Educating in Christ: A Practical Handbook for Developing the Catholic Faith from Childhood to Adolescence -- For Parents, Teachers, Catechists and School Administrators

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Therefore, the formational experience of the Catholic school constitutes an impressive barrier against the influence of a widespread mentality that leads young people especially «to consider themselves and their lives as a series of sensations to be experienced rather than as a work to be accomplished» [47]. At the same time, it contributes to insuring strong character formation [….] capable both of resisting the debilitating influence of relativism and of living up to the demands made on them by their Baptism » [48]. The communion experienced in the educational community, animated and sustained by lay and consecrated persons joined together in the same mission, makes the Catholic school a community environment filled with the spirit of the Gospel. Now, this community environment appears as a privileged place for the formation of young people in the construction of a world based on dialogue and the search for communion, rather than in contrast; on the mutual acceptance of differences rather than on their opposition. In this way, with its educational project taking inspiration from ecclesial communion and the civilization of love, the Catholic school can contribute considerably to illuminating the minds of many, so that «there will arise a generation of new persons, the moulders of a new humanity» [58]. J.M. Barrie’s famous novel Peter Pan or The Boy Who Never Grew Up presents a child who never ages or changes, and who cannot abide change: he retains the innocence, naïveté and egocentricity of a young child. Cute as this may be, it’s no recipe for child-raising. Likewise, a religious education that assumes the child will always be five or fifteen will fail to attract, convert and teach. (The same might be said of liturgies.) Thus O’Shea gives us chapters on the ages and stages of human development, and appropriate educational responses, as identified by great theorists and practitioners such as Montessori and Caveletti. Young people progress from gathering data to constructing ‘big pictures’, from criticizing faith to appropriating it for themselves and, ultimately we hope, to synthesizing faith and reason. So the book proposes a pattern for religious education of Wendy, The Girl Who Grew Up, rather than for Peter Pan. If you regard the objective of religious education as the formation of a Catholic heart, memory, intellect, and imagination, then you will consider Educating in Christan indispensable text.Drawing on ideas from Maria Montessori and Sofia Cavalletti, it explains how to hand on the faith at different stages of a child’s development. Every Catholic teacher should read and apply it.”

Did I dare disturb her grief or interrupt her sacred intercourse? Hesitating, I heard still more human sounds, further up the stairway. The professional formation of the educator implies a vast range of cultural, psychological and pedagogical skills, characterized by autonomy, planning and evaluation capacity, creativity, openness to innovation, aptitude for updating, research and experimentation. It also demands the ability to synthesize professional skills with educational motivations, giving particular attention to the relational situation required today by the increasingly collegial exercise of the teaching profession. Moreover, in the eyes and expectations of students and their families, the educator is seen and desired as a welcoming and prepared interlocutor, able to motivate the young to a complete formation, to encourage and direct their greatest energy and skills towards a positive construction of themselves and their lives, and to be a serious and credible witness of the responsibility and hope which the school owes to society. At an ecclesial level also, the communion experienced within the Catholic school can and must be open to an enriching exchange in a more extensive communion with the parish, the diocese, ecclesial movements and the universal Church. This means that lay persons (educators and parents) and consecrated persons belonging to the educational community must take a meaningful part, even outside the walls of the Catholic school, in the life of the local Church. The members of the diocesan clergy and the lay persons of the local Christian community, who do not always have an adequate knowledge of the Catholic school, must discover it as a school of the Christian community, a living expression of the same Church of Christ to which they belong. Jesus commands us to love God with our whole being, including our mind (Matthew 22:37). And so we study the word of God, that the Holy Spirit may teach us (John 14:26) and make us more like Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). Dr. Gerard O’Shea, is a Professor of Religious Education at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia. He is also Assistant Director for Catholic Education for the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes.He and his wife Anne have five children, and seven grandchildren.Though God is our ultimate teacher, he chooses to work through humans to educate his people. God has always appointed religious leaders in the community to teach his people. In the Old Testament, the Levites were assigned the task of teaching Israel the ways of Yahweh (Nehemiah 8:9; 2 Chronicles 35:3). In our day, God has given us pastor-elders to teach the church. Educating in Christ covers the essential practical and theoreticalelements of religious education and catechetics for parents, catechists, teachers, and Catholic school administrators. The first part of the book responds to contemporary calls from the popesfor a religious education based upon authentic Christian anthropology. It provides a comprehensive outline of religious developmental stages, indicating activities appropriate for each of these from age three years to adolescence. It also takes into account the call of recent Church documents to approach this task from a “mystagogical” angle, linking the sacraments with the scriptures.In the second part, thebest of contemporary teachingpractices are linked with sound Montessori principles and the Catholic understanding of a pedagogy of God. BusyCatholic school administrators willfind the provided summary of Catholic teaching on education since Vatican II a very usefulreference tool. Teachersand home-schooling parents will find the sections on classroom methods, and thecurriculum outline based on the liturgical year, especially helpful. If you regard the objective of religious education as the formation of a Catholic heart, memory, intellect, and imagination, then you will consider Educating in Christ an indispensable text. Drawing on ideas from Maria Montessori and Sofia Cavalletti, it explains how to hand on the faith at different stages of a child’s development. Every Catholic teacher should read and apply it.” Elders are educators, as God has entrusted them the task of instructing his people in his word, not their own opinions. Elders are to be “able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:2) and are to be able to “give instruction in sound doctrine” (Titus 1:9). The church, in this way, provides Christian education for the whole family. Parents as Educators While the content he suggests for his curricula is not identical - O'Shea's interest is more on general education than specifically creative arts - he provides an educational framework that is based upon the same philosophy of education and into which, in my opinion, the particular focus of the Way of Beauty could be inserted quite happily.

