(Curriculum Innovation)
Introduction
Many of Level 9 students today would admit they do not have a profound and sufficient knowledge about the Christian faith in its personal and communal nature. Most of them got their simple knowledge of Christian life from the Christian Living classes and ceremonies which are connected to family celebrations and practices such baptism, marriage ceremony and funerals. Only those who are members of Youth for Christ and Search-inners have experienced faith as personal relationship with Jesus the Lord. Furthermore, not many of them recognize the social and communitarian nature of faith. They are not in any way involved in various issues on faith and morals. What they do most of the time is focused on gadgets, not on people.
These situations imply the need to make the faith understands and accepts Jesus’ teachings, to develop faith which is something personal, and to make the faith more active in community involvement. This can be done through the implementation of the program called BEC or Basic Ecclesial Community.
Basic Ecclesial Community is basically a parish-based program which seeks to form small communities in the parish to address the urgent call of informing, forming, and transforming individual’s faith. This program helps the parish priest to facilitate the spiritual, communal, and social formation of the people in the context of community living.
The said program is adopted and modified to fit the Christian Living Curriculum of De La Salle Lipa Integrated School. Its primary goal is to lessen the academic or intellectual nature of Christian Living subject and make its objectives focus on God’s purpose for man, that is, to serve Him faithfully, to worship Him fully, and to love Him more dearly.
It also aims to provide venue for the students to (a) develop a personal relationship with Jesus, (b) experience a new way of being in the Church, (c) share their faith experiences with the group in the context of fellowship prayer services, (d) and to translate into actions the values they have learned from the different activities of this program. To turn these goals into reality, each class is divided into seven small groupings which we may call “Cell groups”.
Methodology
1. Procedure of Implementation
A. Classes were divided into seven groups with 5-6 members each. The servant leader, tapped by the CL teacher, facilitated the choosing of a secretary of the group who documents all the results of sharing and other related activities of this program.
B. All appointed servant leaders served as members of the Core Group of the class. They assisted one another in the implementation of regular activities of the groups.
C. The three meetings in Christian Living subject were spent for each activity.
C1. First Meeting
The class spends the 15 minutes for reflection writing using the Gospel Reflection Book. Then the remaining time is for transacting God’s business, that is, for sharing reflections, thinking of 1 ARK 1, monitoring spiritual growth, and deciding what group intensification activity or G.I.A. will they have for the week.
C2. Second Meeting
The teacher takes the lead in discussing to students the topic of the week taken from the CL syllabus-based work text. He integrates all the elements of the program with the lesson of the week.
C3. Third Meeting
It is spent for prayer service or praying of the rosary which is facilitated by the assigned group. Through this fellowship in the context of prayerful atmosphere the students are able to experience the presence of God in a new way.
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