On Monday night, a significant number of our students were engaged in activities designed to either scare or inject a significant sugar hit into the start of their week - a little of both for those who attended our JPC disco! Yes, it was October 31 and Halloween - a custom that is increasingly finding its way into the Australian experience. For three and a half years, I lived in the United States of America, the very home of commercialised Halloween culture, and enjoyed the spectacle of trick or treating with my young children. But since my return to Australia, I am caught off-guard every year by the growing profile the event has, particularly for our young people.
Most of us recognise the features of this secular day; the orange and black decorations the endless bags of chocolates and lollies doled out, the range of spooky, kooky, and outrageous costumes parading around neighbourhoods. But the tradition of Halloween can be traced back to Christian origins. Not everybody knows that Halloween derives from a holy day, All Saints' Day on November 1 - “hallow” meaning “holy” and “een” referring to evening. Over a thousand years ago, Christians in Britain and Ireland would gather on the evening before All Saints’ Day to ask protection and blessing from God from the evils of the world. It’s not much of a stretch to see how the more secular customs have evolved! All Saints’ Day is a Holy Day of Obligation, followed by All Souls’ Day on November 2, where Christians - particularly of the Catholic and Anglican variants - remember the souls of all those who
have died. These are days of significance within the Catholic tradition, yet have nowhere near the public profile of Halloween. And this raises some interesting questions for those of us who live and work within Catholic communities to ponder.
High school teachers are often greeted by attitudes of surprise, intrigue, and sometimes even astonishment when we reveal our occupations. When you add in that you are responsible for Religious Education to your introduction, those responses often turn to cynicism. All too regularly I am also asked, “But what is your real teaching area?”. It’s an interesting indication of the attitudes to Religious Education that exist in our increasingly secular society, and sometimes within our own school community. Fortunately, I am always able to draw on a wealth of examples from my everyday teaching experiences to highlight why I am so passionate about Religious Education, and the unquantifiable benefits it offers our students.
One need only take a snapshot of the work taking place within our RE classrooms this week, under the dedicated guidance of our extraordinary team of RE teachers, to see the depth and breadth of experiences that learning about religion offers our students:
- In Year 7, students are working in small groups formed on the principles of the theory of Multiple Intelligences. They are developing a lesson for their peers on one significant social or political group from the time of Jesus, and in the process discovering that the historical Jesus existed in a complex, often brutal, society that mirrored many of the injustices we continue to see in our contemporary world.
- In Year 8, students are considering the Catholic sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, and searching for parallels to compare this to in other religious traditions. They are exploring how a Christian perspective on healing can be compared to the richness of healing rituals in other religious and cultural traditions.
- In Year 9, the work of local and international aid and action agencies is being uncovered in a quest to raise awareness of those who seek to support the plight of the world’s 63 million refugees and displaced people. This task follows on from the powerful refugee immersion experience shared by Year 9 at the end of Term 3, and their reflection day at the start of this term.
- Year 10 are busily preparing for their assessment task next week where they are grappling with the concept of Christian spirituality as distinct from other forms of spirituality. To add another layer of challenge, they have chosen a devotional practice to link to their understanding of spiritual growth within the Christian tradition.
And that is just the curriculum in action!
Religious Education offers a richness of experience that extends well beyond the achievement standards. It offers our students an opportunity to continue their faith exploration irrespective of where they may be on that journey and is an integral and essential component of Catholic Education. This is evident in the powerful prayer and liturgy experiences our students participate in, the emphasis on social justice activities, and the significant role of our Patron, St. John Paul II, and our House Patrons in our day to day activities. On Wednesday morning we encountered the story of the Van Thuan House Patron, Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận, as well as his Ten Rules of Life. These powerful connections help our students to encounter their faith in the everyday experiences of school life. Last week I was privileged to attend the Catholic Schools Youth Ministry National
Conference with Miss Sarah Keane, and to see the potential for our students to be exposed to other facets of their spirituality as part of a broader Archdiocesan focus on youth in the new year. I am excited by the potential for a renewed emphasis on faith and mission in our community, and for the opportunities for peer to peer ministry that will become part of the fabric of our school in the coming year. Stay posted for updates!
It is my hope that there will come a time when people are as excited and awed by hearing that I teach Religious Education as they are about Halloween! Until then, keep asking your young people what they are learning in their RE classrooms - they might surprise you with their insights, just as they continue to inspire and enlighten me every day.
Maranatha,
Mrs. Nicola Edghill
Coordinator - Religious Education and Maathai House
