A Great School
Sister, Teacher and Educator
On the 125th Anniversary
of the Death of
Karolina Maria Theresia Gerhardinger
Maria Canisia Engl, SSND
On 9 May 2004 it was 125 years ago
that Karolina, Maria Theresia of Jesus Gerhardinger, the founder of
the School Sisters of Notre Dame and quite probably the most
significant female teacher and educator of the 19th century, passed
away.
Despite her beatification (1985) and the erection of her bust in the
Walhalla (1998), however, she is relatively little known among the
German public; in our age characterized by its flood of information,
this fact simply underlines how little the historical significance
of people can be measured by the degree of coverage accorded to them
in the media. In truth, such a person’s significance consists much
more in the sustained effect that he or she has, and in the
spiritual strength with which that person influences events in the
world over and beyond the period of his or her own life. Indeed,
this holds true to a most remarkable extent for Maria Theresia
Gerhardinger.
The Relevance of
her Pedagogical Principles Today
Today, we may well consider ourselves at times caught
up in what seems like a jungle of different approaches to
educational reform, in which we have largely lost our sense of
orientation; in the church, we perhaps are grappling with the
contemporary spirituality of active life, with a deaconry fed upon
contemplation alone. In such situations, it is Maria Theresia
Gerhardinger, namely, who, if we take her life and her work as an
example, can show us ways of solving our crises, even after more
than a century: not in the sense that we should simply imitate or
copy her and her work, or that she might have passed down pat
solutions for us to apply, but in the sense that she can encourage
us to perceive the knowledge and means that we have at our disposal
today to tackle the problems of our times in a courageous, creative
and well-intentioned way.
Maria Theresia Gerhardinger herself never either
acted on the basis of such pat solutions, nor did she develop her
theories divorced from reality. Her strength lay in focusing
on things, situations and challenges in an unbiased way, analysing
them objectively, making decisions confidently and acting on her
insights, without allowing herself to be intimidated or led astray
by anyone, no matter whom.
Her Life and her
Vocation
When Karolina Gerhardinger was born
in Regensburg-Stadtamhof on 20 June 1797, the daughter of shipmaster
Willibald Gerhardinger and his wife Franziska, the world was in
turmoil. The period of her childhood, in fact the whole of her life
of nearly 82 years, was accompanied by myriad political, social and
religious uncertainties and transformations.
As they stood at the side of her cot, her parents
could never have begun to imagine how their only child would be
faced with so daunting a task one day, how significant she was to
become for countless people far beyond the borders of her mother
country and Europe. Indeed, Karolina herself would hardly have
considered herself as being at the outset of an outstanding or
auspicious career in her life when, in 1809, she consented to the
suggestion by the Dean of Regensburg Cathedral at that time and
later Bishop, Georg Michael Wittmann, that she be trained as a
teacher in order to be able to found a new, up-to-date convent
school when the time came. Very talented, and interested in a
wide range of subjects, she most certainly did not see herself
spending her future teaching in a tiny classroom. Yet, with
the very determination that was to characterize her throughout her
life, the twelve-year-old decided to plan out her life in a fashion
that, even if she had thought of it herself, she would never have
chosen.
We can only conjecture today on what it was that ultimately led her to take this
decision; nevertheless, what we do know for certain are the consequences and
fruits of that choice:
- the foundation of the very first modern,
international convent school congregation, active worldwide under
the independent leadership of a Mother Superior;
- the purposeful compilation of a set of pedagogical
principles for an industrialized society that were not only
up-to-date but also oriented far into the future;
- the provision of opportunities for girls and young
women from all strata of the population to enjoy an education as the
precondition for equal rights in social and political life.
From now on, for 70 years, Karolina stands by this decision of hers,
a decision that is to demand of her unspeakable endeavors and to
result in a good deal of underestimation, calumny and suffering.
She remains equally determined when her first two companions desert
her on the way to the founding ceremony. Nor does she give up when,
in 1834, after the death of her patrons and friends Wittmann and
Job, she, the unknown
little
teacher, destitute and deprived of influential supporters, finds
herself confronted almost exclusively with incomprehension and
opposition.
