Follow-up: Catechesis for Teens, Year-by-Year Benchmarks, and a Rant

In response to my post the other day, I had a few comments from friends in the catechetical world.

On the topic of good resources for teens, Charity Horinek writes:

When Mark and I taught high school for six years, we used these books, and *I* think they are awesome:

We did the first three in three-year cycles, then repeated, but used the fourth as a framework for discussing issues of morality that arose quite frequently since the teens in our group (anywhere from 26 to 33 kids at a time!) liked to ask a lot of questions.

The publisher’s website is here: http://www.crpublications.com/books.html – Not easy to find, but the quickest way to see the whole series at once.   Here’s the Amazon link to the title Charity singled out for me, but she uses several from the set.

Meanwhile, Pam O’Keefe, whose name you’ll recognize from the acknowledgements page of my book as one of the people who saved my rear end from total failure my first year teaching religious ed, writes:

CCD question — Once upon a time, I saw a listing of what kids “should” know by grade level for Catechism. Have you seen anything like this, and if so, can you link me?

The best I’ve got on hand covers K-8:  The Diocese of Charleston’s Elementary Religion Curriculum. Scroll through the front matter, and towards the end of the document there are a detailed year-by-year charts of what prayers, Bible stories, and spiritual topics students should be learning each year.  Excellent at-a-glance summary of what kids need to know.  I’m sure other dioceses put out similar guidelines.

For High School, here is the USCCB’s High School Curriculum framework.

Follow-up Discussion: Are Midwest Theological Forum’s Textbooks perfect for everyone?

In response to my very favorable review of MTF’s Didache Parish Editon, pro-catechist Dorian Speed reports that in teaching high school theology to a mixed group of students including a large contingent of non-Catholics, she found the Semester edition of the same series was not a good fit.

I think that these books were, in some cases, actively off-putting to kids who were not Catholic or weren’t sure if they wanted to practice their faith.

Catholic High Schools are in an awkward position.  You can’t neglect the intellectual formation of the students who have chosen Catholic schools specifically because they want to be formed in the faith, and who have a lifetime of education and practice to back up what should be, by early young adulthood, a very mature and well-grounded spirituality.  Such a program, however, when targeted at a non-believer, is a bit like sending a drill sergeant to recreate boot camp in the ICU.

Parishes have the same problem.  When we lump students by birth date instead of by spiritual and academic readiness, we create a one-size-fits-none mockery of the Church’s mission.

Those who are not evangelized need to hear the Gospel, get their questions answered, and be helped to gently grow closer to the faith.  This is a person-to-person process, not a “program” that can be unleashed on an academic assembly line.

Those who are disciples need formation of heart, soul, mind, and body according to their present needs — not according to some measure of what they “should” need at this or that age.  We insult our students both when we ridicule them for not knowing what no one has taught them, and when we set aside the entire history of the saints and pretend youth is incompatible with mature discipleship and intellectual achievement.

One soul at a time.  This is the only way to evangelize.  This is the only way to disciple the believer.  When you aim the program-cannon at your school or parish, all you end up with are more dead and wounded.

Cover  image courtesy of CR Publications.