How was your CCD/catechism education? Good or bad?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lepanto
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lepanto

Guest
Growing up, did you go to public schools, then attend CCD/catechism classes at a local parish?

How was the experience? Did you learn the faith or was it seriously watered down?

If it’s not too private, what years were these? The 1970s? 80’s etc.
 
I don’t want to cast aspersions on my CCD teachers in the late 80s and early 90s, who certainly gave their time and energy to teach me … but they suffered from a lot of the problems common, I think, to the generation that saw Vatican II get implemented.
They taught us, but we never we taught the meaning, I guess… religion never seemed real. It was just something you did because you had to. No one seemed really enthusiastic about Jesus. There were a lot of "don’t"s, and very few "do"s that a little kid could understand. Like, don’t lie, not “be kind to others, and here’s a living example of how”. Maybe I just was an unbelievably imperceptive kid, but no one seemed to really like being Catholic - it was a social thing, it seemed, and an obligation. We learned the prayers, we learned what not to do. We didn’t learn that Jesus is awesome (I sound like a goofy fifteen-year-old, but He is!).
Then came the big blunder: when it was time for Confirmation, we had to pick saints to take as patrons. I picked Angelica, because I liked the name. No one asked me about her. I don’t remember what I heard about her.
Saint Angelica doesn’t exist.
They meant well, and they were good people. But they weren’t prepared to teach in the post-Vatican II world. Catechesis turned into this weird mix of vague sentiments and strict rules. Luckily I came back, but most of the other kids I was with, to my knowledge, are not to blessed yet 😦 .
 
Growing up in my neighborhood everyone went to catholic school, which made the CCD class very small. I think there were less than 10 kids in the program. It was taught by St. Joe nuns, after they spent the day teaching the parish school kids. Bless the nuns, but my CCD education was terrible. I think the nuns though we were not capable of learning, so mostly we drew pictures. There would be very little reading and I think they spent most of the time telling us not to take anything from the desks we were using. My sister who is two years older than I am made all the Sacraments with me. I think it was pretty much if you were in the program, you made a Sacrament, first year Communion, second Confirmation then you were done. For the Sacraments, the CCD kids walked behind the school kids and I was probably a good 3 inches smaller than their smallest kid, and probably over a foot smaller than the tallest I was behind. I basically was taught the Our Father and Hail Mary prayers. I guess the nuns were just trying to make sure we had our Sacraments, so I can’t blame them, but I had a lot of problems later on because of my lack of understanding about my faith.

My kids went to catholic school. They help out with our parish CCD program. They both say it doesn’t compare by any stretch of the imagination to the religious education they got at the school. The kids are tired from being at school all day, they would rather be anywhere else, the teachers are parent volunteers (not always accurate) there are no training sessions for CCD teachers, they are given books and told to develope a program. The program is huge, but very few kids stay in after 5th grade (Confirmation) even though the program goes up to 8th.
 
As a child of the 60s and 70s growing up in Miami, I’d have to say that my religous education (CCD) was SOOO very lacking. This contributed greatly to my leaving the Church in my early 20s and staying away for 10+ years. Finally, after gaining a better understanding of several issues, I returned. Unfortunately, one of my sons refused to follow as well as my wife (we’re divorced civilly). I don’t blame the poor instruction I received as a child for this wholely, but it certainly contributed. 😦
 
Well, I’m a convert…but…when I converted in Holland in 1989, I had NO CCD/Cathechism/RCIA…at all! I simply had a meeting with a priest, who agreed to baptise me. He asked me a few questions to make sure I understood enough about the Catholic church, but after that he just told me which date my baptism would be on. So…consequently I didn’t really find out about confession or other things until years later. I was a faithful churchgoer, all through university I went to daily Mass and kept that up until we moved to a rural location where there was no way to get to a church during the week…but, only now I’m slowly learning things , only now I’m beginning to understand the ‘why’ behind certain teachings (that before I just thought were ‘outdated’)… Looking back, if only the priest had given me a Cathechism, it would have been helpful…living in a predominantly Mennonite and Calvinist part of Holland it was impossible to obtain even a Catholic Bible, let alone anything about the Teachings of the Church. So, I pretty much muddled along for years…

Anna x
 
I’m a convert and I had religious education, but I have learned so much more since then. Thank goodness for EWTN - I have learned so much through their programming.
 
12 yrs in Catholic school taught by Dominicans and had a sterling education, both religious and academic. Thankful that many things were taught both in depth for meaning, and through memorization (both religious and academic). ie. I memorized the prepositions, and know and understand the grammatical rules for using them. I memorized the commandments, sacraments etc., and was taught to understand the theology of the morality and doctrine behind them.
 
Oh it was so bad. We actually did confession after communion -2 years after. The real presence was never discussed. We were never taught confession had anything to do with communion. Mortal and venial sin was never discussed. We had to come up with a couple “big” sins to tell father. And confession was done with father sitting in a chair in front of the altar. ANd yes some parents used this for a photo op. Church teaching was never discussed. We did have to learn the Our Father, Glory Be, Hail Mary and Apostles Creed for communion -that’s the only thing I remember being taught. Everything else was “we are all God’s people”, “we should be kind to everyone”, lots of crafts. I remember at the end of the year before confirmation we were told over the summer we had to write a story about what if Jesus lived in our time and was on a football team in order to get confirmed.:confused: I actually didn’t continue, and wasn’t confirmed until I was 25. I was still attending the same parish I grew up in and the adult class (a single class) was just as awful. I discouraged in chosing a confirmation name, which I really regret. “That really isn’t done anymore.” At the time I didn’t know enough, I was just beginning to read up on my faith.

