Parental Guidance Suggested

Posted By on September 25, 2009

We had our first Religious Education session this week for our 6th graders.  The evening started with a meeting for parents and students to review what the year has in store.  Our CRE reviewed our schedule, highlighting some new things we will be trying with them this year, including a retreat around the Ten Commandments.

The meeting lasted about 30 minutes, which gave us 30 minutes to meet with our students in the classrooms.  I went through some of my class rules — standard stuff like raising your hand and waiting to be called on, only one person speaks at a time and the importance of both respect & confidentiality in class.  I stress those last two because I want people to be able to open up in class without concern that they will get ridiculed or that it will get all over town.

I asked the two questions I always like to ask when first meeting my students:

  1. “Who’s here because they want to be?”
  2. “Who’s here because their parents made them come?”

As you can imagine, the majority were not there because they were excited about religion at 6:30 on a Monday night; and since most were there because of their parents, I’ve decided to try something new this year.  First, I’m sending a letter home with the students at the end of our first full class this coming Monday.  Among other things, the letter will stress the partnership that is essential between me and their parents for this education to be successful for their children.  One hour a week is not enough.  Faith has to be lived and the parents are an integral part of that education.  Understanding that different parents are at different points in their own faith journey, small steps seem to be in order.  Below is an except of my letter in the hopes that conversation can begin at home if it isn’t happening already.

“To be successful in this, I need your partnership and support.  In the spirit of the Parable of the Sower, I trust that the Holy Spirit will make your child’s heart fertile soil and I will help plant the seeds, but I need each of you to water and nurture those seeds so that they bear fruit.  To that extent, I encourage you to ask your child what they learned in class each week and to discuss it with them, even if just for a few minutes.  This will help reinforce that the formation of their faith is important to you too.”

Additionally, I will be asking my students to briefly interview a parent before the next class so that they can better understand why the faith is important to their parents and why their parents feel it is important to teach them about it.  The interview is not profound, but is intended to spark some conversation.  The 5 questions my students will ask their parents are:

  1. Why do you think it’s important to send me to religious education?
  2. What do you think is the most important thing I can learn through religious education?
  3. When you were learning about our faith, what was your favorite topic to learn about?
  4. What is your favorite prayer? Why?
  5. Who is your favorite Saint? Why?

We will discuss the responses briefly in class and I will ask if anything surprised them when interviewing their parents.  Let’s hope this goes well and I will update all of you in a couple of week when it’s complete.

I wanted to express my thanks to all of you for sticking with me through a slow summer.  I’m hoping to get back to my weekly posts now that classes are back in session.

Until next time, God bless and keep sharing the faith.

Categories: Challenges, Ideas, Ministry
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About the author

My name is Carlos Torres, and for better or for worse, I am a Catechist. As a Catechist, I help supplement the religious education that parents give at home with focused and detailed lessons around Scripture and Tradition as taught by the Church. Now, I have no background in teaching, much less in dealing with a group of tweens and teens who don’t want to be with me, in a classroom, on a weeknight, learning about faith; yet week after week, I and many other Catechists do just that by letting the Holy Spirit guide us in planting those seeds and helping fulfill the Church’s mission to “go and make disciples”.

Comments

  • http://platytera.blogspot.com/ Christian

    I will be interested to hear how the questionnaire works out.

  • http://thereligionteacher.blogspot.com Jared Dees

    Carlos,

    Thank you for sharing these ideas. You’re touching on an important topic for CCD kids as well as young people in general. How do you foster intrinsic motivation in young students? Getting parents on board is a great idea especially since parents are the primary educators of their children.

    Laura Grace just posted a helpful resource on CatholicMom.com. It is titled \Religion Education Resources: Introductory Letter to Parents\ and it can be found at http://new.catholicmom.com/2009/09/28/religious-education-resources-introductory-letter-to-parents/.

    Looking forward to reading more of your posts! Keep up the great work!

  • Mary Ann Rowe

    I love the idea of a parent interview. We are already 8 weeks into this CCD year but I may do this anyway. As a 6th Grade CCD teacher with no formal training I’m always looking for ideas on how to connect to the kids, keep them on track and transmit all the knowledge I’m supposed to give them. Most of the time I feel only 1/2 a step ahead of the kids.

  • Qwkslvr1999

    Thank you for these ideas. It’s my first year as a catechist and these will really help me a lot to start the year. I hope you do not mind if I use the parent interview questions. God bless.

    • http://www.catechistcorner.com Carlos

      By all means use them. Being a catechist is a wonderful ministry. I pray that the Holy Spirit inspires and guides you ever step of the way. God bless!

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About the author

My name is Carlos Torres, and for better or for worse, I am a Catechist. As a Catechist, I help supplement the religious education that parents give at home with focused and detailed lessons around Scripture and Tradition as taught by the Church. Now, I have no background in teaching, much less in dealing with a group of tweens and teens who don’t want to be with me, in a classroom, on a weeknight, learning about faith; yet week after week, I and many other Catechists do just that by letting the Holy Spirit guide us in planting those seeds and helping fulfill the Church’s mission to “go and make disciples”.