DUMFRIES JOHN PAUL THE GREAT CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

Tackling the ‘why?’
Curriculum to use philosophical approach in teaching bioethics

By GRETCHEN R. CROWE
Catholic Herald Staff Writer

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For the next eight months, Nashville Dominican Sister Terese Auer knows she has her work cut out for her.
As the August opening of John Paul the Great Catholic High School creeps closer, Sister Terese, chair of the bioethics department, is responsible for developing the school’s unique bioethics curriculum.
“We owe it to our young people to provide them with tools which can assist them in bridging the gap between today’s science and our Church’s ethical teaching,” the Dominican sister said in a recent interview.
To do this, Sister Terese has been relying heavily on her educational background in philosophy — the subject that she said must be at the heart of fully understanding Church teaching on bioethical issues and beyond.
“It’s not enough to say the Bible says ‘no,’ it’s not enough to say the Church says ‘no,’ it’s not enough for mom and dad to simply say ‘no,’” Sister Terese said. “What we intend to show is the ‘why’ of it.”
The bioethics classes
This “why” will be explored through five bioethical courses: the dignity of the human person; health: an ethical approach; the principles of ethics; and bioethical issues at the beginning and end of life.
In the dignity of the human person, freshmen will focus on “why Catholics say that man is a being of such dignity,” Sister Terese said.
“We’ll be looking at ‘what do we mean by terms like body and soul, the powers of the soul, what do we mean by man’s ability to think, his intellect, and ability to love, his free will?’” she said.
A Virginia-mandated health class will be offered to freshmen and sophomores with a bioethical twist.
“We’d like to take the topics that would normally occur in any health course that the student would get in the state of Virginia, but add an ethical dimension,” Sister Terese said. “The human person is more than just a body, and he’s more than just a psyche, he’s a whole package deal.”
And through the principles of ethics course, sophomores will focus on how to judge acts as good or bad.
“It’s laying the groundwork, not just for bioethical issues, but for any kind of judgment of what’s right and wrong,” Sister Terese said.
In order to make that distinction, students will focus on questions of conscience, freedom and what constitutes happiness.
“Getting happiness straight is important because what you judge to be good or evil is going to depend on what you understand happiness to be,” Sister Terese said. “Good is what’s going to make you truly happy in the long run.”
As upperclassmen, the students will study bioethical issues in a more specific way. Juniors will study issues at the beginning of life: abortion, contraception, fertility, artificial reproduction and stem-cell research. Seniors will study issues at the end of life: euthanasia, brain death and ordinary/extraordinary care (feeding tubes, etc.).
Course integration
Sister Terese made it clear that topics discussed in the bioethics classes will not be isolated to those particular classrooms. Ethical principles can be taught in most courses, she said, including history, literature and science.
“The integration goes on all the way though,” she said. “It’s not science divorced from faith or divorced from ethics, it’s always ethics brought in. We don’t leave the ethics with the bioethical (classes). It’s part and parcel of everything.”
That aspect is key, said Dr. Timothy McNiff, superintendent of diocesan schools. Intertwining bioethics among all the classes will enable students to knowledgeably have a conversation about morality and ethics no matter what the subject, he said — something many adult Catholics today are not able to do.
“Let’s instill in them a confidence and a skill set where when they’re confronted with bioethical issues, they won’t be bashful about engaging in the science discussion,” he said. “They’ll know ‘I’ve got to find out where my Church is and bring (it) into my thought process before I render my own decisions.’”
Having this bioethics “toolbox” will give students the understanding and ability to change the political landscape of the future, he said.
The person first
In addition to using their education to shape the future, students at John Paul the Great, along with their teachers, will be expected always to put the dignity of the human person first.
“We want it to permeate everything: the way faculty members treat students, the way faculty members treat each other,” Sister Terese said. “There should be a real feeling of ‘wow, everyone’s important here.’ You’re not more valuable because you’re the principal or less because you’re a janitor. Every human being is valuable.”
The hiring of faculty who back these visions is critical, she said. “We want a united front, we want the integration. We don’t want the mixed message. We want the truth in its fullness and its beauty.”
But will the students want it too?
“My guess would be that they would love it,” Sister Terese said. “I’ve always found receptivity to the truth if it’s presented in a loving manner.”
A challenge: resources
In addition to standard classes, Advanced Placement classes will be offered, as well as those for students with special needs.
Finding resources to fit all those aspects of the curriculum is a challenge, Sister Terese said. Pope John Paul’s Theology of the Body, arranged for high school level, will be used throughout the four years, and Sister Terese said she had resources from the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia and the Linacre Center in London. Some material, however, still must be developed.
“We’ve got to clear the way,” she said. “We’ve got to find the resources, the textbooks, the materials, and materials are not abundantly available. We’re trusting that God will provide day by day.”
The future of Catholic education
If all goes well, the bioethics curriculum at John Paul the Great will be a prototype for all diocesan high schools, said McNiff.
“We’d like to have all of our high schools adopt this program,” he said. “It may not be verbatim because every high school has its own culture, but we really think they’re going to want to do it.”
That’s a big job though, requiring a lot of thought about space, staff, budgets — the whole nine yards — and McNiff said it won’t happen overnight.
But that’s the future. Right now the focus is on the new high school and the man who inspired the name.
“John Paul spent his life bringing the good news of Jesus Christ into the lives, the hearts of people,” Sister Terese said. “That’s what this school, named after John Paul, wants to do.”
Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.

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