Ateneo de Manila Junior High School is a Filipino school that seeks to prepare its students not only to live as responsible and productive members of Filipino society but to make a critical difference in the currents and ideas that can direct the growth of Filipino life. Faced with the challenges of a developing nation in a world open to diverse cultural influences, the student must be prepared to appreciate the richness of their cultural heritage and be challenged to contribute to its enrichment.
Goal of Ateneo Education
The general goal of an Ateneo education is the formation of young persons into “well-honed instruments in the hands of God.” Through cura personalis, Ateneo education aims for the total formation of its students, a formation that begins with the students’ life and developmental context. The goal of this total formation is expressed in the Profile of the Ateneo de Manila Basic Education Graduate.
Profile of the Ateneo de Manila Basic Education Graduate
Ateneo de Manila Basic Education seeks to form young individuals who are molded by Ignatian tradition and pedagogy into future leaders, nation builders, and catalysts of progress in the global community.
Upon the student’s graduation from Basic Education, the student would have been formed into a person who:
is CHRIST-CENTERED;
is COMPETENT in all areas of one’s life;
has a well-formed CONSCIENCE, with the courage to defend what is right and to right what is wrong;
has COMPASSION for others, especially the poor and disadvantaged, a compassion that leads to a life of service and work for justice and peace; and lives out one’s COMMITMENT to God, and to society as a steward of creation.
Ateneo de Manila started in 1859 as a government-sponsored primary school called Escuela Municipal. It was located near the old Sta. Lucia gate in Intramuros at the corner of Anda and Arzobispo streets. Its first director was Fr Jose Fernandez Cuevas SJ.
Six years later, in 1865, the Jesuits added a secondary school and changed the school’s name to Ateneo Municipal de Manila. In time, it became a full-fledged colegio in the full sense of the European scheme of education in which an AB degree meant a two-year humanities course after grade school and high school.
The revolution against Spain in 1898 and the arrival of the Americans introduced significant changes in Ateneo. In 1902, when the traditional subsidy from the city of Manila was discontinued, the name Ateneo Municipal de Manila was changed to Ateneo de Manila. The American Jesuits of the Maryland-New York Province, under the leadership of Fr Francis Byrne SJ, took over the administration of the Ateneo from the Spanish Jesuits of the Aragon Province. It was also during this period that Fr John Hurley SJ introduced the military drill and post as a form of discipline for students.
In the evening of 13 August 1932, a fire destroyed the Ateneo de Manila buildings in Intramuros. The school then moved to Padre Faura in Ermita where the Manila Observatory, the San Jose Seminary and the Jesuit Novitiate were located.
During the Second World War, classes were suspended until 1946, when high school classes were resumed at the Hijas de Jesus Retreat House at Plaza Guipit, Sampaloc. School year 1946-1947 saw the transfer of Ateneo to the old Padre Faura campus, where classes were held in provisional quonset huts.
On 1 January 1952, the Ateneo de Manila High School, together with the college department, moved to the new campus in Loyola Heights, Quezon City. In 1959, Ateneo became a university. The Ateneo High School, like the Grade School, School of Arts and Sciences, the Professional Schools of Business and Law, and the Graduate School, became an integral unit of Ateneo de Manila University.
In 2012, the Ateneo de Manila Basic Education cluster, to which the Junior High School belongs, was created to re-examine its existing twelve-year curriculum, in compliance with the government’s K-12 Educational Reform Program. The goal was to keep up with global standards and help Filipino students to have more time to choose the career that best suits their skills.
In alignment with the University’s Lux In Domino 2030 plans and in anticipation of future developments, the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School has become a co-educational institution and has started accepting Grade 7 female student applicants for the academic year 2024-2025.
Through the passing years, the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School has remained committed to the goal of Jesuit education: the development of its students into persons-for-others, who will live not for themselves alone, but for God and for other people. Ateneo has nurtured many distinguished Filipinos and it will continue to form persons who will offer their lives to the service of God, their country, and their fellow human beings.
Mission/Vision
Vision
The leading Filipino, Catholic, and Jesuit junior high school that holistically cultivates servant-leaders towards excellence for the greater glory of God
Mission
Inspired by the teachings of St. Ignatius, we nurture young adolescents to discover themselves and become persons-for-others through a well-balanced academic and formation program by:
instilling in them the values of Christ-centeredness, competence, conscience, compassion, and commitment;
equipping them with essential life skills; and
forming them into responsible stewards of creation
so that they may navigate the future with discernment and become a force for good for an inclusive, sustainable, and just society.
Purposes and Aims of the Ateneo de Manila Junior High School
As an integral part of Ateneo de Manila University - Basic Education, the Ateneo Junior High School seeks to achieve in a degree and manner appropriate to a Junior High School, all the purposes and aims of this institution of formation and learning.
As a Filipino school, the Ateneo Junior High School seeks to prepare its students not only to live as responsible and productive members of Filipino society but to make a critical difference in the currents and ideas that can direct the growth of Filipino life. Faced with the challenges of a developing nation, in a world open to diverse cultural influences, the student must be prepared to appreciate the richness of his cultural heritage and be challenged to contribute to its enrichment.
As a Jesuit school, the Ateneo Junior High School is guided by the Jesuit philosophy of education. Ateneo's distinctive quality is its Jesuit or Ignatian identity. As a Jesuit or Ignatian inspired school, its thrust is the formation of its students into “well-honed instruments in the hands of God.” Central to this thrust or formation is cura personalis, the personal care and concern for the individual person. This aims to lead a person to a realistic knowledge of self, realizing one’s strengths and talents, and accepting one’s weaknesses and shortcomings. Ultimately, this knowledge leads to a freedom of self, a freedom to commit. In Ignatian tradition this means committing to Christ- “to see Christ more clearly, to love Him more dearly and to follow Him more closely.”
Above all, the Ateneo Junior High School is a Catholic school which emphasizes an understanding of the world from the perspective of the Catholic faith and its teachings.
Alma Mater Song: A Song for Mary
We stand on a hill between the earth and sky
Now all is still where Loyola’s colors fly
Our course is run and the setting sun ends Ateneo’s day
Eyes are dry at the last goodbye; this is the Ateneo way
Mary for you!
For your white and blue!
We pray you’ll keep us, Mary, constantly true!
We pray you’ll keep us, Mary, faithful to you!
Down from the hill, down to the world go I
Rememb’ring still, how the bright Blue Eagles fly
Through joys and tears, through the laughing years, we sing our battle song:
Win or lose, it’s the school we choose;
This is the place where we belong!
