#53 Challenges of the Teacher

In education, the role of the teacher in guiding children and helping them draw out ideas and connect them with other ideas is generally more important than the materials used. A good teacher can help her students learn the truth even from a messy or problematic book. My mom once taught a CCD class in which she was "required" to teach with some problematic materials. Apparently it didn't phase her at all. She simply explained the materials in that book and followed it up with what the Church actually teaches.

Teaching is always going to require a certain amount of creativity and making distinctions on the fly. After all, even with the most ideal curricula, children will ask difficult and challenging questions. While this challenge may seem intimidating, humility and faithfulness will get you through. Work on learning how to learn and developing the Christian attitudes necessary for leading your children to the truth. With God's grace, these little things will go a long way.

The Balance Between Formation and Information (#51)

Though a solid educational philosophy requires an appropriate balance between formation - or who we become through education - and information - or what we actually learn, it is sometimes tempting to abandon one for the sake of the other. This is a serious mistake! Cardinal Ratzinger explains how this error led to the collapse of religious education in recent years:

“What is our catechesis doing? What is our school system doing at a time when religious instruction is widespread? I think that it was an error not to pass on more content. Our religion instructors rightly repudiated the idea that religious instruction is only information, and they rightly said that it is something else, that it is more, that the point is to learn life itself, that more has to be conveyed. But that led to the attempt to make people like this style of life, while information and content were neglected.” (Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth)

Education and the Faith (#34)

This powerful quote from Orestes Brownson is particularly poignant in recognizing the value of the whole of education in relation to our Faith. It also challenges us to not simply isolate ourselves from the world in fear, but allow for a reasonable amount of exposure in order to challenge and strengthen our children for the difficulties they will face some day.

"No amount of pious training or pious culture will protect the faithful, or preserve them from contamination of the age, if they are left inferior to non-Catholics in secular learning and intellectual development. The faithful must be guarded and protected by being trained and disciplined to grapple with the false systems of the age... They must be better armed than their opponents - surpass them in the strength and vigor of their minds, and in the extent and variety of their knowledge. They must, on all occasions, and against all adversaries, be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them."

More Isn't Always Better (#22)

If a child finishes an entire school book on schedule, but remembers little or none of what is studied, he has accomplished very little. It's much better to study less and learn it well.

Here are a few possibilities for adjusting your studies accordingly:

Measure a day's or a week's progress according to effort and time expended upon a subject rather than the number of pages completed.

Don't latch onto formal work at the expense of the informal learning that fills in the cracks and makes formal learning easier and more delightful. For example, a child is read to and talked to and given an initial and very important grasp on the language before he learns formal reading skills.

For a subject like Science or History, split a textbook up into two or three years and study the material in greater depth. Supplement with excellent books and videos, visits to a museum and hands-on projects and experiments.

"Know What You Know..." (#14)

According to Archbishop Fulton Sheen, "some of the great geniuses of the past never read half as much as the mediocre geniuses today, but what they read they understood and incorporated into a deeper dimension of knowledge."

Cardinal Newman provides the antidote...

...know what you say you know: know what you know and what you do not know; get one thing well before you go on to a second; try to ascertain what your words mean; when you read a sentence, picture it before your mind as a whole, take in the truth or information contained in it, express it in your own words, and, if it be important, commit it to the faithful memory... This is the way to make progress; this is the way to arrive at results; not to swallow knowledge, but to masticate and digest it. (from The Idea of a University)

Beauty in Education (# 13)

One important, though often overlooked, aspect of education is beauty.

Pope Benedict XVI said,

"Children exposed to what is aesthetically and morally excellent are helped to develop appreciation, prudence and the skills of discernment. Here it is important to recognize the fundamental value of parents' example and the benefits of introducing young people to children's classics in literature, to the fine arts and to uplifting music. While popular literature will always have its place in culture, the temptation to sensationalize should not be passively accepted in places of learning. Beauty, a kind of mirror of the divine, inspires and vivifies young hearts and minds, while ugliness and coarseness have a depressing impact on attitudes and behaviour."

Read his entire message, from the 41st World Communications Day here.

The "Lens of Faith" (#7)

Our children need to develop a "lens of faith" through which they can view the world and make judgments and decisions. Developing this lens requires a well-formed conscience, an appreciation and conviction for what is good and true and a "skeptometer" to recognize and filter out what is wrong. A "lens of faith" requires both knowledge and application. One of the exciting things about homeschooling, though it can be true for all parents, is that we get to learn with our children all the time. Pray for God's guidance in making these important connections as a family. Reading and conversation are particularly helpful.

The Declaration on Christian Education from Vatican II said: "The Church is bound as a mother to give to these children of hers an education by which their whole life can be imbued with the spirit of Christ.

What is Education? (#5)

We can understand the concept of education better when we look at it from different angles because it's multi-faceted. It involves knowledge, development and cultivation on two levels - practical and spiritual - and has both immediate and long-term results.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913: "Education includes all those experiences by which intelligence is developed, knowledge acquired, and character formed... The child is born with latent capacities which must be developed so as to fit him for the activities and duties of life. The meaning of life, therefore, of its purposes and value as understood by the educator, primarily determines the nature of his work. Education aims at an ideal, and this in turn depends on the view that is taken of man and his destiny, of his relations to God, to his fellowmen, and to the physical world."

Math and Science (#1)

All education is for the sake of knowing Christ. That can be a shocking statement in a culture that judges an education by how much money the student earns once he graduates. As Catholics, we want our children to go to Heaven, and we judge education by how it contributes, directly or indirectly, to that goal. Religion is not the only subject that matters. Math and Science, besides providing for intermediate goals like being able to support a family, can have a profound effect on reinforcing the child's faith. Math, for example, develops and disciplines the mind, provides a sense of order and presents an opportunity to practice virtues such as patience, neatness and perseverance.

Pope Pius XI says: "Since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created, it is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man's last end."

Further Information:

Read Pope Pius XI's entire encyclical On Christian Education (1929)