She remains faithful to the mission
entrusted to her by Wittmann, for it is in this that she recognizes
God’s will. Completely on her own – and this is where her
magnanimity becomes evident – she withstands all the hostility and
all the lack of appreciation, and continues along her chosen path:
now aged 36, she relinquishes the secure post as a teacher in the
service of the King of Bavaria and, burning all her bridges behind
her, abandons her stable bourgeois career. She takes her widowed
mother with her to the little convent in Neunburg vorm Wald, sells
her parents’ house in Stadtamhof and puts her entire fortune without
reservation into serving “God’s cause”, to which she now knows she
is committed.
Undaunted, astute and purposeful, she
undertakes arduous journeys to this purpose, turning courageously to
anyone she hopes can help her, firstly to King Ludwig I1
of Bavaria and his sister Caroline, Empress Caroline of Austria.
Later, she is to conduct negotiations in many different countries
with governments and bishops, and even with the Pope.
Throughout her whole life she does not allow anybody or anything to
deter her from always doing what she considers right and in the
interest of “God’s cause”.
'In 1847, now already 50, she sets off with five sisters to North
America, much to the disdain of the bishops of mostly English and
Irish descent, to actively combat the sorry state of education there
among the children of the German immigrants.
Shortly after her return, she is beset by what is probably to be the
hardest trial of her life: in the course of the conflict over the
constitution of the new religious order, the Archbishop of Munich,
Graf Reisach, demands that she place the newly founded convent
school completely under his jurisdiction. Maria Theresia
Gerhardinger considers herself in no position to be able to
contravene the explicit instructions of Wittmann, however: before he
died, he commissioned her to make the religious order directly
responsible to the Pope. Thereupon, the meeting takes a dramatic
turn in its development when the Archbishop temporarily dismisses
her from her office as Mother Superior and, in case she should not
immediately submit, threatens her with excommunication. Whereas the
sisters from the Motherhouse who are present at the meeting are so
desperate that they burst into tears, Maria Theresia Gerhardinger
kneels down before the Archbishop and, in a calm, subdued voice,
1
After their first encounter, he says of her: “This lady knows what
she wants, and what she wants is eminent and noble.”
says: “I shall submit to your Grace’s
jurisdiction, provided that this does not contradict the will of
God or my conscience.”2 Which woman could ever have
acted more courageously, more astutely, more determinedly or more
spiritually, especially in the 19th century?
“God’s
Cause”
If we want to
understand her pedagogical principles properly, to grasp in the
appropriate way just how effective her actions were, we have to
conceptualize this clarity, this strength of character, in short,
her confidence, which in turn was based on her unshakeable belief.
Karolina Maria Theresia Gerhardinger is not only a most accomplished
teacher and educator herself; she is also able to pass on her
enthusiasm for the teaching profession to others, and to train them
proficiently.
In 1853, twenty years after the
establishment of the first convent in Neunburg, there are as many as
346 sisters teaching approximately 17,000 pupils in the 70
institutions of the Congregation, not only in various German states,
but also in Bohemia, Austria and North America. When Maria
Theresia Gerhardinger dies in 1879, there are more than 3,000
sisters, and the number of children and youngsters being looked
after in schools and homes is to exceed 80,000.
Mother Theresia, as her sisters have been calling
her since the beginnings of the Congregation, thinks very little of instructions
or orders in education, and nothing at all of pressure or force; instead, she
prefers patient, empathetic affection and conviction.
She instils such conviction in others as to what is of paramount
importance in the life of a human being through her words, her deeds and her
life itself. Endowed with a keen, analytical intellect, far above-average
musical and creative abilities, and being
generous and open-hearted, she recognizes the problems of her times
and the misery of the people. To combat this, she does not develop
economic and social theories like her contemporaries Marx and
Engels, but works incessantly at using all the possibilities and
means at her disposal to overcome the poverty and distress in her
environment directly.
