It turns out the 8th graders were listening...
Example 1 - While on a Church "tour" on Monday, our pastor asked one of my students if people at the time of Jesus celebrated the Mass the same as we do today.
Now, we had just gone over this the previous week, so I was crossing my fingers...
The student said no, explaining how at Jesus' time the Eucharist was more about being with the community and sharing a meal in celebration of their faith together. And many times it was done in secret - definitely not in churches.
Alleluia!
Example 2 - When I was scoring 8th grade quizzes yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised by how much detail the students were able to convey. The idea of the Age of Expansion being a time when Christianity became legal and people were no longer martyrs actually stuck with them, and one student even wrote about how the monks were considered the martyrs of their day. (And that was a student who usually gets into some kind of misbehavior on a regular basis in class.)
While it may seem that we, as teachers, are oftentimes beating our heads against a wall and that hardly any of our students are listening, I urge you to think again. (Trust me, my 8th graders can be quite the shenanigans.) They do hear and they do connect the dots...at least once in awhile.
Now, the challenge becomes one of how do I keep them engaged?
Oh, how I wish I had all the answers to that one...
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