We started our daughter at my original parish at preschool age but changed to a new more orthodox parish the year after making her first communion because the catechism program had not improved since I was a child in fact it was bordering on new agey. Everything she knew about the faith I was teaching her at home as part of her homeschooling.

My daughter’s catechism program now is awesome! 🙂
 
rayne, your experience sounds SO much like mine.

I’m 25 so…I guess it was in the 80s and 90s that I was taught (up until 8th grade, basically, which was 97). I remember we learned all about self esteem and blah blah blah…I barely knew ANYTHING about the faith, just vague things about Jesus. I hated going to Church because I thought it was boring, and nobody was that enthusiastic about it anyway. I really did try to take my faith seriously but I got a very watered down version.

So, when I met some friends in high school through a Bible Study who invited me to come to their ‘Bible Church’, I really didn’t see a problem with it. I didn’t even really know what the differences were between Catholics and Protestants, just that their service was more fun and exciting and seemed more filling.

Luckily my Dad said he had gone t hrough something similar when he was a high schooler and gave me Surprised by Truth, and Rome Sweet Home…and then I started LEARNING about my faith. It was so amazing and awesome! I recommited myself to the Church the summer before I started college, got involved in student parishes in college and grad school. College was also where I started studying Theology of the Body which was a huge turning point for me.

But even now I’m learning things. It was really within the last 5-6 years that I finally figured out when to genuflect, what the liturgical colors mean, what the important feast days are, all the little beautiful details. But when I came out of catechism, I didn’t even know what purgatory was, that Catholics were against birth control, that Fridays are pentential days even outside of Lent, that you aren’t supposed to take communion in a state of mortal sin, the awesomeness of the Incarnation, the awesomeness of transubstantiation, that it is a mortal sin to miss Mass…etc, etc, etc.

So sad. It’s even worse now that my sister is in it. instead of being weekly, it’s in the form of ‘monthly festivals’.
 
I think people have higher expectations about religious education than they should, to be honest.
Religious Ed is NOT supposed to be an end-all-be-all of faith education. That should be done AT HOME on a day-to-day basis. The BEST source of faith education is going to be our parents’ example.

I think Religious Ed at church is useful on an academic level. Learning the terms, definitions, rules, etc. of the faith are well handled in an academic situation… and it doesn’t have to be a huge ordeal.

So, given MY PERSONAL expectations of Parish Religious Education (early 90s in Florida), I think my parish did a great job!

But, my parents did the best job of all on teaching me the FAITH. 👍
 
I grew up pretty much in the 70’s… and my early years of ccd were taught by nuns… not bad education but definitely not enough. My dad did teach us our prayers in Polish (his native tongue) but expected that we just knew our catechism. Mom really didn’t teach a darn thing to us. As I got older and we had parent volunteers. Unfortunately they didn’t screen them very well and i ended up with a couple married outside the church… her a divorced Catholic, and him, not even Catholic… that taught me some pretty bizarre stuff. By the time I got to High school… we had ccd once a month for 4 hours… we usually skipped out at break time if it was boring that week… out teacher was one of my classmates mom… who tried to have her dd committed to a mental institution because she wanted to date a Baptist boy.

Overall… my catechesis stunk! But whose fault is it? I really blame my parents for not being as involved as they could be. Afterall, they are the first teachers of the faith. I can see that they thought I was learning in ccd… but they stopped checking in about 6th grade. The teachers from 6th to 12 grade were terrible examples and the parish should have seen that before they ever taught. So the parish is at fault too… but I do have to say, I blame myself too for not researching it more when I hit 18 and was no longer at that parish.

With my children I have taken a much more hands on approach… I was assistant DRE when my kids were in PSR and then I transferred them to Catholic School. I ask them about what they are learning and I teach them what I am learning in Bible study… I make sure they know what Catholics believe and why… so all in all, my bad catechesis really helped me become a better mom.
 
Inadequate. I wonder if I would have strayed so far from the Church if it had been better. I have the experience of CCD and Catholic school.

Em, I agree with you. My parents weren’t prepared. They did their best though. I am thankful for what they did teach me.

Interestingly, my mom played a major role in my reversion though it is her death that was my turning point. IT will be 3 years this Saturday.
 
LadyDI, God be with you this week. I know that anniversaries can be difficult.

I have asked dh a lot about his ccd classes now that I am converting, I was very curious as to why he didn’t debate some of the issues in my church at the time that were so very opposite of the Catholic Faith. Some he really didn’t know were different or in some cases why they were different. He says they taught him prayers.

He dug out one of his old catechism books for me to read. While it was easy reading it did not go into near the depth that some of the other books that I have recently read (most of the books that I have read weren’t catechisms). The copyright date was in the 70’s and it was an adult catechism. I have a hunger to find out more about the faith, so I am sure that is causing me to search out more information. But dh is learning a lot as I am learning. We just recently had a disussion on genuflection. He does it on his left knee. I learned from reading, to be done on the right. When he returned from overseas, the kids and I had been attending mass for some time, he was completely unaware that he could not partake in the Eucharist (due to our civil marriage). He did know that the kids and I couldn’t. I was really astounded.

I do know that his mom worked a lot (I mean a lot) when he was young (his father passed away when he was 7) and someone from his extended family usually took him & his siblings to ccd & mass.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top