Principles of Religious Education - Assignment Example

PRINCIPLES OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PRINCIPLES OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Insert name Insert grade course Insert instructor’s name April 27, 2011. Question one: Ways in which a Catholic school can be considered as a faith community The Catholic school is both a symbol and a tool of the evangelizing task of the Catholic Church. Catholic schools offer an essential learning of the human being. This is done by incorporating Christianity lessons in the school curriculums such as being taught on how to pray, and live together as brothers and sisters. Catholic schools develop the human self-esteem of their scholars by providing education that is based on deep understanding of the Christian perception of human life. Catholic schools persuade youthful people to form principles based upon an exclusively Christian outlook of the humankind, which has Christ as its base. Catholic schools, through the vital discussion with culture, offer learning in life and faith to every one in school population. It is within the whole understanding of school life that scholars and personnel engage in a search for meaning. In a classroom that is founded on strong educational standards, and focused towards the development of the entire personality, the all-purpose program of study is a medium for the study of morals, life, customs and faith within a Catholic framework. In particular ways, the Religious Education program of study helps and endorses education in life and faith. It is through this Religious Education program of study that learners expand their understanding of the person of Jesus as expressed in the Bible, discover the rich background of the Church, and are encouraged to take part in the prayer and liturgical life of the society 1(Hawkes). Cosentino and Bezzina (2009) note that while most schools, particularly public schools, look forward to deal with the attainment gap by a remarkable focus on educational program; Catholic education on the other hand cuddles a holistic strategy to educational growth and personal development. This strategy is not different from a number of secular schools that also highlight on service education, work-based education as well as socio-emotional education as balances to educational learning or as approaches to minimize motivational, communal, or emotional obstacles to educational attainment. For instance, work-based education is commonly aimed at helping the students appreciate the connection between what they are learning in school and their occupational futures and therefore instilling a level of inspiration amongst youth who otherwise lack direction. However, Catholic education is unique and distinct in the fact that its desire is offer learners with a sense of morals that bestows meaning to their learning. The mission of Catholic school is to assist young people appreciate a wider rationale and meaning in life, and to promote a sense of hope. Apart from enlightening, employment, societal, and health endings of learners, Catholic education is also apprehensive of spiritual and ethical development. This wider sense of purpose and meaning is a vital educational aspect that serves to motivate and encourage young people as they struggle with the educational or communal facets of their lives or when they harbor doubts concerning the financial payoffs for their education 2(Cosentino and Bezzina, 2009; p. 554). N catholic schools, students are taught that economic rewards are not the central meaning of life or work, and their educators are prompted to reflect on the purpose and meaning of their work. In Ontario Catholic schools, for instance, staffs are persuaded to identify the distinctive gifts and skills of every scholar and to model a stewardship of God’s gifts on individual, group, as well as ecological levels. The schools and classrooms are used as places for nurturing their hopes and dreams. Catholic schools are distinctive even in the way they ‘witness to a life of faith’ and their concern for the ‘whole person’ instead of being ‘market-driven’. Catholic schools highlight Christian development of human being, reflecting three fundamentals: vocation, community along with service 3(Cosentino and Bezzina, 2009; p. 554). There are normally four fundamental elements which define a Catholic school: (1) a perspective focused on faith in Christ as Savior; (2) a deep respect for the individuality and integrity of all human beings; (3) a commitment to the pursuit of justice; and (4) the promotion of a sense of mission which would enable individuals to renew the face of the earth’. Catholic education aims at developing a school community that sustains and transmits the Christian faith, and nurtures and deepens the faith as well as the spiritual lives of students. Catholic education conceives a learning environment where pupils are able to grow, as they become morally mature, socially responsible human beings who will endeavor to put into practice the Christian virtues of compassion and justice and find their Christian vocation in the world 4(McLaughlin, O'Keefe & O'Keeffe, 1996). Catholic schools share a particular, identifiable, Catholic uniqueness that replicates the life, work and teachings of Jesus Christ as well as the evangelizing mission of the Catholic Church. The day-by-day connections amongst all associates of the school society replicate faith in loyalty to the Catholic uniqueness of the school. The schools leaders vigorously and jointly endorse, uphold and improve the Catholic distinctiveness of the school in various ways such as: developing knowledgeable appreciation of Church teaching and Catholic customs, and communicating this understanding to others in the school neighborhood; holding and undoubtedly articulating a Catholic faith point of view; promoting understanding of the affluent traditions of the Catholic church; initiating, developing, and implementing strategies to endorse the Catholic distinctiveness of the school in the wider society; and initiating and supporting curriculums that educate and strengthen Christian standards 5(Hawkes). Question two: “The aim of catechesis, or handing on the Gospel message, is maturity: spiritual, liturgical, sacramental and apostolic; this happens most especially in a local Church community. The aim of the school however, is knowledge.” We find in our local community that the Church is the on that plays the greatest role in developing the spiritual aspect. However, in Catholic Education system, both knowledge and spiritual development are integrated to produce a ‘whole person’. In addition to knowledge, in Catholic education centers, the ‘Catholic Education Commission’ has task for the belief substance of the study program. The religious education in catholic schools takes place within the