22
Religion
JohnL.Thomas, S.J.n/an/an/a
Religious Training in the Roman Catholic Family1
Persons professionally concerned in the promotion of
organized religion agree that one of the most important functions of the
family is the inculcation of Christian ideals and practices in the rising
generation. In the Final Report of the White House Conference on
Children in a Democracy, it is stated that "the primary responsibility in
the religious development of the child rests upon parents in the family. It
is in this intimate and personal group that the attitudes of the child are
first formed attitudes that in the view of many psychologists profoundly
affect the adult life of the growing person." On the other hand, it is
generally assumed that the contemporary family is declining as a religious
institution. Since the religious functioning of the family is affected by
trends in religion as well as by trends in the family, this decline is
considered an urban, rather than a rural, phenomenon and one which
affects the various religious sects differently.
The factual basis for these hypotheses is somewhat meager. The
source most frequently cited is an investigation of the declining
religious function of the family conducted in 1930 under the auspices of
the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. Family
participation in four religious practices was studied. Samples were taken
of school children in rural areas, in villages, and in cities of various
sizes. It was found that about one in eight white American-born school
children of the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades participated in family
prayers. Little difference in the practice of this custom was noted between
the city and the country. Church attendance was the only activity
participated in by more than half the families (85 per cent of the rural
and 40 per cent of the urban). The percentage of rural and urban families
reading the Bible together was 22 and 10, respectively; the percentage
saying grace before meals was 38 and 30, respectively. Acting on the
assumption that decreases in a function can be measured by comparing the
prevalence of an activity in the city with its prevalence in the country,
since the country preceded the city in point of time, some writers, on the
basis of the White House study, advanced the hypothesis that there has been
a decided decline in at least three religious practices. These data are for
families rather than for individuals.
It is not an easy task to ascertain the nature or the extent of
the religious training which American families now give their children.
Religious training implies a knowledge of a set of dogmas and practices. It
is the basic orientation of life toward the supernatural. In practice, it
is the interpretation and ordering of actions in terms of an absolute set
of moral values. Obviously, it is difficult to measure child training in
such a subject. However, it seems that some valid conclusions can be drawn
from a study of the dogmas and practices which the child is taught at
home. Granting that knowledge of dogma and prayer is not the whole of
religious training, nevertheless, in a highly institutionalized religion
such as the Roman Catholic, understanding of dogma and practice in prayer
generally constitute a considerable part of this training.
The present study is an investigation of some aspects of the religious
training which Roman Catholic children receive at home. Since the Roman
Catholic church in the United States has established an extensive system of
parochial schools, where children are formally instructed and trained in
religion, it is difficult to distinguish the role of the family in the
religious training from that of the school. The writer attempted to
avoid this difficulty by confining his study to an investigation of the
religious training which the child receives before he enters the
parochial school. This, however, reveals much more than the role which the
family plays in the religious training of the preschool child; it throws
considerable light on the religious function of the family throughout the
child’s entire life. It should be remembered that Roman Catholic parents
are urged to start religious training and instruction "from the cradle." It
is unlikely that a family which has neglected its obligations to the child
before school will assume them after he has been put into the very
efficient hands of the parochial schoolteacher. Hence the study of the
religious training of the preschool child throws considerable light on
religious home training.
Full investigation of this highly important problem involves the
following questions: (1) What formal religious instruction and training
do parents give their preschool children? Judged on the basis of
traditional expectation, what items are stressed or neglected in this
training? (2) Are there regional differences in the preschool religious
training of children? (3) Do rural and urban families differ in the amount
of religious instruction and training given the child in the home?
Taking up the first set of questions, our problem was to formulate a
list of items which would enable us to measure the religious training of
the preschool child. After considerable discussion, experienced and
competent first-grade teachers, representing six different religious
teaching congregations, chose ten items. Their selection was based on the
following considerations: (1) the items were such that the child could
learn them rather easily if given some assistance by the parent; (2) this
knowledge was in conformity with traditional expectations, that is, it was
generally assumed that the child was so instructed by parents. Ten items
were selected and were grouped under two headings: knowledge of prayers and
knowledge of dogmas.
