A new RE experience.
Mar. 15th, 2009 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaI decided that my plan to take a year off from Religious Education only means that I won't teach, not that I won't take anything. So this morning I got to church two hours early (!) for the first session of a class called "Parents as Resident Theologians." From the course description:
There were about ten people at the first session, all mothers (except for our DRE facilitator). It was a nice mix of people I've known for years and people who are brand new to the church. All of them seem like really interesting, engaged, thoughtful women. I was pleased to see that the class goes right up the age spectrum; Colin is the youngest child of a class parent, obviously, but the oldest is turning 18. I think having that range will lead to interesting and productive discussions.
Today was mostly introductory. We introduced ourselves, talked about what we hoped to get from the class, picked out and discussed words that describe ourselves (mine were mama-researcher-feminist-geek-writer, because I missed the first part of the exercise and somehow thought we were looking for nouns rather than adjectives), and started to talk about the values we want to pass on to our children.
Poor![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
acceberskoorb. She had set up a lovely ritual in which each of us went up and inscribed our children's full names on a piece of cloth that lay under the chalice, and then spoke the names aloud to, I guess, bring the children's presence into the room. She discovered that it's very difficult for a group of mothers/churchwomen to sit peacefully experiencing a ritual when they could use that time to talk about six or seven other things. I suspect that she will be working to reform us on this one.
I'm really looking forward to next week, when the topic is addressing children's religious questions. God knows I'm challenged by Alex's. I broke down a couple of weeks ago and answered a question I had been avoiding ("How did Jesus die?"), only to turn around a few days later and find that she was earnestly explaining the Crucifixion to a three-year-old friend. (He hadn't asked. She just thought it was a good story.)
Though we do our very best to provide a comprehensive religious education to the children and youth in our congregation, the ultimate blessing and burden of religious education rests with parents and other family members. Faith development happens mostly in the home.
"Parents as Resident Theologians," led by Director of Religious Education, Becky Brooks, is a curriculum written by-and-for Unitarian Universalists. The course is designed to help parents and other adults with children in your lives explore your own theologies and philosophies so that your conversations and experiences with your children can be more comfortably grounded. Using the tools of the curriculum and the wisdom of our unique group of people, we will explore how to be better religious educators for our children and youth.
There were about ten people at the first session, all mothers (except for our DRE facilitator). It was a nice mix of people I've known for years and people who are brand new to the church. All of them seem like really interesting, engaged, thoughtful women. I was pleased to see that the class goes right up the age spectrum; Colin is the youngest child of a class parent, obviously, but the oldest is turning 18. I think having that range will lead to interesting and productive discussions.
Today was mostly introductory. We introduced ourselves, talked about what we hoped to get from the class, picked out and discussed words that describe ourselves (mine were mama-researcher-feminist-geek-writer, because I missed the first part of the exercise and somehow thought we were looking for nouns rather than adjectives), and started to talk about the values we want to pass on to our children.
Poor
acceberskoorb. She had set up a lovely ritual in which each of us went up and inscribed our children's full names on a piece of cloth that lay under the chalice, and then spoke the names aloud to, I guess, bring the children's presence into the room. She discovered that it's very difficult for a group of mothers/churchwomen to sit peacefully experiencing a ritual when they could use that time to talk about six or seven other things. I suspect that she will be working to reform us on this one.I'm really looking forward to next week, when the topic is addressing children's religious questions. God knows I'm challenged by Alex's. I broke down a couple of weeks ago and answered a question I had been avoiding ("How did Jesus die?"), only to turn around a few days later and find that she was earnestly explaining the Crucifixion to a three-year-old friend. (He hadn't asked. She just thought it was a good story.)
