What sets religious education apart from regular education?
I gave a live presentation comparing religious education to other forms of teaching, which you can find here:
But I was only able to scratch the surface of what we do differently in religion and catechesis.
There is much more to say . . .
I want to begin with the classic complaint teachers have heard since the beginning of time:
“Why do I have to learn this?”
OR . . . “When am I ever going to use this?”
I’ve heard it many times over the years whether it was in the history classroom or my religion classes.
I’m not going to lie, as a parent I had this very same thought last week when my daughter asked for help with her math homework.
She asked me how to factor a polynomial. I had absolutely no idea.
After some Googling (and no small amount of frustration) I walked away thinking, “I’ve never used that skill once in my life outside of Algebra class. When is she ever going to need to know that?”
I’m an educator. I know the answer is something like, “because it teaches you great problem-solving skills that you will use in everything you do.”
So, yes, that is one answer.
in school students learn skills that can be applied to the work they do as adults.
This could apply to all subject areas:
Why do I have to learn history? Because history repeats itself. You will apply the lessons you learn about human nature to the way you contribute to society as an adult.
Why do I have to read classic literature? Because reading books like 1984 or Animal Farm help us understand the way the world works. Reading To Kill A Mockingbird help us understand why humans relate to one another in everyday life.
Why do I have to learn biology? Because the foundation you gain today will help you make better decisions about your health as an adult.
But what about religion class?
What sets us apart as religious educators?
Religious Education vs. Regular Education
Imagine students thinking and asking:
“Why do I have to learn religion?”
“Why do I have to learn about the Church’s teachings?”
“Why do I have to go to catechesis?”
Your initial answers are probably a lot like my initial thoughts (instead of “religion” I’ll say “Christianity”).
Because learning Christianity . . .
- helps you become a better person.
- helps you live a happy life.
- helps you get to heaven.
But the more I thought about this, the more I realized something was missing.
Is religious education just a means to an end?
Are we just giving them strategies to get to heaven?
Learn this and you will pass the ULTIMATE test??
The One Difference Religious Education Makes
Think about this . . .
Jesus once said, “My teaching is not my own but comes from the one who sent me” (Jn 7:16).
He gave his closest followers a final command, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20).
That is one of my favorite Bible passages. You will hear me quote it constantly in videos and in emails, but it is the next phrase that really sets us apart from every other subject area we could teach.
It isn’t just the subject matter (religion) that makes us different. It is the subject. It is the person.
Jesus continued:
“Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).
It is God’s presences that sets religious education apart
It is not the lessons about God. It is not the content area and ideas an information.
We teach what was passed down from us through person to person tracing all the way back to Jesus Christ and God the Father.
From relationship to relationship, we have received not an introduction to ideas but an introduction to a person.
God is with us always.
We do not teach alone.
These words from Saint Paul have really touched my heart lately:
“I planted . . . but God gave the growth” (1 Cor 3:6).
Our work is not about how great we are as teachers.
It is not about the usefulness of the teachings and lessons.
Our work is about planting seeds.
It is God who makes the impact, God who places the teachings on their hearts.
God is with us.
God is at work through us.
He is the one that will take our time and effort and growth them into a beautiful life in the future.
Bottom line: religion is about a relationship.
We are leading our students into a relationship with Christ. He will be by their side every day for the rest of their lives.
What an amazing opportunity!
The work is not our own. It comes from the one who set us. We show up each day and let God do the work. Plant seeds and let him do the rest.
A Vision for their Future
Why do they have to learn this?
As Pope Benedict XVI once said:
“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Deus Caritas Est, 1).
Our students will forget what we said.
They will forget our names (truly, many of them will!).
They will forget our best lesson plans and best activities.
Many of the ideas will fade from their memories.
God is the one constant that will remain after the memories fade.
The relationship we help establish today will grow with God’s help for the rest of their lives.
An encounter with the living God today will lead to a greater relationship tomorrow.
