Theology of Catholic Pedagogical Theory: What it Means to Teach at a Catholic School

                What is Catholic School Identity? What does it mean when a school puts that little word “Catholic” on their sign or in their mission statement? I have been working on this question for some time now, and, to be honest, I want to keep researching. I want to really dive into the depths of what it means when we say that our schools are Catholic. St. Pius X Catholic High School in Atlanta, Georgia. My alma mater, St. Pius definitely deepened my understanding of Catholicism on an academic level, but I am sure that my relationships with teachers, students, and priests at St. Pius, at least, equally gave me an encounter with Jesus Christ which really sparked my Faith now. But are Catholic schools even more than this? (photo P. Smith)                 I have asked colleagues and contacts around the world what they think and the answers vary. I do not want to exhaust the space on this blog (I rarely want my blogs to be longer than just a few paragraphs), but suffice it

“When did you first encounter Jesus?” I didn’t ask it; one of my ninth graders asked it. And she didn’t ask me this question; she asked it to the whole class. Every fifth day or so we play a game; I ask my students to stop taking notes and to stop worrying about tests and grades; they need to just be still with themselves and with each other. Practice sharing and listening. Practice Loving and being Loved by each other. On a basic level, we are making affective that which we have been studying in the vacuum of the classroom. We are practicing the Authentic Self…not just studying it.                 “When did you first encounter Jesus?” she asked the class. It is the question I always wanted to hear in this “game”, but would never ask it myself. It is the one question that has to come from a student for the ensuing conversation to be genuine. All I can do is create the space where they feel free to ask the question and to respond with their own genuine, unique story. Not all st

“At the beginning of the year I tell my students that I am not there to convert them or to force them to believe anything in particular. It's True. I am essentially a systematic theologian which means I present everything in a logical and rational manner. I tell students that my goal is for them to leave the class understanding what Catholics believe and why they believe it. If they are a believer, my class bolsters their Faith. If they are not a believer, my class, at least, gives them some knowledge of the reasons and logic behind Catholicism. At the same time, I challenge my students to contemplate what it means to Love and to be Loved, perfectly, and to consider the idea that Jesus Christ is the best way for us to encounter that Love. I listen to their questions and I read their reflections without judgement, but I also guide them to logical conclusions that the Love they seek cannot be found in the material Truth around them. I actually works.” I wrote this message to a

                Right now, I am facilitating another online class on teaching in Catholic schools. As a reminder, the class is not about pedagogy or educational theory as much as it is about the rudiments of Catholic Faith. The first question we ask participants to reflect on is how their own Faith life has developed. Essentially, we ask participants to share if they have succeeded in living out their Faith or if there have been struggles. Nearly everyone shares their personal struggles with Faith.                 It is foolish to assume that anyone has a perfect Faith life. Everyone encounters suffering and struggle in their lifetime, and often those struggles make it difficult to believe there is a God who cares for us. But my participants (Catholic school teachers) who recall their early formation in Faith and prayer are the ones who tell me that their Faith is stronger now than ever before. They tell me (and anyone reading their reflection) that because they were raised with be

                Long story short; last June, just a few months after I started writing this blog, I was asked to apply for a PhD program in theology, specifically to research and write about an anthropological and dialogical perspective on Catholic pedagogy. I call it a “Theology of Catholic Pedagogical Theory”. I was quickly accepted to the program, but the timing and the funding wasn’t right, so that is on the backburner right now. In the meantime, I am continuing to write this blog (and three others). My Hope is to use this blog as a sort of sounding board or test-kitchen for ideas that, if I do go back to school, I can properly research and fashion into legitimate theology and/or pedagogy. We’ll see. But I am glad I am writing this; just this last weekend I was having dinner with my wife and her parents, and the conversation turned to Artificial Intelligence. My mother-in-law was talking about how within the foreseeable future, medicine will likely go entirely to Artificial Intel

                “It is not my job to make my students hate Henry James the way I hate Henry James.” Dr. Coia, one of my education professors, gave me this advice. I refuse to use my classroom to promote political or personal ideology. I had a student come to me after school, nearly in tears. As she tells the story, she had come from a class where the teacher consistently seemed to vilify students who disagreed with said teacher’s beliefs. If the purpose of Catholic Education is to help students encounter God and to know their Authentic Self, then I cannot think of a more counter-productive way to do this than to denigrate or cut down our students. Instead of beginning with the presupposition that either one or the other of us present in the classroom is right or wrong, why are we not simply teaching our students to be in dialogue with each other? In this particular case, it was a matter of the teacher having to be right all the time, and if the students didn’t agree, then it was the

