Catholicism for First Graders
Ursula Hennessey ·
Sep 15, 2010 at 6:01am
Yesterday, in addition to being a big election day around the country, was also my daughter's first-ever formal religious education class. She's 6.
At our local Catholic church, there are some 1,900 kids in the religious ed program. They don't fool around. Even for first graders.
On Day One, she informed me, they learned about God and Jesus in their hour-long afternoon class.
"Jesus died on a cross," she told me matter-of-factly. Then, adding with a hint of scandal, "They didn't feed him!"
Even though she seems to think of Jesus's death as a sort of cautionary neglected pet tale, I'm confident she'll learn all the complexities of the Passion soon enough.
"Oh!" she noted. "We also prayed the rosemary."
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Jun '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
I can sympathize. I start RCIA next week. I'm getting the impression that my curriculum, even with the same message, will be a little more difficult than hers.
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Oh, how interesting, etoile! I would be very curious to hear how it goes for you. Actually, next week I begin teaching 7th grade confirmation classes. There's probably much to share. There are many mysterious elements of the church/faith that will certainly bring lots of questions from skeptical 13-year-olds. Perhaps you'll have a good objective opinion on answers that are helpful! I'll keep you mind...
May '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Ah! Nothing like prayer Thyme!
Jun '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
EJHill
Ah! Nothing like prayer Thyme! · Sep 15 at 6:40am
...or more specifically, prayer thyme during Ordinary Thyme. :)
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Years of CCD classes for my kids and finally I asked them what CCD stands for and they didn't know. Then I asked the tearchers and they didn't know.
I know because I looked it up.
Any Catholics here know? (On your honor, no Googling!)
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Let's hope they leave Matthew 5:13 for a future grade, lest she
etoiledunord
EJHill
Ah! Nothing like prayer Thyme! · Sep 15 at 6:40am
...or more specifically, prayer thyme during Ordinary Thyme. :) · Sep 15 at 6:47am
Let's hope they leave Matthew 5:13 for another year.
Jun '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
From what I've picked up so far, it goes in stages, getting more Catholic-specific as you move on. I was a Lutheran, but came to the opinion that without the kind of central authority that still exists in Catholicism, there's no telling what direction a Protestant church will go, or how it will divide itself further. After 500 years, time to go back home. :)
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Tommy De Seno:
Any Catholics here know? (On your honor, no Googling!) · Sep 15 at 6:50am
I know McGurn knows, but I'm guessing something about Catholic Doctrine? I should know, that's for sure. Off to Google...
(P.S. Welcome, Tommy! Being from Staten Island, I have spent many, many years on the Jersey Shore.)
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
etoiledunord
After 500 years, time to go back home. :) · Sep 15 at 6:54am
I like that! One of the things I've been doing to prep for my teaching is studying what's different about the Catholic church from other Christian denominations. I'm woefully undereducated in the basics history, so this is a real learning process for me. I am embarrassed, actually, at the number of things I am learning for the first time about my faith now that I am charged with teaching it to others!
Aug '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Tommy De Seno: Years of CCD classes for my kids and finally I asked them what CCD stands for and they didn't know. Then I asked the tearchers and they didn't know.
I know because I looked it up.
Any Catholics here know? (On your honor, no Googling!) · Sep 15 at 6:50am
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.
May '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Them's fightin' words to this Baptist!
Seriously, though, best of luck in your journey.
Aug '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
My wife & I began catechizing our children (6 & 4) several years ago in fits and starts. It is wonderful to hear them answer the questions in their high, squeaky and very southern accents:
Q. 1. Who made you?
A. God.
Q. 2. What else did God make?
A. God made all thangs.
Q. 3. Why did God make you and all things ?
A. Fer his own glory.
Q. 4. How can you glorify God?
A. By lovin' him and doin' what he commands.
Q. 5. Why ought you to glorify God?
A. 'Cause he made me and takes care of me.
Q. 6. Are there more gods than one?
A. There is only one God.
Q. 7. In how many persons does this one God exist?
A. In three persons.
Q. 8. What are they?
A. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost....
etc.
Catechizing is a woefully neglected spiritual discipline these days...
Edited on Sep 15, 2010 at 7:47amJun '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Matthew Gilley
Them's fightin' words to this Baptist!
Seriously, though, best of luck in your journey. · Sep 15 at 7:28am
Thanks. As somebody said, it's not subtraction, or division. It's addition. That's the way I look at it.
Aug '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Matthew Gilley
Them's fightin' words to this Baptist!
Seriously, though, best of luck in your journey. · Sep 15 at 7:28am
Unfortunately, Matthew, I think etoile is correct in his assertion. For example, how many of your Baptist brethren ( I am SBC by the way ) could explain the difference between the Catholic position on Justification and the traditional Baptist (i.e. protestant) understanding of how one can hope to stand before a Holy God? If your experience is like mine, it would consist of little more than "justifi-wha? I jes know I loves Jesus."
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
John H wins the prize!
I have to say I was really embarrassed myself when I realized I had been a Catholic all my life, put my kids all through CCD classes and never onces stopped to learn what CCD stood for.
But that's very Catholic. We don't question anything, which also has something to do with kids going to Catholic school K through 12 and not once being asked to crack open the Bible itself and read it.
They only read the Catechism.
A protestant preacher who was a former Catholic told me that the reason Catholics don't use the Bible in Catholic schools is because the Church doesn't want people forming their own opinions about the passages. They only want them to know the Church's position on the meaning of the passages.
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
And thanks for the welcome, Ursula.
What towns at the Jersey Shore did you most visit?
Jun '10
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Tommy De Seno: .....kids going to Catholic school K through 12 and not once being asked to crack open the Bible itself and read it.
They only read the Catechism.
A protestant preacher who was a former Catholic told me that the reason Catholics don't use the Bible in Catholic schools is because the Church doesn't want people forming their own opinions about the passages. They only want them to know the Church's position on the meaning of the passages. · Sep 15 at 7:41am
Lately, I've been looking at the websites of Catholic Churches, and I see a lot of Bible Study groups listed, usually one for men and one for women. I think the lack of Bible Study may have been true in the past, but I don't think it's true anymore.
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Tommy De Seno: And thanks for the welcome, Ursula.
What towns at the Jersey Shore did you most visit? · Sep 15 at 7:43am
Hi Tommy, in my teens and 20s: Belmar and Point Pleasant. (Post-high-school-prom trips were always to Seaside.) As I got a bit older, I spent more time in Spring Lake. When I was training for a marathon, I'd drive there on the weekends to run the boardwalk from Spring Lake to Asbury Park and back. (I think part of that stretch doesn't/didn't have a boardwalk, but I ran it anyway.) Then, with my husband's family, we've spent many summers in Surf City, LBI. Good memories all around!
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
I think you are right, etoile. My dad was very involved in a Catholic Bible Study group in New Hampshire before he died recently and our current church here in CT is very big on both Bible study groups AND stressing it to the kids in religious ed. Not sure what prompted that shift/change, if indeed it can be characterized that way.
Re: Catholicism for First Graders
Thanks for the tip etoiledunord, I'm glad to see that happening.