific with no place to spend the money. :)
My extended contact with liberal arts majors at a Catholic college is that service jobs after graduation are highly desirable to them. At least a third of the students I work with name service position as their immediate after-graduation plans.
They also tend to be very zealous about volunteering while in school — sometimes so much so that it’s difficult to get them to spend time on their classes.
I can’t say if any of this applies to non-liberal arts majors though. It might be the major, and not the Catholicism, that’s driving them.
Tulane University here has long led the nation’s colleges in the proportion of students doing community volunteer work, even before Katrina. Post Katrina the number of applications of kids wanting to help is even greater. It is not a religioous school, and when I was there 58 (aargh!) years ago there was no such tradition. So it’s something relatively new.
I have no idea why it happened. The proportion of very well-to-do and rich kids there is even greater now than when I was there. I must say that when I was there the rich kids, at least the ones in my college (Newcomb, the girls college) did not seem to lack social consciences. In fact there was a spirit of noblesse oblige – they new they were lucky and had responsibilities to the community. In those days it was usual for our mother’s to do vollunteer work. Maybe there was just no organized way for kids to volunteer.
Some of the heightened current interest in public interest jobs is no doubt driven by the economy–NPR reported today, for example, that TFA is getting 7 applications for every available teaching position–but one hopes that once bitten by the service bug, a significant percentage of those lucky enough to find public interest work will make it a career. ND, for example, has a great program that I believe has been mentioned before on this blog. In return for a commitment to teach in underserved Catholic schools for two years, a participant in the school’s ACE program can attend ND gratis for a masters degree in education. Whoever came up with that win-win idea was thinking way outside the box.
Just thinking of all the people I went to high school or college with who ended up working for non-profits and the like, the one thing they have in common is that they come from upper class families. I would think being able to rely on that financial support allows them to take jobs that often pay lower wages. Generally their fathers “migrated like lemmings” to jobs in the financial sector.
Aeodatus –
When I taught in a predominantly black school in the 60s many of the students were so very poor there was no way they could have joined the Peace Corps on graduation. Many felt the need to help their own families or to build up some financial reserve for bad times. It takes money to make money, but, as you point out, it also also takes money, at least in the backgrpund, to help others.