They just don't care!

and nothing I say or do will make them care about this.

Yeah, I'm frustrated!

When I lived in TX and volunteered at my Church in the office I heard pretty much the same thing out of my Pastor. At that Church the Pastor taught the confirmation classes himself. He had one student who didn't show up on a regular basis and never did any of the lessons...Yet his mother wanted him to be confirmed with the rest of his class. The Pastor said that he could not be confirmed because he hadn't done the work to prove that he was indeed confirming his faith. And the mother threw a fit, trying to get her way. (I won't go into all the other carp this same mother did...she was one of those who felt the world owed her and her family a living.)

Now go to 6 years ago when I first begain teaching Sunday School at our Church. There are some great kids who love to be there and love to hear the stories and are just a joy to teach and teach with as they help with the lessons as well...And then there are those kids who just don't care. They are only in Sunday School because their parents are using it for free babysitting (someplace else to stash them while they go do whatever...one mother sits in her car and reads during class, another goes grocery shopping!)

My biggest problem with the kids who don't want to be there is that they are disruptive in class. They think that class is just time to sit and chat with their friends...and I know that some will say that for them it is because I haven't done anything to prove different to them. But you see, I feel as if my hands are tied. I don't feel as if I have any recourse.

Our Church's current confirmation program includes daily Bible reading, devotions, turning in homework and quizes on the previous lesson. However, as far as I know (since I was told at the beginning of the year that homework and quizes weren't going to be required...only they didn't give me any curriculum to teach without using the homework & quizes.) the homework and quizes don't mean much. There doesn't seem to be any consequence to the kids who don't do well on these. Oh and the reason that the homework & quizes aren't required is because the older parents & students complained about having to do them. So apparently my experience in TX back in the 90's wasn't out of the ordinary.

I just don't see how the kids can be expected to learn and be ready for their confirmation if they don't bother with it. I know that the kids aren't learning from me...they aren't supposed to. They are supposed to learn their faith (or Catch their Faith) from their parents. But the parents seem to not care or they're expecting the Church to teach the kids for them.

Today was just sooooooooooooo frustrating because when I got to class the kids all started in with their excuses: and yes my comments in italics have been told to the kids!

I couldn't do the homework because I wasn't here last week so I didn't know what lesson to do. um, it would be the lesson after last week's...they all go in order!
I couldn't do my homework because I was too busy doing my school homework. really? you mean to tell me that you had absolutely NO time this week to do your homework? So your poor video games and TV were never turned on at all? I find that HARD to believe!
I dropped my book and the pages fell out so they aren't in order any more. You haven't bothered to sit down for 5 minutes to put them back in order? They are all numbered.
We shouldn't have to do this homework as it kills trees. the trees are already dead, you adding your answers to the page won't make them any deader.

As you can tell I'm heartless.

Today in class we went over the questions that will be on the test they have to take. Let me say first that the tests are incredibly easy AND they've seen all the questions before in the previous quizes ...here's an example:

David Psalms:
____1) Who wrote the Psalms?
____2) What instrument did David play?
____3) What are David's most famous Psalms?
____4)
____5)

A. 23
B. Lyre
C. 139
D. David
E. 51

Well the good news is that next year my Church is switching the confirmation curriculum. I won't find out until March 30th with everyone else what they are switching to. I sure hope that it is something that the kids will want to do.