Our Innovation Curriculum and Philosophy is part of our greater school effort to build in our students a critical consciousness and a social awareness that impels our students to action.

For centuries, Sacred Heart Educators have fostered in our students the virtues of leadership, resilience, perseverance, collaboration, creativity, empathy, and critical thinking so they will have the skills and capacities to be trailblazers—agents of change in their own lives, community, and world. Our capacities and avenues for innovation have changed dramatically over the last decade, leading us to make exciting new developments to this aspect of our program. Every 15 years, the Conference of Sacred Heart Education—in the spirit of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat’s call that “times change and we must change with them”—undergoes a re-visioning of the Goals and Criteria in light of the needs of the times and students. In the most recent re-visioning process, in 2020, the word “innovation” appears for the first time in the Criteria of Goal II, a deep respect for intellectual values. Criterion 5 states that “curricular and co-curricular programs integrate innovation and collaboration, critical thinking and problem-solving, the exploration of emerging technologies, and critical evaluation of information.”

Flowing from the new version of the Goals and Criteria, the Conference of Sacred Heart Education created a new “Profile of a Sacred Heart Graduate.” This portrait of a Sacred Heart learner describes the skills, attitudes, and emerging attributes nurtured in Sacred Heart students, such as being purposeful, authentic, knowledgeable, inquisitive, analytical, creative, discerning, and empathetic. From this criterion and in the context of the entirety of the Goals and Criteria and the Profile of a Sacred Heart Graduate, Stone Ridge has undertaken a re-visioning process of its EdTech and Innovation program.

Specifically, innovation in our current context is the application of new ideas and technologies that seek to incrementally transform designed objects and systems in the world. It is grounded in experiences of collaboration, which encourage empathetic listening and openness to co-creation, feedback, reciprocity, and solidarity. In practice, innovation focuses on process over prototypes and results, and cultivates a sense of craft that becomes meaningful and reflective. Innovation includes experiences of incremental progress, learning from mistakes, failure, and a lack of closure.

At Stone Ridge, our Innovation Curriculum and Philosophy is part of our greater school effort to build in our students a critical consciousness and a social awareness that impels our students to action. We point our students toward real-world impact that fosters justice and peace, with special care for the most vulnerable and the integrity of creation. We aim to nurture in our students a sensitivity to the designed and malleable nature of the systems and objects in the world that either support or undermine the integrity of creation and the common good. As designers, we encourage students to stay candid and human-centered to guide their designs forward with Sacred Heart values in mind.

Stone Ridge provides an innovation toolkit that prepares girls and young women to develop adaptability, collaborative problem-solving, and creativity as they enter a technology landscape and a world that is changing.

The practice of continuing to imagine objects and systems as more effective, beautiful, and just, builds the muscles of hope and vision, affirming for students that they can explore new solutions to all kinds of problems and that they have the capacity to make these visions concrete. Students are encouraged to engage in processes of innovation that cultivate collaborative discovery and empathy. We encourage a “hacker ethos” that prioritizes the hands-on, experiential, and critical nature of seeking understanding. Across the curriculum and in every classroom, we provide an innovation toolkit that prepares girls and young women to develop adaptability, collaborative problem-solving, and creativity as they enter a technology landscape and a world that is changing. Finally, we help our students reflect on and celebrate the relationship between creativity and beautiful struggle, often leading to unanticipated and transformative results.

Innovation and a Transformative Foundation

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat founded the Society of the Sacred Heart amid societal upheaval following the French Revolution. Her vision was to form a community of women who would bring the love of Christ to the world through education and transform the world through that love. Sophie had an education far exceeding what most women of her time received. Perhaps it was because of this extraordinary formation that she was open to and even encouraged innovation in education. In a circular letter to her sisters, she urged them to “not be blind to the fact that in these times of activity in which we live, demands are made upon us and obstacles rise so that certain modifications and a certain perfectioning become indispensable.” She was concerned that the Society’s schools might become too entrenched in particular practices, leading them to fall behind. On the other hand, she did not want to lose the Society’s commitment to its mission, saying, “God forbid that we should wish to compromise with duty and sacrifice our principal end to these tendencies [in education], but we must again examine what we can accord and review our Plan of Studies to modify and complete it.” She was steadfast in her commitment to the Society’s “principal end,” but also open to new ways of thinking and teaching that would help the schools to fulfill that mission.

Key to fulfilling this mission depends on coming to a deeper understanding of the attitudes and preferences of the pierced heart of Christ through contemplation and reflection. Where in our world is Christ’s love most needed? How do we educate our students to recognize and attend to this suffering? We ask these questions in all aspects of our curriculum, including our Educational Technology and Innovation Program. In the heart of Jesus, we see the attitudes we seek to build in our students through innovation: empathy, generosity, an orientation to justice, solidarity, collaboration, creativity, and hope. Remembering that Jesus of Nazareth himself was a maker both literal and figurative—a carpenter, a craftsman, an artisan, and a community builder—provides us with a unique lens through which to imagine our program.

The gift of a Sacred Heart education is centered around forming each child with a self-understanding as a person known and loved by God. From this flows a sense of purpose grounded in hope.

Sophie said, “Education must be concerned not only with studies but also with whatever may be required for the right ordering of life and requirements of cultivated society. It is all very well to lay the foundation of solid virtue, but only the union of virtue with learning will give our work its perfection.” While Sophie could never have imagined the technological advances of our time, we imagine that Sophie might be delighted by how these advances and how her schools explore innovation today allow our students to develop the values and skills necessary to transform society on local and global scales. ❤

A Conversation on Innovation and Sacred Heart Education with Jaime Chao Mignano and Kathryn Heetderks