Role of Parents

Parents, Society and the Church can have a major impact on students' faith development and I would also say moral development; which is dependent on formation of conscience and their sensitivity to sin and the effects of certain actions on others and self. When the faith is not supported in society, and the church is clouded by misrepresentation and human weakness and crisis of faith, (with all its implications for how sin is viewed), it is then left to parents and the Catholic school to help students articulate and experience their faith. (Of course as Hater explains ( page 7) many of these students parents were 'caught in the turmoil after Vatican 2' with the ensuing identity crisis. I would state however, that it is not just Vatican 11 which caused the turmoil. So did the 60's. One parent, the wife of a teacher on staff, angrily approached me last year because I was teaching students about the dangers of occult practices. Another hounded me (it felt that way) because her son was being spoken to about pre-marital sex which she agreed with. The justification of the former was that "I tried those things and nothing ever happened to me.")

When the parents' impact is minimal with regards to promulgation of the Faith, because of their own insecurities, it is clear why so many students do not reach their potential and why the catholic school faces an uphill battle, especially in the areas which the 60's era sought to promote: sexual freedom, subjective belief and practices, drug abuse and the revolution of the purpose of music in mainstream society. Whilst students may experience 'friendship, love natural beauty, thinking and giving' in families ( Hill, 1988. p 109), if there is no link with spirituality and students do not name these spiritual experiences as such ,with the appropriate language, then development of faith will be stilted. Flynn states that " Faith requires a context or community if it is to grow and develop." (Flynn, 1993. P237) I believe, as outlined in this project, that students need to be made aware of the fact that we are products of our culture and that we need to decide whether or not we like what we see. Until then, concerned teachers who value true freedom will not be heard.

The above situation also has implications for the student who is well into the searching Faith spoken of by Fowler, which continues throughout life (Flynn, 1993.p 333-4) let alone for those students who see this as a sign for rejection of the faith because they have no point of reference for their experienced faith. How can a student cope with the many struggles and doubts which, I as a teacher hear often, if this search isn't nurtured and answers aren't provided? Flynn predicts that a rejection of faith results. ( As one student in my Year 11 class in Term 3 said - 'Don't take it personally Mr Bonasera, I just hate all RE teachers and RE." That was the first lesson this term. The student said it was because of experiences he had had.) It is sad that students will be able to act as someone adhering to a 'community faith' in their fight for justice and service, and yet not be able to rejoice in the fact that this comes from a union with God that is unknown.

As seen already, students do not like to admit that they are influenced by television characters or their idols. They do admit the influence of their peers however, who come in a close second to parents, as those admired by students. Let us look at their perception of the media.

Below, students demonstrated that television characters got most votes as a fourth preference. Movie stars got more preferences at this stage. Notice, that the group of 16, place the Church as 4 before television characters and movie stars. In fact 27% placed the Church third.

The results are found below( until the sixth preference)

My experience with being in Catholic schools and listening to the words, and songs of my nephews and nieces and students, as well as observing their clothing etc., convinces me of the impact of the media. Yet, as expected their sensitivity to this influence is not understood. They are desensitised to the whole thing. For example, 76% (50%) thought that watching an 'R' rated film was cool.