A Kind of Catechism for the Classroom

After the last post where I explained the reasons for the content of this Classroom Catechism, I figured that I should show you what the catechism looks like and how it is deployed:

Again, I draw heavily from Joshua Gibbs and Andrew Kern.

Illumination

The First Quarter of the school year, two times a week for each class period (I have four sections of Eighth Grade English), I would have a student pass out the Catechism packets. I would then lead the students by asking the questions and guiding them through the answers.

Quarter Two: I would ask all of the scholars to stand as we recite.

Quarter Three: I would consult the Cards of Destiny (or popsicle sticks) to pick names for students to lead the questions (I would always be sure that each student would have to lead at least once).

Quarter Four: I do not pass out any packets, and continuing to use the Cards of Destiny, only the student who leads the class will have a packet (almost all of the students have it memorized by this time, anyway).

A Kind of Catechism 3.5

Q. Gentlemen, what are you?

I am a king, for I rule myself.

Q. Ladies, what are you?

I am a queen, for I rule myself.

Q. What does it mean to rule yourself?

I am free to do Good. I am not the slave of my desires.

The Psalmist writes:

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

Q. How does Orwell portray the weakness of man?

“Man serves the interest of no creature except himself…all the habits of Men are evil... all of the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings.”

Q. How does Homer describe the human condition?

“Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. 

From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes,

but they themselves, with their own reckless ways,

compound their pains beyond their proper share.”

Q. What are man’s evil habits?

The vices are pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, and sloth.

Shakespeare says:

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action: and till action, lust

Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;

Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,

Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,

On purpose laid to make the taker mad.

Mad in pursuit and in possession so;

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

A bliss in proof, --and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. 

and Harper Lee adds:

“She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.”

Q. How does Dickens describe the restoration of the Soul?

“Spirit!” he cried, tight clutching at his robe, ”hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this discussion. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?”

For the first time his hand appeared to shake.

“Good Spirit,” he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: “your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!”

The Kind hand trembled.

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me that I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”…

Q. What does it mean to be Human?

The virtues are Honesty, Wisdom, Justice, Courage, Temperance, and Respect. These are built on a foundation of Humility and Charity.

Q. Why should One seek virtue?

St. Paul says:

“…whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Q. What should we do?

Harper Lee Writes:

"I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system—that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty."

Those Winter Sundays – By Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

And slowly I would rise and dress,

Fearing the chronic angers of that house.

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love’s austere and lonely offices.

Bradbury says the most important thing humans can do is Remember.

Q. How can one participate in Remembrance?

“Listen,” said Granger, taking his arm, and walking with him holding aside the bushes to let him pass. “When I was a boy my grandfather died, and he was a sculptor. He was also a very kind man who had a lot of love to give the world, and he helped clean up the slum in our town; and he made toys for us and he did a million things in his lifetime; he was always busy with his hands. And when he died I suddenly realized I wasn’t crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again, he would never carve another piece of wood or help us raise doves or pigeons in the backyard or play the violin the way he did, or tell us jokes the way he did. He was a part of us and when he died, all the actions stopped dead and there was no one to do them just the way he did. He was individual. He was an important man. I’ve never gotten over his death. Often I think, of what wonderful carvings never came to birth because he died. How many jokes are missing from the world, and how many homing pigeons untouched by his hands.  He shaped the world. He did things to the world. The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on.”