6th Form Syllabus: “On Care for our Common Home”
“…it is we human beings above all who need to change. We lack an awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to be shared with everyone… A great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal.” [Laudato Si’ 202]
Environmental education is a huge part of the change we need to make to prevent and reverse the ecological crisis we are now facing. We need a universal understanding of how our actions impact others and the support to change our behaviours for the better of the whole world.
This is why the Ecological Conversion Group have launched their new 12-week 6th form syllabus, to unpack the themes presented in Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’, On Care for our Common Home. Fully illustrated throughout it delves into our ecological and social crises through the lenses of faith, science, philosophy, and spirituality. Its main aims are to allow our knowledge of reality to be connected with our values and beliefs, motivating through hope and love to act and make a meaningful change in the world.
This syllabus has been designed for use as a component of the UK’s 6th Form Core RE course, ages 16-18. However, it is very versatile, and we hope that its use stretches far beyond that! Perhaps you could use it in your parish, community group or at your university?
As full notes on the course material are provided, you don’t need to be an expert to deliver this course. The lessons are filled with opportunities for discussion and debate and are designed to engage the group to reflect on how the issues raised in Laudato Si’ relate to their own lives; to invite them to think about what they might need to change to live in a way that cares for all of humanity and Creation.
You can download the syllabus for free here. Do keep us posted as to how you are using it and any feedback you have.
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Comments on "6th Form Syllabus: “On Care for our Common Home”"
Iain Climie:
This may stick in the craw, but is it worth learning some lessons from animists (e.g. Australian Aborigines, Native Americans, reindeer herders and rainforest tribes) rather than sticking too closely to the fundamentalist interpretation of Genesis as infamously suggested by James Gaius Watt's infamous views on open cast mining? Animists regard human beings as an intrinsic part of nature although I can't see any reason why fundamentalist religion can't regard creation as something to be carefully used not looted. Gabe Brown' regenerative agriculture in North Dakota is a case in point, and there are many others like him who put a quite different slant on what their religion tells them in how to behave towards the world.
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