Visualize your students’ lives twenty years from now . . .
Imagine them living life in a relationship with Jesus Christ. They look back not on our great teaching or interesting lectures and anecdotes. They look back and remember the beginnings of a relationship so important today that they cannot imagine life any other way.
This is our goal!
It is a grand goal!
But our job is so much simpler.
Just plant seeds.
God will give the growth.
Let go of the stress and pressure you put on yourself to change their lives.
God will do that. Just plant seeds and let God give the growth.
Don’t worry about the perfect lesson and the perfect class.
Focus on encounters over education.
3 Short-Term Thinking Traps in Religious Education
Are you approaching religious education just like regular education?
Regular education is about information.
Religious education is about the formation of a relationship.
If we teach history, science, math, literature, PE, art, music, etc. then our goal should be to help our students LOVE those subject areas.
When I was a history teacher, I wanted my students to love history like I do.
But as a religion teacher, I’m not not as interested in motivating my kids to love learning religion.
My goal today is to encourage kids to love God.
Thankfully, we are not alone. God is with us.
He is at work in the lessons we teach. He wants to speak directly to our students through the Scripture, Sacraments, saints, etc. they learn in class.
God is the goal! God is also the way (and the truth and the life)!
Remember our question of the week? Students will ask:
Why do I have to learn this?
By default, our answers often fall into a few short-term thinking traps.
All too often we approach our work focused on the WHAT instead of the HOW or the WHY.
WHAT = what we use to teach
HOW = how we teach with these tools
WHY = why the teachings relate to their lives
Students don’t ask about the WHAT or the HOW. They ask about the WHY:
Why do I have to learn this?
Yet, we usually respond with an answer about the WHAT and the HOW.
We give short-term answers rather than a long-term vision of religious education.
Let’s think about this in terms of three short-term traps:
Short-term Trap #1: Textbooks
Why do I have to learn this?
Short-term answer: Because it’s in the book.
It is easy to fall into this trap. The textbook is the primary teaching tool we all receive each year. The chapters determine what we will teach each week. Rightly so, for each of these books went through a strenuous approval process by the USCCB. I know because I worked in Catholic textbook publishing for ten years.
I still use a textbook today. It is the inspiration for the ideas I will teach each week.
With my students right now, the chapter I’m teaching this month focuses on the Liturgy of the Word. This topic led me to orient my lesson on the importance of listening. God was at work, too. Our pastor’s homily on the healing of the deaf man a couple of weeks ago just happened to focus on the importance of listening as well. I’m hopeful my students practiced some of the techniques we discussed in class as they attended mass that weekend!
So the textbook was a huge inspiration for me this month. It is the first place I go in order to plan my lesson.
But the textbook isn’t the reason I wanted them to learn about the Liturgy of the Word.
The textbook only provides the WHAT.
A textbook is not very good at the HOW or WHY.
WHY do my students have to learn the ideas in the textbook?
That is for us to answer.
My WHY this month was teaching students to be good listeners.
Why? Because God is speaking to them! God has a message just for them in the readings at Mass. He has a message just for them in the stories and Scripture passages we read in class.
Can I expect them to show mastery in listening immediately? No, this is a long-term habit to instill in them today and each time we meet.
God is speaking to us. Are we listening?
That’s my why this month. It started with the textbook but it didn’t end there.
It is our job to bridge the gap between the personal lives and the topics in the textbook.
it is our job to guide students to relate the material in a meaningful way.
Short-term Trap #2: Tests
Why do I have to learn this?
Short-term Answer: Because it’s on the test.
I used to fall into the Test Trap all the time.
I got so annoyed when kids would ask “why do I have to learn this?”
So, I fell into the trap of responding with threats.
“Pay attention, because this is going to be on the test!”
I kept saying that before every lecture and anytime kids were talking or unengaged.
It’s an empty threat. I mean c’mon. They know it’s on the test. That doesn’t make what we’re teaching and how we’re teaching it any more interesting.