If the very nature of God is relationship (Trinity) then the best way to encounter God is within the context of relationship here on Earth. This is most important in Catholic education in the relationships we have with our students. For many of them, they may never have a chance to experience the Love of God outside of the classroom or outside of our regular encounter with them. How important, then, is it for us to be in good relationship with God.                 But this is not simply relationship with other people. Everything that God creates and everything that is a result of His Creation possesses a sacramental nature. The Creator leaves His fingerprint, so to speak, on His Creation. Though we cannot know God directly by observation, we can certainly know of God through His creation. Just as I may have taught my students in an English class, we may never meet the poet, but we can certain come to know of her through her work. Relationship with the poem, then, becomes meaningf

                My professional goal this year is to be more reflective. Reflective teaching, as most educators know, is really just the practice of taking a few moments at the end of the day to produce some sort of artifact demonstrating that you have thought about your lessons that day. Many teachers naturally think about what they have taught. For me, that is usually in the car on the way home while I metaphorically kick myself for not having the best comeback to a snarky comment I got from that one student. It isn’t a productive kind of reflection; you might just categorize it as a sort of “decompression” or “venting” exercise. But this year I have made a promise to myself that I would be more productive in my reflection. The result of my goal-setting, as it turns out, has become another tool for my students.                 At the end of the day, I take about five minutes to review and reflect on the lessons I taught. I already write too much, so I thought I would just do a bi

“I know a lot of teachers who basically quoted what the Bible or the Catechism said and they thought that would answer all the questions. They may not have been theologically wrong, but usually they were either trying to give a short answer to a sophisticated question or they were just playing the role of authority and just expecting the kids to take what they respond and then never question again. I probably spend about half my time doing damage control for teachers who gave flippant or incomplete answers to difficult questions in the classroom. ...if you are not sure how to answer the question, it is smart to ask someone who may know the material a bit better. In fact, in my experience, students respond well when you take time to answer their questions. If you answer too quickly or flippantly, they may think you aren't taking them seriously. If you get someone to help you answer, it communicates to them that you want to find the best possible answer. That is a sign of Love for

“The trick is teaching our students how to see those moments as gifts from God...as invitations from God to be in a relationship with Him. I am firmly convinced that our role as Catholic school teachers is to walk with these kids as they begin to hear and respond to God's call to know Him and to learn what True Love is.” I had a conversation with a coworker the other day about needing time to step away from lesson plans and daily objective and the like. Even if our lessons and objectives address directly the need to cultivate Love in the classroom and to allow for increased dialogue, unless we actually create the space to make that happen, there is no real point to our lessons or objectives. It is one think to learn about cultivating Love; it is another thing to actually do it. I suppose it is similar to the difference between “book learning” and “experiential learning”. We need both. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland. St. John, himself

“…reflecting on the person and the God Jesus and who He is and what His mission is can benefit us and our students greatly. As teachers, if we understand God to be Lover and Beloved (St. Augustine) then we start realize that our goal is to form our students in that same image...and to form ourselves. I am convinced that our students (and really everyone) needs to know they are eternally Beloved of God. Our students live in a world that is so demanding and so stressful that they never get a chance to reflect on the Love they already experience in life. In many cases, their teachers may be the only ones who can help them to know this. Of course, as they grow in knowledge of their Belovedness, they also grow in their capacity to Love. It is up to us to "be Christ" for them in the classroom, the halls, the gym, the theater, etc...” Day one for my students: Cultivate Love. What does it look like to be in a classroom where everyone knows they are Loved? What effect does that cl

“Many students (and people, for that matter) feel unloved. I see it every day in the way a teenager is ignored by her peers or made fun of. But if we are made in the image and likeness of God and if God is, as St. Augustine describes, Lover Beloved, and the Love Between the Father and the Son, then every single one of us, as a matter of Justice, must experience the feeling of being Loved. As teachers, we may be the only ones who can offer that sense of Love to ant given student, no matter how small that Love. To be "Christ-like", as you say, is to be that extension of Love for that student. It is a big calling and difficult some days, but this is what we are here to do.” The primary job of Catholic school faculty, staff, volunteers, etc… is to make sure every student knows they are Loved. The root of all injustice in the world is objectification to the point where the human person believes they are unlovable or unloved…even by God. The teacher I was writing to in this r

Like most schools, my school has a theme for the year. It is a method to create momentum and a continuum of dialogue throughout the year, connecting the beginning, middle, and end. Pretty standard. This year’s theme is: “Opening Doors”. I think it is a fine theme. Not too strange or esoteric. Easy to access and easy to apply to most aspects of my school. For example, I teach at a co-divisional school with about 1700 students. It is one school with a boys division and a girls division; about 70% of the classes are single-gender. So, the idea of “opening doors”, in the metaphorical sense, works well as we try to centralize curriculum and create more dialogue between the two divisions. I particularly like the language that our new principal uses; he describes the process of “opening doors” as “liminal”. In an anthropological sense, “liminal space” describes a sense of disorientation or confusion one experiences as they move from a space characterized as comfortable or predictable to anot