Under the first heading information was sought on the child’s knowledge
of the following prayers: (1) the Sign of the Cross, (2) the Lord’s Prayer,
(3) the "Hail Mary"—the traditional prayer of the Roman Catholic church to
the Blessed Mother, (4) the prayer for grace at meals, (5) the prayer to
the Guardian Angel—this is a traditional childhood devotion in the church.
Under the heading of dogma, the child’s knowledge of the following items
was tested: (1) the story of the Creation, (2) the story of Adam and Eve,
(3) the story of Christmas—the birthday of Christ as distinguished from
Santa Claus and the giving of gifts, (4) the presence of Christ in the
church—the belief of the real presence of Christ in the Host preserved on
the altar, (5) the story of the Crucifix. No profound theological
explanation of these dogmas was expected of the child, but he was supposed
to be generally acquainted with them.
Over five hundred sisters, teaching the first grade and representing a
large number of religious teaching congregations, agreed to
co-operate in the study. The majority
of them were contacted by a letter in which the purpose of the study was
explained, and they were asked to secure the information on the ten items
in the questionnaire at the opening of the fall term of 1950. Although this
entailed considerable additional work, many of them had informed us that
they made a rough check of the religious training of their new students
anyway, so that the securing of the additional detailed information we were
seeking did not represent too great a burden. The present study is based on
the returns from 446 schools located in 33 different states. The number of
children examined was a little over sixteen thousand. Actually, we
received returns on several thousand more, but these were either in
kindergartens or in mixed classes, that is, classes in which part of the
children had attended some type of kindergarten and, consequently, had been
subjected to a certain amount of religious training away from home.
Table 1 gives the results for the group as a whole. The data found in
this table
TABLE 1
PERCENTAGE OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN RECEIVING RELIGIOUS
INSTRUCTION AT HOME
will be most meaningful if considered as presenting a pattern. One may
quibble about this or that particular item employed in the study, but the
over-all picture presents a fairly uniform pattern. With the exception of
the item dealing with the Sign of the Cross, one-third or less of the
children showed the expected amount of home training. In other words, the
formal religious instruction and training which the majority of Roman
Catholic families give their preschool children seems very inadequate when
judged by traditional expectations. Unfortunately, we do not possess
adequate information on the religious home training of children in the
past: very possibly, a considerable gap has always existed between
traditional expectations and actual practice. Consequently, the data
presented in Table 1 should be considered as a fairly adequate picture of
the difference between expectation and practice today; whether conditions
were different a generation or two ago can only be surmised. However, it is
of some interest to indicate a few of the more surprising deviations from
the expected, as revealed by our data. For example, the customary childhood
prayer to the Guardian Angel is evidently not taught in most of the homes.
The small percentage of those who knew the prayer for grace at meals
indicates that this traditional practice is most honored in the breach,
although an alternate explanation may be that grace is recited by one of
the parents while the child remains at attention. The lack of knowledge
displayed by two-thirds of
the children in regard to items 3, 4, and 5, listed under dogma, was
also unexpected. The story of Christmas is one which children grasp very
readily, and the ritual of the church on this feast is so elaborate that it
is difficult to understand how they could forget the story, provided that
the parents had made some effort to explain it. However, as one teacher
remarked, "No matter how I put the question, the same answer came back:
Christmas meant only Santa and gifts!" The realization of the real presence
of Christ on the altar seems rather easy for the child: the reason he is
expected to be on his good behavior in church is because it is the "house
of God," and the reverent behavior of the faithful during Mass could hardly
escape his attention. But it seems that parents do not take their young
children to church, or, if they do, they do not explain their actions. The
Crucifix is the most universal of Roman Catholic symbols. The failure of
over two-thirds of the children to know its meaning suggests that it is not
a prominent symbol in the modern Catholic home.
Obviously, one cannot conclude on the basis of our data that two-thirds
of the Catholic families in this country are giving their children no
religious training. One may conclude, however, that they are not training
and instructing them according to traditional expectations. Further,
given the nature of Catholic belief and practice, it is difficult to
understand how parents can give their children very extensive religious
training if they neglect the basic items specified in our questionnaire. As
one first-grade teacher remarked, "In regard to religious training, we have
to start right from the beginning. It seems that modern parents are too
busy to instruct their little ones!"