However, children have a special need for education, as they are in their most formative years. And so God gives parents the important task of training up their children. All parents educate their children, for either good or bad. Some parents train their children in an unbiblical worldview, teaching them to go after false gods (Jeremiah 9:14). But God’s people are to train their children in the way of Christ.Education is a popular topic in the news, and for good reason. Education is one of the most important influences on future generations. That is why the Bible has much to say about the topic. Unfortunately, the Scripture’s theology of education is too often neglected in our day. Both men appeared in their mid-sixties, as they were in the 1930s, when they spearheaded a Catholic revival in England.

What makes this testimony really effective is the promotion, especially within the educational community of the Catholic school, of that spirituality of communion that has been indicated as the great prospect awaiting the Church of the Third Millennium. Spirituality of communion means «an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in the faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as “those who are a part of me”» [21], and «the Christian community’s ability to make room for all the gifts of the Spirit» [22] in a relationship of reciprocity between the various ecclesial vocations. Even in that special expression of the Church that is the Catholic school, spirituality of communion must become the living breath of the educational community, the criterion for the full ecclesial development of its members and the fundamental point of reference for the implementation of a truly shared mission. In a world where cultural challenge is the first, the most provocative and the most effect-bearing» [59], the Catholic school is well aware of the onerous commitments it is called to face and it preserves its utmost importance even in present circumstances.I could even make out the words on one document. Large capital letters said: DANGER—PLAN B REQUIRED. The elegant figure of a woman in a nightgown was visible, her head bent in sorrow. Between her hands, she fingered a Rosary. Its silver crucifix glinted in the pale light. Good biblical theology begins in the garden. It was there that God created Adam and Eve in his image and without sin. But they needed to mature and learn to trust him. The Holy Father, during the Audience granted to the undersigned Prefect, approved this document and authorized its publication.

So the particular genius of this book is to offer practical illustrations of how such a mystagogical catechesis might form and inform the whole approach to R.E. Professor O’Shea recalls his ‘conversion’ to this approach when he was asked to speak – at no notice – to a group of eight-year-olds preparing for First Communion. Instead of lecturing them, Gerard greeted them and then wandered around the room laying out a model altar from the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, some liturgical vessels and linens. Then he set up biblical dioramas of the Annunciation, Last Supper, Empty Tomb, and True Vine. He asked the children to have a good look at what he’d done, and work out what it was all about. After ten minutes’ investigation and pondering, he asked them what they’d discovered. He recounts that: Having already dealt in two previous separate documents with the themes of the identity and mission of Catholic lay persons and of consecrated persons in schools respectively, this document of the Congregation for Catholic Education considers the pastoral aspects regarding cooperation between lay and consecrated persons [6] within the same educational mission. In it, the choice of the lay faithful to live their educational commitment as «a personal vocation in the Church, and not simply as […] the exercise of a profession» [7] meets with the choice of consecrated persons, inasmuch as they are called «to live the evangelical councils and bring the humanism of the beatitudes to the field of education and schools» [8].This wonderful book, written by a professor of education from Notre Dame University, Sydney, Australia, has the answers and much more besides. Balancing the natural and the supernatural, the theoretical and the practical, and combining the best of traditional methods with modern educational theory and psychology (with great prudence), Gerard O'Shea describes how a mystagogical catechesis, rooted in the study of scripture and the actual worship of God is at the heart of every Catholic education. Then he describes how teaching methods and curricula should reflect these principles for children of different ages. Another pillar of open communion is formed by the relationship between the Catholic school and the families that choose it for the education of their children. This relationship appears as full participation of the parents in the life of the educational community, not only because of their primary responsibility in the education of their children, but also by virtue of their sharing in the identity and project that characterize the Catholic school and which they must know and share with a readiness that comes from within. It is precisely because of this that the educational community identifies the decisive space for cooperation between school and family in the educational project, to be made known and implemented with a spirit of communion, through the contribution of everyone, discerning responsibilities, roles and competences. Parents in particular are required to enrich the communion around this project, making the family climate that must characterize the educating community more alive and explicit. For this reason, in willingly welcoming parents’ cooperation, Catholic schools consider essential to their mission the service of permanent formation offered to families, to support them in their educating task and to develop an increasingly closer bond between the values proposed by the school and those proposed by the family. Organized according to the diversities of persons and vocations, but vivified by the same spirit of communion, the educational community of the Catholic school aims at creating increasingly deeper relationships of communion that are in themselves educational. Precisely in this, it «expresses the variety and beauty of the various vocations and the fruitfulness at educational and pedagogical levels that this contributes to the life of the school » [39].