Fr. John Moore SJ, was one of the first 6 Australian Jesuits to come to Hazaribag in February 1951. He was studying Hindi in Ranchi when suddenly in September 1951 he got a letter from his Ranchi Province Superior to start an English medium school in Hazaribag in January 1952. And there was no close by model as Ranchi Province was not running any English medium school! And yet on 28th January, 1952, St. Xavier’s School, Hazaribag opened with 22 boarders and 15 day scholars. “Education and Educational Philosophy” is a compilation of the writings, letters, speeches of Fr. John Moore done by a small group of alumni who studied under him in St. Xavier’s Hazaribag.
The book has an introduction – telling the life story of Fr. Moore and his starting from scratch two English medium schools, first St. Xavier’s Hazaribag and later St. Xavier’s Bokaro Steel City, the first co-educational Jesuit school in India. Then follows the major section of the book. This covers “The Spirit of Our Schools” including a manifesto of the ideals of a Jesuit school, “Spirituality and Education” with a description on how to nurture a common spiritual awareness in a pluralist school community, and “The Meaning of Being an Educator” describing teachers as the sowers of God’s Word.
This book should be of interest to all Jesuit educators, enabling them to compare what John Moore believed to be a true Jesuit school, with how they see the mission of a Jesuit school today.
Bob Slattery, SJ
TITLE: Education and Educational Philosophy
AUTHOR: John Moore, SJ
PUBLISHER: Jesuit Provincialate, Hazaribag.
PAGES: 272
PRICE: Rs. 350/-