Our second problem was to investigate regional differences. In a country
as large and religiously diversified as our own, sectional differences were
to be expected. The country was divided into regions according to the
sixfold division advocated by Odum. Since we are not interested in
comparing knowledge of individual items, we have used a twofold
classification, combining the five items dealing with knowledge of prayers
under one heading and the five dealing with understanding of dogma under a
second. Table 2 gives the percentages by region. The Northwest and the
Southeast differ significantly from the general average for the five items
combined under the heading "Knows Prayers." Considering our present scant
knowledge of the Roman Catholic populations of these regions, it would be
hazardous to venture an explanation. However, we might point out that a
relatively high percentage of the Roman Catholic population in the
Northwest is rural, and, as we shall see,
TABLE 2
PERCENTAGE OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN RECEIVING RELIGIOUS
TRAINING AT HOME, BY REGION
rural families tend to give their children more religious instruction
than do urban. This probably accounts for the difference. A tentative
explanation for the relatively poor showing of the Southeast is that the
Roman Catholic population there is only a small percentage of the total a
circumstance leading to a very high rate of mixed marriage. Studies of
mixed marriage lead us to expect less religious training of offspring. For
the five items combined under the heading, "Understands Dogma," the
Southwest and Far West also differed significantly from the general
average. We do know something about the Roman Catholic population in the
Southwest: a good percentage of the schools studied had a considerable
number of Spanish or Mexican children. Their teachers pointed out that
these bilingual children are retarded to some extent in their knowledge of
prayers but show better than average understanding of fundamental religious
dogmas.
The third problem was whether urban and rural families differ in the
amount of religious training given the child at home. The children in our
sample were fairly representative of the Roman Catholic population as a
whole, since 17.5 per cent were rural and 82.5 per cent were urban.
According to the best available data, the Roman Catholic population in this
country is 19.4 per cent rural and 80.6 per cent urban. Table 3 gives the
percentages for the rural and urban children for the
TABLE 3
PERCENTAGEOF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN FROM RURAL AND URBAN
FAMILIES RECEIVING RELIGIOUS TRAINING IN THE HOME
country as a whole. Considered as a group, the rural children differ
significantly from the urban in their knowledge of prayers. In their
understanding of dogma the rural children also display superior home
training, with the exception of items 2 and 3, where the differences are
not significant. However, this over-all picture of urban and rural
differences is deceptive. If we break down the data into regions, it
becomes apparent at once that the urban-rural relation is not uniform
throughout the country. Table 4 gives the percentages for urban and rural
children by region. It appears that the religious training received at home
by urban children in the Southwest, Northeast, and Southeast is equal to,
or superior to, that received by rural children in these same areas. It
would be interesting to speculate on the reasons for these regional
differences, but our present inadequate knowledge of their religious
characteristics would render any explanation dubious. However,
Table 4 does show that generalizations about urban-rural differences in
the religious training of children cannot be made without taking regional
differences into consideration.
TABLE 4
PERCENTAGEOF URBAN AND RURAL PRESCHOOL CHILDREN RECEIVING
RELIGIOUS TRAINING AT HOME, BY REGION
Returning to the questions posed earlier in the paper, we may summarize
our findings as follows:
1. The religious training of the preschool child at home as measured by
the ten items employed in the present study falls far short of traditional
expectations.
2. Regional differences in religious home training are apparent. It is
probable that diverse ethnic backgrounds and the relative scarcity of the
Roman Catholic population account for a considerable amount of the
deviation from the general average.
3. There is evidence that urban and rural families differ in the amount
of religious training given the preschool child. Nevertheless, the pattern
is not uniform throughout the country: regional differences must be
considered if any meaningful comparisons are to be made.
In conclusion, therefore, it can be stated that this project has made
some small beginning in studying the important function of the family in
the religious training of the child. There is room for a great deal more
research. Our study is open to the criticism that we have stressed formal
knowledge at the expense of motivation and religious "outlook." On the
other hand, given the organized character of Roman Catholic belief and
practice, it seems legitimate to conclude that where there is no formal
knowledge there is little religious training.
1 From , 1951,
57:178–183. By permission of The University of Chicago Press.