From your response it sounds like the TX diocese is becoming a big business (note that I haven’t experienced this in several other US dioceses that we have lived in over the past decade).
I don’t know how you got that from my post. No one in the diocese makes money off our CCE program.
So the diocese is requiring new books every year. Why oh why are they doing this?
No, the diocese is revising it’s text book list soon but it’s the first revision in over 15 years. The reason the diocese is putting out a new list is that the text book publishers have made revisions (at the USCCB’s insistence) to do a better job explaining concepts. We buy new workbooks every year and new texts are needed when they are damaged or when class size increases.
The Faith and Morals of our Church hasn’t changed since Christ’s Assumption into heaven.
Actually, the documents the Church uses to teach the faith have changed and expanded over the last 2000 years. Faith formation isn’t about memorizing the Catechism or faith facts. It’s teaching children how to apply the teaching in their daily lives. It’s the lives of our families that have changed so the application changes.
In the 60’s they taught out of one of the best and simple catechisms called the Baltimore Catechism. They used the same one every year so the parish didn’t have the expense of books.
I used the same one and our parish uses it for second grade. The book is now published as a paperback book so it doesn’t last many years. It’s so cheap and so useful, we give each FHC student two copies (one for the parents who may not have been catechised as well)
The people from that generation knew their Faith well.
Yes and no. They know the rules of the faith but this is the same generation that brought us moral relevatism. When it came to applying, there were weaknesses.
I, rather went thru all of the diocese preparation with all of the new books
Our parish uses the Faith and Life series which has Q&A just like the old BC but tied to the CCC. It’s a strong foundation.
It appears that the publisher of these constantly changing books are really benefiting from the policy of CHANGE.
That’s partially true. But we teach religious ed for grades PK - 11. The materials are very different for each age group. And even good books don’t last forever.
There is no need for supplies because the kids just need paper and a pen which they can get from Walmart for 99cents.
That works for older kids. The middle school grades use lots of white board markers and the littles use crayons and construction paper like crazy.
But I really doubt they are providing supplies because the teacher is the one who determines what he/she is going to be doing from day to day and brings his/her own supplies.
When I taught the younger kids, I bought my own supplies too but not all teachers are able to do that. There are supplies for the program as a whole too such as copy paper, printer toner, computer programs. The diocese requires a lot of record keeping and we have a fairy transient population. As for day-to-day, our teacher manuals give a plan for the whole year and that doesn’t change much from year-to-year. It is fairly easy to predict which supplies a teacher will need.
What is all this new training for?
Don’t you want the teachers to be trained? Our catechist training is 18 months of theology and 10 classes in teaching different ages and learning styles. We have continuing education to keep teachers’ skills current and additional training for those teaching special groups such as kids with special education needs, adults, teens preparing for confirmation, girls preparing for quincinera, etc.
Why add the extra expense burden in such a bad economy?
The training isn’t new so it isn’t fair to compare it to the economy.
Why doesn’t the diocese just have online training to make sure that the teacher is complying with certain guidelines?
The diocese is moving to more onlline courses. But online is not as cheap as you think. The software development is expensvie and the parishes would need to upgrade their computers to make it work. Good idea but not an instant fix.
As far as the cost to maintain the building, that is what tithing is for. If people aren’t paying enough when they tithe then you just make cuts. Like turn the air conditioner down a couple of degrees.
Have you been to Texas lately? Today was day 21 over 100 degrees. We have our religious ed classes between Masses so we don’t even have to turn the A/C on M-Sat. But we are a very poor parish (with no mortgage, by the way). There’s only so much you can squeeze the budget. Whether the money comes from registrations or from the weekly collection, it’s still the same people paying.
Many of our CCE kids also come from families that don’t regularly attend Mass. How fair is it to ask senior citizens to put more in the collection to cover families who aren’t even there when the basket comes around?
I was freezing at mass today. Why not bring in a few fans and turn the AC down 10 degrees? That is what I do in my RV.
Not our experience.
This would allow the parish to have extra money . Again, the biggest expense is paying the interest on the loan not the expense to buy brand new unnecessary catechism books every year.
Our loan IS paid off. And we had no choice in the mortgage. Our original building had a fire. We are almost 20 years in the metal building that was supposed to be “temporary”.
I deleted the rest since it was more rant than an actual attempt to have a reasonable discussion on the topic.
