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The training of catechists for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd includes training on the stages of child development and the child's sensitivities around which the Catechesis presentations are organized. It can be useful for parents to understand these foundational concepts as they consider the topic of moral formation and the gifts of the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Level I (ages 3-6)
The youngest children are in a sensitive period for relationship. We offer the child time and opportunity to fall in love with God through Jesus, the Good Shepherd. All future moral formation is to grow from a foundation of a deep, secure, and loving relationship with the Good Shepherd. We learn and internalize that the Good Shepherd calls each of us by name; we hear his voice and follow (John 10: 1-5, 14-16); under the Good Shepherd's perfect care, we lack nothing (Psalm 23); and if we stray, the Good Shepherd always looks for us, rejoices when he finds us, and securely carries us home (Matthew 18: 12-13).
So, Level I presentations appeal to the child's sensitivity for relationship. There's a story I find funny which also underscores that the youngest children are not in a sensitive period for moral formation. The following is from page 151 of The Religious Potential of the Child by Sofia Cavalletti:
"It is well known that the child under the age of six is not interested in moral behavior as such; thus he is unable to receive moral formation, understood in this sense. If we tried to give the child a direct moral formation we would have the same result as a nursery school teacher who wanted to tell the children about the parable of the prodigal son; the children's only reaction to this parable was the question: "What happened to those pigs?" The teacher drew the conclusion that parables are not suited to young children, whereas it was the choice of parable that was at fault. The children responded in the only way appropriate to their age: Since they are in the sensitive period for protection, they were struck only by the fact that the swine were left abandoned, and the whole problematic of sin and conversion completely escaped them."
Level II (ages 6-9)
The 6-9 child develops a strong sense of social justice and fairness. A unifying goal in Level II is to help the child remain in Jesus' love. This is a time to deepen and build the relationship with God through the child's own joyful responses to God's gift of love and God's many gifts of Creation. In Level II, the image of the Good Shepherd is integrated with the image of Jesus as the True Vine (John 15: 1, 4-5, 9), including the words "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing."
The 6-9 children are often seeking to know rules and to define right and wrong. At times, it may appear that a child is tattling on others when really the child is simply trying to learn whether an action was right or wrong or to learn the consequences that are associated with a particular wrong. In this age group, the child generally is more comfortable identifying or measuring wrong within others. For this reason, Level II presentations include various moral parables which build a "cast of characters" against which the child can measure right and wrong. The 6-9 child is reticent to turn the yardstick on himself, however. So, there does exist a certain moral uneasiness in this period. A solid foundation in the love and protection of the Good Shepherd, and if needed a return to these fundamentals, should help ease this initial uneasiness.
Level III (ages 9-12)
The 9-12 child is ready and able to apply moral rules to the child's own actions and choices. But in order to do so in a morally mature manner, it is important for the child to have experienced the earlier periods of development. These earlier proclamations (Good Shepherd and True Vine) turn the child naturally toward God, like a sunflower turns naturally toward light. On page 152 of Cavalletti's The Religious Potential of the Child, we read, "Actions are the manifold expression of the global orientation of the child." On this same page, Cavalletti continues on the topic of moral maturity:
"Before the older child begins to question himself whether [his] action is good or bad, we should have provided him with a "yardstick" with which he can give his own response when the time comes; we should give the older child a reference point to orient himself in the new horizon that is opening before him. The yardstick must already be prepared by the time he needs it. The adult's hurried intervention in the moment when the moral crisis is already in action is undoubtedly detrimental. The older child will either rebel against an inopportune intrusion, or he will become accustomed to using someone else's yardstick; then morality will not be the child's own listening to the voice of the Spirit, but rather obedience to an external law. Thus the older child - and often the adult as well - will stay on a level of moral immaturity."
Level I to II to III
Through this progression of moral formation, "The enjoyment the child experienced in considering the Good Shepherd's love now grows into the deep joy of knowing himself to be loved and supported, even if one is an imperfect sheep; that the Good Shepherd's love does not stop when faced with deficiency whatever it may be, and that it surpasses every human capacity." (RPC, pg. 154)
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