Mary Ward - Vision

Holistic

Before their enforced closure, the many schools throughout England and Europe that Mary Ward and her companions established for girls were notable for their educational innovations.  The broad liberal education they offered was holistic in approach, emphasised the creative arts and respected intellectual rigour and breadth. 

Like the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Mary Ward subscribed to the humanist tradition of the Renaissance, premised on the belief that religious and moral inspiration could be found even in pagan authors.  She sought to form habits of reflection and discernment in making choices and ‘referring all things to God’.  There was an understanding that ‘the teaching under the teaching’ is important: sincere relationships were central to the learning and development of all in the school community.  The adults provided sound modelling, trying to influence their students more by their example than by their words.  They repeatedly inculcated in one another the importance of loving their students, of knowing them as individuals, of enjoying a respectful familiaritas with them.  Mary Ward also emphasised the need for deep joy, or ‘felicity’. 

Excellence & Justice

Mary Ward encouraged the pursuit of excellence, not in a competitive or perfectionist sense, but through doing one’s best and then relying on God to do the rest.  Also significant in her educational endeavours were a commitment to social justice, and adaptations of curriculum and structures to meet the needs of particular community circumstances.  Hence, she set up trade schools to enable girls from poor families to learn a means of earning their living in ways other than prostitution, and to encourage them to live a Christian and morally good life.  

Typical of Mary Ward’s system of education were the following attributes:

• Striving after the truth; and training in self-discipline so that all in the school would realise their duties towards God, others and themselves;
• The expectation of a high standard of bearing and behaviour from all students;
• Training in character together with religious formation, with no place for strictness or rigidity;
• Valuing the cooperation of parents in the work of education;
• Insistence on the appropriate qualifications of teachers;
• General culture as well as solid education
• The willingness to adapt methods, while retaining ideals.

In and For Society

Mary Ward strove to educate in and for society, not apart from it, and to educate young women ‘in the Christian virtues and liberal arts so that they may be able thereafter to undertake more fruitfully the secular and monastic life, according to the vocation of each’.  In her view, ‘education was an advantage not a danger’, and her emphasis on education as liberation resonated with the high value she placed on ‘freedom’.  Among parents and many authorities, Mary Ward’s schools had a reputation for excellence because of:

Mary Ward also accepted the challenge of change:  a faithful Catholic, she was nevertheless committed to genuine reform and renewal of the Church at all times.  Many followers of Mary Ward, the sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM), carried on her visionary work in the education of women and works of social justice across the centuries and across the world.  

IBVM sisters are also known in many parts of the world as Loreto sisters.  Many of these followers, especially Mary Gonzaga Barry, provide inspiration to the Loreto Normanhurst school community.