Confirmation program using TOB for Teens

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Does anyone have any experience with using the TOB for Teens textbooks for 1st year confirmation class?

My parish is using this textbook and I think it is getting into topics that are not germaine to the Sacrament of Confirmation and that are too much for 12 year olds. From dating and sexting, to lust and touching other’s privates, to masturbation and pornography–this stuff is not even on my son’s radar, so why would I even want to introduce him to these ideas? I don’t have a problem with TOB and I think older teenagers should learn about it but not at 12 years old.

BTW, they are using the Chosen program for the 2nd year of Confirmation.

Thanks.
 
Our Senior Youth Group (high school aged) had used the TOB for Teens (published by Ascension Press) it twice:This summer and two years ago. Its an outstanding program that really speaks to kids, not at them.

Every dioceses is different. Our children receive confirmation in the 10th grade. Because your Parrish is dealing with middle school kids, I’d highly recommend the Middle School Edition, if you’re already not using it. It has only eight chapters. The “High School Edition” has another four chapters that deals with more mature topics like you discussed.

I have a 6th boy that is that is like your son with respect to those topics. I have NO reservations showing him the Middle School Edition.

Our DRE and priest are allowing us 8th grade CCE teachers to use that as the basis of our curriculum for this year as a pilot program.

We are also going to use it during our Junior Youth Group meetings (6th - 8th grade students).

Blessings!
 
Thanks for responding.

Our parish is using the Middle School edition of the TOB for teens, and I thought that was still explicit. Why should I have my kid reading about lust and masturbation and not touching other’s privates in a Confirmation class?

I’m asking around to other parishes in our diocese to see if this is just my parish or if it’s diocesan wide.
 
Confirmation is notoriously tricky to select the right books for because there is no consistent age for Confirmation across the United States. I’ve known places that confirm in 2nd grade and places that confirm in 12th grade and pretty much everything in between.

Our parish confirms in 5th grade, so no TOB for Teens for us. :o
 
kerkvliet said:
Does anyone have any experience with using the TOB for Teens textbooks for 1st year confirmation class?

My parish is using this textbook and I think it is getting into topics that are not germaine to the Sacrament of Confirmation and that are too much for 12 year olds. From dating and sexting, to lust and touching other’s privates, to masturbation and pornography–this stuff is not even on my son’s radar, so why would I even want to introduce him to these ideas? I don’t have a problem with TOB and I think older teenagers should learn about it but not at 12 years old.

BTW, they are using the Chosen program for the 2nd year of Confirmation.

Thanks.
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o you think the average 12-year-old isn’t already aware of masturbation, sexting, pornography, etc? They need good teaching, earlier and more urgently than was the case a generation ago.
 
We do TOB, but have found that you can only do for some many sessions or the kids just wig out. It’s a lot to cover, and some kids are not comfortable talking about it, and others all they want to do is talk about it.

We use it for a segment on Morality, but not for a whole year or even a semester.
Our first year prep is the basics. Second year prep we have dedicated classes specific to the Confirmation curriculum.
One shouldn’t use TOB as any substitute fro genuine Confirmation prep. Morality and good decision making as a responsible adult yes, but not necessarily TOB, as great as it is.
 
pianistclare said:
We do TOB, but have found that you can only do for some many sessions or the kids just wig out. It’s a lot to cover, and some kids are not comfortable talking about it, and others all they want to do is talk about it.

We use it for a segment on Morality, but not for a whole year or even a semester.
Our first year prep is the basics. Second year prep we have dedicated classes specific to the Confirmation curriculum.
One shouldn’t use TOB as any substitute fro genuine Confirmation prep. Morality and good decision making as a responsible adult yes, but not necessarily TOB, as great as it is.
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I agree!
We use it as a portion of our preparation. We confirm now in 8th grade. There might be a few kids who are less sophistocated-but most know about all of this. Confirmation “year” is a good time to do this because often we lose them after that. If they don’t receive this information - especially what the church teaches-- now they never will. We use the DVDs and they are not explicit though they do use terms like lust and masturbation. The teacher (our priest) can tailor it to the group and their level of comfort and questions.
By the way we use YouCat Confirmation and TOB for our confirmation prep.
 
