Posted on 11/09/2008 2:17:47 PM PST by TradicalRC
Need help. Pastor at our church pulled aside a friend of ours to form a quiet committee to rebuild a religion curriculum from the ground up. She gave him a list of people she thought would be good to have in the group and she named my wife and I, among others. Looking for recommendations, sources, ideas, anything you think ought to be considered for a Roman Catholic Religion Curriculum. Current curriculum has silly nonsense in it, i.e. "a family is any group of people living together". I hate it when they sacrifice God's ethos in the name of His mercy.
Take your questions to Ignatius Press. They are excellent!!!
When I was a kid, the Baltimore Catechism was it for religious ed. (plus Treasure Chest comics).
Is this for once-a-week classes for public school kids, or daily in a parochial school?
The people at EWTN would also be a wonderful resource for this.
One other thing: I know it’s sometimes hard to get warm bodies to teach regular PRE program, but we must make sure that those teaching are GROUNDED in their faith, are praying for their students and do not have secondary agendas.
Have you thought about your parish having a certification program for your teachers? (apart form the regular diocesan development programs)?
BALTIMORE CATECHISM. Essential. My parish in Minnesota used it, and the results were wonderful.
Daily for parochial school.
Ignatius Press puts out the Faith and Life Series, with texts, workbooks and teachers’ notes. It is is faithful and moderately rigorous religious education course for K-8. Many homeschoolers (as well as parishes) use the series.
—tkoed
We are using Ignatius Faith and Life, it seems pretty good. A little like the Baltimore Catechism but more on the storytelling side.
Since they don’t have an RCIC program, I am just starting with 1st grade and going through 6th, then I’ll spend next year on the preps.
Teach the Catechism! Also, the great Saints of our Church have been ignored in Catholic Schools. After 9 years of a Catholic School education, my 15 year old son had no idea who St. Bernadette is, Padre Pio, The Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, and a whole host of other miracles.
As an aside, tell your Pastor that when he Baptizes a child, he needs to tell the parents to PONDER and PRAY about their child going into RELIGIOUS LIFE! They could guide that little soul to someplace they never thought of.
With 7 years CCD experience, mostly with Faith and Life, I believe http://www.ignatius.com/Textbooks/FaithAndLife/ is the be all and end all for religious ed. Everything else pales in comparison. In the last couple of years Ignatius has updated their material to have some more contemporary looking stuff as supporting/supplemental material and has added the web site material, but they have never wavered in their fidelity to the magesterium. For Kindergarten, use Ignatius’ Image of God book:
http://www.ignatius.com/Textbooks/imageofgod/
"The FAITH AND LIFE religion series has been hailed as a breakthrough in the field of religious education. It is a comprehensive Catholic program that combines beautiful classical and original artwork with a solid doctrinal and scriptural presentation in an easy-to-read and stimulating format that is being praised by teachers, students and parents everywhere."
Also, another solid Catholic program for kids is K4J (Kids for Jesus).
And for young adults I would recommend the Dead Theologians Society:
The Dead Theologians Society is a Catholic apostolate for high school age teens and college age young adults. Through the Saints of yesterday, the Dead Theologians Society inspires the youth of today to become the saints of tomorrow.
Society members meet at their parishes to learn the lives of the Saints (who are only dead by the world’s standards and are certainly alive with Jesus in Heaven!), their heroic virtue and listen to their inspirational writings. Using the interesting and engaging DTS format and through the examples of the Saints, young people are catechized and develop positive role models at a time when they are truly needed. In addition, members make use of time honored Catholic prayers, devotions and sacramentals such as, Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary, the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and more!
First choice: Baltimore Catechism
Second choice: Faith and Life
Regards,
You mean like prison inmates?
I don’t know how helpful this will be, but we use some of these materials in our homeschool, and some would work very well for you as supplemental material.
http://www.chcweb.com/catalog/index.html
http://www.chcweb.com/catalog/Exclusives/WhatsNew/ReligionSupplementandResource/product_info.html
http://www.chcweb.com/catalog/AYearwithGodCelebratingtheLiturgicalYear/product_info.html
I use Faith and Life and the Baltimore Catechism.
Make sure they practice praying. For instance, have everyone sit (or stand) in a circle, and go around the circle with everyone required to say a prayer. (No exceptions, that just defeats the purpose.) Do this regularly. Or make them pray regularly in some other way; the point is that if they don’t practice praying, then they’ll be too uncomfortable to do it on their own. They like it when you join in; they even admire you if you sound like you really mean your prayers. Some of them might find it easier to write down their prayer first, then read it aloud.
Also make sure they know their way around the Bible. I had a kid ask me once, “Does the Bible make more sense if you read all of it?” Most families don’t make a habit of Bible-reading. Listening to the readings every week is too infrequent for someone to learn what’s going on. Even in families that make an effort to teach the Biblical stories, making sense of everything from start to finish is very hard. (I didn’t get a full picture of the Biblical story until I was an adult and I read the Bible for myself.) And without some grasp of the whole story, from creation to the end times, it’s hard to figure out the point of Christianity at all! So they need some sort of Bible time at every lesson, and it needs to be pretty comprehensive.
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