Taryn Strauss

Director of Religious Education

REflections

April 2010

The Religious Education (RE) Committee kicks off its annual Teacher Recruitment Drive Sunday, April 18 and will continue on April 25 and May 16. On each of these Sundays, we will have recruitment tables set up in Sandburg Hall between services. Be sure to attend a special informational session about teaching on April 18 in the Sanctuary at 12:30 PM.

The Committee voted to change the RE teaching commitment from four months (a semester) to eight months (a church year). However, we are increasing the number of people who will work together on a teaching team for one RE class. Instead of three, we will now have four people teaching together, but only two people are needed in the classroom on Sundays. This means that each teacher will only be in the classroom 14 times over a church year. We believe this will improve the teacher-student relationship, increase teacher continuity, and improve the working relationship of the adult teaching team.

This also means that we will recruit fewer teachers, and have the freedom to offer parents one year of teaching followed by one year not teaching. During the off-year, RE parents and volunteers may serve in other capacities such as helping with special program Sundays, being an RE greeter, or helping with multi-generational worship. So, if you teach during the 2010-11 church year, then we will not ask you to teach the following year (unless you want to). This will also allow the RE staff and volunteers time to begin implementing a stronger adult RE program, which we are developing for Fall.

All of these plans depend on your participation. We can only move forward with the year-long teaching strategy if you sign up to teach in RE next year. We continue to offer curricula that will enrich your spiritual life, as well as develop the spirituality of our children and youth. Our RE teachers’ souls are fed by visiting other houses of worship during our Neighboring Faiths class or by guiding youth in spiritual self-discovery in the Coming of Age class. One teacher remarked that, for her, the Spirit Play classroom is the most spiritual place in this whole church!

Be a part of Unitarian Universalism’s rich tradition of discovery and deep questioning. Our children are dynamic, introspective beings working on their own spiritual maturity. You can be a part of their journey.