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In the simple setting of St. Charles, Missouri, U.S.A., seventy-five participants gathered for the third international meeting of Directors of Sacred Heart Schools. We came from every continent, from rural and urban settings and from large and small schools. During the four days of the conference we entered fully into the theme: “Collaboration for a Transformed World: One Heart – One World.”
Beautiful prayer each day, shared with the Academy school community one day and with the RSCJ of the St. Louis/St. Charles Area and their friends and associates another, grounded and inspired us. Carefully prepared, these times were a significant element of the conference. Being on Philippine Duchesne’s “holy ground” helped us experience her faith and courage in a new way and brought her very close to us.
Patricia García de Quevedo, RSCJ
Presentations were diverse and each was a jewel. Patricia García de Quevedo, RSCJ situated us in the first Chapter 2000 call – an education that transforms – and plumbed its richness. Participants in very mixed table groupings, shared with each other their own experiences of transformed and what this call means to them. Wonderful stories were told and we began to know one another.
Click here to view talk
A panel of participants from different parts of the world related to the whole conference what had transpired among them since the last worldwide Conference of Directors in Sydney in 2002 – some having attended north-south regional gatherings (Africa-Europe and Asia-Australasia) and others working within their own continents. These same regional groupings worked together in the final days of this conference to develop new and existing collaborative efforts for the next four years. All three regions are committed to holding future continental and/or regional conferences of directors over the next four years because we have found that our vision broadens considerably in gatherings such as this and new initiatives can be born that greatly benefit our schools.
Joan Kirby and Cecile Meijer, both RSCJ
Joan Kirby and Cecile Meijer, both RSCJ representing NGO members of the United Nations, gave a full and challenging presentation about what their work at the UN is all about and about how important it is that we be actively committed to the Millennium Development Goals. The message of hope was so powerful, and we realized what influence we can have through all the people with whom we collaborate if we join together in supportive action of the MDG’s. This commitment was strengthened and made more concrete in our regional planning which followed.
Our vision as educators and leaders in a “global village” was stretched further in an excellent presentation about
Patrick Bassett, President of the National Association of Independent Schools
“Right-Brained Future: Creating 21st Century Schools,” given by Patrick Bassett, President of the National Association of Independent Schools in the U.S.A. “What curriculum will prepare students for the 21st Century? What skills and values will be required?” He incorporated extensive research into his presentation, and participants resonated with all that they heard. Mr. Bassett presented a program NAIS has developed to promote the education of global citizens entitled “Challenge 20/20.” It pairs schools in the United States with schools in other countries. Each two- or three-school team takes on one of 20 global problems described in Jean-Francois Rischard’s book High Noon: Twenty Global Problems, Twenty Years to Solve Them.
Click here to view Pat Bassett's powerpoint
Along the same line, our school in Mexico City invited all the schools to take part in “Papalotzin,” an international program for Sacred Heart Schools which they have developed. In Papalotzin, schools are invited to share opportunities with one another in the areas of student academics, exchange and faculty/staff programs. The Sacred Heart School of Mexico will provide and maintain the electronic platform for this service to the schools worldwide under the direction of Isabel Villanueva (isabel@sagradocorazonmexico,edu.mx ) The objective of this initiative echoes the goals of this international gathering of directors of Sacred Heart Schools: to fulfill St. Madeleine Sophie’s wish to experience international communion and to find ways to share the richness of the international family of the Society of the Sacred Heart.
The final session was a sharing among participants of what they will be taking back to their schools: personal contacts and collaborative projects that were born and nurtured, a far stronger sense of Philippine Duchesne – the woman, the educator and her spirit of mission, from the most southern to the most northern tip of the Americas a sign of hope that we can live together and transform the world together (like the meeting of Philippine Duchesne and Anna de Rousier to expand the mission of the Sacred Heart,) happiness with so many lay collaborators taking up the mission of Sts. Madeleine Sophie and Philippine Duchesne in a common spirituality, a plan to share with our alumnae what is happening here, open hearts, new understanding “I came – I saw – I understood, and in this world torn apart, there are still men and women who think about a unified world,” a sense that this is the second life of St. Madeleine Sophie! . . . and much more . . .
There was unanimous delight and acceptance of the offer of Taiwan to host the next worldwide conference in October 2011.
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