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Local News
Sept. 7, 2006
Preschools start catechesis early on, focus on evangelization
By Andrew Junker
The Catholic Sun
SCOTTSDALE — When Kathleen Bies, director of the St. Maria Goretti preschool, brings prospective parents to tour the school, she always begins in the atrium.
The atrium is a large, well-lit room. Low tables are positioned throughout the clean area. One table holds wooden figures of sheep in a pen with a shepherd standing among them.
Another contains maps of Israel as it was in Jesus’ time. Against one wall rests a miniature altar. A cabinet is next to the altar containing miniature replicas of the chalice, paten, cruets and other objects necessary for the saying of Mass.
“The atrium,” Bies said, “is the heart and soul of our school. They will get a wonderful education and a complete education, but what they won’t get at some schools is this side.”
The atrium is the environment in which the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is taught. The program, developed in Italy in the 1950s, applies Maria Montessori’s teaching methods to catechesis for children ages 3 to 12.
Pamela Contu-Owen, a teacher of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at St. Maria Goretti, describes the atrium as the place where “the child experiences the presence of God and enters into a deeper relationship with Jesus. And it’s the place where they fall in love with the Good Shepherd.”
The 3-year-olds begin with the shepherd and the sheep. Contu-Owen reads them the parable about the Good Shepherd who left the fold to find the one lost sheep and bring it back. The children learn by listening and then working with the figures, moving them in and out of the pen, becoming familiar with the terms.
Then, slowly, Contu-Owen will ask the children what kind of place the sheep pen is, and what kind of person the shepherd is. Intuitively, they learn the pen is a safe place and the shepherd is kind and watchful. He feeds the sheep himself.
As the children age, the sheep are moved around an altar with the shepherd on the other side. “What kind of place is this?” Contu-Owen will ask. A safe place where the sheep are fed, the children respond.
Now the sheep are replaced by figures of children, and the shepherd by the figure of a priest in vestments. Who are the sheep and what are they fed?
The children get it.
“It is my primary desire and goal as their catechist,” Contu-Owen said, “to lead them to the Good Shepherd so they can hear His voice and know where He’s leading them, and they’ll never ever follow the voice of the Stranger.”
By working with the figures and replicas, the children come to a deeper understanding of the faith on their own time. Contu-Owen said the interaction with the material helps the children know the parable intimately.
“We know that as educators,” Bies said, “this is the most formative time for them. This is the time to introduce the relationship that they’re not far from, from the Creator. It’s very easy. They come to it like water to a sponge.”
The children take to the program so easily that Contu-Owen insists that her role is much less hands-on than many would think. Everything the child does is referred to as his or her “work.” The instructor merely guides and asks questions to the children. Their responses are often extraordinary.
Evangelization
“Our love of the child is not so much as a teacher, but as a learner,” Contu-Owen said. “When the child is sort of leading us to God, there is a great regard for the things they say. It’s not just silly or cute.”
The “things they say” are often simple, pure and exact expressions of our faith. Hearing them can be life altering.
Every year Bies said she has more than one parent in RCIA. “The reason is, as adults, we love our children more than anything, and when you see this child saying and proclaiming things you know you didn’t give them,” the result is a conversion experience.
“We take this very seriously. This is not a job,” Bies said. “This is ministry, and there’s a difference. You can feel it.”
MaryBeth Mueller, superintendent of Catholic schools, agreed. “Our preschools are a main reach of evangelization, and they bring people back to Church.”
New preschools springing up
The reach of preschools is growing every year. When St. Maria Goretti’s preschool first opened its doors, it was one of only a handful of Catholic preschools in the Valley. Now the diocese has 26 preschools serving more than 1,000 young children.
“I think what happened was parents were starting to say, ‘We’re going to Protestant preschools. How about us having our own?’” Mueller said.
In many families, both parents work. Others desire a developmental and socialization boost for their children before they enter kindergarten. Creating a preschool program for these children became an avenue for the parishes to serve their members.
Mueller said parishes began taking notice when more and more families began saying they wanted a safe place for their kids where they could receive Catholic faith formation.
With two new preschools added this year at St. Catherine of Siena in Phoenix and St. Joseph Montessori in Cottonwood, continued expansion of preschools seems assured.
“It’s the Holy Spirit and love, the love of God,” Bies said. And the parents “can see it and feel it.”
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