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Patch Adams - Movie Reflection
Patch Adams is a great movie to use with students! It is the fact-based story of Hunter "Patch" Adams, the founder of the Gesundheit Clinic. Robin Williams plays the lead character with grace and skill. Synopsis: After spending some time …
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Curriculum Integration in Service Programs
How can you begin working toward curriculum integration with your service program? Consider the following principles as a good guide. Connections Get to know the curriculum in other content areas. Study the program of studies of your school. Look at …
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Processing Service Experiences
I have been involved with our school's service-learning program for over ten years as a classroom teacher. Because the program is integrated fully in the religion, English, and social studies curriculum, we have made a commitment to processing the material …
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The Color Purple
A CAUTIONARY NOTE: One of the criticisms of The Color Purple is that it depicts the men in the story as primarily abusive. Also, this movie is PG-13, mostly because of the violence and strong language. We recommend the movie …
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Technology assignment - Catholic Social Teaching
Over ten years ago, I began using my home computer to file and create documents for my students. My high school, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, already had a very well-developed technological infrastructure. Internet searches, e-mail, PowerPoint presentations, …
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U.S. Students Work for Salvadoran Students
Katie Murphy visited El Salvador in the summer of 1999 as part of the Frontiers of Justice project, a learning opportunity for Catholic high school teachers cosponsored by Catholic Relief Services and the National Catholic Educational Association's Secondary Division. Her …
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Following the Spirit Down the (Yellow?) Brick Road
The road is really a five-foot wide path. The bricks are more dappled browns than yellow. But the journey does have a wizard and feisty little black terrier. And along the way we found our hearts, our minds, and our …
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Central Characteristics of Roman Catholicism
Catholicism is a remarkably rich religion, characterized by a complex tapestry of beliefs, practices, values, rituals, traditions, and more. When viewed "from the outside"--that is, by those who do not share its communal life--Catholicism is probably most frequently identified by …
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Everyday Works of Mercy
Are you more Christian than you give yourself credit for being? My belief is that there are many like that--that many dedicated Christian people have compartmentalized their lives and have excluded important and central areas of their lives from what …
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The Death Penalty and the Catholic Conscience
Some proponents say the death penalty is biblical: "an eye for an eye." This moral theologian shows how they are misreading the Bible. If someone murdered your child or closest friend, what punishment would you want for the criminal? If …
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The Spirituality of Work
Teachers who structure justice into their workday lives model a moral vision for their students. I requested a review copy of all religion textbooks used in Catholic high schools some years ago and scoured over 30 books looking for references …
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Peace: The Countercultural Value
Ours is a violent society. Furthermore, evidence strongly suggests that we are learning to accept violence as normal behavior. As a people, we appear to be increasingly indifferent to daily images of warfare, racial hatred and ethnic cleansing. Murder and …
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The Community Service Dimension
A high school senior leans over the shoulders of two 9-year-olds struggling with math homework in a tutoring program at the community center. Two students carry food baskets up the narrow flight of stairs to the residents of a housing …
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Columbine High's Selfless Heroes
The stories of Columbine's heroes rise like a "tide of inspiration" for this Denver mother. Starting the third laundry load, I pause, puzzled by a pin on my daughter's t-shirt. At 14, she tosses shirts into the hamper with glad …
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Dance: An Awakening
Ms. Sawaya Lamb teaches dance at Judge Memorial Catholic High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mr. Wagoner, a former technical director at Judge Memorial Catholic High School, is now assistant principal at Saint Vincent School in Salt Lake City. …
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Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Step 1: Look at the situation What exactly is happening? Why is it happening? Who is involved? What are their motives? How is it happening, that is, by what means or method? When and where is it happening? Step 2: …
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Service and Justice
We are standing on the brink, and our bishops are urging us to jump. Many of us don't know where we'll end up, and we aren't sure whether we'll land in one piece. Yet the sense of urgency is building, …
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A One-Day Retreat on Service in the Inner City
Our sophomore class day retreat focuses on finding spirituality in the inner city. It is a kind of "urban plunge" experience within a spiritual framework, and students go on this retreat during the same semester that they take a social …
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The Harvest Is Abundant: Reflections on a Spirituality of Service
Service is a golden word these days. Everybody's doing it: governmental bodies, schools, churches, even neighborhoods and families. Court sentencing frequently includes community service, the federal government holds service up as a value in programs such as Americorps, and state …
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Building Faith Community in the High School
In a workshop entitled "The Catholic High School as Faith Community," religion teachers, campus ministers, and school administrators discussed, among many things, the obstacles they face in trying to build faith community in their school. One obstacle they addressed was …
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Community Service Courses:
This past semester, at the end of a year-long service program at a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed youth, two students from my community service course wrote a poem to express the significance of their experiences. These are the …
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Expect Much, Praise Much, Be Present to Them
Course materials, such as the high school religion textbooks and teacher's manuals published by Saint Mary's Press, are a significant ingredient in the education of our young people. But we all know that the most important factor in a student's …
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Curriculum Offerings of Theology Departments
For a couple of years, Saint Marys Press sponsored a listserv discussion group online. Discussions on a variety of topics were pursued via e-mail. In this section of the web site, I summarize some of the highlights from these old …