Written by Joseph F. Wilson, vice principal, Paramus Catholic High School, Archdiocese of Newark, [email protected]
As many people will tell you, the post-COVID teen is so different than anything we have previously encountered. The anxiety, depression and overall mental health of today’s teens, along with their ability to make friends, maintain peer groups and succeed in a rigorous academic setting, need to be addressed for the development of the whole teen. So where do we begin?
Contrary to our world’s culture which often fosters the haves and the have-nots, all persons—especially teens—need to know and come to believe they are created in God’s image and likeness. Fostering a strong sense of diversity and equality is exactly what teens need to experience. Today’s teens need to know, live and grow within these particularly Catholic values, which the world seemingly does not have any use for.
When I am meeting with a student who is transferring into our school and experiencing us for the first time, as a teacher, a campus minister, a vice principal, my responsibility is to let that student know they are safe, secure and loved, not because of what they do or what sport they play, but because they are a child of God. Primary for all Catholic schools should be this concept that here you are loved and safe and cared for simply because God created you!
From Created in God’s Image to Creating a Culture That Meets These Diverse Learners
Professional development in Catholic Identity, Catholic Culture and enhancing the curriculum with the Catholic imagination is key to developing the whole teen within the Catholic school environment. What do the students see when they walk into your classroom or school lobby? How do we elevate the curriculum taught throughout our Catholic high schools to include the use of the Catholic imagination in literature, math, foreign languages, social studies and theology?
Do we invite in Catholic speakers to train our faculty in the Catholic imagination? Do we invite Catholic musicians to give student retreats to our students and our faculty so that those who learn or experience the faith through various learning styles may do so? Do we teach our students to pray in the languages that they are learning or in their native languages?
We often experience God in our families from the earliest of ages. But so often we want our students to all pray one way or together. Having students pray the Our Father or Hail Mary in their native tongue or in the language they are learning can allow them to experience God in a unique way, especially if they have not done so since they were six or seven years old.
Even in theology, which is often bound by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) guidelines and directives, create activities or courses that allow students to take what they have learned from the USCCB Curriculum and apply it to life today. Students can view a movie, a clip from a movie or a TV show and enter a discussion about what is and what is not Catholic about what they have just viewed. Or even look at how they would have changed the movie to bring more of the Catholic faith into the discussion. JRR Tolkien’s movies, the Harry Potter movies, Disney animated movies lend themselves to these discussions, and often got to deeper learning and understanding than I as the teacher expected.
Different Learning Styles Often Require Different Approaches
Our students seem to be learning more via social media than in the classroom. But this seems to be true for adults as well. Just listen to the political banter and crude commentary coming at us from all sides. When Jonathan Haidt published his recent book, The Anxious Generation (Penguin Press, March 2024), Haidt assumes that social media has hurt our children and is even hurting our democracy. Assuming that this may be true, then how do we as Catholic school educators challenge the messages that are out there and turn those messages around into ones of love, acceptance and positivity where high school students can know that they are created by and loved by God.
In one of the latest TikTok challenges, students at all levels were challenged via social media to steal zipper pulls and brand name hang tags off other students’ back packs. Collecting these you then video them for more likes and shares on TikTok. It is in the discussion with students, watching their videos and those of others, that the conversation can begin to turn things around for students to see things as they are. They come to realize that stealing is stealing. If we as Catholic school educators are going to teach and enforce the rules, we then need to engage in discussions of what is happening right in front of us. Yelling and screaming don’t cut it any longer. Students and their behaviors need to be challenged through discussion and reparations made to the students from whom these things were stolen—even though they may be seen by us as trivial or worthless.
Developing a New Mindset
As Catholic school educators, we need to challenge ourselves to go the extra mile. As cliche as that sounds, we are the ones working daily with our students. Whether our students are active and practicing Catholics, unchurched Catholics, other Christians or students from various other religious traditions, our goal is to engage. In the spoken word, in action, in service, in the written word, but most of all via love: we need to interact with them differently than we ever have before. However we engage our students, they need to be challenged to discover their best selves and become it. They need to know that they are safe and secure—or no learning will happen which is lasting. They need to know that they are created in God’s image and likeness, no matter their faith or lack of faith, so that they can encounter God in all that they do and all that they are.
We need to create new models for campus ministry, for service activities and service learning, for retreats, for Eucharistic Adoration, for reading books, for questioning what is said and for whatever else needs to be different. That can only happen if we ourselves know the same—that we are safely in our Creator’s arms being embraced by the one who made us and loves us all equally, so that we can become what we are called to be.
