We have access to more information than any generation before us could ever have imagined. In just a few seconds, we can find out what is happening on the other side of the world, obtain an almost immediate answer to a question, and encounter people and ideas from faraway places. Yet having more information available does not necessarily mean understanding reality better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many years ago, Adolfo Nicol\u00e1s SJ<\/strong>, Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 2008 to 2016, had already identified this transformation as one of the great educational challenges of our time. He described it as the \u201cglobalization of superficiality\u201d<\/strong>: the risk that the speed at which we receive information, form opinions, and move from one piece of content to another may ultimately reduce the space we devote to reflection, deeper understanding, and critical thinking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nicol\u00e1s did not view technology itself with suspicion. On the contrary, he recognized the opportunities offered by new communication tools and by an increasingly interconnected world. His concern was rather about what this transformation might produce in the way we think, imagine, build relationships, and develop our convictions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Years later, that question seems even more urgent. At a time characterized by continuous flows of content, notifications, images, opinions, and answers that are always available, one of the challenges of education may be precisely this: helping young people not only to know more, but to understand more deeply.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Knowing Does Not Yet Mean Understanding<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The superficiality Nicol\u00e1s spoke about does not simply coincide with distraction. It is something deeper: it concerns the risk of stopping at first impressions, confusing access to information with knowledge, and reacting before we have even had the time to understand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2010, addressing the world of Jesuit higher education, Nicol\u00e1s observed how the ability to rapidly access vast amounts of information and immediately express our reactions could interrupt the slower and more demanding work required by critical thinking. His was not an invitation to reject change, but rather to ask ourselves how we can inhabit it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, this reflection directly concerns schools as well. Students can find an answer within seconds, compare a potentially endless number of sources and, with artificial intelligence, obtain texts, explanations, and summaries almost instantly. Precisely for this reason, the educational task can no longer be limited to transmitting information. Learning how to evaluate, connect, verify, question, and understand information within its context is becoming increasingly important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Depth, then, does not simply mean knowing many things or spending more time studying. It means developing the ability to go beyond what is immediately apparent<\/strong>, to remain with a question, recognize complexity, listen to different perspectives, and refuse to settle for the simplest answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is an intellectual exercise, but also a human one. Because superficiality can affect not only what we know, but also the way we look at people and reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Depth That Transforms the Person<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n From Nicol\u00e1s’s perspective, Jesuit education is called to foster what he described as a \u201cdepth of thought and imagination.\u201d<\/strong> This is not simply about forming students who are able to reason well, but about ensuring that what they learn can gradually transform the way they look at the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, the connection with the Ignatian tradition emerges strongly. The educational experience does not end when something has been learned: it needs to be revisited, questioned, and connected to one’s own life. It is in the movement between experience, reflection, and action that knowledge can become truly meaningful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A social issue studied in a textbook can remain an abstract concept, or it can become a question about justice. An encounter with a different culture can be limited to acquiring new information, or it can challenge stereotypes and convictions. Scientific knowledge can simply be memorized, or it can raise new questions about the responsibility with which we use what we know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Educating for depth means creating the conditions for this second step to take place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Nicol\u00e1s, moreover, superficiality also makes solidarity more difficult. If we look at reality too quickly, people risk becoming categories, numbers, or images that simply pass before our eyes. Going deeper means instead allowing ourselves to be challenged by what we encounter, recognizing the complexity of other people’s experiences, and understanding that what happens to others is not completely separate from our own lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is therefore no coincidence that Nicol\u00e1s contrasted the \u201cglobalization of superficiality\u201d with the need to work towards a globalization of depth and solidarity<\/strong>: opening minds and hearts, helping students become people capable of understanding an interconnected world and of recognizing their responsibility within it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A School That Teaches Us to Pause<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this context, schools possess something particularly valuable: they can offer the time and space needed to do what is becoming increasingly difficult elsewhere. To read a text without immediately moving on to the next one. To engage with a question that has no simple answer. To listen to a different opinion without feeling the need to react immediately. To return to an experience in order to understand it better. To change our minds when what we discover challenges what we thought we knew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Depth does not necessarily require slowing everything down. Rather, it requires us to recognize what deserves time<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an important distinction for contemporary education as well. Preparing young people to live in their own time does not mean protecting them from technology, speed, or the complexity of the world, but helping them move through these realities without simply being carried along by them. It means forming people who are able to use the tools available to them while maintaining freedom of judgement, attentiveness, and the capacity for discernment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This perspective finds significant continuity in the educational approach of Fondazione Gesuiti Educazione<\/strong>. The Foundation’s own reflection on global citizenship draws on Nicol\u00e1s’s words and on the need to help students become \u201cwhole persons\u201d<\/strong>: capable of opening their minds and hearts in a world in which each person’s future is increasingly intertwined with that of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps it is precisely here that Adolfo Nicol\u00e1s’s thought retains one of its most important educational insights. Faced with superficiality, the answer is not to have more information. Nor is it to know things more quickly. It is to develop a way of looking at reality that can go beyond first impressions, connect what we know with the world around us, question the consequences of our choices, and allow what we learn to gradually transform who we are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a world where almost everything can be reached within seconds, educating for depth means helping young people discover that the most important things still require time: understanding, choosing, building relationships, forming judgements, and becoming the person they wish to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We have access to more information than any generation before us could ever have imagined. In just a few seconds, we can find out what is happening on the other side of the world, obtain an almost immediate answer to a question, and encounter people and ideas from faraway places. 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