-
Hence, she founds homes for the
many orphans whose parents have become victims of the Industrial
Revolution.
-
She ensures that in her schools
the children receive at least a bowl of hot soup at lunchtime.
-
For girls who have left school
she sets up so-called “schools for industry” (the forerunners of
today’s vocational schools) to specifically prepare them for
making a living independently.
-
She alleviates the concern of
working parents for their children by founding a number of
nursery schools and day-care centers.
-
Realizing that the only way for
women to become independent and free is through education, she
establishes high schools for girls from all strata of society in
which, in addition to gaining a deeper knowledge of elementary
subjects, pupils are also taught several modern languages, music
and various forms of creative art, as well as “physical
education” (something that at that time was virtually a
revolution).
As early as 1839, only six years
after the founding of the Congregation, she opens the High School
for Girls in Amberg, the first institution of its kind - distrusted
by many, and in the face of opposition from within the convent and
from several inhabitants of Amberg.
Everything that Maria Theresia
Gerhardinger tackles is executed competently, comprehensively and
thoroughly. To enable her sisters to work well and efficiently, she
ensures that they receive comprehensive, well-qualified training.
Hence, in Munich she founds the first teacher training institution
for female teachers in Bavaria, sets up seminaries for training
needlework teachers and nursery school staff, and in the Motherhouse
in Munich runs her own publishing and printing center which provides
the curricula and textbooks that are necessary.
Mother Theresia’s pedagogical
ingenuity is especially manifested in the way in which she
recognizes and promotes gifted youngsters, how she leads her sisters
so that they can work independently, motivating them by the trust
she places in them to give their best, and how, following the
Biblical parable, she cultivates the talents of her sisters to bring
them to fruition for the benefit of the pupils’ education.
It is from her absolute lack of
selfishness, the essential feature of her character and the one that
sets her apart from others, that she derives her great personal
confidence and her unusual strength, which in turn enables her to
make distinctions and reach decisions.
Before she takes a decision, she
never wonders about the possible consequences for herself. When
executing a plan, she never has her eye on success or appreciation,
nor does she shun conflict, incomprehension or rejection; instead,
she focuses her attention on “God’s cause” alone, the mission she
has set out to accomplish. Thus, she is always absolutely free and
independent of all possible (also “pious”) prejudices or ideological
tensions. In the same way, her point of view is clear and unerring
at all times, enabling her to perceive the core of a problem
immediately.
Only her freedom, stemming from her
selflessness, can explain the remarkable, unswerving ability she
possesses to master a situation, amidst the diverse cases of
resistance, underestimation and misinterpretation of her actions,
amidst all the threats and hostility; it is this ability that
enables her to remain constantly faithful to her inner insights and
to the decision her conscience has had her take.
2
Immediately after the occurrence, she sends Sister Maria Margarita
Wiedemann, who is later to succeed her as Mother Superior, to Rome
to secure permission for the Congregation’s regulations at the Holy
See.
Her Educational
Concept
Let us remember this great teacher
and educator who, with her concept of the holistic training of young
women to become independent, mature and responsible members of
society, was way ahead of her time; hence, together with her
sisters, she paved the way for the modern education of women. Let
us remember that it was this great school sister who established
institutions of which the significance for educational and social
history in the 19th and 20th centuries we have
not been able to appreciate in full until today. These memories,
indeed, prompt us to pose the following question:
How would
Maria Theresia Gerhardinger have judged the school reforms being
initiated at present?
This question can be answered
relatively quickly and clearly when we consider the motive behind
her actions and the objectives underpinning the outline of her
educational and training concept:
-
For Maria Theresia
Gerhardinger the young person alone is the focus of all
pedagogical efforts, that is, both as a creature and an image of
God. A school for her is a room in which there is life, where
education and training, inseparably intertwined with one
another, serve solely to promote the holistic development of the
young person towards independence, personal freedom and
responsibility.
For this reason, being vigilant, she
would recognize and resolutely reject any attempt to exploit a
person for a particular purpose or to instrumentalize a school for
vested ideological or economic interests.
