Catholic Education and Assimilation–Abstract of presentation to be made on November 8
Al Gini LUC Quinlan School of Business
I remember my very first day of school in 1949. There were exactly sixty of us in Sister Edna’s class. We were a classroom of first and second-generation immigrant kids. We were petrified of St. Edna and, looking back on it now, she was probably even more afraid of us. Sister Edna had a three point pedagogical strategy: organization, discipline and absolute obedience. Talking was never allowed. Pushing, shoving of any kind was forbidden. Every day we did the Baltimore Catechism, math tables, spelling, and, of course, one full hour of the Palmer Method of Cursive Writing! St. Edna’s goals were clear: Catholicism, Literacy, and Assimilation. And achieve these goals, she did!
Short Biography
Al Gini is a Professor of Business Ethics and Chair of the Department of Management in the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago. He is also the co-founder and long-time Associate Editor of Business Ethics Quarterly, the journal of the Society for Business Ethics. For over twenty-six years he has been the Resident Philosopher on National Public Radio’s Chicago affiliate, WBEZ- FM, and he regularly lectures to community and professional organizations on issues of business and ethics. His books include: My Job My Self: Work and the Creation of the Modern Individual (Routledge, 2000); The Importance of Being Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure and Vacations (Routledge, 2003); Why It’s Hard to Be Good (Routledge, 2006); Seeking The Truth of Things (ACTA, 2010); The Ethics of Business with Alexei Marcoux (Rowan & Littlefield, 2012); 10 Virtues of Outstanding Leaders with Ronald M. Green (Wiley & Blackwell, 2013).
Loyola University Chicago 820 N. Michigan Ave.
432 Maguire Hall Chicago, IL 60611
Residence: 708.488.1480 School: 312.915.6093 E-mail: agini@luc.edu