Religion Teacher credentials question

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LisaB

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If you are a religion teacher at a Catholic school or in administration hiring teachers, I have a question for you: is Master of Arts in Theology preferred to Master of Theological studies, or does it matter? I’m trying to find a graduate program with a goal of teaching religion in high school, and I’m not clear if schools prefer the MA over the MTS, or if it doesn’t matter. MA seems to be more academically rigorous, though I suppose it also depends on the school. I don’t plan to pursue a PhD afterwards, so that’s not an issue. If you have knowledge to share in this area, it would be very helpful.
 
I am not a religion teacher at a Catholic school nor in administration, but I know many who are.

In my experience, the difference between an MA and an MTS wouldn’t make a whole lot of difference. I’ve known some who didn’t have any such degree at all. One guy I knew had a PhD is some music-related field and he was a great theology teacher. Then others have had MAs from respected schools and just turned out not to be very good at teaching.

It’s ideal to have both the background in theology and the ability to handle a classroom.
 
Check with your Diocesan Office of Catholic Schools to find out their standards.
 
One useful thing I like is to check out the job descriptions of the positions I plan to apply for 5-10 years down the line, and then work on cultivating my CV to reflect what’s desired.

So don’t just look at what you want to do immediately upon graduation, but also what you plan on doing on the next step of your career— unless you’re cool with teaching religion in high school for the next 20, 30 years of your career. (Which is also cool.)

Also, by checking out the job openings, it gives you a feel for how many vacant positions there are in the field you want to enter, plus what they pay— which gives you an accurate idea as to how much you want to spend. You don’t want to go $100k into debt on a job that pays $20k/year with 10 years’ experience, and there’s only one opening in your entire state. Versus, say, angling for a job that starts at $50k entry level, and there are ten openings in a 100-mile radius.
 
So don’t just look at what you want to do immediately upon graduation, but also what you plan on doing on the next step of your career— unless you’re cool with teaching religion in high school for the next 20, 30 years of your career. (Which is also cool.)
This is a mid-life career change for me, sadly I don’t have 30 years left in my career. 😥
 
I had a short “career” in religious education, because of my age I think, but I never thought of it as a career, nor a job, nor work, but as my vocation. After “positions” were no longer being available to me, I was and have been happy to volunteer. I say all that, to try to say that serving the Lord and His Church is not “a job”, even though many parish managers and even pastors think of it that way.

My experience was that the place of education/formation is more important than the title of the degree - “bachelors” or “masters” from the right school is more important for finding a position, with a favorable interview experience. If this is more a vocation for you than a career, I urge you to find the best school that you can to form you well in the faith. And by “best”, I mean faithful/obedient to the Catholic Faith, with an authentically deep spiritual life on-campus, with professors who are zealous servants of Christ and not on a career ladder, or are too busy with national conference presentations, or are “hired men.”
 
Then very much look at the job market before you spend $$ on this schooling.

Perhaps taking some courses you want simply for the knowledge and the volunteering with your parish as an RE teacher is better than an expensive degree with no job prospects.
 
Another caution about allowing people to imprint upon you as an RE volunteer if you’re looking to build a career on teaching.

I used to work for a certain municipality of about half a million at the time. They had a tuition reimbursement program, where they’d reimburse me for half my tuition after I submitted good grades at the end of the semester. I was on my own for books, of course, and it was delayed, but it allowed DH and myself to both pursue advanced degrees (while working full-time) and graduate without debt. (He went to night school, I got my MLS via WebCT from a nearby State school.)

Because the City was helping me with my degree, it was my expectation to stick around and have a good job in the Library Department after I graduated. (One of the conditions of accepting funds was to not leave employment with the City within 2 calendar years of the last time I accepted funds, because they had a lot of trouble with people abusing the program to get the degree, and then go run off into the private sector.) However, there was a hiring freeze, so I stuck around in my department as a secretary, and did volunteer work at a few branches as a way to “give back” in the meantime.

The hiring freeze thawed once-- oops, we have all these Katrina refugee librarians. Let’s absorb them, then refreeze. Then it thawed a second time, and I interviewed for two different positions. I talked about how I had over 100 kids coming to my programs, and blah blah blah. And the branch manager looked me right in the eye, giggled, and said, “You do such good work as a volunteer, Midori. Why would we ever pay you?”

That was September. My 2 years was up in December. By January, I’d gotten a job offer at a library with a municipality 100 miles away, and I started in February.

The City could have kept me, after investing in my education like they did---- but the pertinent management had imprinted on me as “volunteer” and therefore couldn’t justify paying me $35k/year when I was already doing it for free.

Teaching people about God is different— but if you’re planning on doing it for hire, be cautious about keeping your volunteer work and your paid work separate.

(And, in other news, see what employers offer tuition reimbursement as a perk.)
 
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Why do you say there are no job prospects? I saw lots of jobs advertised in the spring when they were hiring for the new school year. The one thing that I would most likely have to do is relocate, but I’m hoping that after a couple years of teaching experience, I’ll be able to get a job in an area that I can at least tolerate (and not too cold). That’s my hope anyway. The truth is I won’t know until I try.
 
Where did I say there are no job prospects? I advised to check the market to make sure one did not shell out tens of thousands of dollars for a degree only to find out they cannot get a job that pays more than minimum wage or no jobs at all
 
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