Our Middle School Program
Why participate? |
The aim and purpose of all parish faith education programs is to equip and inspire our youth to develop a life long relationship with Jesus Christ. We know the more effective our program is, the more effectively we will be making lifelong, intentional disciples-- working to fulfill Christ's call to build the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth and preparing to see God face-to-face for eternity.
When the stakes are this high, we must be willing to make the tough choices and changes that allow us to accomplish our goal (not just chug along.) This year, we saw the need to make a few key changes to address some of the elements of our program which we determined would provide opportunity to be more effective in accomplishing these goals. We entered into a period of reflection, research, and brainstorming. What began to stick out to us were two areas of focus: routine, and relationship. With the help of a "think-tank" of some of our catechists and parents, the specific ways to address those two areas started to take shape.
Certainly, these two elements are intertwined in many ways. With the routine of meeting weekly, our classrooms a) will be more effective learning environments, and b) will provide more opportunity to foster relationship (between students and catechists as well as among peers.) No longer will a singular absence result in not being in our learning environment with our catechist and peers for a whole month.
The new weekly model of our program is intended to foster routine and continuity, for your family's calendar as well as for our catechists in the classroom. Going from "this is someone I see twice a month" to "this is someone I learn from every week" creates a very different environment for building relationship and encouraging meaningful belonging. A more consistently meeting group is able to fall into more efficient and effective routine within the classroom as well. The continuity of attending class each week will serve to keep the material fresh in our students' minds so they are better able to connect the previous week's content to new material, leading to a more solid understanding of the faith as a whole rather than as separate floating concepts. In the past, having less total classes, we were unable to cover all the chapters/lessons, leaving gaps in our students' learning. Now our Pre-Conf and Conf I classes will be able to cover the entire workbook, and our Conf II classes will be able to dive more deeply into some of the most critical lessons. The streamlined nature of having both K-5 and Middle School on the same class days (one after another) was decided with the additional intention of simplifying scheduling for families with students in both programs.We are excited about the energy that will result from our momentum and focus on relationship this year. |
The Biggest Hurdles |
We recognize that each of our families deals with a constantly shifting schedule-- you are juggling many commitments and adjusting for one more changing piece is bound to add a degree of strain to families. When we workshopped these changes with some of our catechists and parents we definitely heard about this reality. However, we were surprised by the overwhelming recognition among these parents and volunteers that when you understand the ultimate goal and the benefits that can come from this change, the challenge is worth it.
One of the hardest things we had to do was to take away our Sunday class. For families with busy weekday schedules, we know having a Sunday option has been a real gift in the past. The decision to remove Sundays came as a necessary outcome of the change to weekly. With the unpredictability of our weekend schedules, It is unreasonable to expect our families to set aside every Sunday afternoon-- and certainly unreasonable to ask of our volunteer catechists. While families with set weekday schedules may look at Sunday as wide open opportunity, it has been our experience that at the beginning of the year we underestimate the amount of activities that arise on weekends. Trips, family events, weddings, family visitors, invitations, big projects... In fact, when we analyzed the attendance data from this past year, our Sunday absence rate was substantially higher than on Thursdays. We are proud to still be able to offer you the choice of two weekdays, as we know of some parishes that have gone down to offering a single weekday. If your family is still unsure how to make Monday or Thursday nights possible, please contact us and maybe we can help discuss potential solutions. |
Frequently Asked Questions |
What's home-study? If we can't do either day, can we do home-study for our student?
Our home-study program uses the same catechetical resources as are used in our classrooms, but instead of participating in an on-site class, students are taught by their parents in the home. Training is provided and all lesson plans (which are designed specifically for at-home use) are given to home-study parents. The home-study option is wide open to our Pre-Confirmation level (6th grade.) For the two years of Confirmation prep (Confirmation I and Confirmation II, usually 7th and 8th grade) the home-study option is only available to parents by special approval from our pastor. The reason for this is that these are critical years of preparation, and a pastor has a added level of responsibility for the sound preparation of all candidates to be presented for the sacrament of Confirmation. If your family would like to request approval to do home-study with your 7th or 8th grader, please contact our office and we can put you in touch with Father Pierce to discuss your request. If my student cannot make it to one week of his/her [Monday] class, can I just bring him/her to the [Thursday] class that same week? Rather than popping into the other class day, our expectation is that you will be responsible for making up the missed content together at home. There are instructions on this website for making up missed work. This allows us to maintain consistency and not disrupt the routine of another class. What if my student is available on one day for the first half of the year, but then for another season he/she can no longer attend on that day? We can try our best to accommodate a swap from one weekday to the other under two conditions. First, there must be available space on the class day you are asking to transfer into. Second, this can only be done once in the year-- you may not switch for the Winter, for example, just to switch back for Spring season. Please contact us as soon as you can about this need. It is not always possible, but we would like help you if we can. |
How to Register |
When you are ready to register, the form is available on our main Saint Paul parish website, which you can easily access by clicking the link below. Our recommendation is to make your best guess and turn in your form sooner rather than later so we can have a better chance of accommodating your first-choice. If you ever need to make a change to your form you can contact us.
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