Winter, 1998 edition
A short fantasy journey may provide some insights...the year is 2030 A.D. The scene is a busy street in a large American city. A woman named Sarah pauses at a newsstand to read the day’s headlines, a puzzled look comes over her face.
If Sarah was a student at St. Mary’s back in 1997 we should ask: "Will she remember some social principles she learned decades before or be indifferent to other people’s problems?"
The situations reported in Sarah’s newspapers illustrate four of the six themes identified by the United States Catholic bishops as key concepts of Catholic social teaching: the life and dignity of the human person, human rights, the dignity of work and the rights of workers and the preferential option for the poor. The two remaining concepts are the call to family and community participation and solidarity. But these six do not exhaust the rich content of Catholic social teaching. Another theme is subsidiarity, which defends the freedom of initiative of every member of society and of the institutions that make up society from excessive intervention by the state or other larger institutions.
Concern for the common good is understood as the social conditions that allow people to reach their full potential and realize their human dignity.
The social teaching also states that the goods of this world are intended by God for the benefit of everyone. A "social mortgage" guides the use of the world’s goods. The teaching defends the right to private property which, however, carries a responsibility to use it in ways consistent with the common good.
People are called as well to exercise responsible stewardship of creation. Economic initiative, the right to use one’s talents to contribute to the common good and to reap the just fruits of one’s labors, is also upheld.
The practice of charity to help those in need, as well as the pursuit of justice to shape a social order that promotes just relationships and safeguards human rights, are essential. All of these concepts are derived from the Gospel as it is applied to the life of the human community now and in the future.
Back from the fantasy trip, educators know that it is impossible to accompany each student into her or his adult life to ensure that values, information and skills persist after their mentoring presence is removed.
Similarly, no one today can accurately foretell what ethical challenges newspapers will present in 2030. Students will have to depend on the lens provided by their Catholic education to observe, understand, judge and act in a newworld. It isn’t a magic implant. One glimpse of Catholic social teaching and they’re set for life? Not quite!
The patient collaboration of many educators over students’ formative years is needed to deliver the message effectively. What is clear, however, is that any school or parish program that claims Catholic identity cannot fail to present this social teaching in creative, age-appropriate and compelling ways. No claim is made that the church’s social teaching will correct all of society’s ills. But the power of a consistent, well-grounded, carefully reasoned body of teaching should not be underestimated.
The social documents have been written. They await the spark of creative, committed educators to carry their message to Catholics and non-Catholics of the 21st century.
Few students will take the volumes from the bookshelf on their own. "Translators" are needed to bring the documents’ richness into a new era. The message can be controversial. Some will simply walk away. The bottom line is: If Catholic educators don’t do it, who will?
Sister Hart, SSND-CoordinatorOffice of Justice, Peace and Integrity of CreationSchool Sisters of Notre Dame, Baltimore, Maryland.
Reprinted with permission from Momentum, the Official Journal of the National Catholic Educational Association (August/September 1997 issue), Washington, D.C. (202) 337-6232.
Bright Ideas are real stories from real teachers — like you! Got a Bright Idea? Send us a description of how you infused justice into a teaching setting.
We’ll publish the best ideas in the next edition of the CJEN newsletter.
Elementary GradesMiddle School GradesAll Grades
Bright Ideas for Elementary Grades
My kindergarten class is giving twice in honor of their birthdays. Birthday treats come normally, but this year, we are asking children to bring a bag full of 2 or 3 food items for the local food shelf to help someone else less fortunate.
As each child brings their "birthday treats" for the needy, they place the foods around a special "kindness tree." Periodically, we will visit the food shelf and deliver our goods in person. We also keep the needy in our prayers.
St. Dominic, NorthfieldJane Persons, Kindergarten507-645-8136
I use children’s books to foster social justice values with my kindergartners. For example we read the book, For Every Child a Better World with Kermit the Frog,
in cooperation with the Children’s Defense Fund. Afterwards we sign a copy of the UN Pledge to ensure that every child gets what every child needs.
We also encourage the value of individual responsibility with the book, Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney. In this story a little girl tells her grandfather she wants to travel the world and see great things then come back home to live by the sea. Her grandpa tells her there is one more thing, she must do something to make the world more beautiful. After this book we do a service project for the community.
