Ser Para Los Demas

"Ser Para Los Demas" (to be for others) is a sign posted in every classroom at Loyola, an elementary and middle school in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. As I walked around the school, and looked in the classrooms, I noticed the many classrooms didn't have the desks arranged in the traditional rows. Students were situated in groups of four, working together on various projects. I visited the arts classroom and there was a girl who had very little social control. She talked incessantly and demanded the teacher's attention. The students didn't seem to mind. They focused on their arts activity which was developing a passport to visit the country of their dreams (including designing and making their own rubber passport stamp).

Loyola's philosophy is based on that of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits. The Jesuits believe it is important to live with humility and to dedicate one's life to being for others. As I spent the day at this school I could see this philosophy in action. It reminded me of work I did in a Quaker school. We didn't have janitors to clean up for us, because it was our responsibility to take care of ourselves and each other. In the United States education system, there is always a stark divide between religion and education. Even in our education programs in universities, we study educational theorists and researchers, but rarely do we turn to religious institutions, and the schools that have grown out of their philosophy, to seek the solutions for how we might better educate our youth. Certainly we could use a little more "being for others" in both our public schools, and in the world in general.