What Does it Mean to Teach at a Catholic School?


Christianity is not a religion about God; it is a relationship with God. Christianity is not a subject to be studied and mastered; it is a relationship with God where we learn more through humility and acquiescence. It is a romance with God by which we encounter the Truth of who we are, not by being taught and by learning so much as by Loving and by being Loved. Many understand Catholic education as a system of private schooling for the elite and college-bound. But this is not the origin of Catholic education. The origin of Catholic education was not college preparation for the social elite. If we look at the history of Catholic education, we find that it is rooted in the dream that especially the poorest and most oppressed members of the human race need a sense of Hope that they are more than what the rest of their society may tell them they are. It is a Hope rooted, not in mastery of academic sciences or arts, but in relationship with One who Loves perfectly and without exception. It is a relationship with one who is the highest level of excellence. How could a system so known for its focus on excellence come into being unless there was always a sense of perfect excellence in the essence of God?
Catholic Pedagogical Theory demands each student, teacher, administrator, and stakeholder to place God at the center of their studies for the purpose of developing a relationship with God so we can encounter the Truth of who we are made to be. Excellence only comes if we first know what excellence looks like, and if we know God, then we always have that image and likeness of excellence before us. This is the fundamental driving force behind the Theology of Catholic Pedagogical Theory. But how do we define excellence? How do we develop a relationship with God? How do we integrate this theology into classes that modern educational theory claims has nothing to do with theology? How do we help our student to encounter God in real, efficacious ways so as to help them discover the Truth of who they are?
This is not a blog about teaching Catholicism. The goal of this blog is really to discuss the purpose of Catholic Schools in a real, theological manner and to share stories that I have gathered in my years of teaching and ministry. I desire to explore the theologies that underlie the systems that many of us have encountered as students, teachers, parents, colleagues, or bystanders. Perhaps the most important goal of this blog is to help teachers put into perspective the True purpose of their Vocation as that purpose goes far beyond grades or assessments or even success in college. The purpose of all education, not just Catholic education, is really to help students discover what God desires for them and to form them into their Authentic Selves.
(My most recent home of learning. Photo Credit- Patrick Smith)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflective Teaching

Image
                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
Read more

I Wish I Knew What Catholic School Identity Was

Image
                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
Read more

Our Students are More than Just their Grades

Image
“Thanks for your response. I like the points you make about some elements of Faith being given and some elements being chosen. Indeed, most theologians point to St. John when the make the claim that we are Loved first by God, regardless of anything we choose or desire. The quote I use with my students is "we are Loved into existence", simply because God is Love. In this way, we are created with a disposition to Faith as Faith is an invitation into a relationship with God. It is our response to the Faith God gives us that is Faith in action. It is my favorite concept to teach my students, and it is the blessing of any Catholic school teacher to help their students know they are called to be Loved and to Love.”             We are created with a disposition to Faith and a disposition toward the mystery of the transcendent. So why do we, as teachers, try to simplify Faith, religion, or theology as just a subject? Why would we limit in our classrooms (regardless of discipline)
Read more