Within the Jesuit tradition, there is a concept, “cura personalis,” which means to care for the whole person. When applied to education, this principle seeks to promote the personal development of the whole person, mentally, but also physically, ethically, and, yes, spiritually.
I find this idea of educating the whole person inspiring. In my view, a college education shouldn’t just cultivate students’ cognitive, analytic, and problem-solving abilities or expand their content knowledge or merely instill the cultural literacies that we associate with a rich liberal arts education. It should nurture their development across every dimension: emotional, ethical, physical, and social.
