Teacher and teaching in catechesis: A study on the role and effectivity of teacher in catechesis

Abstract

This thesis is written with its core problem focusing on the importance of equipping teachers and educators of catechesis. The discussion begins by researching into the theological background of the function and role as well as vocation of teacher according to the biblical testimony. The Bible testifies that the initiators of and the Main Teacher in education is God himself. But in practice God entrusts the educational process to "parents" and the four group leaders in the society, namely the "priest", the "prophet", the "wise" and the “poet”. The education takes place in all aspects and activities of daily life first of all by means of the children's informal participation in the day to day family activities and secondly by the parents' control over the children's behavior, particularly in order to train the child to become a moral-being. Thirdly, the education takes place in the form of expressing the oral tradition which relates to the faithfulness of the Lord to his people. Therefore, equipping teacher is seen in connection with the Lord's calling and the manifestation of God's Word in one's daily life. In other words, all Israelites including parents and Israel leaders are learners throughout their lives and they do so anywhere. The role of professional teacher emerged and developed after the Israelites had been in exile. At that time the Israel community became aware of the fact that their exile was the Lord's just punishment for their in obedience of the Law. Consequently, they learned the Tora with great intensity by building synagogues not only as worshiping places but also as places of learning the Law. As this learning activity needed teachers, the Israel community put a great deal of work to prepare and equip those who would become teachers by selective recruitment. Furthermore, the formal school was built and the rabbi were badly needed. The thesis shows that the rabbi is a formal address of teacher, that is to say teacher who had passed the preparation through formal and informal schools. The same was the case at the time of Jesus when the role of Jesus as teacher was seen in two aspects namely in Jesus' personality as the product of education in his time, and in Jesus as a teacher. Jesus' parents were his first nurturers who at the same time functioned as his teachers (Luke 2:51). From Jesus' activity it was clear that he also went through the process of formal education. This is true from the fact that he could read and write, and moreover that he was called as Rabbi shows that Jesus went through formal education. In Jesus' time, the title of "Rabbi" was normally addressed to a law expert who had completed his education. As a teacher preparing his disciples to accept his salvation Jesus taught his audience with various means and methods. The success of Jesus as a teacher could be seen in his attitude as a teacher who accepted everybody that came to him and in his restless efforts to encourage and make his audience to be involved in the process of learning. In the primitive church the role of teacher was very important. It was so in the light of the church's confession that the Prime Teacher was God himself. He entrusts the human teacher to proclaim the Good News to all mankind. In this light the presbyter must have the teaching capability. Moreover, the office of teacher was believed to be the fruit of the Holy Spirit. For this important task a teacher was expected to have certain criteria as shown in 1 Tim 3:1ff. As a community the congregation functioned in itself as a teaching community which was entrusted to serve through teaching. The church of all ages - which struggles in his witnessing task to proclaim the gospel to the whole world - has seen the importance of the teacher s role. Throughout the church's history and development some educational thinkers- such as Clementus, Erasmus, Martin Luther and Comenius - have appeared and put a great deal of effort to develop the role of teacher. They expressed their thought on the importance of the teacher's role and the need for equipping those who would become teachers. The thought they proposed was based on their individual understanding of the purpose of education, but it was also their response to the situation in their society at their time. Their response to the situation of their time would determine the kind of attitude and understanding they held over the teacher's role. Facing the pressure of philosophy, Clement attempted to bridge the philosophy and the Bible. As a result, he argued that the teacher is the Word which "urges” the people to leave behind heathenism, "leads" them to believe in Christ, "teaches" them a new-behavior and "frees" them from their old-life. Erasmus thinks that man is not born but fashioned. Accordingly, the task of teacher is very important. It must be seen from three elements namely "nature", "training" and "practice". Erasmus proceeds to say that for this a teacher must be equipped systematically. Luther suggests that everybody must be educated. He bases his suggestion on his theological understanding of all believers as the royal priesthood. The main task of the priest is to teach God's Word. The ministry of teaching has the same value as preaching. Therefore, equipping teacher is greatly needed because the teacher has to try to incite the attention of his pupils and to instruct discipline kindled with love. Also, the teacher has to pay attention to his or her pupils according to their individual character. Comenius - who is known as the prophet of modern education- is the first to propose the idea of building special school for equipping teacher (known in Indonesia as Institute of Teaching and Education Science = IKIP). Comenius argues that humankind is born not in God's image, but in the condition which makes him possible to become God's image. Human being has already got the basic element which has to be nursed to achieve his purpose. It is in this connection that human being must be helped through education so that he or she can achieve goodness, knowledge and piety. Having investigated in chapters I-III the importance of equipping teacher in the biblical times and from the view point of educational thinkers throughout the church’s history, this thesis proceeds to investigate into the concept of teacher in the Christian Batak Protestant Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestant abbreviated from now on as HKBP). The HKBP is a church which has the Batak society as its background. The Batak society cannot be separated from its basic philosophy of life namely its people’s “totality” (totalitas) and “rights” (jambar) and aspiration of “good-offspring), “richness” and “honor” which urged the Batak people to see the importance of education long before they accepted Christianity. For the Bataks the community itself was the teacher in it – with the process of socialization- the education was carried out. Apart from that, the Batak society knew some people who could be regarded as teachers. They were Raja Patik and “Datu” (shaman) who were seen as having more “sahala” (authority). The arrival of Christianity has opened and widened the worldview of the Batak society about the importance of modern education. In the development of mission in the Batak land there has been seen the development of the Batak people’s view of the importance of the teacher’s role so much so that the success of mission in the Batak land has something to do with the role of teacher in carrying out the catechesis. After the Christianity began to grow the role of education has been put at the top priority. This was due to the fact that people baptized with the “netting method” in turn needed the deepening of the understanding about Christian faith. It was done through the Catechesis for those who had already been Christianized and those who had not. From this time on the HKBP has made the form of Katekese ministry as one of its forms of formal structured ministry in the HKBP functioning as the continuation of the Child Baptism ministry. It must be said therefore that from the beginning the HKBP has stressed the need to equip the prospective teacher by building schools which aim at preparing the teacher well. But as time goes by it has been seen that the role of teacher has been neglected by the HKBP mainly because the HKBP has shifted its ministry to organizational and to the ritual matters. It is this condition that constitutes the reason of this thesis to investigate the understanding of importance of equipping teachers in particular the teacher of catechesis is in the HKBP. Chapter V re-investigates the meaning and history of catechesis in its relation to the task of the church. It aims at seeing clearly the role of the teacher in the ministry of church education particularly in the catechesis. A catechesis teacher is called catechesis when he or she sees his or her task as being entrusted by the Lord through the vocation of the Holy Spirit. Therefore catechesis are the actors of the church's mission task with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As catechesis is the church's very important ministry, so the equipping of catechesis is very important. For only with equipping of serious and well-prepared catechesist does the Holy Spirit work in the catechesis. It is this God-called catechesis who will grow and develop in his or her faith with his or her pupil. As the catechesis is an activity whereby the faith of the teacher and the pupil is made to grow, so a catechist cannot be other than someone who is willing to learn from his or her pupil by knowing accepting, loving the pupil and encouraging them to learn from the Lord through his Word. Consequently, every catechist is someone who is diligent to learn by constant prayer, reading the bible, getting to know his or her pupil and seeking to find methods which are relevant to the needs of the pupil. Lastly, the writer seeks to see the interact ion method in group as one of the suitable methods according to the development and need of the pupil who is adolescence teenager, seeking to find his or her identity and beginning to enter the phase of critical thinking.