II A RESPONSE TO DYKSTRA

Abstract

The response to Craig Dykstra's article is not intended to be a formal position paper nor a scholarly research article but is the result of a conversation among religious educators. The end product therefore is a collaborative effort. When I received the article and first read it, I found myself confused and decided to try it out on some members of my high school religion department. After three other teachers had read it, we discussed it. Each of us are religious educators. One, in his mid-twenties with an M.A. in Theology, is a first year teacher. Another, in his early thirties, has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and has taught or is teaching on the elementary school, high school, and college levels. The third teacher, with an M.A. in Theology, is presently a Ph.D. candidate in Theology, is involved in both Protestant and Catholic parish ministry, and is a professional musician and vocalist. Both he and I are in our early forties. I am presently the Chairman of the Religion Department, hold an S.T.L. degree in Theology and a Ph. D. in Religious Education, and have spent the last fourteen years teaching high school religion. Besides any theological and philosophical perspectives we might have had toward the content of the article, we all read it with an eye to its relevance to us as religious educators. We are presently teaching in a Roman Catholic boys' high school in Brooklyn. Our teaching classload is more or less five forty-five minute religion classes a day five days a week. Three of the four of us are directly involved in the spiritual formation and/