Religion Objectives for Children

Back in 1982, the School Office for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., released a booklet with a set of curriculum guidelines to orient teachers and administrators in their task of providing sound religious education in Catholic schools. Then Superintendent of Schools, Leonard DeFiore, Ed.D., prefaced the document with a letter in which he acknowledged more than four years of work on the project by a Task force chaired by Sister Ursula Butler and assisted by a host of others, including Father Kevin Hart. Major sources for this document were guidelines from the Diocese of Scranton and the Archdiocese New York, along with the National Catechetical Directory. Having not seen it available for some time, and having found various elements of it still to be useful, I am taking the liberty of revising elements of it for this site. Our children are the hope of tomorrow-- the hope of the Church-- let us teach them well.

General Age Characteristics to Be Considered:

First Year (Six years old)

• active, changeable, emotionally responds and highly imaginative
• egocentric -- brings all things into himself -- starts with home, neighborhood and parish
• has difficulty separating fact from fantasy
• has difficulty relating events according to time elements
• thinks through perception -- via senses, learns by doing, showing, experiencing
• needs individual security, to be loved and to love in return, to grow, to identify

Second Year (Seven years old)

• beginning of openness to others, sensitive to feelings and attitudes of others
• strong emotional life under better control
• competition involving peers is beginning to be attractive

Third Year (Eight years old)

• self motivated, expansive and inquisitive
• need for others to be aware of him/her
• sense of self is becoming clearer
• sense of time and space is developing
• increased ability to talk with other persons, not simply to them
• the age of "I" and "You"
• strong symbolic thinking and acting
• age of credulity and openness for development of sense of Faith

Fourth Year (Nine years old)

• a growing capacity for self-motivation, responsibility and increased self-reliance
• emotional life is more stable
• acceptance by groups developing as a need, becoming very much group oriented
• a weakening of the symbolic and personalistic awareness of religious reality occurs
• age of the doer; action oriented
• loyalty and dependability
• growing development of conscience and a desire for moral order
• a spirit of service, sharing of self as well as things

Fifth Year (Ten years old)

• has a fairly critical sense of justice and can make comparative judgments
• has a special desire to be him/herself
• is beginning to realize that intention is important in deciding whether an action is good or bad
• attitudes are more flexible
• is becoming aware of the individuality of others as well as self
• strong influence from peer group is becoming very evident

Sixth Year (Eleven years old)

• involvement socially is primarily with peer groups
• has the ability to assume more responsibility for own behavior
• very critical of other's failures
• emotional life is more stable due to the benefit of a certain rationalism

Seventh Year (Twelve years old)

• social involvement is predominately with peer groups
• the young adolescent is beginning to build moral habits
• beginning to encounter conflicts in spirituality because of increasing desire for independence
• tendency to reject many childhood notions of God
• becomes more self-conscious and may shy away from situations of risk
• is interested in religion and wants to know what the faith community believes and practices and why

Eighth Year (Thirteen years old)

• friendships are of extreme importance to younger adolescents
• beginning to be aware of his/her potential to become a unique person
• becoming independent and need the support and encouragement of mature adults
• view some of the external forms and structures of religion as unimportant
• going through a process of questioning and searching
• have a deep and beautiful sense of the sacred but do not easily share questions or inner thoughts

Let the Children Come to Me, Religious Education Guidelines, Diocese of Scranton