What’s the secret to teaching students how to blend spirituality and everyday life? At the 2024 Wunderly Lecture, Jennifer Haraguchi said 16th-century Italian girls’ schools might have the answer.
How does a school effectively provide a spiritually-integrated education?
This may be a familiar question for BYU students and faculty, but they aren’t the first to wrestle with it. BYU’s mission to honor our dual heritage echoes the goals of religious schools founded centuries ago, including Italy’s first public schools for girls in the 1500s. They too dealt with the question of how to effectively teach spiritual principles to their students. At this year’s Frieda Olga Wunderly Lecture on October 17, 2024, Associate Professor Jennifer Haraguchi (Women’s Education in Early Modern Italy) shared the most effective principles for teaching she’s learned from her research into these schools.
The Mixed Life
One of the main takeaways from Haraguchi’s research had to do with what the Italians called la vita mista, or “the mixed life”—a style of religious living that enabled people to combine the monk-like contemplative life with the community-oriented active life. In the 16th century, the mixed life saw an ideological revival, one that was particularly relevant to girls’ education. Prior to the establishment of public girls’ schools (or “lay schools”), parents traditionally sent their girls to cloistered convents to receive formal education. There, the girls studied in complete isolation from the outside world, shut away until they were old enough to marry. However, Haraguchi explained that by the 16th century, this kind of education had become prohibitively expensive. Lay schools solved the problem: rather than requiring girls to pick between quiet, cloistered study or dynamic service to community needs, lay schools gave women the freedom to reap the benefits of both.
“These schools for girls were attempting to find some kind of balance in spirituality and living in the world.”
Of course, not everyone agreed with these schools. But amidst both pushback from the public and administrative overreach from the Catholic Church, female teachers in the lay schools spoke up for the new form of education. Haraguchi shared a 1610 dialogue where a teacher defended lay schools by saying that Jesus Christ Himself sent saints out into the world to do good. This teacher explained that the contemplative life could be combined with the active life to do the most good for the most girls, guiding them—and their teachers—on the path to Christian perfection. “These schools for girls were attempting to find some kind of balance in spirituality and living in the world,” Haraguchi explained. “They knew it was best . . . to engage with the world in all its messiness.”
Teaching with Grace and Respect
When it comes to the practicalities of actually teaching that kind of life, Haraguchi has learned a lot from the methods of Eleonora Ramirez di Montalvo. Montalvo founded a lay school after she lost the chance to become a nun when her mother forced her to marry, and, likely as a result, the curriculum she taught made free choice a core value. Haraguchi said, “In her instructions to teachers, [Montalvo] says, ‘Let the girls decide. Let them choose their path at age 15, whether they marry, become a nun, or stay in this congregation as a teacher.’”
Also critical to Montalvo’s teaching approach: encouragement and persuasion instead of the strict obedience that convents typically required. Haraguchi translated a few of Montalvo’s instructions to teachers: “Do not use words or methods that are disparaging. Treat them in appropriate ways for their level with discretion and prudence, and they will respect you more seeing that you are wise and virtuous than they would perceiving you as strict and severe.” Haraguchi has found this approach very effective in her own teaching as she’s drawn on the scripture D&C 121:41, which states that no power or influence can or should be maintained unless it comes by persuasion, long-suffering, meekness, and love unfeigned. She said, “I can only offer material or experiences and encourage students to apply themselves. . . . It’s up to [students] to choose what to make of it.”
Lessons for the Present
Remember free agency, persuasion, encouragement, compassion, and empathy.
So what can we learn for teaching at our own dual-heritage institution? Haraguchi said, “In our own moment where we’re witnessing certain crises of faith and concerns about institutional overreach, I think we would do well to remember the following principles of Montalvo schools: free agency, persuasion, encouragement, compassion, and empathy.” She shared that within her own teaching, she’s found it necessary to let go of her need to control the outcome. Success for her students may be something completely different than doing well on an assignment; they may learn the biggest lessons from living with people different from them or learning to talk with others about how their studies and religious life intersect. “True learning and growth, whether spiritual or secular, happens for students on their own terms,” Haraguchi said. “In my 12 years at BYU, I’ve found that students learn so much more when they are in charge of their own learning.”