Teaching Doctrine Across Age Stages
Teaching Doctrine Across Age Stages[1]
1. The Primary Stage: the stage of acceptance
At this stage, the child receives doctrines without arguing or asking questions; he accepts them by submission. Therefore, this stage is beneficial for implanting doctrines away from an atmosphere of discussion. It is the laying of the doctrinal foundation that seeps into the depths of the soul. For this reason, we also give many doctrines through memorization: the child memorizes them even if he does not understand them; he will understand them later.
2. The Preparatory Stage: the stage of teaching and explanation
The mind has begun to mature and has become receptive to explanation and to laying an intellectual foundation in a positive way that carries proofs, evidences, and confirmations.
3. The Secondary Stage: the stage of debate and discussion
This debate suits the age of adolescence. At this age, doubt also appears, and church education will have been prepared for it by what it implanted in childhood of acceptance and what it presented in the preparatory stage of teaching and understanding. In adolescence, we discuss opposing views and respond to them.
The Preparatory Stage Curriculum
The preparatory stage is one of the best stages for implanting doctrines and principles:
The primary stage is a stage of acceptance, in which the child is ready to accept everything, but does not have the intellectual maturity to delve deeply into what he hears. The secondary stage is characterized by debate and discussion, and perhaps by challenging ideas and rebelling against them. As for the preparatory stage, it accepts thought, with greater maturity than the primary stage, and without the desire for challenge and debate…
In the primary stage, we present teaching through acceptance.
We present faith and doctrine, and the child accepts them without discussion, and the teacher does not need to explain or prove.
In the preparatory stage, we present teaching along with a measure of understanding.
We explain in a positive way and prove without addressing opposing points. It is the stage of laying the positive foundation.
As for the secondary stage, we allow room for responses and discussion…
Because it is the stage of adolescence, in which the student does not accept information except what convinces him and satisfies his mind and thinking. Also, responding to opponents satisfies some of his instincts…
The Lesson of Baptism as an Example
We present baptism in the primary stage as an entry to the Christian faith. This lesson is suited to explaining the rite, preferably accompanied by illustrative aids, such as a film or slides. Children can be encouraged to memorize one or two verses to تثبيت the theological idea.
In the preparatory stage, we can explain the place of baptism from both the doctrinal and ritual aspects, with clarification of the symbols and their depth, and memorization of some biblical texts that are longer and more comprehensive…
In the secondary stage, we explain in greater depth, clarify doctrinal and ritual differences and respond to them with satisfying answers, read passages from Scripture, and point to some references.
Idealism and the Hero of Dreams
Since the second stage is characterized by the concentration of emotions and thoughts on heroic images, ideal images, Superman, and the boy of dreams—every boy and girl, as their dreams open to the future, places before himself a certain image to imitate and make his ideal—he may deviate and adopt a worldly-oriented example.
Therefore, we prepare from the preparatory stage by presenting good ideals from the lives of the saints, the heroes of faith, and the men of Scripture.
The Primary Stage Curriculum
1. The love of God first, before punishment and judgment
It was never appropriate to begin defining God to the child at this early age with stories of punishment and judgment that frighten the child and repel him from God. Therefore, it was decided that in the first three years of the curriculum there would be no mention of these punishments. Rather, the focus was on stories that indicate God’s love, care, and providence. In the story of the Ark, we took care that the goal be God’s care for righteous Noah and his salvation, without addressing at all the reasons for the coming of the waters… God’s care and love are recurring elements in the curriculum of all the years of the primary stage, based on stories from the Old and New Testaments and from the history of the saints. As for punishment, it comes later as a manifestation of God’s goodness and His hatred of sin, with His love for the sinner and His striving to reform him.
2. The power of Christ first, before mentioning His sufferings
Some servants err by teaching the young child about the sufferings of Christ and the humiliations and troubles they contain. The child must first be assured of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, His strength, and His divinity. Therefore, we gave him a clear idea of the Lord’s power from every aspect before mentioning His sufferings: His power over nature, His power in healing, His power in all His miracles… As for the sufferings, they come later, when the child understands the meaning of love, self-giving, and sacrifice.