-
Maria Theresia Gerhardinger’s
educational concept was not developed in a purely theoretical
way, divorced from reality, but within the classroom context
itself, and not only in her own lessons but also in those held
by her sisters. She did not pass down her concept in the form
of instructions from above, but conceived it together with
others, assumed responsibility for it together with others, and
constantly worked at reforming it, i.e. improving it.
Her pedagogical principles were
designed to serve the lives of people, which is why she makes paying
direct attention to pupils and showing them affection the
preconditions she deems absolutely necessary. However, lest the
pedagogical work be left to chance, lest it be destroyed by the
vested interests of the teachers or by arbitrariness, Maria Theresia
Gerhardinger insists on having something much more important than
theories, instructions and orders: she insists that teaching be
governed by a very high degree of pedagogical ethos, which she sees
based in the responsibility of the educator to God.
-
Mother Theresia Gerhardinger
never takes time to systematically present her educational and
training concept in such a way that it can be passed on in
written form to future generations. What is far more effective,
sustainable in the truest sense of the word, is how she
transmits that concept to her sisters as a living entity. She
does not commit her teachers to binding teaching guidelines or
to a ready-formulated educational methodology; instead, she
teaches the sisters that the efforts they invest in their
teaching and educational work can only be successful, can only
come to fruition, if they first “win over the hearts of the
children”. In so doing, she clearly underlines how, in the
whole process of education and training, the human-based
principle is the only one, the inalienably valid one.
For this reason, nowhere near so
important a role should be accorded to either economic,
socio-political or ideological interests.
“Winning over
their hearts”
This short, yet undoubtedly
sophisticated slogan aims at the essential; at the same time, it is
the formula for an educational concept that has in the meantime been
valid and withstood the test of time for a period of more than 150
years. Were this formula to be taken as the decisive
leitmotif for school reform nowadays, not only could
superfluous arguments be avoided, but also fatal and misguided
adventures. It would form the basis, not only for objectives
to be set in cooperation with others, but also for the realization
that those who represent educational policy, as well as those in the
bureaucratic system of a ministry who handle its teachers, must
proceed according to the very same principle if a sustained reform
of the school system is both to be set in motion and enabled to
maintain that motion of its own accord.
Would it not be the case that school
reforms conducted in keeping with this very same guiding principle would be
ideally suited to establishing a school that is at one and the same time a
friendly environment in which to learn and teach, and an environment that is
worthy of the people who are actively involved in it?
Sources:
Bavarian State Archives
in Munich and Amberg; Diocesan Archives in Regensburg and Munich;
Archive of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Munich
Maria
Theresia von Jesu Gerhardinger, Briefe, 13 Bände, Selbstverlag des
Mutterhauses
[Maria Theresia of Jesus Gerhardinger, Letters, 13 volumes,
published by the Motherhouse], Munich 1979
Bibliography:
Maria
Liobgid Ziegler, Die Armen Schulschwestern v. U.L.Frau, Ein Beitrag
zur bayerischen Bildungs-geschichte [The School Sisters of Notre
Dame, A Contribution to Bavarian Educational History], Munich 1935
Maria
Liobgid Ziegler, Mutter Theresia von Jesu Gerhardinger. Ihr Leben
und ihr Werk
[Mother Theresia of Jesus Gerhardinger. Her Life and Work], Munich
1950
Maria Liobgid Ziegler, Karolina Gerhardinger (1797-1879), in J.
Aretz / R. Morsey / A. Rauscher (Hrsg.), Zeitgeschichte in
Lebensbildern [Karolina Gerhardinger (1797-1879), in J. Aretz / R.
Morsey / A. Rauscher (eds.), Contemporary History in Biographies],
Mainz 1982, pp. 25-40
Maria Theresia von Jesu Gerhardinger, Vertrauen und Wagen, Worte in
den Tag [Maria Theresia of Jesus Gerhardinger, Trusting and Daring,
Words to Start the Day With], Regensburg 1985
___________________________________________________________________________
Translated by Philip Wade
English version for
printing |