Five tips for teaching faith to everybody
Connect with folks who have special needs
Photo from Photos.comGood teachers know that they learn more from their students than their students can learn from them! This can be especially true of students with special needs. Here are five steps you can take to ensure that the entire faith community is included in the ways we teach.
1. Appreciate that everyone has something to offer, and everyone has something to learn.
Once, at Sunday morning Mass, a young man with Downs Syndrome was obviously very anxious. He was standing and looking for someone who hadn’t yet arrived. The liturgical ministers had been delaying the Mass, but eventually, they had to start. So the music began.
This distressed young man sat down. But then he spotted his friend, jumped up and waved! The entire assembly looked to see who it was. The instrumental music continued, as his friend sheepishly made her way to the pew and tried to pick up her worship aid. But he wouldn’t let her have it. He grabbed it first, and shook her hand. Then he started reaching out to the hands of parishioners around him and joined their hands with her hand, one at a time, to make sure they each shook her hand in welcome. Only then did he hand her the worship aid. Then the song leader began to sing, and the procession started.
The young man taught us all more about the ministry of hospitality than any liturgical class. First, we gather and welcome; only then can we begin to pray together.
2. Look to new skills we can learn together.
One year, my kindergarten class included a student who couldn’t’ speak. However, Brian could hear and understand spoken language and was learning sign language. Since I knew a little sign language, I took the opportunity to start talking and signing as much as possible. I taught the class certain words and phrases every week, so all of us could communicate better. It was a blessing for the whole class, and Brian had a wonderful year.
3. Develop new contacts in the community
I worked with an adult volunteer who was blind. He was funny, knowledgeable, and comfortable and had no problem finding his way around the room, talking with all the (high school) students. One day he brought in his Braille typewriter to demonstrate how the Braille system worked—reading and writing it. We were all fascinated.
4. Pay attention to your environment and artwork.
Can you find pictures for your room that show people (especially teenagers and children) wearing glasses, using wheel chairs, or wearing hearing aids? Can you find pictures of people of all races? Being surrounded by such inclusive images will help expand everyone’s idea of what’s “normal” and “acceptable.”
You can find some copyright-free images at these Web sites: flickr.com/creativecommons and everystockphoto.com.
5. Work together with parents and families.
It’s helpful to form an “advisory” group of parents from your class and certainly to include parents of any children with special needs. When discussing issues that are more difficult, it’s good to also include a couple of “experts” in the field. That way, your decisions will come from a broader base of knowledge and from collective wisdom.
Lisa-Marie Calderone-Stewart, EdD, is the director of youth leadership at the House of Peace in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Previously, she was the director of youth ministry for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and for the Diocese of Grand Island in Nebraska.