Talk about short-term thinking!
Here’s the message I was sending:
Pay attention now. Take the test later. Then we are moving on to the next topic and feel free to forget about the random facts you memorized because you need to worry about the next test.
Tests are absolutely important. We need to provide some form of assessment to make sure they have understood the teachings we have presented. (This applies to parish religious educators as well. Assessments do not have to be a quiz or test. They can be something more simple or creative.)
But the goal of religious education is not a passing grade.
You could have a straight-A student in class, but if they lack a relationship with God then we’ve missed the point.
Instead, focus on the long-term relationship.
God is with them right now in this moment!
Plant some seeds that God can grow in their hearts and minds many years later.
Why do I have to learn this?
Because this is so important to your life today that I’m going to put it on the test. I want to make sure you know this because God has something he wants you to know or do this very day. This will be important to you in real-life situations.
The real test comes without a no. 2 pencil, paper, or blue book.
The real test comes each day as we encounter new obstacles to experiencing God’s grace and love.
Short-term Trap #3: I’m the Teacher!
Why do I have to learn this?
Short-term Answer: Because I said so.
This was truly my biggest bad habit.
After losing all my patience, I finally resorted to short and direct “because I said so.”
I’m the teacher. You do as I say. That’s your job.
I do this as a dad, too, unfortunately.
In heated arguments, I fall back to simply: I’m the dad…because I said so!
We’re not wrong when we say or think this.
Students and children really do have to listen to us. Listening is an expectation.
But when we plan out a long lecture and their attention spans start to stretch, can we really blame them for getting distracted?
I was so guilty of this trap in my first year of teaching. Fresh out of college, I thought teaching was lecturing like a college professor. My middle school students were terrible. They couldn’t pay attention for more than 10 minutes at a time and this was in the days before smart phones and social media!
“Stop talking! Listen up! Pay attention!”
Look, we are religious educators. We love learning about our faith!
We could stand up in front of that class and talk for hours, right?
Usually, kids aren’t intentionally disruptive. They aren’t trying to make you angry. They’re just bored.
They just don’t have the attention spans to listen very long.
It is hard for them to connect with what we say. It is hard to see the ways in which our long lectures apply to their everyday lives.
There are no amount of excellent public speaking strategies to get them to pay attention longer than 15-20 minutes at a time.
Because they don’t care about the same things that you care about.
They’re kids. They’re not interested in studying theology just because you said so.
Instead, they need a reason to listen.
Religion is a Relationship
I came home from a high school youth conference in my sophomore year of high school with a completely new perspective on learning theology. I had a meaningful encounter with Christ during Eucharistic adoration. It was the first time I realized learning about Jesus wasn’t like learning about any other historical figure.
I knew Jesus. He knew me. I experienced his presence. I wanted to learn everything about this God that I had come to know and love.
What sets us apart in religious education?
It is not the incredible information and ideas.
It is not the textbooks or tests or wonderful lesson plans and lectures.
It is God. God is with us.
We are set apart because we are sharing a relationship that we have with God. We are inviting our students to share in that relationship too.
God is with us every time we meet with our students.
“When two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them,” says the Lord (Mt 18:20).
We have one advantage in our classrooms over all other forms of education.
We are not teaching alone.
God is at work through us even when we cannot see it or feel it.
I keep coming back to this phrase again and again as a religious educator:
“I planted . . . but God gave the growth” (1 Cor 3:6).
Don’t worry about the success each day.
Just plant seeds.
God is at work.
We won’t be perfect and God takes our imperfections and turns them into something incredible.
We are not training theologians.
We are making disciples.
We are fostering a relationship of faith between our students and God.
Don’t let textbooks, tests, and long lectures stand in the way of this goal.
Again, I invite you to watch the Religious Education vs. Regular Education presentation. The presentation is only about 20-30 minutes so you don’t need to carve out an entire hour of your day. Go watch and see if you can make a few changes to your approach this week.