context of the broader faith community, in partnership with home and parish. It is designed in a manner that it will help the youth to become increasingly able to make an informed and mature response to God in faith and to nurture that faith. Furthermore, it provides chances for evangelization as well as catechesis –is the intensifying of existing devotion dedications amid believers. When time had fully come, God through His mysterious plan of love, He sent His own Son to begin the kingdom of God here on earth and introduce the spiritual rebirth of humankind. To carry on this noble task of deliverance, Jesus Christ established the Church as an observable life form, existing by the influence of the Spirit. Through the same Spirit, the Church has been growing in addition to mediating on the mystery of being and mission. The mission of the Church is to evangelize – the Church ought to proclaim the good news of salvation to all, produce new individuals in Christ through Baptism, and train them to live knowingly as children of God. To undertake the saving mission, the Church has employed various methods, some of which Jesus Christ has given and others have been developed by Church and have proved to be effective at different times and in different cultures and thus supporting the development of humankind. One of the methods devised by Church is the establishment of its own schools since it considers them as an advantaged means of supporting the whole person. This is for the reason that a school is the core whereby a particular idea of the humankind, of civilization, and of olden times is expanded and communicated. So as we had seen in the first question, the school provides an atmosphere where students can understand their skills and abilities as well as their dreams through faith. They are taught and develop both spiritually and academically as they grow to become ‘whole persons’ 6(National Catholic Educational Association, 2009). The Catholic school becomes part of the saving mission of the Church, particularly for education in the faith. It is specifically in the Gospel of Christ, winning basis in the psyches and lives of the faithful, that the Catholic school gets its meaning as it comes to agreement with the educational circumstances of the epoch. Over the decades, the Church has continuously utilized the foundations and the means of culture so as to intensify the indulgent of revelation in addition to supporting positive discussion with the humankind while continually clinging to the completeness of godly truth. Moved by faith, the Church seeks to recognize in the procedures, requirements and hopes of our period the most persistent demands which it have got to respond to if the Church is to accomplish God’s plan. One of these needs is the pressing desire to make sure the presence of Christian mentality in the current community that is marked by pluralism among other things. Cultural pluralism directs the Church to endorse the mission of learning to assure development of strong personality. Church members will then be able to resist the incapacitating pressure of relativism and instead live up to the measures made on them by their Baptism. Thus the Church is encouraged to marshal its educational capital in the face of the acquisitiveness, practicality and technocracy of modern society 7(McLaughlin, O'Keefe & O'Keeffe, 1996). The Church supports the principle of plurality of schools systems so as to protect its goals in the face of cultural pluralism. Thus the Church promotes the co-existence and the collaboration of various educational establishments which permits youth and children to be shaped by value decisions founded on a precise scrutiny of the humankind and to be trained to take a vigorous role in the building of a community through which the construction of culture itself is encouraged. Thus as much as the church offers spiritual nourishment to people and school offers knowledge, the two must be integrated to produce ‘whole persons’ who are morally mature, and socially responsible human beings who will endeavor to put into practice the Christian virtues of compassion and justice and find their Christian vocation in the world. For students to be come knowledgeable, they must have the right morals and respect for parents and teachers. This morality can only be learnt within the context of a religious tradition and Catholicism is perceived to be this moral tradition with its own values of excellence and world view. Knowledge obtained in school promotes the community to become loyal and responsible to the Church 8(National Catholic Educational Association, 2009). Catholic education carries a center of attention to learning to find out, assess, and understand the human knowledge, which is always in evolution, in manners that improve and intensify approval for the gift of formation and offer insight into how education can lead to completeness and liberty for each and every one. Consequently, although strategies and chances vary from one point to another, the Catholic education center has its position in every state-run school structure. By providing such choices, the church has decided to act in response to the obvious need for collaboration in the community featured by pluralism. Furthermore, in this way the Church can assist in promoting that liberty of teaching which champions and guarantees freedom of conscience. To conclude, the learning objectives of the Catholic training in the globe of nowadays carry out a very important and exceptional service for the Church. It is through the school that the Church takes part in the discussion of culture with its own constructive contribution to the cause of the total formation of humanity 9(National Catholic Educational Association, 2009). Works cited: Cosentino T. and Bezzina J. “Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice”, (Vol. 12, No. 4, June 2009, 553–564). Trustees of Boston College. Viewed on April 27, 2011 from http://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/catholic/article/viewFile/868/854 Hawkes P. “Leadership in Catholic Schools: Development Framework and Standards of Practice”. Catholic Education Commission of Victoria. Viewed on April 27, 2011 from http://web.cecv.catholic.edu.au/publications/leadership/faith.pdf McLaughlin T., O'Keefe J. & O'Keeffe B. “The contemporary Catholic school: context, identity, and diversity”. Routledge. (1996 pp. 229-307). Viewed on April 27, 2011 from http://books.google.com/books?id=QhlRRcm0FBEC&pg=PA301&dq=In+what+ways+might+a+Catholic+school+be+considered+a+faith+community%3F&cd=8#v=onepage&q&f=false National Catholic Educational Association. “The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education.” (NW, Washington; 2009). Pp. 2-4. Viewed on April 27, 2011 from http://www.ncea.org/UserFiles/File/09_Sacred_Congregation.pdf Read More

