Wasting my youth on the young

Trumpet blast! Theologienne is a catechist!

 

I'll be teaching confirmation class, which starts in seventh grade at the parish I've selected as my home (they'll be confirmed next fall.) This parish does the new family-centered model of religious education where both parents and kids recieve some formal education from the church, and parents are expected to do a certain amount of the teaching at home. I'm interested to see how that will work, especially in a sacramental class. Conventional wisdom has it that the ranks of religious education swell in Communion and Confirmation years, because while plenty of parents are concerned that their kids get a good faith formation, even more want to make sure they get all the sacraments taken care of. This education model might not work as well with parents who'd prefer to just drop their kids off and go drink coffee for an hour.

 

Also, I'm thinking a lot about how to approach kids this young, theology-wise. I was confirmed junior year of high school, and even then we were pretty darn callow. This parish has a good youth group that picks up where religious education leaves off, so there's less of a concern that people will fall away from the church after "finishing" their sacraments, but this might be their last hit of formal faith-thinking for a while. There is a curriculum, but I understand we're at liberty to make our own lesson plans.

 

As such, I'd joyfully welcome any suggestions for ideas I should emphasize. I'm stymied by how little I can remember of the theological concerns of my own seventh grade class, despite the sound Catholic school formation I do believe we got. Here's what I've come up with:

1) Sex.

2) Can pets go to heaven?