PrayPsalm51 said:
I agree!
We use it as a portion of our preparation. We confirm now in 8th grade. There might be a few kids who are less sophistocated-but most know about all of this. Confirmation “year” is a good time to do this because often we lose them after that. If they don’t receive this information - especially what the church teaches-- now they never will. We use the DVDs and they are not explicit though they do use terms like lust and masturbation. The teacher (our priest) can tailor it to the group and their level of comfort and questions.
By the way we use YouCat Confirmation and TOB for our confirmation prep.
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So do you use the Middle School version of TOB?
 
Last year we confirmed HS so no we used the other. We are slowly working our way down to confirming 8th grade every year. This year we probably will but at first glance I almost think we could use the HS one for 8th grade…
 
PrayPsalm51 said:
Last year we confirmed HS so no we used the other. We are slowly working our way down to confirming 8th grade every year. This year we probably will but at first glance I almost think we could use the HS one for 8th grade…
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I’d invest in the Middle School books, at least for the leaders and make your own handouts. Kids likely have heard it all…but parents have much more to say and think about it. Also better to do the age appropriate curriculum.
 
We do three weeks of chastity in our program’s 2nd year. One week is a tour of our local crisis pregnancy center. The 2nd week is one of the TOB lessons and the 3rd week we have a speaker from the preg ctr give a chastity talk.
 
kerkvliet said:
Does anyone have any experience with using the TOB for Teens textbooks for 1st year confirmation class?

My parish is using this textbook and I think it is getting into topics that are not germaine to the Sacrament of Confirmation and that are too much for 12 year olds. From dating and sexting, to lust and touching other’s privates, to masturbation and pornography–this stuff is not even on my son’s radar, so why would I even want to introduce him to these ideas? I don’t have a problem with TOB and I think older teenagers should learn about it but not at 12 years old.

BTW, they are using the Chosen program for the 2nd year of Confirmation.

Thanks.
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I don’t have an answer for you except to say If I were you I would pull my kid out of there so fast it would make your head spin. This is a parent’s job not the parishes job to lump a bunch of kids together for a sex talk and tie it to confirmation.:rolleyes: Nope, not in my family…
 
Do any of the DREs that have responded know if I can go to another parish church to do sacramental prep for Confirmation, without having to disenroll from my parish? This TOB for teens is not mandatory and other parishes are using different programs, and ones that are more focused on a formative and doctrinal understanding of Confirmation and the Holy Spirit. I have asked my local diocese about this but haven’t heard back yet.
 
kerkvliet said:
Do any of the DREs that have responded know if I can go to another parish church to do sacramental prep for Confirmation, without having to disenroll from my parish? This TOB for teens is not mandatory and other parishes are using different programs, and ones that are more focused on a formative and doctrinal understanding of Confirmation and the Holy Spirit. I have asked my local diocese about this but haven’t heard back yet.
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It’s good you check with your diocese. We had 3 familes switch from their parish to ours. It turns out two of them were geographically “ours” anyway. The third had to get permission from his pastor (and ours). The TOB is really very good but parents are kids’ first and primary teachers and there should be no ego involved if you want something different for your child. Still as a parent of four boys (and CRE) I’d encourage you to cover that material somehow if the other parishes don’t address it in another type of program. They will hear all sorts of things and need to know the truth. Good luck!!
 
Thank you for responding. I will keep the TOB books and go over it with my son when he’s older.
 
kerkvliet said:
Do any of the DREs that have responded know if I can go to another parish church to do sacramental prep for Confirmation, without having to disenroll from my parish? This TOB for teens is not mandatory and other parishes are using different programs, and ones that are more focused on a formative and doctrinal understanding of Confirmation and the Holy Spirit. I have asked my local diocese about this but haven’t heard back yet.
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That would have to be agreed upon by both your pastor and the pastor of the parish you would like to go to for sacramental prep. The diocese may not want to be involved. And the pastor of the parish you want to go to for sacramental prep is most likely not going to want to step on the toes of the pastor of your parish. That’s why I think your best bet is to talk to your pastor. Explain to him your concerns about the material and see what he is willing to do. If he doesn’t want to remove that piece from the program and if he is unwilling to allow your child to skip those lessons, ask about the possibility of enrolling him in another parish program. You don’t want to come across as adversarial else he may not be inclined to approve of it.
 
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