“If we are made in the image and likeness of God and if God is "community" (Trinity) then there can be no underestimating the importance of developing relationship among and between students, faculty, and staff at a school (and the world). If we want to "look like God", as is our universal Vocation, then this needs to be a daily goal for all who work in the Church, especially in the schools.”  There must be a connection between the anthropological Truth of the human being and how we learn. Education is a “drawing out” of knowledge or Truth from within the student. It is the forming a relationship between new ideas/concepts and already exiting ontological Truths of the students that she or he may not even know. Education is the discovery of the anthropological and substantial Truth of the human being. Any kind of learning that is not working toward this idea is incomplete. Trinitarian Abbey in Adare, Ireland. To think that Jesus had a mother like any other hum

“Creating an environment where students can grow in their Faith can be so tricky in our schools, though. We have so many objectives and agendas that we feel pressured to focus on the academic portion so much. In Catholic Schools (Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman) we argue that if a student does not know about God and their relationship with God, then all other knowledge is superfluous; what do we do with the knowledge we learn in class if we do not know what God wants of us? In some way, we need to "cultivate Love" in the classroom; that is, we need to create a space where our students' relationship with God can flourish. This will look different for every teacher, but, in my experience, this is what the students remember and benefit from the most.” “Superfluous” may be too strong a word. The knowledge that students gain in the classroom, no matter what knowledge it is, has the potential to expand their understanding of the world and the people around them. As long as t

“It is amazing what we can learn about each other and each other's family when we just take the time to listen! I am convinced that if we spent more time talking to people about their families and their homes rather than their jobs and their college educations, we would know each other so much more and we would grow closer to each other than we ever thought possible. I try to do the same thing with my students, actually. My students, like most teenagers, get fixated on the surface level of their classmates and never know what is happening in each other's life. I create space and time for them to "cultivate Love" in the classroom. It is a slow process for the younger students, but my juniors and seniors really.” In my junior level class I teach about “the Other”. I explain the concept this way: in sociology, “the Other” is anyone who is not a member of the “mainstream” demographic in a given society. Of course, this term is entirely relative to the culture in which

The following are excerpts from emails I wrote to a Catholic Education scholar regarding my own reflections and research and what I Hope to study more in the future. “I am looking for a chance to study theology, however the theology that I want to research is of direct benefit to education. Essentially, I am talking about researching exactly  why  Catholic schools exist. I tell theologians that education is an evangelical opportunity, not necessarily in a "common" sense of the word. But education, Catholic education in particular, is an opportunity for students and teachers, alike, to encounter the Truth of God and the Truth of themselves beyond the curriculum. Catholic identity, I believe, has less to do with the narrative of the classroom or the school and more to do with the meta-pedagogy or philosophy of the Catholic school. What I want to do is research this concept and provide materials for "forming" Catholic school teachers not simply to create physical e

“If I ‘cultivate Love’ in my classroom and create an environment where everyone feels like they are Loved and respected, they soon learn more about each other and in that understanding, they are more free to be who God made them to be. It takes time, but this sort of culture can be replicated in the classroom.” One of my online students was sharing how in their professional development, he and his colleagues consciously thought about how they could “cultivate Love” between them simply by listening and letting each other know that they were cared for. He described the results as “transformative” and “reassuring”. That is, as they began to cultivate Love in their professional development, they began to experience positivity and, for lack of a better term, happiness. The Catholic classroom is not simply a machine that produces students ready for the next level; we do that and we do that well. But the Catholic classroom should also be a place where students encounter their authentic se

Often we teachers spend all our professional development time working on the nuts and bolts of education. You know, things like backwards design, classroom management, testing, methodology, technology, and any number of other necessary, practical concepts that make education work. As far as education is a science, if all of these components are mastered and balanced across the faculty, the result is a successful school. That is, the result is the production of a student who is prepared to succeed on the next level of education or in the professional world. But as I get older and as I observe the lives of students after they leave my classroom or my school, I am realizing that we are missing something in our professional development. We are missing a unifying philosophy of education that goes beyond the material practices of lesson planning, classroom management, etc…. We need to start thinking of education not only as a science that can be studied, perfected, and replicated, but also

              Father Greg Boyle is the president of Homeboy Industries. Of you don’t know about Homeboy Industries, it is a business and ministry that “provides hope, training, and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women…” Father Greg describes how one of the biggest obstacles in their work is convincing the greater community that these current, transitioning, or former gang members are, in fact, people who Hope to be more than what the gang image tells the world. The preconceptions exist even in the various businesses that Homeboy Industries runs. He tells stories of men or women from rival gangs having to work together. At first, all they know about the other is that they are a rival. The entire Truth of their new coworker is condensed into a gang name or a color or any number of surface or material Truths. It is easy to vilify or hate someone if they are just a “color” or a label. But as they grow in relationship with each other…as they share in