Habits of Heart and Mind

Training in Wisdom and virtue

The fundamental educational goal for our students, more basic than literacy or numeracy, is the cultivation of a teachable disposition ordered towards growth in wisdom and virtue. This disposition depends on the formation of habits, beginning with attentiveness, respect, and obedience. The words cultivation and habits are essential. Like the fruit-bearing plants we cultivate in the garden, children are innately capable of growing in wisdom and virtue. Their studies will remain unfruitful, however, unless cultivated by careful and attentive teachers. Growth is not the result of one discussion, correction, or good choice. Rather, we experience moral growth, just as we experience growth in learning or artistic skill, through practice, correction, and effort over time. Gradually, good practice becomes a good habit and, through prayer and commitment, becomes maturity. This is why routines and procedures are critical for student learning: they provide regular and consistent ways for students to acquire the habits of heart and mind that are essential to growth in wisdom and virtue.