The WHY was my main goal in that presentation.
Next, let’s focus on the HOW of religious education.
How do we focus on the long-term relationship between our students and God?
Religion textbooks, tests, and teachings show us WHAT to teach.
Religious education leads us into a relationship with God. This is the WHY we teach.
Now, the HOW:
Just Plant Seeds
Religious education leads students into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
God is with us. He is working through us. We are not alone.
Saint Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest scholars in the history of the world. He was a gifted philosopher and theologian.
He was almost finished with his grand masterpiece, the Summa Theolgiae, when he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ.
While in prayerful meditation, Saint Thomas Aquinas heard the Lord ask him what he wished as a reward for his labor.
“Nothing but you, Lord,” he replied.
Soon afterwards he looked at his masterpiece and considered it to be (along with all of his other writings) just like straw.
Nothing mattered except his relationship with Jesus Christ.
No amount of theology could compare to that relationship.
Incredible.
We cannot let the things we “have to teach” from the textbook, tests, and teachings we present in lectures stand in the way of the relationship with Jesus Christ.
So today, want to address the balance we must find between what we HAVE TO teach and what we NEED TO teach.
Because we NEED TO teach in ways that will make a long-term impact.
Students are annoyed and bored and asking, “Why do I have to learn this?”
The short-term answer is “because you have to!”
The long-term answer is “because you will thank me later.”
Let’s focus on that “later.”
Imagine your students’ lives twenty years from now.
We want them to have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. Period.
As they look back upon their time in our class, what will they remember?
What will have the biggest impact on their lives and stick with them in their long-term memories?
Many of you have shared in my motto for the year:
JUST PLANT SEEDS
As Saint Paul wrote, “I planted . . . and God gave the growth.”
God is at work through us.
God will give the growth to the seeds we plant today.
Our only goal each day is to decide what kinds of seeds to plant and how to sow those seeds in ways that will stick with them for many years to come.
I came up with this SEEDS acronym that has really helped me:
The SEEDS Acronym
SEEDS stands for:
S – Stories
E – Emotion
E – Encounters
D – Discipline
S – Sayings
S is for Stories
While we may have trouble remembering definitions we memorized in class, we can almost always remember stories. When we hear a story, we place ourselves in the shoes of the people in the story. Best of all, we reflect on the transformation in the story along with our own transformation. Then these stick with us. They become a part of us.
E is for Emotion
Teaching is essentially a transfer of energy and emotion. Passion is contagious. The more you love to learn and teach a topic, the more your students will want to experience that love as well.
E is for Encounters
Encounter is at the center of the acronym because it is the most important part of what we do. The experience of an encounter with our personal Lord and Savior is the single most important seed we can sow in the lives of our students. This meeting with the Lord will blossom into a lifelong relationship.
D is for Discipline
You can’t spell discipline without disciple. Discipline is developed over time through hard work and practice. The Christian life consists of more than good feelings; it requires discipline to adhere to the commandments. As an educator, you will prepare students for the future by developing discipline today that becomes a part of who they are many years later.
S is for Sayings
All of us hear and repeat certain sayings that are so well crafted that they become impossible to forget. The Book of Proverbs and various other Bible verses offer great examples of these sayings. Years later your students might repeat one of your sayings, “I had a teacher that used to say . . .”
Just plant SEEDS: Stories, Emotion, Encounters, Discipline, and Sayings.
Today I want to narrow our focus on the first three SEEDS.
What will our thirty-something former students remember from our classes?
If you run into them in the back of church or in the supermarket, what will they say?
The reality is they will forget our great lessons. They won’t remember our perfect-looking PowerPoints.
But they may remember our stories. They may remember how we made them feel. They may remember a prayerful encounter with Christ that set them on the path of that loving relationship with God.
S is for STORIES
SHARE STORIES
Imagine this:
A student hears a story in class that touches their heart in some small way. They can’t stop thinking about that story. They share it with their family at dinner. They feel God tugging on their hearts to make some small change to live like the people in those stories.
