comments on "a fine line"

Got this today:

Doug,
I found your blog via the iBlog website -- I was just randomly clicking the links they had listed there. I read your comments about whether a teacher should integrate his personal viewpoints when teaching what the RC Church teaches. And I want to compliment you on your stand. Based on a brief reading of your site, its pretty clear that you and I are on opposite sides of the spectrum (e.g. I can't understand how one can consider oneself Catholic yet subscribe to Unitarian-Universalist views, but that's a discussion for another day). As someone who will be sending my son to Catholic school next year, instruction in the teachings of the Church are incredibly important to me. Our public schools here are fine, academically. Yet I'm willing to spend the $6k+ in tuition because I want my children to understand better what it means to be Catholic. I hope the teachers at the schools here are as serious as you are in understanding their role as teachers. Its not about one's own personal views; its about the Church's teaching and helping the children understand not only what the Church teaches, but why, so that they can decide on their own about the Church.

I would imagine that this would be especially difficult when the Church teaches something directly in opposition to something as core as one's sexual orientation. Yet you clearly understand your role as a teacher within a Catholic school. I hope your students and their parents appreciate that. As for me, I'll keep you in my prayers.

Regards,
David Schmitt

Hmmm. Thanks for the comments, David. Really got me thinking.

I'm sure as the year progresses, I will find much time (and reason) to write about my "hyphenated" Catholicism. Yes, I consider myself both Catholic and Unitarian-Universalist. And no, I don't feel conflicted in that. But (as you said) there will be time for that discussion later, and I welcome your thoughts when I find the time to write about it.

I also feel very strongly that kids must be given the tools and knowledge in order to make up their own minds about their faith community. And I feel fortunate to teach in a school that doesn't see Catholicism as the only path up the mountain. I think the difficult part often comes along for parents when their kids don't make the choices that we thought they would make (I'm not a parent yet; just a fellow adult). Kahlil Gibran once said that children are like arrows and parents the longbows. The more the parents bend and stretch (and remain open and flexible) the farther the arrow will fly. I like that example. I think teachers need to be like that as well. (And I think Cardinal Ratzinger and his cohorts could benefit from it, too, but that's a way other story.)

So you've given me a couple of things to keep thinking about. Here's one for you. Have you prepared yourself for the possibility that one of your kids may "come out" to you someday? If not, you need to. The way you handle that conversation (or any similar one) has a great effect on how fast and how far your kids will fly.

And I'm tired, so I'm going to stop there. Thanks for writing, David. And thanks for your prayers.

Half the class is out on retreat tomorrow, so I think we're going to watch Shrek. Can't think of a better modern example of the Hero's Journey. . . .

Posted: Thu - September 25, 2003 at 11:12 PM

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comments on "a fine line"

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