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Boston College colleagues Cristiano Casalini and Fr. Claude Pavur, SJ, a member of the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province, have collaborated on a new translation of a classic book on the art of teaching. Joseph de Jouvancy’s The Way to Learn and the Way to Teach is available now through the Institute of Jesuit Sources, based at Boston College.

“This classic work by Fr. Joseph de Jouvancy, SJ, was originally published in 1703, but it offers valuable advice for contemporary educators who want to be not just trainers but real shapers of the next generation,” Fr. Pavur said. “Beyond his practical and strategic counsels, Jouvancy offers an inspiring vision of the teaching profession at its best.”

Joseph de Jouvancy, SJ, (1643–1719) was a classical humanist known for his plays, biographies, histories, orations and, especially, for his influential book De discendi et docendi ratione (The Way to Learn and the Way to Teach, 1703). In this work, Jouvancy details the essentials of good teaching, and he describes how young instructors might effectively pursue their own studies during their years of teaching.

Authors Cristiano Casalini and Claude Pavur, SJ

The Society of Jesus found Jouvancy’s work so important that it was made a companion piece to the great charter of Jesuit education known as the Ratio studiorum.

“There is much edification in the vision and inspiration of a true educator who understands the real worth of a teacher’s calling. Young teachers will discover here invaluable experience-based practical advice and prompts (from the humble to the lofty) for thinking through the habits and attitudes and practices that will both help them succeed in the classroom and raise their employment to the level of a great vocation, one that is critical for the spiritual, emotional, cultural, and intellectual maturity of their young charges.” – from the Introduction to The Way to Learn and the Way to Teach.

Cristiano Casalini is an associate professor and endowed chair in Jesuit pedagogy and educational history at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development and a research scholar with the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College (IAJS). Father Pavur is an associate editor at IAJS. Their volume has been published by the Institute of Jesuit Sources, which is housed at the IAJS.