Not so much news today.  More like editorial.

In this week’s edition of Newsweek, the cover stories take on the state of education.  And, we in youth ministry must be attuned to what is being said.  As a profession, we are “lumped in” to the education field, so much so that often our salary base guidelines are the equivalents of local teachers’ salaries.

So, it is worth both reading Why We Must Fire Bad Teachers as well as reading between the lines as well: “Yet in recent years researchers have discovered something that may seem obvious, but for many reasons was overlooked or denied. What really makes a difference, what matters more than the class size or the textbook, the teaching method or the technology, or even the curriculum, is the quality of the teacher.” 

It is entirely possible that soon as a church that we are about to begin to question the quality of our pastoral ministers serving young people.  And, we will potentially default into a defensive position, such as “The problem is not the teachers, went the thinking—it’s the parents (or absence of parents); it’s society with all its distractions and pathologies; it’s the kids themselves. Not much can be done, really, except to keep the assembly line moving through “social promotion,” regardless of academic performance, and hope the students graduate.” Really, we who share in the responsibility “to empower young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today” can neither pass the buck on our responsibilities nor settle for processing kids through their high school years and/or sacramental preparation.

And, then, you’ve got to wonder about our own preparation for ministry.  In a related article, Blackboard Jungle, this comes under examination: “Now when you talk to new teachers. . . their biggest complaint is that no one teaches them how to control a classroom. For the small fortune they spend to get a teaching degree, they get plenty of pedagogy (‘Reflections on Learning’ is a typical course name), which they generally don’t use. But their professors never seem to get around to teaching ‘Keeping Kids Under Control 101.’” And so, we need to take a look around… (and just sticking with the goals of Catholic youth ministry) How well do we equip ourselves as well as parents and adults to care for, love and disciple our young people?  How we do we empower and equip parish communities (not isolated youth groups or teen masses) to be settings for young people to fully and freely participate as they aspire towards the adventure of faith? Are we directing our efforts to a common denominator making everything comfy and safe for the kids (and ourselves) or are we fostering, promoting, demanding total personal and spiritual growth of each young person? 

If Newsweek did a cover story on us today, how would we fare?

In light of our own local activity regarding the state of education, these are the things that have been on my mind recently… and, perhaps, should be on yours as well.