3. The Cross in the curriculum
But does delaying the explanation of Christ’s sufferings deprive the child of speaking about the Cross and its blessings?! No. Rather, the child learns in the first year how to make the sign of the Cross; in the second year, how to use it; and in the third year, a story about the power of the Cross in the lives of the saints. Then comes the story of the Crucifixion—but how is it presented? We first mention the Lord’s power at the time of His arrest: the falling of the people and the healing of the servant’s ear. Also, the Lord’s power during His crucifixion: the earthquake, the darkness, the tearing of the veil of the temple, etc. Then comes the story of the Crucifixion.
4. When are the stories of the martyrs taught? And how?
It is fitting for the young child to know that God is the source of all good, and that whoever follows Him lives happily. Therefore, we cannot tell him at the beginning of his studies that those who believed in Christ were subjected to slaughtering, stoning, crucifixion, burning, and the cutting of limbs… No; this comes later when the child is trained in self-giving for the sake of God…
But does postponing this mean depriving the child of the stories of the martyrs?
No. Rather, we first tell him the miracles of the martyrs and what God performed through their hands of signs, and the honor He granted them. Then we gradually move to the stories of their sufferings, beginning with the miracles that occurred during their persecutions. For example, Saint Mar George—in the third-year curriculum—we narrate how they presented him with a cup of poison, and he made the sign of the Cross over it and drank it, and it did not harm him; and how they brought him to offer incense to the idols, and they all fell shattered by his prayers; and how the queen and many others believed because of him… Finally, we speak about the sufferings of the martyrs and their miracles.
5. Miracles of raising the dead and casting out demons, and their place in the curriculum
This is a frightening aspect for the child. We did not address it in the first three years, then we gradually mentioned it. Regarding miracles of raising the dead, Scripture mentions three of them: the mildest is the raising of Jairus’s daughter, because she is a child sleeping at home, and this was taken in the fourth year. In the fifth year, the miracle of raising the widow of Nain’s son was placed, because he was in a coffin in a procession on the road. In the sixth year, the child takes the raising of Lazarus, because it is the most difficult story for him: the raising of a dead man bound with grave clothes inside a tomb with a large stone upon it… Likewise, the stories of casting out demons were placed in the later years.
6. The child’s love for stories of angels
At the same time that we avoided stories of demons, we filled the curriculum with stories of angels and heaven because of the child’s great love for this kind that satisfies his spirit and imagination. Other events that satisfy the child’s imagination were also taken into account, such as the miracle of the Transfiguration, the Ascension of the Lord into heaven, and the ascent of Elijah in a fiery chariot…
7. Feasts in the curriculum
This element is one of the important elements that connect the child to the Church, its rites, and its prayers. We included in the curriculum a number of feasts each year, which are: the Feast of Nayrouz, the Feast of the Cross, the Nativity Feast, the Feast of the Apostles, the Feast of the Virgin, and the feast of the church’s saint or the class’s saint. Sometimes we add the Feast of the Annunciation or the Feast of Pentecost.
We distributed what is said in each of these feasts over the six years so as to avoid boring repetition.
8. Doctrine, rites, and matters of faith
Their teaching began in a simple way, sometimes practical, such as teaching the sign of the Cross and its use; sometimes through hymnody, such as hymns of the Cross, bells, the Eucharist, and the sanctuary lamp; and sometimes through memorization, such as the Lord’s Prayer.
Then basic lessons such as love for the Church, manners of attendance, respect for the priests, candles, lights, pictures, and icons…
And since the last years of this journey are years of faith in the child’s life, in which he receives anything with belief without discussion, we placed in them—in a simplified way—some lessons about the Church’s sacraments and rites, and matters of faith concerning the Crucifixion, redemption, and some other doctrines.
[1] Article: His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, “Spiritual Service and the Spiritual Servant (5) – Teaching Doctrine Across Age Stages,” Watani, March 25, 2007.For better translation support, please contact the center.
