There are two kinds of education. One teaches us how to make a living and the
other teaches us how to live.
- William Barclay
We are, for the third year using a program entitled, “The Mustard Seed Series.”
This biblically based program uses Jesus’ own teaching techniques of parables
and open-ended questioning. The author of this series, The Rev. Anita Keire,
writes in her introduction: “Our students need to learn to live in an uncertain
and unpredictable world, a world where the bad often are rewarded, where
problems often cannot easily be solved. The biblical knowledge and the faith in
God’s steadfast love we help them find will sustain them.”
These two sentences have special meaning to me right now. Due to schedule
conflicts and the early arrival of one of our Sunday school teacher’s new baby,
I have been teaching almost every Sunday so far this year. I am astounded at the
spirituality and common sense acceptance of God’s word in our children.
A lesson in how different their world, at 9 years-old, is from the one I
experienced at 9 years old is revealing.
I can remember vividly sitting on the school assembly room floor watching, on a
specially brought in black and white TV, the space flight of Alan B. Shepard. My
classmates and I sat clutching each other in awe, breaths held during that short
flight. It was so utterly unbelieveable watching a man travel to outerspace. Of
course, today’s school children aren’t allowed to touch each other, but what in
their lives would make them sit together in that same fear and awe?
Elementary school children today take for granted the fact that people travel
and live in space. The largest border of my world at their age was my country.
Today children can “chat” with someone anyplace on the planet with the touch of
a button. They have seen America attacked on her home ground and live with the
very real threat of bioligical warefare and world epidemics.
I was in a Bible study once when a woman was dismayed to discover that the Magi
did not visit baby Jesus until he was two years old. Many in that class were
upset, they always imagined the Magi being there Christmas Eve - that is the way
the pageants were presented. This year I happened to be teaching the 9 and 10
year olds the Epiphany lesson. We read the verses in Matthew which tell the
story and discussed the Magi walking a great distance and not reaching Bethlehem
for two years. I asked if it bothered them that we had the Magi appear in our
Christmas pageant. The reply, “Well, no, we certainly couldn’t wait two years
for them to show up.”
St. Columba’s Sunday School meets each Sunday except the first Sunday of the
month when the Sunday School families join the “Together At Ten” service. The
Sunday School, consisting of 39 students, is divided into four classes, Pre-K
and Kindergarten, Primary (Grades 1-2) Intermediate (Grades 3-4), Junior (Grades
5 and up).
The children asked that I set up a “Sunday School Outreach” fund, then when they
saw the need the money could be spent to help others. To earn money for this
fund they have had a Thanksgiving Pie Sale and a Valentine Treat Sale. The money
has been used to buy Christmas presents for nine families and to provide support
for the victims of the Warwick fire.
For updates on Sunday School events and programs please go to “Sunday School
News.”
Kathryn Warren
Sunday School Coordinator