Last night, I spent the evening with about 50 catechists from the O’Hare cluster of parishes (northwest side of Chicago and northwest suburbs) and had a wonderful time talking about the Old Testament with them.

In the course of the evening, I met 2 catechists who have been serving in this ministry for over 30 years each! One had been a catechist for 33 years and another for 38 years! What a wonderful witness they were to the half-dozen or so brand new catechists who were there. It was especially inspiring to see that, after all these years, they were present at a catechist formation event, eager to learn, modeling the fact that faith formation is life-long!

Thanks to the DREs and catechists of the O’Hare cluster for a wonderful evening of faith formation…the Spirit was truly present and active!

My wife and I took our daughter to college today. Everything went well but needless to say my mind is not on catechesis at the moment. I’ll post tomorrow. God bless all of our children going back to school.

Here’s my quick review of a little booklet for new catechists titled Teaching the Faith: A Catechist’s Guide to Classroom Management by Kim Duty (Paulist Press).

This is a handy little guide that gives new catechists an opportunity to become acquainted with the world of classroom management. What I like about it is its “You can do this!” approach to the task of catechesis.

In the Introduction, “From Me To You,” Duty offers a heartfelt message to new catechists to put them at ease if they are experiencing trepidation. What bothered me about this section, however, was that it dwells excessively on the negative feelings a new catechist may have and ignores the deep notion of the vocation of the catechist that the GDC and NDC emphasize.

Chapter 1: What Will The Children Be Like?

• This chapter offers a nice breakdown of the various age groups that catechists find themselves teaching along with the characteristics of these age groups.
  

Chapter 2: How Do children Learn?

• This chapter provides a good description of various learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic and gives a succinct overview of multiple intelligences.

Chapter 3: How Should I Organize My Teaching Space?

• In attempting to provide an overview of how to organize a teaching space, Duty asks too many questions instead of just giving tips. New catechists already have these questions and are looking for suggestions and tips.

Chapter 4: How do I Manage My Class and Plan My Lessons?

• Here, Duty offers good tips for how to use a student text and catechist manual. What is missing is a brief explanation that the steps of a lesson constitute a catechetical process. Also, the chapter focuses on goals and objectives (what the catechist will do in a lesson) with no mention of learning outcomes (what the learners will do in a lesson)

Chapter 5: What Kids Wish You Knew?

• This chapter describes a variety of things that children need…it comes across as kind of a general pep talk for catechists.

Chapter 6: And Finally…Teaching

• Duty ends the booklet with a list of ABCs for new catechists. It contains some nice thoughts but overall, the whole ABCs thing is overdone and continues to reinforce the notion that being a catechist is a “cute” activity while missing the profound nature of the vocation of the catechist.

Overall, Kim Duty offers new catechists a handy little booklet that will help them to feel more at home in their new role while picking up some helpful hints for classroom management.

Finally, be aware that the booklet, at only 68 pages, sells for $8.95…not exactly a bargain for such a short work.

There are 2 other books in this series: Praying with Young People and Connecting with Parents which I’ll review in the days ahead.

Take a look at the very nice review of The Catechist’s Toolbox by Dan Pierson who has a blog named eCatechist. Thanks, Dan, for giving my book such a nice plug! I look forward to visiting your blog!

I hope that as people dig into The Catechist’s Toolbox, we can discuss a myriad of issues here on my blog. The book is a starting point for ongoing discussion of our ongoing ministry. Please share your insights, comments, and questions here so that we can walk with (and “talk” with) one another on this wonderful journey!