Re: An Article I wrote
[email protected]
In a message dated 9/27/2002 1:39:03 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
Saturday morning (Youth Group is different). However, even among UU's, kids
often diverge spiritually from their parents as they grow. UU's tend to be
more okay about that, I think.
In writing this, I wanted to be clear to other Religious Educators that
however good their programs might be, we were NOT the primary religious
educators of the kids. From an early age, kids ask their parents (or someone
else -- I suppose many kids learn about spirituality "on the streets")
questions like "What happens when you die? Is there a God, " etc. (There's a
cool UU Adult RE curriculum called "Parents as Resident Theologians.")
I see what we do in Sunday school as providing community, and giving
resources and ideas for exploration...it's up to the kids to figure out what
their next steps are, and we're always there to help.
No, they won't fire me, because the congregation I serve is REALLY into this
stuff. When I first started with this church, I told the board that if it
came down to it, I'd advocate for what the kids want. They LOVED it!
Joyce asked me if we unschool RE at my church, and truthfully, we don't. With
volunteer teachers and expectations from both the parents and the kids, I
haven't figured out how to pull that off. However, I've tried really hard to
at least respect what the kids want. I asked last Spring what they wanted to
learn this year, and lots said--Science. So my partner and I are writing a
curriculum (with lots of choices in it) about Science and Religion.
Thanks for the feedback.
Kathryn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected] writes:
> There are kids like I was whose spiritual journeys were NOT at home nearlyIn my experience, we don't get too many kids without their parents on
> as
> much as they were at church. Maybe UUs don't get many kids without their
> parents, but I knew other kids whose parents were pretty worthless to them
> religiously speaking. So if you count on the family beng the experience
> for
> every kid, some will lose out.
>
> (Probably they will find other families or adults to use for that learning
> purpose, though.)
>
>
Saturday morning (Youth Group is different). However, even among UU's, kids
often diverge spiritually from their parents as they grow. UU's tend to be
more okay about that, I think.
In writing this, I wanted to be clear to other Religious Educators that
however good their programs might be, we were NOT the primary religious
educators of the kids. From an early age, kids ask their parents (or someone
else -- I suppose many kids learn about spirituality "on the streets")
questions like "What happens when you die? Is there a God, " etc. (There's a
cool UU Adult RE curriculum called "Parents as Resident Theologians.")
I see what we do in Sunday school as providing community, and giving
resources and ideas for exploration...it's up to the kids to figure out what
their next steps are, and we're always there to help.
No, they won't fire me, because the congregation I serve is REALLY into this
stuff. When I first started with this church, I told the board that if it
came down to it, I'd advocate for what the kids want. They LOVED it!
Joyce asked me if we unschool RE at my church, and truthfully, we don't. With
volunteer teachers and expectations from both the parents and the kids, I
haven't figured out how to pull that off. However, I've tried really hard to
at least respect what the kids want. I asked last Spring what they wanted to
learn this year, and lots said--Science. So my partner and I are writing a
curriculum (with lots of choices in it) about Science and Religion.
Thanks for the feedback.
Kathryn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]