Building Confidence in our Kids
I listened to a classroom debate among college students recently. It was painful how weakly assertive they were:
“I was thinking, if you looked at it a certain way, “ one student said, “ well, at least as I see it—I guess others could see it differently—something like this…”
Whereas the task of education is to help older students become more broad minded and nuanced, beyond the simple dogmatism of their youth, we are failing in our first task: to build in them the foundational dogma to be later broadened.
For many of our youth, the only real dogma they possess is not to be certain of anything.
“Truth, what is truth?” Pilate’s question to Jesus echoes down through the ages and reverberates loudly today.
Our Catholic schools must answer: He is! He is “The Way, the Truth and the Life” for our students. Our foundational purpose is to nurture our students in a community that believes that, which lives that out in a way that is joyful and attractive, and which invites students to enter into a relationship with him.
Yes, the means through which we do that is by providing an excellent academic program, preparing kids for success in high school and college. But our end is much grander: to lead kids to the Lord.
If we immerse kids in a community grounded in Scripture, Tradition and Sacrament, if we give them the opportunity to pray, worship, serve others and learn about their faith, if the practice of our faith is “normalized” in our day to day living, then we build in them the confidence of their convictions.
Yes, life will challenge those convictions, to be sure. Yes, those convictions will become nuanced, over time, with experience.
But we give our kids a great gift—an increasingly rare gift—if those convictions are first deeply rooted.
Human Resources Specialist
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