It’s not always easy to communicate basic values about life to the new generations. Even in transmitting faith and human values, adults sometimes vacillate.

A 15-year-old girl passes out at school from a cocaine overdose … Lorraine, a 14-year-old, is strangled and thrown into a ditch by three of her peers because they were afraid that one of them had gotten her pregnant … a gang of young teenagers is discovered using ninja weapons, five-pointed stars, to rob others their age.

Every day we hear something new. Bullies, violence, and racism: the news we get through the mass media offers an alarming picture of the adolescent world.

Research done by sociologists only reinforces this negative picture: in many countries, children are starting to drink and have sexual relationships earlier. They often take as their role models gang leaders or media stars. The image that emerges is one of young people who lack values or solid reference points. We have but to visit our city slums to see and experience the world in which the majority of our kids grow up.

The Need for Reference Points

Pope Benedict XVI stated last year that today more than ever a person’s education and formation are influenced by the messages and culture spread by mass media. These lead to a mentality and a culture characterized by relativism, consumerism and a lack of proper respect for the human body and sexuality. For Benedict XVI, we must revive an integral education, with credible witnesses, one which aims to provide today’s young people with reference points. In his opinion, this revival is necessary to face the “educational crisis” that is affecting so many countries.

Notwithstanding the growing awareness of these problems, it appears that the adult world is really unable to offer youth a clear sense of values. The need for adults to provide good moral examples cannot be overstressed. Young people watch adults. Adult hypocrisy is a huge roadblock to effective value sharing.

We need to identify a starting point for change before the process becomes irreversible. However, it may turn out that this crisis is comparable to a process of maturation which could result in a more adequate formation and new models for the parent-child and the educator-student relationships.

New Ways of Learning

An important aspect of this new paradigm that would enable us to enter into the world of children and young people is to understand the new ways by which they learn. Some of these new methods are clearly identifiable.

For the new generations, a great deal of learning takes place informally, rather than in the more traditional settings such as within the family, the school or the parish. Often young people do not feel connected to their past, and follow the latest products promoted by aggressive advertising. Lacking roots and a firm foundation, their lives easily take on a more emotional path, where they constantly seek excitement but lack the ability to step back and evaluate their choices.

Passing on Our Values

Is there a connection between this educational emergency and evangelization? Benedict XVI, addressing Catholic audiences, has stated that there is an intrinsic bond between the individual, faith and education. These three elements are indispensable for a Christian view of human beings. In the past, tradition, history and Christian principles were transmitted within the family and at school. One felt connected to one’s past, and to one’s folk traditions. Stories were transformed into proverbs and became a part of life and the cultural fabric of the next generation.

There is an urgent need to move beyond simply preparing people to receive the sacraments to preparing them for a lifelong spiritual journey; we need to pass from simple instruction on doctrinal truths to offering experiences of life. But this is only the beginning. A new form of catechesis and value formation that is communitarian rather than individualistic is called for, one that is concerned not only with preserving, but which is also ready to look forward to new forms of transmitting Christian and human values.

A New Educational Approach

It is interesting to observe Chiara Lubich’s teaching method. For her, teaching elementary school subjects and teaching about her faith coincided. Each week she gave her students a sentence from the Gospel to live, and then in class they would share their experiences, positive or negative, about putting it into practice.

Since then, through the spirituality that God had given her, a pedagogical style has developed that unites authority with friendship, love with discipline, and truth with freedom, a style which became known worldwide as the pedagogy of unity. Here are some aspects:

Using games to get children interested in learning is not a new method. Chiara based this technique on the practice of “making ourselves one,” entering into the world of the student in order to make the experience one which is truly shared.

Correct, but don’t discourage pupils. As a teacher, she used to correct her students as they were doing their work, but then she would immediately help them find the right answers to avoid her having to put those unpleasant red marks on their papers.

Then too, for Chiara, teaching was an opportunity to do the will of God. Therefore, it was something sacred that needed to be prepared with care, leaving nothing to chance. For her, Jesus was present in every student. The Gospel says: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). She believed in this firmly and lived it out.

For people who have faith, there is a personal relationship with God that lies at the basis of all they do, and this becomes a constant source of new life. Those without a religious faith can always live the Golden Rule and treat others as they would want to be treated. Their children or students become, in this way, reflections of themselves, whom they help to raise, educate and prepare to face the challenges that life will bring. They in turn will model values that are lived and taught, values that they will then pass on to future generations.

Aurelio Molé with Nancy O’Donnell

The Experience of Efren

The experience of Efren Penaflorida Jr. of Cavite City, nominated as a CNN hero can inspire us too. Efren, a victim of violence himself--an inevitable lot when one grows up in the slums--resolved not to allow his experience of being bullied be repeated by other children of the slums. At the age of 16, together with some friends, he taught reading and values to children in the most unconventional places, among the tombs, in pushcarts, on the streets. Now at only 27, he has changed the lives of many poor children, and has been internationally and nationally recognized with his 10,000 volunteers, and the many children he has supported through school as scholars. Many of these children have rediscovered their dignity as human persons. His life is surely a sign of hope in a nation which has seemingly abandoned its children.

JA