My book & a Giftigami box for Ruby

Where do I start?  I signed up to teach religious education during the week instead of on Sundays because I didn't like the idea of subjecting my students to a substitute teacher when I couldn't make it to class.  The 2013-14 school year consisted of about 26 classes, and I knew I was going to be out some weekends for parent duties.  My daughter was a senior in high school, so there would be weekend trips to various colleges for music auditions in her major.

My class was held on Tuesday evenings, and I was expecting a small class of sixth graders.  On the first day I had two students, a seventh and eighth grader.  Sister T expected more to show up later, but I never had more than three students, the third being a sixth grader. I was unable to use the sixth grade textbook from previous years because my seventh grader, Emily, had been a student of mine the previous year. Instead of teaching about the Old Testament, I decided to teach the New Testament.

My sixth grader quit coming after two or three classes, and Sister T said it was because her non-Catholic family members objected to Catholic indoctrination. Around December, my eighth grader missed classes until late March the following year due to after school practice for orchestra, so I had one student: Emily. In late March, Emily switched from Tuesday evening classes to Sunday morning classes due to a conflict with after school sports activities, so Ruby was my only student.

Most of the year I made the drive from home to the church for just one student, but it was well worth the 26 hours I spent to teach them about the life and teachings of Jesus. I applaud their parents/guardians for making religious education a priority for the sake of their children's eternal souls.