Christian LeBlanc ably answers the question of how to teach the last few classes of the year. I\u2019d like to back up and answer the question from a different angle.\u00a0 Take a deep breath and get a cup of water ready, because the medicine might be a tad unpleasant going down.\u00a0 But I promise: If you take it, you\u2019ll feel better in the morning.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got these kids and this class, now what?<\/h2>\n
You can have all the theories in the world about the ideal way to evangelize and catechize, but at this very moment the question is: What am I going to do with these people for an hour a week in my classroom?<\/p>\n
The answer, and yes I\u2019m shaking your shoulders, and staring you in the eye, and yelling just a little, is this: You are going to teach them the Catholic faith.<\/p>\n
Are they a bunch of ignorant slackers who don\u2019t even know the Sign of the Cross? Then you pick up your hand, and you put it on your forehead, and you very slowly walk them through: \u201cIn the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Good. Let\u2019s do it again.\u00a0 Good. And again.\u00a0 It\u2019s a prayer kids, pray it like you mean it.\u00a0 Good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, that\u2019s your life.\u00a0 You told God you\u2019d do anything for Him, and what He wants is for you teach a bunch of tired, cranky, fidgety kids how to make the Sign of the Cross.\u00a0 Or what Christmas is about.\u00a0 Or why they really, really, ought to ask Mom and Dad to please take them to Mass on Sundays.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry God didn\u2019t give you a mission field in Haiti or a convent full of future St. Dominics<\/a>, but hey, God loves jaded suburbanites with nasty cases of affluenza just as much.\u00a0 The physician is for the sick, not the well.<\/p>\n In a workshop once, a young, single catechist asked me for suggestions on ways to chit chat with parents after class.\u00a0 What should she talk about?\u00a0 I stink at chit-chat, so I was sympathetic to her plight.\u00a0 I suggested maybe she say something good about their child.\u00a0 Parents like that.\u00a0 She asked, with a few likely culprits in mind, \u201cBut what if there\u2019s nothing good about that kid?\u201d<\/p>\n I try to be a nice person, but don\u2019t pull that line in my workshop.\u00a0 \u201cHoney, there\u2019s something good about that kid \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of good about that kid \u2014 and it\u2019s your job to find it.\u201d\u00a0 Just don\u2019t even walk through the door of that classroom until you are resolved to fall madly in love<\/a> with every single bratty, bored, back-talking precious child of God in there.\u00a0 That student was made in the image of God, thank you very much.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t screw up His work.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you screw it up either.<\/p>\n One of the troubles with catechesis is that it attracts good people.\u00a0 Organized people.\u00a0 Diligent people.\u00a0 The kind who follow instructions.\u00a0 People who have it together.\u00a0 \u201cGood flesh,\u201d as I heard a preacher call it once.\u00a0 When it comes to teaching wretched sinners, it pays to have lousy flesh.\u00a0 I might know one or two good catechists who are generally on the up-and-up, but the ones who do it best are the ones who know what horrid failures they are, and how desperately they rely on the love of God just to get their teeth brushed in the morning.<\/p>\n (Yes, troll friends, the sinner needs to be vetted scrupulously.\u00a0 The right sinner for the job, and all that.\u00a0 If you\u2019re unclear on the concept, read this post here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n If you have a room full of eager disciples, you could ask Siri to read the Catechism for you, and they\u2019d hang on every word.\u00a0 Thanks, Siri!\u00a0 You need a human in the room when it comes to proclaiming the Gospel.\u00a0 That human is you.\u00a0 You can\u2019t just know the faith, you have to be madly in love with the Author of that faith.<\/p>\n Teaching religious education can\u2019t be that thing you do because you\u2019re supposed to do it.\u00a0 It has to be that thing you do because there\u2019s nothing more important in the world to you than helping other souls find their way to Jesus.<\/p>\n Love won\u2019t make you teach well. But it will make you teach enthusiastically, and that\u2019s a start.<\/p>\n The rest of teaching is a skill you can learn.\u00a0 With hard work, you can get better it at over time, even if you stink at it now.\u00a0 Suggestions below on where to learn how to do that.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got a discipleship crisis on your hands.\u00a0 Your one class, no matter how well taught, is not going to fix everything.<\/p>\n (And yes, you can safely assume that the kids are never, ever, going to do the homework.\u00a0 Send home study guides, but visualize them dropping straight into the recycle bin the moment that child walks through the front door.\u00a0 It probably won\u2019t happen. They\u2019ll probably be blowing around the church parking lot.\u00a0 But the recycle bin is a nice image for planning purposes.)<\/p>\n The long term solution is for your parish, under the leadership of your pastor, to get serious about real, grown-up, soul-at-a-time evangelization<\/a>.\u00a0 Until then, your religious education class is a tiny water cooler in the middle of the desert.\u00a0 So be it.\u00a0 Ask someone who\u2019s living in a drought: Would you rather have five more gallons of faith, or none at all?\u00a0 Five gallons every time.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention a few practical resources to get you started:<\/strong><\/p>\n Good luck!<\/p>\n Photo: By Jeuwre (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 We Patheos Catholics received a letter recently from a distressed catechist: The kids don\u2019t know a thing about the faith, the parents just want the First Communion party, and everyone seems happy to settle for a platter of American Culture with Catholic Dressing on the Side. Christian LeBlanc ably answers the question of how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,44,7,110],"tags":[8,113,102,99,98,479,101,114,111,100,112],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catechesis-2","category-church-craziness","category-evangelization","category-rant-o-rama","tag-catechesis","tag-catechist-chat","tag-christian-leblanc","tag-classroom-management","tag-discipleship","tag-evangelization","tag-kids","tag-la-religious-education-congress","tag-ranting-and-raging","tag-teaching","tag-the-bible-tells-me-so"],"yoast_head":"\nYou have to love the kids, and like them too.<\/h2>\n
You have to love Jesus more than anything else in the whole wide world.<\/h2>\n
Why yes, your parish has a problem.<\/h2>\n
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![\"File:Baby](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/1\/1d\/Baby_yawning.jpg\/400px-Baby_yawning.jpg\")
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