" At any rate you people in Birmingham seemed to have solved the problem of Authority and Freedom."
This remark came from a visitor during discussion-time at the Teachers' Lecture-Course on
teaching religion, She had listened to Authority (in the person of Fr. J. D. Crichton, one of the diocesan inspectors) preaching freedom from parrot-systems, while one or two of the teachers seemed to he urging compulsory Catechism-learning for the juniors. Whether they equally were in favour of compulsion for the teachers to carry it out did not appear.
Last week a headmistress illustrated the difference between Catechismlanguage and what she called
Juniors'-language " by her definition of Grace as " The life of God going on in our soul, to get us to heaven," which she got across to some children in a lesson which drew general admiration.
OUT OF THE DESKS
This week the subject was Teaching the Creed. and to show how she did it Sister Madeleine brought a dozen little girls from St. Patrick's, Walsall. Her idea is evidently to get children out of their desks and using their limbs and voices in ways that will make the doctrine sink into their minds.
There were brief mimes, accompanied with choral speaking, for various Articles of the Creed; the Fourth Article for instance, was illustrated by a famous passage from the Imitation about the Cross, spoken with simple movements round a Crucifix held aloft.