Trends in Catholic education

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awfulthings9

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Hey all,

I am interviewing for a job this weekend, and one of the qualities of the person who will fill that position is that he must be “familiar with trends in contemporary religious education”. I’m having trouble putting my finger on specific “trends”, can anyone in here, especially those of you in Catholic education, provide some insight or point me in the direction of good resources?

Thanks!
 
I am going to assume that this is some kind of Catholic school or Religious Ed job???

Without more information, I would venture a guess that they are talking about “trends” such as: whole family catechesis, restored order sacrament prep, teaching different learning styles, multi-sensory teaching, inclusive teaching (primarily speaking of including those with disabilities), and the disturbing (IMO) trend of doing away with RE completely for middle and high school students in favor of youth groups (ex Edge for m/s and Life Teen for h/s). Some are trends and some are just “trendy”. 😉

For a resource, try Catechist Magazine. Not usually recommended but probably a good source for trendy stuff. They have an online archive of past articles. peterli.com/cat/about/aboutcat.shtm

Good luck with the job interview.
 
In addition to those trends, there is (ta-da!) a trend in the midwest toward “back to basics”: traditional prayers, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and correct behavior during Mass.

You’re just going to have to feel out the group to see which set it is…
 
Corki said:
I am going to assume that this is some kind of Catholic school or Religious Ed job???

Without more information, I would venture a guess that they are talking about “trends” such as: whole family catechesis, restored order sacrament prep, teaching different learning styles, multi-sensory teaching, inclusive teaching (primarily speaking of including those with disabilities), and the disturbing (IMO) trend of doing away with RE completely for middle and high school students in favor of youth groups (ex Edge for m/s and Life Teen for h/s). Some are trends and some are just “trendy”. 😉

For a resource, try Catechist Magazine. Not usually recommended but probably a good source for trendy stuff. They have an online archive of past articles. peterli.com/cat/about/aboutcat.shtm

Good luck with the job interview.
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That would be a nightmare!

Good luck on your interview.
 
OutinChgoburbs said:
In addition to those trends, there is (ta-da!) a trend in the midwest toward "back to basics": traditional prayers, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and correct behavior during Mass.

That’s good to hear! When my kids were in Catholic school, I was surprised to find that they were reading “Friday Night Lights” in English class. The book includes cursing, even using the Lord’s name in vain. I spoke to the Principal, and asked him why they didn’t read Catholic classics (Story of a Soul, Confessions, etc.). It fell on deaf ears.
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Thank you all,

I forgot that I had posted this and haven’t checked for a while. The job interview is tomorrow. I’m very excited and think I have a good shot. I’ve been doing a lot of talks at area churches in the past year and have had a spot on our diocesan Catholic program, teaching apologetics, and part of what has gotten me to the short list has been the appeal of someone with my background restoring the Catholic identity of the school. Keep me in your prayers.
 
Larry1700 said:
That’s good to hear! When my kids were in Catholic school, I was surprised to find that they were reading “Friday Night Lights” in English class. The book includes cursing, even using the Lord’s name in vain. I spoke to the Principal, and asked him why they didn’t read Catholic classics (Story of a Soul, Confessions, etc.). It fell on deaf ears.
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At our school, even Captain Underpants does not make an appearance in the library. Books containing the material you mention can only be read at home, with parental permission, and not brought to school.

We do weekly Mass and rosary, monthly adoration and Benediction, frequent opportunities to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation- and we only have one priest and one deacon.
 
awfulthings9 said:
Thank you all,

I forgot that I had posted this and haven’t checked for a while. The job interview is tomorrow. I’m very excited and think I have a good shot.
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I’ll say a quick prayer! I have an interview at a small, Catholic school next week! —KCT
 
awfulthings9 said:
Hey all,

I am interviewing for a job this weekend, and one of the qualities of the person who will fill that position is that he must be “familiar with trends in contemporary religious education”. I’m having trouble putting my finger on specific “trends”, can anyone in here, especially those of you in Catholic education, provide some insight or point me in the direction of good resources?

Thanks!
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anything by Thomas Groome will be good for identifying “trends in religious education.” I think it is a great idea to identify them so you can run as fast as you can in the other direction when you encounter them.
 
I believe the interview went well. One disappointment was that we were asked to do a five-minute presentation on where we envisioned the school in one year and in five, and I was the only candidate who requested to do it on a Smartboard, with Powerpoint. I thought I would impress them with that, but the equipment they located for me was password protected and nobody knew how to get in, so I had to go with the back-up handouts.

They’ll get back with the candidates later this week, so right now I’m trying to emotionally distance myself from my pre-interview excitement and prepare myself, through prayer and reflection, to accept someone else getting the job. Of course I would be overjoyed to receive it, but I have to anticipate that God’s will might not be mine.

One interesting story, though, that I thought you all might find scary (considering how easily it could happen to anyone), is that the Superintendent called and asked me to stop by three days before the interview. My background check from the state had come back labeling me as guilty of child neglect from nearly three years ago. Needless to say, I was shocked and knew nothing about this. When I checked into it the next day (after a restless night), I learned that my name, birthdate, and social security number had been switched, by a clerical error, with a meth dealer in another part of the state (same name as mine, and his county has the same name as my city). I was on the phone all day, mostly getting the run-around, before I convinced someone to dig out the original police reports, where they discovered the error and cleared my name, faxing me a letter to make things right with the diocese.
 
Well, the committee reached a decision. I didn’t want to put it in this thread, however, since it has run its course. See the new thread called “Great News”. Hopefully, KCT will have some from her interview today.
 
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