An Education

Growing up, there was one part of the week created unequal. It would prompt groans of ennui and reflections on the whereabouts of normal, non-Catholic kids on Sunday mornings. After Father dismissed us, my siblings and I would begrudgingly trudge from the Church to the Parish School for CCD. CCDumb as we inconsiderately called it. It was the worst part of the week.   

When we moved back to Pittsburgh a couple years ago, we sent the kids to a non-Catholic school during the week, and on Sundays, we enrolled them in CCD. As a parent, $50 for a kids' Catholic education and peace and quiet for an hour and half after Mass for mom and dad seemed fantastic. How as a child I could have seen such misery in this charming activity, I couldn't understand. 

It took about two lessons for the kids to start complaining about what Catholic kids have hated for decades. Two years later, Mary, Bobby and Margaret were still crying out that CCDumb was the bane of their Sunday existence.

'NOOOO ... not CCD. CCD is the worst. I don't even learn anything!' A typical apres Mass rant. 

This year, I decided it was up to me to fix this. I was tired of hearing their complaints, especially that they weren't learning anything. So, when Mr. Mike asked for volunteers last spring, I felt called. I raised my hand, volunteered as tribute, and felt God's light shine upon me. This was my chance to turn dumb into delightful.  

Besides going through background checks and hours of preventing child abuse training, there was no formal training to be a Catholic educator. You got a wink and a prayer and a copy of the teacher's book versus the student version. So, much is left open to interpretation or the specific volunteer's leadership style. 

Mr, Mike said don't sweat it, just roll with it. Great coaching. My kids said past teachers were boring and too serious. Good to know, easy to fix. 

In this first year of my volunteer post, I was assigned 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. All of them. And by chance, Bobby's cohort. The general shortage of volunteers prompted a consolidation of classes, thus the turn of the century all-inclusive learning environment. I have roughly 15 kids each week with varying attention spans, underlying knowledge and motivation for being there. And one co-teacher who shows up roughly half the time and has a much quieter voice than mine.

Of all the kids, Bobby might hate CCD the most. This felt like the perfect experiment. 

In the 8 weeks that I have been doing this, and in the 8 Chapters that I have taught, we have walked in the footsteps of the cross as we talked about the Paschal Mystery. I made them role play as we talked about the sacrament of baptism, leveraging one of Margaret's baby dolls. I had them make an illustrated pathway of the Beatitudes and walk down it blindfolded with their classmates helping them find the way. We learned the Our Father in sign language and continue to practice it at the end of each class. We played 10 commandments charades. And I quiz them every week to make sure there is recall. See, not dumb. Delightful. 

Last week, we learned about Justice with a capital J in god's kingdom. It was an ironically timely topic on the heels of the U.S. election. And I embraced it as an opportunity to teach on both. 

We reflected on the parable (new fun Catholic word so remember it for the quiz next week) about the master who had hired laborers at different increments of the day. Those hired at 6:00 AM worked a full day, those hired at 5:00 PM only worked an hour. At the end of the day, the master paid them all the same amount of money. Jesus finished the parable by describing that in his kingdom, 'the last shall be first, and the first shall be last' 

What? That's not fair. There was a general state of paralysis and confusion across the classroom. The kids had just described what justice means to them, in this world. Right and wrong. Good and bad. And the bad ones being held accountable. Jesus' description did not compute. 

My co-teacher tried to explain using the textbook, but I intervened. It's like this, guys. God loves us all equally. Even if YOU take the pencil out of that kid's desk, or YOU continue to interrupt me, or YOU make distracting jokes instead of answered my questions seriously, even if you do all of that, God forgives you and loves you. And God wants us to live that away, accepting and loving everyone equally. Got it? 

So, let's think about it ... let's pretend you were the king or queen of Sacred Heart Land. What would the rules of justice be in your kingdom. How would you bring God's kingdom to life? 

I made them reflect and write down a couple sentences that described the rules of their kingdom. Then asked for three volunteers to debate why they should be king or queen based on their principles of justice. We would then vote for the best ruler. 

First, Senator Susan - in her kingdom, the classroom would live by the ten commandments and the beatitudes. We would love neighbor as self. And that's why you should vote me for. 

Second, Congressman Fred - in his kingdom, very similar. Commandments, beatitudes, and the rules would be God's rules. Won't you join my kingdom.  

Finally, Businessman Bobby took the floor. He would lower taxes, improve the roads, oh yeah, we'd be kind to each other, and, and, and ... we'd have a great time. So that's why you should pick me.  

I asked the audience of this legendary CCDebate to go stand by the ruler they wanted to live by. 64% of the young ladies in the class stood by Susan. The rest, including Congressman Fred, stood by Bobby. Jesus' parable turned into a social experiment was slightly unnerving. 

As always, we ended the class saying the Our Father in sign language, and with Mary peaking in requesting that she get to be part of my classroom next week. 

As I prepare to teach about the Holy Spirit tomorrow, I can't help but pray that the Holy Spirit be with America right now as we brace for several years of probable chaos. I pray that we are a land of just and free. And I pray, like we do in class, Thy Kingdom Come. While I'm an eternal optimist, always seeking to understand the other side of my perspective more completely, I don't have a lot of hope that America will be improved by our soon to be ruler. All I can do is start at home ... by making CCD great again. 

Lo.