Catholic Lay Teachers’ Roles in Building Culture

“Pope Francis to Catholic students, teachers: It takes a village to raise a child.”

Pope Francis Notes

Teacher

  • I remember my first teacher, that woman that teacher that I had when I was six years old. I have never forgotten her. I visited throughout her life, until she passed away at 98.
  • Who is the teacher that had the greatest impact on your life?
  • School is a place of encounter where parents can meet professors and collaborate with them. This is why family and school go hand in hand.
  • Who will you collaborate with?
  • African Proverb: It takes a village to raise a child.
  • What is your role in the village and what role do others have when it comes to Catholic education?
  • It is in school where one learns truth and beauty.

Three Most Important Languages Learned in School

A path that leads to the three languages that a mature person needs to know: The language of the mind, the language of the heart, and the language of the hands.

  • All are in harmony. Mind: think of what you feel and do; Heart: Listen to what you think and what you do; Hands: do well what you do.
  • Please, please don’t let our love for school be taken away.
  • The pope was a teacher years ago, in the 1960s and 1970s where he taught literature and psychology to students.

The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic School – Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, Secretary, and Congregation for Catholic Education

  • The Church is clear about parents being the primary educators of their children.
  • The code of canon law (Can. 793) indicates that parents have the obligation and moral responsibility to educate their children and that Catholic parents have the duty, based on local circumstances, to provide a Catholic education for their children.
  • In addition, the Church has the “divine mission” to help all achieve the fullness of a Christian life (Can. 793-794).
  • Parents are their children’s first educator.
  • As their children grow, most parents share the responsibility to educate their sons and daughters with teachers and schools.
  • When parents choose a Catholic education for their children for all the right reasons, they want authentically Catholic schools that are places of faith, knowledge and service.
  • For a school to become authentically Catholic, those five essential marks I mentioned must be present.

Catholic Culture

“Catholic school culture is a school’s way of life rooted in Christ, Gospel-based creed and code and a Catholic vision that provides inspiration and identity and includes the school’s history, traditions, symbols, relationships, norms, and educational programs” (adapted from Cook, 2001, p. 16). The importance of Catholic school cultures cannot be overstated because it brings a school’s Catholic identity to life.

Catholic Identity

Catholic schools live their Catholic identity by sharing the educational and evangelizing mission of the Catholic Church (Cook, 2015, p. 1)

Video on Culture in a Public School Classroom, “Student-Teacher Relationships: Classroom”

  • Discuss what was done by this teacher in her public school classroom and determine what you can do to build Catholic culture in yours.

Five Essential Marks of an Authentically Catholic school

First Mark: Inspired by a Supernatural Vision

  • The Church believes that a true Catholic education is inspired by a supernatural vision wherein the whole student is developed thus fulfilling his or her destiny to become saints (Can. 795).
  • To achieve this, our Catholic schools must integrate Catholic values and morals into the curriculum to develop the whole person to excel spiritually, intellectually, academically, physically, and socially.
  • If done properly, our children will become good citizens of the world by loving God and neighbor and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ during his or her journey toward sainthood.
  • When our Catholic schools are inspired by this supernatural vision, they become places of faith, knowledge and service accomplishing one mark of an authentically Catholic school.

Second Mark: Founded on Christian Anthropology

  • To be founded on Christian anthropology means there must be an emphasis on the supernatural (not of this world) destiny of students to perfect, in them, all images of God to prepare them to enter heaven.
  • Christian anthropology, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, refers to the study of the human person as it relates to God (Kevin Knight, 2012). Supernatural destiny has to do with entering the kingdom of God. This requires that our Catholic educators have a sound understanding of the human person and correct doctrine.
  • Catholic educators must be good examples in their Christian life.
  • To ensure this, the bishop of each diocese has the right to appoint or approve teachers of religion and to remove teachers when a reason of religion or morals requires it (Can. 805).
  • Our schools must be founded on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our redeemer to be considered truly Catholic (Miller, 2006, p. 24).
  • This means that Jesus Christ is the primary teacher in our schools and that He inspires every dimension.
  • When Catholic schools are founded on Christian anthropology, our schools become places of faith, knowledge, and service accomplishing another mark of an authentically Catholic school.

Third Mark: Animated by Communion and Community

  • We need to understand the difference between communion and community.
  • The communal dimension has to do with the Church as the home and school of communion (Miller, 2006, p. 28).
  • What this means is that through the Church, we are unified in our beliefs and actions when it comes to our faith (living out the Gospel message, taking time for worship, belief in transubstantiation, having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, believing in the communion of saints and so forth).
  • The Catholic school, as a community of faith, knowledge and service, is involved with the social nature of the human person. Because we are social beings, a community of faith in a Catholic school requires teamwork among all members, cooperation between educators and bishops, the interaction of students with teachers, and the school’s physical environment (p. 29).
  • While teamwork, cooperation, and interaction are easy to understand without explanation; what is meant by the school’s physical environment requires clarification.
  • The context of the physical environment as part of our Catholic faith has to do with a school’s identity. Catholic identity is expressed in visible and external signs (images, symbols, icons, and other objects of worship).
  • When Catholic schools are animated by communion and community, they are places of faith, knowledge and service accomplishing another mark of an authentically Catholic school.

Fourth Mark: Imbued with a Catholic Worldview throughout its Curriculum

  • A brief explanation of this would be that Catholic schooling must be inspired and guided by the Gospel (Miller, 2006, p. 43).
  • In order to provide students with an integral education two principles must be followed. The first is to foster in our students a love for wisdom and truth.
  • The second has to do with ensuring that our students understand that faith, culture, and life are harmonious.
  • To foster love for wisdom and truth, authentically Catholic schools must restore the belief that human beings can grasp truth and know their duties to God and neighbor by casting aside cultural relativism (the belief that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relationship to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute).
  • That second principle is that students should learn to transform culture through the gospel.
  • This means that schools seek to ensure the integration of culture with faith and faith with living.
  • A primary way to do this is through religious education with the realization that this type of education is the responsibility of everyone.
  • When Catholic education is imbued with a Catholic worldview throughout the curriculum, schools become places of faith, knowledge and service accomplishing another mark of an authentically Catholic school.

Fifth Mark: Sustained by Gospel Witness

  • The final indicator that a school is authentically Catholic is the witness of its teachers and administrators.
  • While this is the easiest essential mark to understand (living a life in accordance with the teachings of the Church), it is the hardest to fulfill.
  • Teachers and administrators must see their jobs as a vocation from God that requires them to participate in the evangelization of the Church.
  • This is accomplished by living up to the example set by Jesus Christ as teacher and servant. The hard part comes from revealing the gospel by actions and not just words.
  • Catholic educators must be committed to the teachings of the Church and living a sacramental life whether or not they are Catholics (Miller, 2006, pp. 54-55).
  • When Catholic educators are sustained by gospel witness, then Catholic schools become places of faith, knowledge and service accomplishing another mark of an authentically Catholic school.

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