I, Faith Formation Teacher

The call went out a few weeks back from our parish’s religious education/faith formation coordinator. We needed teachers – there’s a ton of kids who won’t have teachers unless we get some volunteers to share their faith with the impressionable youth of the parish.

Someone has to do it and these days I have the time. So I volunteered and am now teaching my daughter and seven other reasonably bright-eyed second graders each Wednesday night. Somewhere, I have to suspect that my favorite religion teacher, Sister JoLaverne, who paired arms that looked likes loaves of ciabatta and a religious fervor bordering on the wacky, is smiling.

I had my first session with the kids last night. Maria knew one of the kids, a girl who had been one of her classmates at Valentine Hills last year. One other Valentine Hills kid is also in the class, along with representatives of other local schools like Sunnyside and Island Lake. Since I only have the kids for an hour, it’s not too tough to keep their interest. In some respects, it’s a bit like coaching, although I can’t make them run laps if they screw around. If nothing else, it should be a rich source of material. I just hope my charges remember me more favorably than I remember Sister JoLaverne.