journals Archives - Amazing Catechists

Student Journals and the Sacrament of Confession

A reader asks anonymously:

Is it appropriate for religion teachers to ask students about their sins? In my friend’s religion class, the teacher asked him to write in his journal about one of the sins he would be confessing at his next confession. What do you think?

The answer is a big fat NO. No, no, no, and NOOOOOOOO. Just no. Not appropriate. Never appropriate. Religion class is not the place to perform a public examination conscience. No no no.

I do want to share three thoughts related to my reader’s question. The first is my own class policy on journals and sensitive topics. The second is on the limits of journal writing as a teaching tool; the third is on the proper role of catechists in sacramental preparation.

1. Journals are personal, but not private. The first time students open their journals, I explain that:

a) I will never force you to read your journal entry aloud,

but that:

b) I do read your journal entries (and pray for your prayer intentions), and that your parents have free access to your journal as well.

I don’t require reading aloud, because that’s not the goal of my class. I teach religion. Not composition, not public speaking, and not group therapy. Journals provide an opportunity for students to explore their faith and their life in writing, and that’s a legitimate part of a religious education course.

But I can’t guarantee privacy. Physically, the journals are not kept under lock and key. Professionally, it is inappropriate to set myself up as arbiter of students’ secrets. Journals are a great way to share ideas that can be difficult to express aloud — but they are, fundamentally, a tool for sharing.

2. Journals fit the learning style of some, but not all, students. I have two types of students who love journals. The first are introspective and prayerful students Often they do not want to share their entries aloud, but they relish the process of writing out their thoughts. I allow them as much time to write as they want, even after the rest of the class moves on to the next assignment.

The second group are students who learn by talking. They work through the day’s topic by jotting down a few quick notes, then expand on their ideas when it’s time to share. The big trick is to strike the balance between enough sharing and too much sharing.

But what about everyone else? I keep on hand a “back up” assignment. If you finish your journal early because, let’s be honest, you wrote two flippant words, or “I don’t know” or “I hate this dumb journal”, come to the front table and grab the alternate assignment. Students learn in different ways. Offer more than one way for students to connect to the lesson.

3. What role do catechists play in preparing students for the Sacrament of Confession?

We have three important jobs:

We teach the mechanics of the sacrament. Sign of the cross, “Bless me Father for I have sinned,” etc.
We answer questions about the nature of the sacrament. When must I confess? What if I forget my act of contrition? Will the priest tell the police if I confess a crime?
We explain what is, and is not, a sin. We also answer questions about what circumstances lessen or remove culpability for a sin.

My approach should be positive, encouraging, and sincere. But we catechists aren’t the parents. We aren’t spiritual directors. The classroom setting is not the appropriate place for pastoral counseling. It certainly is not the confessional.

It is important to respect these distinctions. In setting firm boundaries, we strengthen our role as catechists. Students are often willing to ask outlandish or difficult questions of a catechist, specifically because they know it’s not personal. It’s just a question. If they ask out of mere curiosity, be thankful they are curious about the faith. If they ask out of personal need, be thankful they have a place they can get clear and honest answers to difficult questions.

But in all cases, my role as a catechist should always respect the privacy and the dignity of my students.

Catechist Chat: More About Sharing

By Dorian Speed

I want to follow up a bit on my last post (“Don’t Force Sharing”), to address a couple of things that came up in the comments or in emails I received.

First off, it seems there are quite a few “Introvert Irenes” out there who were, at one point, manipulated into sharing by a well-intentioned teacher. The fact that several of us remember these experiences highlights for me the perils of requiring students to write about their feelings.

And what’s the point of having kids talk about their feelings? Because we think we’re supposed to do that, and we’ll call it faith-sharing? I just think that’s the wrong approach, especially (also brought up in the comments) with young men. Every group of kids is different, but my experience has been that lots of kids aren’t at religious ed. because they begged their parents to go. They’ve come because a parent or grandparent has told them they have to, or because it’s counting towards a requirement for a Sacrament, or some other non-voluntary reason. Smiling at them and saying “Tell me about a time you felt frightened” may backfire.

So, why do I ask them about their “feelings?” (I don’t ever say “Tell me about your feelings. I kind of don’t like the word, especially having now typed it multiple times).

Well, I see my primary role as R.E. teacher as academic – teaching them more about the faith. It’s academic from a spiritual perspective, of course – exposing them to different types of prayer, helping them to understand why we’re reverent, showing them the beauty of the Sacraments. But another dimension of being their catechist is being a – gulp – role model. Being for them another (or sometimes the only) adult who tries to live out our faith, who cares about them, and who’s going to be praying for them even after they’ve left my classroom. For some of the kids, that question – “what’s on your mind?” – may be the only chance they’ll have to talk something over that’s been really bothering them.

As far as ground rules – I never promise that I’m the only person who will read their journals, but I do tell them that I’m not going to force them to share journal responses with the class. I tell them that if they talk about something dangerous to themselves or other people in their journals, I’m required by law to report it to people who can help.

And, especially for the reluctant journal-writers…I make the “feeling” questions optional. So I’ll usually give them three questions, tell them they have to answer two, and only one of the questions will be a feelings-based question. That’s not to say that my other questions don’t relate to their personal experiences – I think a prompt like “Describe a time when you had to choose whether or not to believe someone” is open-ended enough that they won’t feel like they have only one experience to talk about.

If they’re flippant in the journals, I don’t chastise them – I’ll be a little flippant back, maybe, but I think once they see that I really am going to respond to what they’ve said, they are more likely to write something worth reading.

