If you’ve been in class for a couple of weeks already, I have a question for you: do you know your students’ names yet?

Calling your R.E. students by name is very important. It shows that you take a real interest in them as unique individuals. It shows that you care. It shows that you honor their presence.

It also gives you leverage when it comes to keeping order in class. To call someone by name is to have a certain degree of power or authority over them (this is why the Jewish people do not speak God’s name because we cannot have power or authority over God). By the way, did you notice how often Sarah Palin used Charlie Gibson’s name in their interview? She was obviously coached to do so because it lends to an aura of authority, an image that she and her handlers obviously feel they need to convey.

Calling your students by name helps to establish a good rapport – people in general respond positively when referred to by name. (If you watch The Simpsons, you’ll recall that in the famous episode “Who Shot Mr. Burns?“, Homer’s motive was that Mr. Burns never remembers his name!)

Luckily, I have only 13 young people in class so it didn’t take me long to get to know their names. I put myself on the hot seat last week at the start of class, saying, “OK let’s see if I can call you each by name.” With the pressure on, I was able to go around the horn, hesitating 2 or 3 times before a name connected with a face, eventually naming them all correctly. (Of course, it helped that they had assigned seats…if I bump into them on the street, I may not be able to be quite as successful!)

Anyway, I wish you well with your next session and I encourage you to take a stab at learning all of your students’ names. After all, God calls us each by name!

This past Saturday, I was in Greenville, South Carolina, doing a workshop for about 100 catechists on the topic of my book, The Catechist’s Toolbox. WOW! These folks went all out with the toolbox theme!!!

We had a wonderful day taking a closer look at how we can be more effective as catechists. My deepest thanks to the wonderful people who organized and hosted the event and a great big SHOUT OUT to all of my new catechist friends in the diocese of Charleston, South Carolina!!!

Week 2 went very nicely last evening. Here are some of the highlights:

• We met in church for an opening prayer service with the pastor. The kids were well-behaved and participated nicely. The pastor did a very nice job of encouraging the kids to put Jesus first in their lives. That took about a half-hour of the 75-minute class time.
• Two of the boys in my group asked if they could call me “Dr. Pepper” (since I had alluded to the fact that I had completed my doctorate). I told them they could since they asked and as long as they did so with respect. I had to laugh at that.
• Our focus in class was on: Jesus, God’s Greatest Gift. I began by inviting them to come forward in groups to “play” Where’s Waldo? I have a giant Where’s Waldo? book that they came forward to peruse, seeing if they could find Waldo in 60 seconds. It too 4 groups to finally locate him. I told them that people sometimes spend lots of time wondering “Where’s God?” while all along we can find him in Jesus Christ.
• We then listened to Joan Osborne’s song, One of Us, in which she repeatedly (and sarcastically) sings, “What if God was one of us?” I told them that we Christians know the answer to that question because we know that God became one of us through the Incarnation of Jesus.
• We then read from the textbook about how Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us.
• I invited the young people to pick up their mini votive candle and to go to their sacred space (one of the girls referred to it as their sanctuaries).
• I dimmed the lights and led them in a meditation on the Lord’s Prayer. All told it was about 15 minutes and they did well for the most part although I will need to move a couple of them who seem to have moved their sacred spaces closer to one another! There is some antsy-ness that they will need to learn to overcome and I know they will get better in time. Also, a couple of them took to tossing their little vigil candle up and down as they listened to me leading the reflection…I’ll have to put an end to that.
• They seem to be a very good-natured group. Lots of natural giddyness but a sheepish attitude…in other words, when they notice that I’ve noticed some mischief, they very sheepishly cease and desist (for the time-being!).

I’m excited about next week when I once again have them for the full 75 minutes and our topic is the Holy Spirit. Oh, the possibilities!

No, I’m no talking about the excellent Web site www.sacredspace.ie.

I’m talking about creating sacred space in your “classroom.” In particular, I’m referring to the notion of inviting the children/young people to occasionally get out of their seats/desks and to find a place in the room where they can sit on the floor and be “alone.” I tell them that this will be their sacred space for the year and that, from time to time, I will invite them to go to their sacred space for some quiet prayer time.

Providing the young people with this space accomplishes several things. On a practical level, it helps with discipline because it “divides and conquers.” If you try to lead guided reflections (meditations) when the young people are sitting next to each other, the temptation is too great for them to interact and misbehave. When they’ve gone off to their sacred space, you have some degree of “buffer zones” between each student depending on the size of your room. More importantly, it provides the young people with a degree of privacy. Individuality is very important to young people and this gives them an opportunity to experience it. (Of course we need to provide experiences of community to offset the rampant individualism of our culture but that’s another post!)

Today, I’m going to run over to Walgreens to pick up some mini battery-operated devotional candles (advertised as “smart candle tea lights”) – they are on sale 3 for $3. I’ll get one for each student and then, when it is time for them to go to their sacred space, I’ll invite them to come forward one at a time to take their little devotional candle with them to their sacred space…a sign that the light of Christ is accompanying them.