A story expresses a transformation.
Christian stories often repeat the age-old phrase: I once was lost but now I am found.
Share stories from Scripture.
Share stories from the lives of the Saints.
Share your own stories as witness and testimony.
But most importantly, use the process of Lectio Divina to read these stories. Help students not just read or listen, but meditate on God’s message for them through the story and respond in prayerful questions or thanksgiving to the Lord. Most of all, let the time of contemplation open their hearts to change.
I’ve written hundreds of short biographies of the saints in The Religion Teacher’s Saint Worksheet Collection for members. With each new saint I studied, it became more and more clear to me how important these saint stories are for religious formation.
In the life of saint after saint, it was the holy men and women that came before them that provided the inspiration and motivation to make their own religious transformations.
Saint stories made more saint stories in the lives of real people.
The saints were inspired by the saints.
Your students will be inspired by the saints, too. Share their stories.
E is for EMOTION
MAKE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
I’ve constantly reminded myself of this popular teacher maxim:
They may forget what you said, but they will never forget the way you made them feel.
Based on the way my daughters talk about their teachers, difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher really comes down to the way the teachers speak to them.
It isn’t the way they speak in lectures.
It’s the way they speak to the students in between the presentations. It’s the way they make the students feel accepted, loved, and challenged.
“She doesn’t like me.” or “He hates us.”
Kids exaggerate of course, but those emotions are huge for them.
I’m so guilty of this. I become so focused on the perfect lesson plan that I often fail to slow down and listen to students. I often ignore what they have going on in their lives and focus on my own plans instead.
Slow down. Listen to the students.
Smile.
Forgive and forgive and forgive, not seven times but seven times seventy times.
No seed you say in class can compare to the emotional seed you plant in your interaction with students.
Let me share a slam dunk when it comes to emotion.
Ready?
It’s simple:
Praise your students.
Believe in them more than they believe in themselves.
Write notes of praise. Pull students aside and tell them when they do a good job.
I’m not talking empty “good jobs.” I mean find something not matter how small that you see, and compliment them for it.
Praise especially those students who are giving you the most trouble.
Praise has a powerful impact on kids and we do not do it enough.
E is for ENCOUNTER
ENCOUNTERS EVERY DAY
Finally, you will know by now that nothing compares to the opportunities for encounter with Christ in class.
Education is important.
Encounters are life-changing.
Give your students time for prayerful meditation, prayer, and contemplation.
God is with us.
We are helping students form a relationship with Jesus Christ not just “someday” but TODAY. This very day!
Give them time to work on that relationship with Jesus Christ in class.
Meditation is listening to what God wants to say to them.
Prayer is talking to God about what they’ve heard.
Contemplations is spending time with God so we know how to follow him.
Someone asked during Monday night’s presentation how to grade this time spent in meditation and prayer.
First, I feel that push-back. We have so much to teach and so little time! If we work in a Catholic school, we need to have something in the grade book before parents start emailing us about what our students are actually accomplishing in class.
The short answer is to build in grades for participation. Don’t grade on what they write in a prayer assignment, just grade them for effort. This adds some accountability. I realize it might take away from the sincerity of the prayer experiences, so watch the way these assignments are received by the students.
The point is, however, that the time spent in meditation and prayer is time well-spent. It may count for nothing on the test, but it will make a life-long impact. That is the goal!
YOU ARE DOING GREAT
Thank you. Thank you for all the time and effort you are putting into the lives of your students this year.
We have a lot of responsibility, don’t we?
Are those souls in our hands??
Don’t forget: God gives the growth.
Just plant seeds.
Share stories and meditate on them with students.
Give them opportunities to encounter Christ.
Give them positive praise, mercy, and a smile to brighten their day. They need it more than we know.
I feel so blessed to get to share in this responsibility with you. I’m praying for my own students and praying for you as you begin this new year.
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