A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine called me up out of the blue to ask for a palindrome for "a brave and skillful act." She was helping her 8-year-old nephew with his homework. His father, his aunt, and myself, with 8 college and post-graduate degrees among us, after an hour or so we came up with the answer, which was "deed." My friend had a relevant question, often probably left unsaid: What was the point of that? How, exactly, was that going to help her nephew? Was the struggle of coming up with that answer really worth the work?
Since then, I've become more aware of the amazing amount of pressure young people are under and how hard they work. Last Saturday, I went on a confirmation field trip with a group of youth and asked them about their homework load. One 14-year-old told me he usually finishes at 10:00 at night. Others had similar responses. I really can't imagine having a job that began at 8 in the morning and didn't finish until 10 at night, five days a week, plus stuff to do over the weekend.
All of this has made me more cognizant that when we ask our confirmation class to do homework, it had better be worth doing and not merely busy work to somehow convince ourselves that we are serious.
I think that Confirm not Conform has done a good job of creating homework that isn't busy work. Instead, this homework is about asking for their thoughts and opinions, for things that matter to them. We believe this homework will help them get at their own basic beliefs and expand their definitions of faith and spirituality. At the same time, thinking about this has made me appreciate that just because I think this homework is worthwhile doesn't mean it really is. Just because it keeps 'em busy doesn't mean it's good.
All this is meant to say is that we think the homework that goes along with the CnC lessons are valuable and make sense not only for the program but for the youth we are asking to do them. But the homework is not the point. As always the goal is to find ways and means to encourage youth to explore their faith and find their voice. If the homework doesn't help youth do that, well, then, that's the homework's fault, not the youth's. As you are assigning the homework to your class, keep in mind the goal. You are free to adjust the assignments as necessary in order to get there.
And it might help to remember that you're giving your class this assignment on top of a very heavy full-time job. If the homework is rather lack-luster, it doesn't mean they hate God or church or you.