Spiritual,
Moral and Religious Education is a Flagship area for Research in Australian
Catholic University
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Cardinal Clancy Centre for Research in the Spiritual, Moral, Religious and Pastoral Dimensions of Education. |
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Spiritual,
Moral and Religious Education is a Flagship area for Research in Australian
Catholic University
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The Place of Voluntary Commitment groups in Catholic school religious education
The way in which aims for Catholic school religious education tend to be written up in diocesan guidelines, in school programs, and in many other writings, emphasise the purpose of developing young people's religious faith. As well as the idea of 'handing on the faith tradition' there is also the strong emphasis on developing personal faith responses and commitment.
In recent years some consideration has been given to the tendency to overemphasise the faith-oriented purposes of Catholic religious education. This happens where the role of classroom religious education in enhancing young people's spiritual development is overstated or presumed : aims and purposes may talk about faith, faith response, commitment and religious experience in much the same way as comparable documents for other subjects talk about the relationship between classroom teaching and knowledge and skills outcomes. Classroom religious education would be likely to be more realistic and effective if the 'faith outcomes' were considered as hopes, differentiating them from aims which can be achieved in the classroom and which can be monitored and assessed.
Recognising that faith and commitment are more in the domain of long term hopes than knowledge and skills does not obscure the important relationships that exist between the more personal and the cognitive and skill dimensions. In practice there is growing recognition of this issue and this is helping classroom religious education to become more realistic in its aims, content and procedures. Questions about 'studying religion' and 'assessment and reporting' etc. are being resolved satisfactorily.
However, what is surprising about the overall religious program in Catholic schools is that the very structures that by nature have a significant capacity to promote faith, commitment and action on behalf of justice are neglected. This structure is the voluntary commitment group.
Because of the voluntary nature of commitment groups like Young Christian Students (YCS), St Vincent de Paul Society groups and others, the very basis on which they are constituted involves readiness to work together to deepen spirituality, exercise commitment and pursue social action for justice. This presumed starting point, which does not apply in the public forum of the classroom, means that the natural process of the commitment group is primarily one of catechesis. The fundamental purpose of the commitment group is usually very different in emphasis from what is proposed for classroom religious education.
Much of the spiritual value in voluntary commitment groups derives from the spiritual aspects of the personal interactions. Much is written about the notion 'sharing faith' with regard to classroom religious education, but it is in the voluntary group where this really takes place.
The adults who serve as advisers to voluntary commitment groups do not function in the same way as the religion teacher would in the classroom. Their role is to work with young people in the planning and carry through of group activities. At times the adviser needs to moderate the enthusiasm of young people who can tend to put so much time into voluntary youth group activities that it begins to compromise other responsibilities such as school work.
The adult adviser is like a faith role model for the young people. The religious educator Michael Warren, would describe this as a prime evangelising role through 'walking the way' with them rather than 'talking the way' which is a more relevant to classroom religious education.
While voluntary religious groups often yield significant activities and interactions that deepen the faith and commitment of participants, this does not mean that all of the activities are always highly religious. Often, the main reason young people will join a voluntary group is not because they fully accept the well articulated aims and purposes of the group, but rather simply for social reasons -- it may be a good opportunity for boys and girls to meet and socialise. It is not contrary to the aims of voluntary groups to meet the social needs of young people. For some, their membership in the group may not get past this stage. For others, they can grow into a more conscious understanding and acceptance of the religious purposes of the group. They can get involved in the planning of social and religiously oriented events for other members of the group. They can also be helped considerably by meeting with leaders from other similar religious groups where their personal and religious needs (which become somewhat different from those of young people new to the group) can be enhanced. For example, key leaders in commitment groups may find a theology of Scripture study day the sort of experience that is very interesting and helpful for them.
Some of the problems in conducting voluntary groups which will be noted here are the emotional component, and why there has been a decline in youth groups.
Some of the natural problems encountered in the conduct of voluntary commitment groups
Student leadership: One of the most significant contributions of voluntary commitment groups to the personal and spiritual development of young people is leadership training. The key leaders take on responsibility for planning events and activities that will be helpful for the other members of the group. This provides extraordinary opportunities for the development of leadership skills and skills in management and organisation. Anecdotal evidence provided by a number of adults some ten to twenty years after they have finished school have recalled that the on-the-job leadership and management skills that they learnt in their years as key leaders in the YCS (Young Christian Students) movement proved to be more helpful to them than some courses done at university level on management and personnel.
In some Catholic schools which had a strong tradition for youth groups such as YCS in the 1970s, their student leadership over the decade (school captains, prefects etc.), in ninety per cent of cases, were from the YCS group. However, it was not a one-way movement of leadership development. Because the youth group leaders were in the main the natural leaders of the students in sporting and social areas, the voluntary commitment groups were enriched by the natural leadership qualities of these students.
At times there were the inevitable problems where some students who did not have good leadership potential managed to secure key leadership positions in the commitment group. It became an important identity and ego-defining position for them. Where this occurred, the commitment group suffered because it became identified as the clique of individuals who were not likely to, in the students' own words, "cut it in any of the normal areas of school life". One of the key roles of adult advisers of commitment groups was to do their best to maximise the leadership learning possibilities within the group while minimising the potential problems.
The emotionality in voluntary commitment groups: The social and emotional dimensions of voluntary commitment groups are important because they are often the substrate on which a spiritual dimension is developed. Good social experience has always been a key component in the success of voluntary commitment groups where the groups have both boys and girls in the membership or at least where separate sex groups have the opportunity to mix occasionally.
Emotion and euphoria are also often prominent in the activities of voluntary commitment groups, particularly where there is a retreat or live-in experience. An earlier discussion of emotion in live-in retreats in an earlier edition of Word in Life is pertinent here. (Reflections on Retreats in Catholic Secondary Schools, Word in Life, March 1997). As suggested in that discussion, the euphoria and emotion that grow out of educational activities as by-products can enhance the personal learning of the students. It is like the 'peak experience learning' written about by the psychologist Abraham Maslow.
In a very favourable social climate, the intense feeling and fun that becomes a mark of the shared community experiences can help young people learn values and principles that remain a part of their conviction even when the emotion and euphoria die down. It is when emotion and euphoria are sought for their own sake by those organising the events that problems begin to arise with the emotional experiences.
Occasionally this has become a problem in voluntary commitment groups when the personal needs of the planners for emotion and intimacy have too great an influence on the way the program is conducted. Too great an emphasis on emotion has been said to be a problem that is not uncommon in Antioch groups.
The decline of voluntary commitment groups in Catholic schools: If organisations like YCS made such a distinctive and valuable contribution to the spiritual life of young people in Catholic schools in the 1970s, one might wonder why they have declined since then. A number of factors have been considered as contributing. Some would suggest that there is just not enough quality leadership amongst teachers that could be made available to commitment groups. There are now not the same numbers of religious personnel who, with no spouse or family to look after, had more time and emotional energy to invest in the guidance of commitment groups. Since the 1970s, the regime for teachers has become so much more complex and stressful that it is understandable that fewer teachers are prepared to devote the time to run commitment groups effectively. Also, the lives of the students, both in school and out of school, has tended to become more complex and busy than was the case in the 1970s. However, it is difficult to judge on this question.
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What has been written here discusses some of the characteristics of voluntary commitment groups and the role that they can play in fostering the personal and spiritual development of young people. It may useful to again stimulate the thinking of Catholic educators to reconsider the religious potential of such groups in Catholic schools. Further comment is welcomed. It would be of interest to find out what examples of voluntary commitment groups remain operative in Australian Catholic schools today.
Graham Rossiter
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