The iPad is a complete phenomena. It came out of nowhere to define a market that previously didn’t exist.
Much of this success can be attributed to a specific design philosophy employed by Apple. Simple is powerful!
The design philosophy behind the iPad is also one of the secrets to engaging, accessible and useful catechesis.
This philosophy of simple probably flies in the face of your ideas on catechesis. It’s definitely not intuitive but it works. Here’s how!
My parents are using a computer!
Recently I convinced my parents to buy an iPad. For the first time, they are using a computer! Notice I said using. They’ve owned a computer before, but they never used it. It was too complicated and it confused them.
The iPad is simple. With the iPad, Apple stripped computing down to it’s core. It doesn’t do everything. It does the essential things and makes them accessible. Even non-computer savvy people like my parents can use it.
For catechesis to be understandable, accessible and useable, it needs to be simple.
Simple catechesis communicates the core
When I say simple, I’m not talking about shortened or incomplete catechesis. Simple catechesis is not shallow. It still has depth–but on the right things.
Simple catechesis drills down to the core idea. It doesn’t teach everything. It teaches the essential things and makes them accessible. In this way, what you teach will be understood and remembered. It will have impact and power.
You have to figure out the core and build your lesson around it. Your goal? The students walk away with the core idea firmed grasped and remembered. That way, it can be put into action.
What is the core?
The core is the one thing that absolutely needs to get communicated. Not the three things. The ONE thing. If you try to build your lesson around three things, they won’t remember anything.
How do you know what that one thing is? Imagine you prepared your lesson, had everything planned and when you were ready to go into the classroom I stopped you and said, “There’s been a change of plans. You only have five minutes to do your lesson.”
What would you tell your students? What message do you really want them to get? That’s the core!
Catechetical Takeaway
The temptation in catechesis is to teach as much information as the time allows. After all, you only have your students for a short time and there’s so much to learn. You want to give them everything.
However, the reality is, by trying to give them everything you may end up giving them nothing. If you present too many ideas, what’s important gets lost.
To communicate the core, you have to weed out the interesting, but off topic, info and the tangents. They make it difficult to follow the line of the lesson, and they confuse your students.
The hard part is cutting out pieces that really are important but aren’t the most important. You one core message needs to be central.
Stripping down to the essential is difficult and counter-intuitive. However, of you communicate the core, you’ll have a simple message that your students will understand, remember and use! That is powerful!
- What do you think?
- What strategies to you use to find the core?
- Do you think it’s important to keep your lessons simple?
I’d love to know!
Marc,
I like your fous on one point as the core that needs to be communicated. Two things about this:
1) It is true that we try to cover too much material, too many different topics all in one class period, RCIA gathering, or youth ministry night. Textbooks and catechetical resources all too often include multiple truths and teachings that are important all in one chapter. The other reason is there is often only so much time to communicate a whole list of truths that catechetical leaders want to pass on in a given year.
2) I think you have a point about communicating 1 core thing, but I also think it is possible to have an overall focus and cover more than one point, but you have to be careful.
Catechesis today needs less extras and more focus so that those hearing the message will walk away with something instead of nothing (by nothing I mean a lot of ideas that prevent those who received it to be committed to memory or heart).
I was going to include a story about running into this when using textbooks but ran out of space. The first few years as a DRE, I taught the 3rd grade CCD class. I relied heavily on the textbook and it really took me all over the place. It just seemed to throw out tons of stuff that didn’t apply to the lesson. I mean, it fit but only loosely. It ended up confusing me and the kids as to what the lesson was really about. I just started trashing half of it and working around the most important parts and shoring those up with activities and prayer times and Scripture readings and stuff like that.
You might be right that they’re trying to cover a list of topics for the year.
The other thing is, on the way to covering that one topic, you do get into many other things. You can have depth with this approach. You just need the right depth. Of course, tangents are sometimes hazards of the trade…especially for me. 😉
Thanks for the comment.
Great points, Marc. I have found that this is especially true when teaching weekly catechesis (vs. daily religion class). The more I focus on one core idea that is clear, concrete, repeated, assessed, practiced, etc., the more students remember. The more I try to “cover” everything, the more they forget or lose interest.
William – textbooks cannot be approved by the Bishops as in conformity with the Catechism unless they meet a criteria of “completeness,” so the multiple truths are included in reference to the multiple perspectives in the Catechism.
Jared, I think you’re right. It’s especially true with the weekly CCD classes. We don’t have as much opportunity with them so we try to cram more in. This technique of finding the core is even more important in this case. We really want them to walk away with something good because we don’t see them that often. We have more opportunity in the daily classes to repeat and refocus on the important things. We don’t want the important stuff to get lost in the multitude of things for the weekly kids.
Thanks for the comments!
Jared – you are correct about the “criteria of completeness” that publishers must fulfill, however textbooks still have a tendency to be, as Marc said, “all over the place”. They loosely fit together but often textbook chapters cover too much material and students leave with less clarity than more clarity because the catechist or teacher tried to cover everything in the chapter.
“However, the reality is, by trying to give them everything you may end up giving them nothing. If you present too many ideas, what’s important gets lost.”
He who would defend everything defends nothing.
Frederick the Great.
Great quote Christian! I love it!
I think this is a great reminder that we are in the work of formation, not simply education. I consider it my job to provide transformative experiences, not the entirety of a student (of any age)’s knowledge of the Church. We have to give a foundation of the bare basics and show examples of positive Christian role models, not so that all the questions are answered, but so when a question arises, the student turns to the Church to look for the answer. I believe we are in the business of inspiration and conversion.
“a foundation of the bare basics ”
Yes; I think of my class a providing a cadre (French, framework) of faith on which the kids can attach new information such that no knowledge is held in isolation, but adds to a Catholic Whole.
“I believe we are in the business of inspiration and conversion.” So very well said Samantha!
I’ve been thinking this for quite a while. Of course, we have to educate our students in the doctrines of the Faith. The doctrine is God’s revelation and the starting point for our relationship with him. However, I think it’s those “transformative experiences” that will shape our students and keep them coming back for more and learning on their own after they’ve left us. That is our business.
Thanks Mark! Yeah, I think these principles are universals and can be applied on many different levels…especially business/leadership.
Marc,
Though I am not an Apple fan, and you occasionally see that reflected in my pown blog, I wholeheartedly agree. FOCUS! Catechesis is not theological dissertation. More is not better if they remember (and more importantly internalize) less.
Craig King, TheologyGeek
A fellow DRE
A fellow Alumni of FUS
http://www.theologygeek.blogspot.com
Yes! Awesome!
Thanks for commenting Craig! Great to connect with a fellow FUS alum!
Great post. I love the idea of keeping messaging simple. I can’t stand it when CCD teachers just out of a Catholic college, or whatever, decide that 13 year olds need to be taught the nuances of JPII’s Theology of the Body. The subject matter is important, but the depth is a waste of time with that audience.
It’s important to maximize one’s potential. When you do that, you grow and leave room for a place to improve. If you overload with too many messages and too much complexity–and, as you said, no core–you get nowhere.
I definitely get the reasons people sometimes want to teach such depth. They just want their students to understand something they think is completely awesome. It’s zeal and that’s good! But they need to learn to temper it. It’s just what you said, you have to know your audience. They need the right message at the right time, and you can’t overload them.