One question I always avoid is “The Church says this. How do you feel about that?” (“The Church teaches abstinence until marriage. How do you feel about that? And isn’t prom this weekend?”) Um, no. Had a class like that, and the whole thing consisted of us arguing with the teacher. They don’t pay me enough to argue with teenagers for a living. When I want to see if they understand something the Church teaches, I ask them to apply the teaching to a situation, and we talk about if they’ve done that in a way consistent with the teaching. But I think asking “how do you feel about this topic” just invites them to make all their decisions about religion based on how they feel at the moment about a particular teaching. And, guess what? We’re kind of counter-cultural. Not sure if anyone noticed that.

I want to step out of catechist-mode for a moment and revert to my previous incarnation as Social Studies teacher and say, in general, the “how do you feel about that” approach to journal questions is not the way to go. “How do you feel about the electoral college?” “I think it sucks, because people’s votes don’t really count.” Okay, great – now you’ve triggered an antagonistic response when you could have provoked actual thinking by rephrasing it as “what are some arguments used in favor of changing the way in which elections are run in this country? Which arguments do you consider most valid, and why?” Still encouraging their individual point of view, without making it all…feely.

ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMER: On the Myers-Briggs test, I’m a T and not an F.

REGULAR DISCLAIMER: Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”

Click here to read other entries in the series, and be sure to follow Catechist Chat on Facebook! You can also sign up for my email list, and I’ll send you resources, including non-PDF versions of the activities I post (which means you can edit them in Microsoft Word to customize them for your own students).

OH, AND ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: There were years when I didn’t ever read the journals and they ended up in a dusty pile in the corner of my classroom. I was probably pregnant at the time. For these and all my other classroom-related faults, I am truly sorry.

Catechist Chat: Don’t Force Sharing

By Dorian Speed

We’ve all been there, haven’t we?

On the dry-erase board: “Describe a time when you felt betrayed by your parents. Give examples from real life. Minimum one paragraph. A paragraph has at least five sentences.”

Ten minutes later, and the teacher asks, “who would like to share with the class first?”

EMO EDNA: “I first felt betrayed by my parents at the moment of my birth, when I was forcibly ejected from the comfort of my mother’s womb into the cruelty of the fascist state that defines every aspect of our world.”

SMARTY-PANTS SID: “I felt betrayed by my parents when I discovered I was actually a superhuman being from an alien world who had been sent to Earth as a lone survivor of an ice planet.”

TMI TINA: “I felt betrayed by my parents when they emailed the contents of my diary to my therapist and she realized that my habit of biting my toenails was actually still something I struggled with. I think it dates back to when I saw a dead armadillo on the side of the road after my birthday party in fifth grade. We had been to Chuck E. Cheese and I ate seven slices of pizza and then…”

HOSTILE HARRY: “I don’t HAVE any parents.”

INTROVERT IRENE: “Pass.”

This isn’t how journal-writing has to pan out.

First off – why are you giving them journal questions to answer, anyway? Is it because you feel like you’re supposed to do some kind of introspective something-or-other? Is it to pass the five minutes when you’re taking attendance and finding your pencil at the start of class? Or are journals something you consciously want to incorporate into a class routine?

I’m going to talk in another entry about Socratic Circles, which I think are a great model for real dialogue in a classroom setting. But the really important thing to realize is that journals don’t have to be for the sharingness of the whole class. A journal can be a conversation between you and each of your students in a personalized way. Even kids who aren’t usually inclined to write down their thoughts can be encouraged to reflect on how your classroom discussions relate to their own lives – if they know that someone’s actually reading what they’re saying.

I don’t let my students take their journals home. I usually establish a separate section of their folders for journal entries, so that they can take home the notes from class if they need to but leave the journals with me. This gives me time before the next class to write short responses to their entries. It doesn’t have to be an encyclopedia entry, just specific comments that show you’re genuinely interested in what they have to say.

I use journals both at the beginning and the end of class.

Entries written at the beginning of class usually fall into two categories:
1. Questions which I’m going to relate to the topic for the day, even if the connection isn’t immediately obvious. For instance, when teaching about Joseph and his brothers, the question might be “Describe a time when you made a choice to forgive someone who had hurt you,” and then I’m going to reiterate the theme of forgiveness as we talk about the story in detail.
2. Questions to let them tell me what’s on their mind. Actually, the question is usually, “What’s on your mind this week?” and it’s always optional.

I usually give them three questions and have them choose two to answer. For those who write super-fast (because they have written three-word responses), I tell them they get to answer all three. This helps encourage more reflective entries.

Entries written at the end of class aren’t that different, but they are always more specific in how the students should process what we’ve talked about in that particular class. “Who* do you identify with in the story of Joseph and his brothers, and why?” “How did God bring good out of a bad situation after Joseph was sold into slavery?” “Which of the Biblical figures we’ve studied so far are most similar to Joseph?”

I’m not saying that sharing is bad. I just don’t think it always has to happen in a large-group setting, and I think you need to have built a good rapport with the students as a group, and as individuals, before you try to coax them into a deep discussion about their spiritual lives. Maybe four or five classes into the year, open it up to “who would like to share how they responded to the question about forgiveness?” and don’t pick on kids if they’re not interested in reading their responses aloud. We don’t have a lot of time with our students in religious ed. classes. Trying to force Deep Sharing Moments isn’t the best use of a class period.

No recommended resource this week, because I am technically on vacation! But I’ll have more to share down the road, so come back for more of my completely unsolicited opinions. What could be better? (Don’t answer that).

Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”