We have paired each of our first-sixth grade classes with an elderly person. In their class prayers that person is prayed for eachweek. Classes have also sent Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthday cards to their "prayer partner." The young people have been able to apply what they learn on Wednesday night to the greater community.
Also, this year we did our Thanksgiving food collection differently from what was done in the past. In order to get the young people more involved in the food that was shared, we ask each grade to bring in specific items. The young people took pride in what they shared and we had one of our biggest collections ever
Shakopee Area Religious EducationLaura Shupe, First-Sixth Grade, 445-3488
B lessed are the peacemakers..."
When a child does something kind, speaks well of another, works peacefully, helps stop the teasing, etc. he/she is given a "peace" ticket. At the end of the week, a name is drawn and a prize is given.
Articles from newspaper are brought in for prayer board. These depict either people in need of justice or helping promote justice and we pray for them accordingly.
Students bring in an item for the food shelf weekly as we come in for school mass.
St. Jerome, MaplewoodTerri McLean, Third Grade771-8494
Top
How did it feel to be blindfolded? How did it feel to be helping your partner? How do you think your experience compares to the experience of persons with disabilities? What does our faith call us to do about persons with disabilities? What have you done to help or support persons with disabilities? What could you do?
Source: Office for Religious Education, Archdiocese of Washington, DC
The students were required to make a donation toward a non-uniform day which would allow them to participate. The money was raised for families in Grand Forks. The suggested donation was $1.00 per student.
This fundraiser occurred during the time of the disaster and many students were excited about it. It meant a lot to them because they knew people in Grand Forks, or visited and volunteered!
St. Joseph School, RosemountAndrea MyersSocial Justice Representative423-1658
We have a member in our community who lived in Kenya for a few years and whose wife is from Kisii. This family has been a connection for us to learn from, and with, communities in Kenya.
We are organizing fundraisers for fall and spring and plan to donate the money to Kenya. They will be using it for drought relief, food, clothing, education and to build a new church.
We are also creating curriculum in Grades 5th-8th to have one-on-one pen pals in their schools (total of 115 students from both countries).
Last of all, we are inviting the Kenyan family to present slides to help inform each grade more about the people and the living environment in Kisii.
Bright Ideas for All Grades
Bill Appleby Purcell and Hubert Dixon III at the Campaign for Human Development partnered with Cathleen Carlisle, Maggie Conley and Mike Pozniak of Catholic Relief Services to set up a social justice "obstacle course" to experientially teach the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. The course was set up for a CHD gathering in Kansas City, MO.
As the young people entered the course they were greeted by CRS folks and given the identity of a refugee who had to find their way from Rwanda to the Congo. So, in the first stage they were taught Human Dignity. Then they were taught the Dignity of Work by having to take a job in a refugee camp. From there they moved to the Principle of Solidarity where the youth were given a small container of water that they had to survive on, as well as wash their children and their clothes.
The young people then came to a line to enter into the United States where they learned about the Option for the Poor. At this station they had to toss a ball through a tire; if they succeeded they were middle class and moved up the Middle Class Express to the next station. If they missed, which the majority did, they had to navigate through a series of tires, with each tire representing the obstacles the poor have to go through; unemployment office, food bank, homeless shelter, and social service agencies.
At the next station, representing the Principle of Community and the Common Good, the middle class and poor met up to work together to try to clean up their environment. Four people had to clean up the toxic waste in their neighborhood by emptying a bucket full of styrofoam pellets into another elevated bucket which represented a toxic dump. The trick was to not touch the buckets or cross the red lines around the toxic dump area. They could only touch the ropes connected to the bucket.
This exercise emphasized that only by working together can we solve some of our community problems. The last station represented Rights and Responsibilities where the participant was asked to answer the question: "What does justice mean to you?"
More than 1,700 folks, including three bishops, went through the obstacle course which took about 20 minutes to get through completely. More than 3,000 people stopped by the CHD/CRS display tables where promotional and educational materials were distributed. Who says social justice can’t be fun?
For more information on the social justice obstacle course call Bill Appleby Purcell, Education Specialist at CHD (202) 541-3372 or Cathleen Carlisle at CRS (410) 625-2220 Ext. 3227.
(Used with permission from the CHD Connection Newsletter, December 19, 1997)
