Concerned parents and experienced teachers..tell me what to do!

[Cathy_of_Alex]

JCPhoenix:

Have any of your Priests ever sat in on these classes? That may be worth asking them. In my humble opinion, any good Priest should have an interest in what is being taught in their Parish (whether it’s lay teachers or not)

I KNOW you attend a very orthodox parish and I’m SURE the Holy Spirit will guide you in this. You are right to be concerned. You and I both know there are enough “weak” Catholics out there. We both used to be one!

 

[puzzleannie]

all the catechisms, bibles, videos, orthodox textbooks and other teaching materials in the world are not going to reach kids who are not coming to the class, and who do not pay attention once they get there. all the resources in the world, expounded to attentive kids who are in class will have very little effect if they perceive that the teacher does not believe and live what they are teaching.

kids of confirmation age who are reached by their catechists, priests, youth ministers etc are reached by those who give authentic witness through every aspect of their lives, words and actions of what they believe, and are passionate about their Catholic faith.

also the best teaching and witness in the world can be undermined in a moment by a parent who shoots it down.

if your parish is deficient in any aspect of its CCD or confirmation program and you are not doing something about it, your are part of the problem. harsh, and not directed at any particular individual here, but a general statement, so please don’t land on me. I have been tusseling with parents all day who object to any minimal requirement that intereres with putting a quarter in the machine and getting a sacrament out.

 

[aurora77]

puzzleannie:

I have been tusseling with parents all day who object to any minimal requirement that intereres with putting a quarter in the machine and getting a sacrament out.

I hope I’m not dragging this off-topic, but I completely agree with you. I’m in my first year teaching PSR and I’m absolutely amazed with some of the things I’m learning. We were talking about the Mass a couple of weeks ago and one of the suggested questions in the book was asking the kids about something they noticed at Mass the week before–none of the kids had been at Mass the Sunday before! There is one kid in our class who goes to Mass every single week and he had to miss that PSR class b/c he was sick, none of the rest of them had been at Mass. It really bothers me–on one hand, I’m happy to see that the parents are getting their kids to PSR, on the other, it bothers me to realize that they aren’t doing much to educate their children on the faith.

A lot of people just don’t want to get involved in their parish, they don’t seem to realize that, like Puzzleannie said, if the religious ed program is lacking for either kids or adults, the people who just sit back and watch it happen are part of the problem. It seems like people just want to show up for Mass once a week and that’s good enough.

Anyway, I have to applaud JCPhoenix for caring enough to get involved. Could you please give us an update? How are things going?