Sunday I went to the first day of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) with Maggie, age 3. It initially turned me off because there was a little bowl of holy water at the door and we taught Maggie how to bless herself with it. I'm not a vampire, but holy water has always just repelled me. Then I decided, "hey, I've sat back in an old dentist's chair while my friends mixed drinks in my mouth, so why should holy water freak me out?" It got better after that. The people set up the room, known as the Atrium with stations that contained objects that pertain to gospel readings. They had wheat and mustard seeds, goblets, candles, bread, a huge play set of the walls of Jericho (A nice, faith-inspiring story of genocide to start the program). Maggie and I played with some wooden figures of sheep and a shepherd and took them on a long walk around the table.
The Good Shepherd program allows children to use their senses to teach themselves about the stories in the Bible. The teacher gave the example of the wheat parable. One of the kids in the class last year got really into wheat. He poured the wheat, held it in his hand, drew pictures of the wheat, glued wheat to the cover of a book he made. He immersed himself in the story of the wheat. One of the things one of the Catechists said during their presentation to us was, "Why couldn't I have been in a program like this when I was little?" CGS started 50 years ago and now many parishes in the Twin Cities have programs, some of them going all the way up to age 12.
Two Italians, Sofia Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi, originated the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd after observing kids reactions to hands on, Montessori style teaching of the gospel readings. It is a little radical, in the sense of getting at the root, because it allows children to come up with their own explanations and understandings based on their sensory experience in the Atrium.
I could see this program really being great, but also the opportunity for Catholic ickiness in overly didactic hands. I can imagine The Parable of the Wheat could be used to focus the child's attention on how they are better than their neighbors.
I heard is that a mom in another Good Shepherd program mentioned that her kid is terrified now because they were renouncing satan before every meal. Way to go! Why don't you just sit your kid down in front of the Exorcist for some real religious education? So there is a church lady element in the Diocese-wide Good Shepherd population. In practice on Sunday, however, I liked what I saw. The kids really took to it.
More info and links here.
2:15:43 PM 
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