For instance, work-based education is commonly aimed at helping the students appreciate the connection between what they are learning in school and their occupational futures and therefore instilling a level of inspiration amongst youth who otherwise lack direction. However, Catholic education is unique and distinct in the fact that its desire is offer learners with a sense of morals that bestows meaning to their learning. The mission of Catholic school is to assist young people appreciate a wider rationale and meaning in life, and to promote a sense of hope.

Apart from enlightening, employment, societal, and health endings of learners, Catholic education is also apprehensive of spiritual and ethical development. This wider sense of purpose and meaning is a vital educational aspect that serves to motivate and encourage young people as they struggle with the educational or communal facets of their lives or when they harbor doubts concerning the financial payoffs for their education 2(Cosentino and Bezzina, 2009; p. 554). N catholic schools, students are taught that economic rewards are not the central meaning of life or work, and their educators are prompted to reflect on the purpose and meaning of their work.

In Ontario Catholic schools, for instance, staffs are persuaded to identify the distinctive gifts and skills of every scholar and to model a stewardship of God’s gifts on individual, group, as well as ecological levels. The schools and classrooms are used as places for nurturing their hopes and dreams. Catholic schools are distinctive even in the way they ‘witness to a life of faith’ and their concern for the ‘whole person’ instead of being ‘market-driven’. Catholic schools highlight Christian development of human being, reflecting three fundamentals: vocation, community along with service 3(Cosentino and Bezzina, 2009; p. 554). There are normally four fundamental elements which define a Catholic school: (1) a perspective focused on faith in Christ as Savior; (2) a deep respect for the individuality and integrity of all human beings; (3) a commitment to the pursuit of justice; and (4) the promotion of a sense of mission which would enable individuals to renew the face of the earth’.

Catholic education aims at developing a school community that sustains and transmits the Christian faith, and nurtures and deepens the faith as well as the spiritual lives of students. Catholic education conceives a learning environment where pupils are able to grow, as they become morally mature, socially responsible human beings who will endeavor to put into practice the Christian virtues of compassion and justice and find their Christian vocation in the world 4(McLaughlin, O'Keefe & O'Keeffe, 1996).

Catholic schools share a particular, identifiable, Catholic uniqueness that replicates the life, work and teachings of Jesus Christ as well as the evangelizing mission of the Catholic Church. The day-by-day connections amongst all associates of the school society replicate faith in loyalty to the Catholic uniqueness of the school. The schools leaders vigorously and jointly endorse, uphold and improve the Catholic distinctiveness of the school in various ways such as: developing knowledgeable appreciation of Church teaching and Catholic customs, and communicating this understanding to others in the school neighborhood; holding and undoubtedly articulating a Catholic faith point of view; promoting understanding of the affluent traditions of the Catholic church; initiating, developing, and implementing strategies to endorse the Catholic distinctiveness of the school in the wider society; and initiating and supporting curriculums that educate and strengthen Christian standards 5(Hawkes).

Question two: “The aim of catechesis, or handing on the Gospel message, is maturity: spiritual, liturgical, sacramental and apostolic; this happens most especially in a local Church community. The aim of the school however, is knowledge.” We find in our local community that the Church is the on that plays the greatest role in developing the spiritual aspect.

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