Greetings to all the good folks up in Rice Lake, Wisconsin!
I was up there Tuesday and Wednesday for the Diocese of Superior Fall Conference, doing a couple of workshops on “Teaching to Generation Me.” Some of you may recall that a few months back, I did a series of posts on a book titled “Generation Me” by Jean Twenge, M.D. and offered some thoughts on how catechists can respond to the unique challenges this generation presents. The Director of Pastoral Services of the Diocese of Superior, Richard Lyons, read my posts and invited me to speak at their conference. What an amazing world we live in that we can connect on matters of faith over hundreds of miles that separate us!
Anyway, I enjoyed talking with catechists and Catholic school teachers about the generation of kids (and their parents) that we are ministering to. We all agreed that the Holy Spirit will guide us to find the most effective ways to communicate the Gospel to this generation!
Let me add as well that it was a beautiful 6 1/2 hour drive (one way) with the leaves changing colors all around me!
Just wanted you to know I very much enjoyed your presentation last Wednesday.
My husband Curt and I have 4 teenages and not a huge amount of parenting skills to draw from. We have been married for 20 years and we are not a blended family so I guess we are not normal for this day and age.
Our challenges are not only from raising 4 teenages in a material world. (we are by the way in your age group) But, because we come from a town of less than 800 people and a clustered church community, it feels like we are constantly struggling with our rights as parents in the public school and a church community that, well, is never happy.
I do have a question in all of this. What is your opinion of implied or passive consent. I will not ask you to jump into a trap!!! I disagree with implied or “imagined” consent. In a society where the parents seem to be taking the rap for our children’s bad behavior, our schools and churches are taking more and more resposibility as to what is fed to our children and leaving parents out of the roll of resposibitity. It would seem to me, we would want to make parents respond and participate in sensitive decisions for their children.
Really, I just wonder at times if I am on the right track or just frustrated and focusing on this issue in release. As a parent I feel if we continue to let others make the choices of what is appropriate for our children to do/see, it is a scary example we are giving them for raising their children.
I do not mean for this to be so heavy. Really I have great hope in what in this area is a dark time.
Sorry, I am late!!! This was written in haste, forgive sp.!
God bless your day!!!!
colleen
Colleen, thanks for your message. I enjoyed my visit to Rice Lake and the chance to meet and talk with you good folks up there!
The issue you bring up is an ongoing tension. The Church teaches us of course that parents are the primary teachers of their children. I think we sometimes let go of some of that responsibility and hand it over to the school or church community. As parents, we always need to be very clear to our children that, even though society and/or a community institution says that something is OK, that doesn’t always make it OK.
As for implied or passive consent, I’m not sure I know exactly what you are talking about so perhaps you can expand on your thoughts. Don’t forget that if there is an issue you’d like to address that you’d prefer not to go public, you can always send me a private e-mail…there’s a link on my home page. I do not post e-mails.
Thank you for your response.
I was reading more of your web page. The question concerning the difference between Catholics and Protestants is so important to discern. I will be interested to hear more on that!! Also the “prayer thing” at the end of your class sounds great.