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Marquette
Summer Institute
In
Christian Doctrine
for
Catholic
Elementary School
Teachers
Marquette is grateful to the Koch
Foundation of Gainesville, Florida, for a grant which has funded
this Institute
DESCRIPTION OF THE SUMMER
INSTITUTE
The Marquette Institute in Christian Doctrine aims to provide
Catholic elementary school teachers an opportunity to deepen their
knowledge of the Catholic tradition and to discuss with fellow
teachers better ways and means for communicating the Catholic
faith to the children they teach.
The two-week Summer Institute will be conducted by one of
Marquette's theologians. It will consist of brief introductory
lectures on the cultural and religious circumstances of
contemporary American society, on the role of Catholicism and
Catholic schools in that environment, and on basic Christian
doctrines (God, creation, sin, Christ, salvation, church,
sacraments, the resurrection) and their meaning in contemporary
culture.
The Institute will be conducted in seminar fashion. Such a
format will allow the participants time to interact with the
instructor and with each other on religious and theological
matters that are of concern to them. It will allow the
participants to discuss not only the meaning of basic Christian
doctrines, but also the ways in which they might be better
communicated to a generation of students whose homes are often
devoid of Christian practices and of visible reminders of the
Christian tradition.
PARTICIPANTS
The Institute will be limited to twenty elementary school
teachers to enable a seminar format.
Admittance to the institute will be by invitation only, Twenty
teachers will be selected by consultation with pastors and
principals. At the present, Marquette plans to invite one teacher
from each of twenty different schools (selected at random). If the
program proves successful we shall extend the invitation to other
teachers and other schools in subsequent years until we have
reached at least one teacher from every grade school in the
diocese.
BENEFITS TO
PARTICIPANTS
The Institute will supply the participants with the books and
reading materials needed for the seminar and provide a $400.00
stipend for their attendance.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee supports this effort and the
Office for Schools has agreed to grant BIAM Religious Education
Certificate clock hours for the Institute (12 hrs. of Theology:
Basic-Intermediate-Advanced; 6 hrs. Methods-psychology:
Basic-Intermediate-Advanced).
The Institute will also provide each participant with a basic
selected bibliography of reading materials on Christian doctrine,
to provide participants with reading resources for their own
intellectual and spiritual development.
EXPECTATIONS OF
PARTICIPANTS
Those invited will be expected to be present throughout the
two-week period. During the summer program, moreover, participants
will be expected to share their experiences of teaching in the
Catholic school system. Hopefully during the discussions the
participants will identify some of the difficulties that teaching
religion poses at the elementary level and will propose some ways
of responding to those problems.
After the summer program is completed, the elementary school
teachers will also be expected (1) to share the reading resources
and their bibliographies with other teachers in their respective
schools; (2) to prepare three or four insights they have obtained
from the summer experience and present these to the faculty of
their respective schools.
SCHEDULE
The Institute will take place during two weeks in June, after
the end of the school year.
Classes will meet once in the morning three days a week
(Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays), from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00
p.m., with a half-hour break at 10:00 a.m.
For further information,
please call or email:
Dr.
Patrick Carey
Theology Department
Marquette University
(414) 288-7170
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