April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, GLENVILLE
Long-time catechist has taught generations
Long-time catechist has taught generations
Mrs. Smith had an 18-month-old daughter, Marjorie, at the time and was looking for something to keep her busy after stepping down as an English teacher at St. Augustine's School in Troy.
Back then, the children she taught were bused from their public school to faith formation classes at Immaculate Conception. After class, they were bused back to school for dismissal.
"It was an arrangement that worked quite well for a while," Mrs. Smith recalled, noting that the format ended about 15 years ago.
Mrs. Smith grew up in southern Indiana. She attended Catholic schools all the way through college, taught by the Sisters of Providence the entire time. For elementary and high school, she said, "I could walk to my school."
She attended Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana, which was one of the country's oldest all-female colleges until it went co-educational last year. During that time, she also met her husband, Larry, who was a student at another college in Indiana.
The couple moved to the Albany Diocese 36 years ago.
Since Mrs. Smith started serving as a catechist in 1987, a lot has changed. She has three other daughters: Kay, a nurse in South Carolina; Joanna, a musician in Virginia; and Madeline, who works in public relations in Rochester. Marjorie is now married with a son, Ezra. Joanna will be getting married next year.
It isn't just Mrs. Smith's family life that has changed, though. When she was growing up, she went to church six days a week, but she said her students today, some of whom don't even attend Sunday Mass, "marvel at that."
The catechist likes to share stories about her faith-filled childhood, hoping the students will encourage their parents to view practicing their faith as vital.
Through 29 years as a catechist, Mrs. Smith has taught everything from nursery to high-school grades, though she has mostly stuck with the fifth grade. She enjoys that age group: "They are preparing for middle school. At fifth grade, they are the big kids on campus. So, I've been trying to focus on that transition.
"I think, unfortunately, less time is spent focused on their faith in the home," she said. "There are so many other things that are happening." Many of her fifth-graders are already involved in sports at school, for example.
"I enjoy being with them," she said. "I am renewing my faith as I am trying to build theirs."
The catechist is an avid runner herself, doing 5Ks with a group of friends. She and her husband also travel to visit their daughters and have been to Ireland; they have a trip to England planned for November.
Mrs. Smith has no plans to stop teaching faith formation. Whenever she decides to do so, she says, it will be for a good reason: more grandchildren to visit, perhaps.
During the school year, Mrs. Smith is a substitute teacher for the middle and high school in the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District. She sees many familiar faces; former faith formation students often delight her by coming up to her to ask if she was their religion teacher.
At 58, Mrs. Smith now has the grandchildren of some of her friends in her faith formation classes. She and her students get a kick out of that: "We talk about what their [older] brothers and sisters did in class."[[In-content Ad]]
250 X 250 AD
250 X 250 AD
Events
250 X 250 AD
Comments:
You must login to comment.