Caritas and Experience-based Learning: Teaching Love to Filipino College Students

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that love, specifically Thomas Aquinas' notion of caritas, can be taught by employing experience-based learning. I attempt to present a strategy that I've employed in my own classes in a university in the Philippines: by taking students to an institution for abandoned elderly, lessons in class are concretized in a real-world situation. Composed of three steps: meaning making, paradigm-shifting and self-understanding, Provenzo's road map of learning was followed. This was implemented through classroom discussion, immersion, and writing reflections, respectively. Using my students' statements on things they have learned throughout the process, I have proved that this technique effectively bridged a 13th century concept with a concern that this generation is in need of fuller understanding, love.