Australian Catholics - Notes for Teachers



		Notes for Teachers - EASTER 2002 the gospels alive Damian Coleridge’s project to orchestrate the four Gospels is an ambitious and inspiring one. Four groups of actors and other artists will create a version of the four Gospels. It is hoped that these will enable the audiences to see the scriptures in a completely new and different way, as if they were hearing them for the first time. ‘It is a vision of these stories let loose and made strange,’ which ‘can move us or point us to another, hidden dimension of experience’. Damian expresses the hope that the performance they are working towards will not be ‘illustrating but evoking and exploring the myth-making imaginings of an old gospel story’. Looking forward to the fruition of these plans in 2003, we can meanwhile follow his example in bringing the Gospels alive for our students. It is suggested that the class dramatise the experience of the crowd scenes and healing miracles the pressure of the sick, the sceptical and the curious, which we read about in the early accounts of Jesus’ public ministry. The exercise could begin with a reading of Chapters 8 and 9 Matthew’s gospel, during which the students focus attention on the behaviour and composition of the crowds. Choosing one student to represent Jesus, the rest of the class should assume the character of someone in the crowd. As they circulate around the room, they could be seen to be participating in a kind of walking meditation, feeling the pressure of other people, and the competition to get as clear a view of Jesus as they can. Ask the students to freeze in order to allow the enactment of a healing miracle. On e of the class who has decided to play the role of the sick person could come forward for healing. The crowd could then be given a chance to react and share the experience with another student. In the debriefing ask students to share how they felt in their role, what view they saw of the events before them, how their expectations were changed as events unfolded… Conclude the class with a short reading from the Gospel asking students to imagine themselves as a participant in the scene – the crowd, the person, even as Jesus. homeward bound In her article on homelessness and the help offered to these people by the St Vincent de Paul Society, Virginia Small muses on the disappearance of that once treasured Australian value, the ‘fair go’. The ‘battlers’ have become ‘losers’ and the separation between rich and poor greater. ‘I think everyone has a right to know they have a home for the night,’ says Sue Grant, the Chief Executive of the Vincentian Village. As followers of Jesus it is up to us to welcome the stranger and give shelter to the homeless. Jesus experienced homelessness; ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ (Matt 8:20). We need to support the work of the St Vincent de Paul Society in their efforts to care for those in need by prayer, donations and giving up our own time where possible. Read Virginia Small’s article with the students. Open up the discussion on homelessness with a couple of leading questions: What are the primary causes of homelessness in our society? Do you know anyone who is homeless? Who are the people who are homeless? Old men? Women? Children? Why do some people blame the homeless for their misfortune? Australia is a relatively wealthy society. What do you think can be done to ensure that every person has a right to a home? What changes would you make to reclaim Australia’s title as a country that values a ‘fair go’? Ask students to form pairs and write a short prayer for Australia, no longer than five lines. Create a centrepiece in the room (candle, cloth, flowers), and some things that symbolise homelessness for the students (old shoes, newspapers, bags to carry one’s life in, old blankets). Draw students together around the centrepiece and ask them to share their prayers for the homeless together. Many areas host a ‘winter sleepout’ in support of agencies like the Vincentian Village. If your students are interested in finding out more about what they can do to support the homeless, contact your local St V de P, or homeless support service. How to grow hope Help for the long-term unemployed is a huge task that can only be accomplished by attention to each of the individuals who suffer from this disadvantage. Governments often exacerbate the problem when they resort to using offensive names (such as dole bludger), bullying those seeking work with threats to cut off financial support, badgering them with requirements to keep journals of job interviews and applying for jobs for which they are unqualified. Such actions only serve to further experiences of failure and loss of self-esteem. Invite students to reflect on the experience of the unemployed through sharing their responses to the following questions: a) What is the importance of work in our society? b) How does work shape our sense of identity? c) In what ways do we see our work as participating in society? d) Does work contribute to our sense of respectability? How? e) What is your attitude to the unemployed? f) Who is responsible for assisting the unemployed? g) How can society better respond to these people? Read How to grow hope together with the class. Write down three ways in which this project has helped these formerly unemployed young men. Has this article changed the way you think about those who are unemployed or their situation? Restoring the balance In our society, we are becoming more and more obsessed with issues of law and order. Platitudes such as ‘zero tolerance’, ‘one strike and you’re out’, ‘lock ‘em up and throw away the key’ and policies such as mandatory sentencing seem to be the answer. In the search for a more effective way, a former policeman from Wagga Wagga, NSW has become Australia’s leading exponent of restorative justice. This is a system in which young offenders, and some not so young, are confronted with the victims of their crime and are required to face up to the destructive effect their actions have had on those concerned. In the case of young male offenders, rates of recidivism are far lower when conferencing is utilised than those dealt with using more conventional methods of sentencing. Open up a conversation with students on crime and punishment. 1. a) Has your house ever been broken in to? b) How does such an experience affect the victims? c) Have you ever been tempted to steal or shoplift? d) What might stop someone from stealing? 2. Role-play one of the following scenarios with students. Someone is caught stealing magazines from a small local newsagent, or takes the purse, laptop or mobile from a train traveller or is caught vandalising the property of a local resident. In dealing with the crime, the local magistrate orders the offender to meet with the victim(s) and engage in the conferencing process. What might happen during this meeting? What might one group say to the other? Who would chair/facilitate this exchange? What would need to happen to successfully resolve this meeting? After the role-play allow all participants to share what they felt as a way of drawing on the experience and moving out of character. Ask those students observing the role-play to comment on what they saw happening in the exchange. More ups than downs The article tells the story of Erma Fidler and her experience of shock when she learned that her son John had Down syndrome. Erma is helped to discover the beauty and delight of her child by the warm welcome given to him by the other children in the family. Ask the class to read the story in preparation for your lesson together. Does anyone in the class know someone who is disabled? Does anyone in the class have a family member who has a disability? What are your own reactions, or what reactions have you seen, in meeting a person with a disability? Why is it, do you think, that we so often see only the disability rather than a person just like us? In his book Be not afraid, l’Arche community founder Jean Vanier writes, ‘I have learned more about the Gospels from handicapped people, those on the margins of our society, those who have been crushed or hurt, than I have from the wise and prudent … Handicapped people have shown me how handicapped I am, how handicapped we all are.’ Ask students to reflect on what the experience of meeting someone with a disability has taught them. What might their prayers be for those like Erma and John Fidler? Perhaps our prayers might simply be thanks for the gift of life in its wonderful and surprising forms.

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