I believe…
… young people learn best when engaged in real life issues that matter to them.
… young people become better aware of the consequences of their daily decisions as they become more involved in real world events today.
… transfer in learning is aided when structure and order determine what is learned and how it is learned.
… Christian education, regardless of context, curriculum, or subject, must educate for justice.
While recently moving into my office at the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC), I came upon a paper title "I Believe" which I wrote several years ago while pursuing a master's degree. As I reread the beliefs I held then about curriculum and instruction, I found that I held as strongly to some now as I did then. A few of those beliefs appear above.
That paper guided how I went about my subsequent coursework and how I practiced education for several years thereafter in school, at work, at church, and at home. It was my guide to my actions. You have such a guide, too, whether you’ve written it down or carry it around in your head. Either way, it guides your actions during your daily teaching life. It doesn’t specify what your actions will be, but frames what you may do in certain situations.
I’ve since left formal school-centered education and now help people understand and act to resolve environmental and rural life issues in accord with their Catholic Christian faith. Today my "I believe" paper, my day-to-day guide for my work, is Catholic Social Teaching. In essence, Catholic social teaching applies sacred Scripture and the tradition of the Church as expressed primarily by popes and bishops to building a just society.
Dr. Robert J. Kealey drew our attention to the relationship of Catholic social teaching and Catholic schools in the January-February 2001 issue of Today's Catholic Teacher. He suggested that Catholic educators should help students be active participants in their world. He said, "The Church calls us to be responsible stewards of this planet and implementers of Catholic social teaching." I accept Dr. Kealey’s challenge and introduce to you through this article and the class activity sheet on p. 18 a structured approach to help young people decide what they can do to implement Catholic social teaching on most social issues.
This approach to justice education, developed by Thomas Groome, is shared Christian praxis. Praxis is action taken to influence a specific issue. The specific action is determined after reflection on the meaning of Scripture and Catholic social teaching as it relates to that issue. For example, the focus of the activity is global climate change, an issue addressed in a statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops last summer Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good. That activity, which follows the Christian praxis methodology, will help young people decide what action they, individually or with others, can take to affect global climate change.
Additional information about the shared Christian praxis methodology and complete background for the activity can be downloaded free at www.ncrlc.com or acquired by calling 515-270-2634.


Addendum to the article
Shared Christian praxis has six elements, (1) focusing students’ attention on the issue, (2) helping students express their life experiences related to the issue, (3) engaging students in an intuitive and analytical reflection on the issue, (4) breaking open God’s Word in scripture and CST with students so they can find out what God is saying to them about the issue, (5) reflecting with students on what God is saying to them about the issue or what God is calling them to do about it, if anything, and (6) helping students decide what they will do to respond to God individually, with friends or family, or with the wider community.
Give this approach a try. You will find that incorporating justice education in this way will…
… make sacred Scripture come alive for young people in their daily life.
… give young people an opportunity to claim as their own some principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
… present young people a faith-based method for deciding how they can help build God’s Kingdom on earth.