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

“Thanks for your response. How great is it to be able to share your Faith experience and expertise with your students? The more I teach and the more I look at the direction of education in our country, the more I am convinced that these kids need to know they are Loved. We are blessed to teach in Catholic schools where we can discuss God as the source of a transcendent form of Love that we do not need to earn and that we cannot ever lose. And as a teacher, if I can, in some small way, show my students that they are Loved, then I am actually modeling the Faith in action model we are talking about. Ultimately, our goal as Catholic school teachers, regardless of discipline or department, is to let our students know they are invited to be Loved by God to Love others in a similar way.” I wrote this in response to a teacher who was thinking about the relationship they had with their students. She was an elementary school teacher, and, like so many other Catholic school teachers, she felt

“Thanks for your response. I think you and I are on the same page as far as thinking it a gift to be Catholic school teachers! I agree with you that Faith is a gift we use to learn how to grow closer in relationship with Him. I often teach it in terms of invitation; Faith is an invitation that we receive freely from God to be in a relationship with Him. When we respond to that invitation, we grow more in Love with Him and naturally desire to offer that same invitation to others...we extend that Faith in our action to others who may not know they are Loved. This is my mission as a teacher; for all of my students to know they are Loved and if I can offer that invitation in a small way, then I am using the Faith that God has given me. I taught in public schools for a while and this concept seemed alien to my colleagues...to teach students that they are Loved. Sad. We are blessed to be in a place where we can talk about this with our students and colleagues.” After Jesus Christ and my

“Thanks for your response. Nicely written. I like how you describe how Faith by Revelation is an invitation to enter into a relationship with God, and how our act of Faith in response helps us to grow deeper into that relationship with God. It really does seem pretty simple. God invites and we either say yes or we do not. For my students, the first lesson I try to teach them is that they are, in fact, invited into a relationship with God by which they can know Authentic Love. As soon as they know they are invited, I then teach them how they can respond to that Love. Most importantly, I try to model this Love (as best I can) in my relationship with them. Maybe this is the real purpose of teaching...much more than just content or college prep.”                 At the school where I teach right now, seniors are asked to produce a Capstone Project as part of their graduation requirements. For the most part, the procedure is simple, but for the seniors, it can be painful. They have to c

“God continually gives us Faith, even after birth and Baptism. Faith is an invitation for us to be in a relationship with Him, and if we say “yes” to that invitation, then we certainly act upon it. As a teacher at a Catholic school, one of the best ways I know to act on that Faith is to make sure my students recognize the Faith that God has given them...that they recognize that God has, by Love, invited them into a relationship with Him. I teach and model for them that they are Loved and I challenge them to find ways they can respond to and share that Love with others.” I wrote this to one of my course participants in response to a reflection of hers. The question was about how Faith is both a gift from God and an action on our part. As teachers, we rely on Faith. We have to believe that what we are doing will have some effect at some point. If we didn’t have Faith that what we were doing mattered, it would drive us mad! But there is more to the Faith of teaching than just believ

I call it “Full faith Friday”. I will confess, it is not the best name, but it is alliterative and, after puns, it seems to be the most attractive literary device to my students. I’ll forgive them for both of those sins! Almost every Friday I take a break from teaching and I offer my students a chance to grow and actually encounter each other and God, directly. As a theology teacher maybe it is a bit easier to justify taking one out of every five class periods to do this, but I suggest to teachers that no matter what class you teach, what club you moderate, or what sport you coach, you have a real opportunity to help your students encounter Authentic Love… to know their worth. Every Friday I take my students to the chapel, reminding them that the purpose we have in life is to Love and to be Loved. They leave their phones and their iPads and any other distractions in the classroom; all they have with them is a pen and a reflection that I have prepared for them. It turns out, I almos

                I observed a teacher the other day in my school. He is a well-respected and successful history teacher with accolades galore and a personality that draws students to him. The stress of teaching advanced placement courses, especially this close the exams, gave a sense of urgency and anxiety to the students and the teacher, but I noted, more than anything else, the teacher kept what I can only call a “playful” mood throughout the class. I came into the class while students were taking a short quiz reviewing what they had discussed the day before. The students at our school are pretty high-stress and goal-oriented, so anyone observing could tell they were worried about this particular assessment. “It’s only five points!” the teacher said a few times with a playful smile.                 Does God laugh? Does God play? Certainly, he does. Some theologians use these images to suggest that Creation is actually the result of God’s laughter and playfulness. So why should we

                       We cannot give what we do not have. The ancient saying applies to nearly everything, but it is especially True in Catholic education. If the purpose of Catholic education is really to help our students to become their Authentic Self and to encounter the True and Authentic Love of God, then we, too, must be in pursuit of that Authentic Self, that Truth, and that Love. Some enter into Catholic education already prepared for this mission; others do not know the depth of their Vocation in Catholic education until later. Regardless of where one is in their beliefs about God, to contemplate or to reflect upon the teachings Jesus and His Church give us to encounter Him will always aid us in our Faith Journey. When I work with teachers, I ask them to really think about those teachings.                 What is Faith and how does it work? I’m not going to pretend to answer this question in one post. For much of this blog, I want to share and comment on some of the resp

                In my abundant spare time, I facilitate online courses for Catholic school teachers around the country. The general idea is that if you work at a Catholic school, regardless of your own belief, it might help you to do your job if you have an idea of what the overall mission of the Catholic Church is. Many dioceses across the country are now requiring their teachers to obtain this sort of “professional development”, and, well, it is probably a good idea to have some intellectual knowledge of the Catholic “party line”. But as my course participants realize soon after they start my courses, there is so much more at stake than them just “knowing” what the Church teaches.                 My philosophy with these courses is to teach and to model a certain Catholic pedagogical theory. It makes no sense to me to simply present doctrine, assess mastery of said doctrinal subject matter, and then Hope for the best. There is a theology and a theory that underlies all Catholic b