Teacher difficulty

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I think in order to bring these teens along, you have to convince them the religion is relevant in their lives. This generation of teenagers isn’t the same as generations past, I have found.

I am not sure how to do what I suggest. One thing is pretty certain though. If they don’t feel like the religious teachings are relevant to them, in their daily lives, you have lost them.
 
Hi, religionteacher123. I can understand what you’re saying when you mentioned the issues young people are concerned about regarding Catholicism today. I think the best thing to do is to try to help them understand their Faith better and why the Church teaches what it does on matters such as euthanasia, abortion, the priesthood, and homosexuality. I think sometimes the tendency to stray from the Church comes from a lack of understanding or misunderstanding in Catholic teaching. Sometimes the belief is that it is “more loving” to allow homosexuals to marry in a same-sex union, or “more inclusive” to allow women to be ordained as priests, but the Church’s teaching is rooted in the deepest and truest love that there is, which is the love of God.
People are always searching for truth, especially young people. The best you can do is present the Truth to them and pray for them. I hope this has been helpful. God bless.
 
You’re curious if other young people doubt the teachings of the faith? Of course they do! Why wouldn’t they? Didn’t you ever ask questions? I think most people struggle with certain teachings of the faith, particularly when they not only don’t have a grasp on why the Church believes certain things, but often don’t even fully understand what the Church actually believes! If they didn’t seek to understand why, they’d be complete dumb-dumbs, or as you say, brainwashed. That isn’t how our Church operates.
 
religionteacher123 said:
Of course, and again, I am just curious. Not ‘catering’ to anything.
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You are curious why you are teaching teens with minds of their own and not lemmings?

They have questions that need answers. Many are questions youth have asked for centuries. You have far better resources than even pope jp2 did in his younger years leading teens on mountain retreats.

What is going on is not new or a sign of the church falling behind. If anything it’s a lack of apologetics from day 1.
 
What is needed is prayer.
Ask the Holy Spirit to touch their hearts and guide your words.
Present the truth as taught by the Church.
They can not un-hear the truth.
It may not immediately change their lives, but God will eventually bring a greater good out of your efforts.

If the Church abandoned the truth and bowed to societal pressure then the future of the Church would be bleak. But of course we have the assurance of Christ himself that he will not abandon his Church, so your fear is unfounded.
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
The teachers have to be strong and knowledgeable. They have not time to wallow in self-pity
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This is not fair to the secondary school religion teacher. Students are bombarded with negative comments about the church from the internet and other sources. It is not the same world it was 100 years ago. And in addition to the internet, there are various changes that have come about since Vatican II which can be disorienting. If you know so much about how to teach religion to secondary school students, why don’t you try it yourself?
 
It is not fair to blame the teacher for not teaching??? Who should we blame for Catholic children not understanding rudimentary doctrine? The Janitor?? The Math Teacher???
 
HolySpirit said:
It is not fair to blame the teacher for not teaching???
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He is teaching but the teaching is not getting through to the students for some reason. I think it is unfair to say he is wallowing in self pity. I doubt that you appreciate the problem faced by many teachers today. Things are a lot tougher these days. How many students were shot dead in the classroom 80 years ago. And then when students ask for more school security, pro gun people go on the internet and lie about them and attack their character.
 
What do you yourself believe.

What if any, changes do you think would benefit the church, or not
 
It might help to do some role playing with students, having them research both sides of an argument. Or you can play the negative Nelly with the objections. In other words, you have to pick all the ordinary objections and have a response to them.

Objection: It’s my body, I can do what I want with it.
Response: The baby has a whole different DNA that makes it a unique person, distinct from its mother. Also, your body is a temple. There are many things you cannot do with it, because it’s on loan from the creator.

Apologetics books over at the Catholic Book store would be my first purchase.
 
You need to meet these young people where they are and not where you wish they are. I wonder if you are making that classic mistake about acting as though your students are like younger versions of you, they aren’t, they grew up in a different era.

I agree with others, really read up on apologetics. The norms of society and Catholic teachings are moving further apart and you need to be able to deal with it.
 
religionteacher123 said:
…I feel as if my students feel that Catholicism is a massive fraud and that anyone who believes in it is simply brainwashed. I am just wondering if others feel this way that changes should be made? Or what are your thoughts?
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Several thoughts on this.
  1. We currently live in an age where the sheer amount of information and the number of available perspectives have exploded pretty much beyond anybody’s capacity to consider and deal with what they themselves believe anymore. This is true not merely for teens but for many adults.
    Emotional comfort and security has become a powerful lure and “fitting in” with the perceived majority – regardless of how bizarre, outlandish or tyrannical the proposition – has become the sought-after antidote to the discomfort of feeling lost.
  2. You need to focus on what you believe to be true and why, independently of what society-at-large promotes, but informed by what the Church teaches and why it holds its position. The reason you need this is not to convince your students but to convince yourself. This learning needs to be deep and with a continued focus on how possible objections to the Church’s position are to be properly understood and answered.
  3. Learn the Socratic Method as a way of shedding light on the supposed “enlightened” views that your students have picked up from the society at large. Having students turn their critical outlook on their own thinking by asking simple questions about the foundations of their own convinced beliefs will, no doubt, shed some light on why students think what they do and that those reasons may not be very compelling. This shouldn’t be a “gotcha” exercise but a genuine attempt to understand the issue at its most basic, why your students think the way they do and whether those beliefs can be justified.
  4. Feelings of security are going to be very difficult to break through. People, especially students, are more like zebras blending in with the herd than we suppose. What is driving the current social narrative on marriage, homosexuality, abortion, religion/atheism, and euthanasia is an orchestrated attempt to reshape society according to a utopian vision, and utopian dreams are persuasive precisely because they tap into the deepest frailties and fears of all human beings, especially immature ones. The media has become a powerful force precisely because it has honed its indoctrination skills using media production resources, talents and technology. Its biggest weakness, though, is that the received narrative is basically a lie. The truth will be your best weapon, along with a conviction that every human being basically wants to know the truth – the way things really are.
 
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Wow,this is pretty rude!

OP, I understand where you are coming from. It is not easy teaching religion to children, of any age, in the 21st century.

There is so much competing for their attention and they have parents who have no foundation in the faith.

A priest friend & I were talking, and he said something very interesting. Part of the problem with catechesis, is that we assume that Catholics know the rules. It’s like we think it’s some form of osmosis. Well, kids don’t learn things that their parents can’t teach them.
We need to stop assuming that all Catholics know & understand Church teaching, and actually start teaching and living it on our homes. Nothing I will ever do as a catechist will have as much lasting effect as a home where faith is nurtured.
 
No one likes it, especially little kids, when a authority figure - draws the line.

“I feel as if my students feel that Catholicism is a massive fraud
and that anyone who believes in it is simply brainwashed.”

Sounds like you teach college 🧐
 
Exactly!

I can give all sorts of information to my students, but that does not mean I am “teaching” the faith.
Nothing I ever do will make any difference if faith is not nurtured in the home.

In fact, it is the attitude that “someone else should do it” is what is part of our problem. Parents, PARENTS, not teachers,not priests or sisters, PARENTS, are the primary Catechists of their children.
They need to step up and stop blaming everyone else.
 
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I think the problem is we have a generation of badly taught parents.
 
YES, YES, YES!

For any catechetics to be worth the time put in, the question of ‘so what?’ has to be answered.

Additionally, it’s harder in a classroom setting, but the seeds of a deep, personal, intimate relationship with Christ need to be sown in whatever way possible.
 
The ‘kumbayah katechesis’ of the '70s and '80s is catching up with us…
 
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