[xsmommy]

i think it is hard to get enough info across in CCD classes to any age group. My kids are in Catholic school and they know an incredible amount because of it, much more than i do, actually. my youngest has a learning disability and we had to take her out of catholic school and she now attends a private Christian LD school and attends CCD. Luckily she was in catholic school for her first communion year. you can't possibly get out of one hour of CCD per week, what you get in a day in and day out Catholic education where Catholic history and doctrine is assimilated into the other subjects.

i was baptized Greek Catholic, which meant i was confirmed simultaneously, so in 6th grade i had to sit out Confirmation, other than doing all the study prep stuff, in my Catholic grade school.

[Tax-chick]

I agree - we had a teachers' meeting at my parish earlier this week, to look over the new curriculum. When the DRE asked for comments on the past year, I mentioned that one of my children's classes had parties on every conceivable date: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter ... That was not, I felt, the best use of limited instructional time.

If we're involved in parish religious education, we need to work toward making it as effective and efficient as possible ... but if the families are dropping the ball, it's just going to be dropped, and there's only so much the parish can do.