For those of you who pay enough attention to education these days, you will know that the national curriculum guidelines are changing. Out with the old and in with the new. It's about time for a change and although there is no guarentee that the Curriculum for Excellence will be as wonderful as it claims, it's child-centred approach is one I'm all in favour of. The plan is that those who teach under ACfE will support and enable their students to become Confident Individuals, Successful Learners, Responsible Citizens and Effective Contributors. If all this works and the 'yoof of today' is transformed in to such things I would be mightily pleased. (Sarcasm? Me? Never.) Still, despite reservations, I think that the key principles of working with our young people to help them become all these things are good. Rather than ticking boxes I think that CfE allows teachers and pupils to go on a journey together and to observe more rewarding progress. With the ever-present power of 'linking-thinking' this led me to think about the journey that we plan for our children in our churches. What exactly do we hope for them to become? How do we envision their growth? Do we actually have a plan?All too often I have seen Sunday schools whose primary focus is on getting through the service and getting through the material. Week by week each tick box is complete as another worksheet is done and another story is told. In all of this, what is it that we intend our young people to be doing? In what way do we see them growing?
I think it's important that, just as we do for our church and sometimes our youth, we set out a coherent vision for our children and their place in the church. We must define our key strategies for enabling this vision and ensure that we have team who is working well towards achieving it. If we don't our kids are left floundering and bored with the little opportunity for growth that sunday school provides. I would also suggest that working towards an agreed vision rather than through an agreed material allows far more space for individual leaders to exercise their creativity. I believe there are many people who can communicate wonderfully with our children but are restrained by the step-by-step, worksheet-by-worksheet regime that currently exists. I have a vendetta against worksheets being a main resource but I will admit that on occassion they do have their place. I'm more in favour of an experiential type of learning; taking our kids out and letting them experience God in a whole variety of contexts. That means not just learning stories and verses (which is of course important) but actually doing and seeing and trying and thinking. So, in a very students-with-placards way, I'd like to say: "Abandon the worksheet! Let our children grow!".
We want to see spiritual growth in our children, that they may become confident individuals in themselves, effective disciples to their peers and welcomed contributors to the life of our church. It may well require more thought, more preparation, more trial-and-error but let's give these kids the opportunity. If we don't, we'll lose them younger and quicker as church slowly turns them away from Jesus or at least away from church. I have seen kids as young (or even as old...) as Primary 7 truly worship and weep with love for Jesus. It's possible! So let's plan a journey with our children and let's be part of it. Let's prepare our kids for knowing Jesus now and just when they're 'older'. Let's enable our kids to be diverse, creative, expressive and loved as we nuture their growth and uncover their potential. Let's provide genuine opportunities for our children to engage in worship, to wrestle with scripture and to walk with the whole church. Let us never underestimate what our children can teach us about God - if we only let them.
5 comments:
Good discussions about children and worship going on at Lynn's blog. (Help I work with Children)
Rock on Amie!
We don't have a national curriculum in Scotland we have national guidelines - quite different from a prescriptive curriculum. CfE suggests we help pupils to become Confident Individuals, Successful Learners, Responsible Citizens and Effective Contributors as you say. Wonder what I've been trying to do all these years if it wasn't help them to become these things?? Anyway, the flexibility CfE offers and the opportunities to explore new ways of learning should mean that young people in church will not put up with passive learning experiences and will want to question, understnad and own thier faith......wonder if churches are ready for that! Mx
ooops....perhaps they'll also learn to spell - their, understand....why does this stupid thing not have a spell check?!
Hah. I'm obviously not one of those people who pay much attention! I shall make the appropriate amendments. Thanks for keeping me right! The principle still applies... =p As one of our tutors once pointed out, we say that we want kids who can question and challenge but sometimes we don't really... we still want to be in control and still want to be the ones with all the answers. As you say, is the church ready for kids who can challenge and question us? I think there's some humility involved here...
"the flexibility CfE offers and the opportunities to explore new ways of learning should mean that young people in church will not put up with passive learning experiences" (M)
I think that for a while now teachers have been desperate for the flexibility to engage in creative teaching and for the opportunity to extend learning far beyond the classroom in a whole variety of ways. So, why is it that in church, where we have such flexibility and such opportunities... we tend to stick to a 'traditional' classroom-teaching model???
Just an observation, even if slightly simplified...
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