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Matt EmersonAugust 18, 2015

At the National Catholic Reporter, Heidi Schlumpf advocates for required theology courses at her alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, which is currently rethinking the role of theology in its core requirements. She shares her experience:

I probably would not have taken theology courses had I not been "nudged" by the requirement. And while I hated my first required theology course -- a dry survey of the Old Testament during which I constantly had to refer to a "cheater" timeline to keep everything straight -- my second theology course was with Holy Cross Fr. John S. Dunne, an award-winning teacher and author. I was captivated by his lectures in the old business building. I remember his energy (he was in constant motion) and how I poured out my life story and struggles in a required journal, on which he scrawled some very encouraging words.
 

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Charles Erlinger
9 years 8 months ago
There's just no getting around the issue of the limitations of time and money when trying to solve the problem of what choices do students and parents have in determining the best course of study. And it's not just the pressure to "climb the economic ladder" that is a major factor in what to study and how long to take doing it. There is the inevitable accumulation of real obligations and responsibilities for which there really is a moral imperative to provide support. It's not just a greed thing, or an ego thing. I'm beginning to think that there has to be a continuum of tightly-coupled efforts beginning in high school and lasting at least through what is usually considered a typical 4-year college career, very carefully planned, with a suitably wide variety of parallel paths, in order for a person to achieve a level of understanding and competence to make choices and concrete contributions that are both good for himself or herself and positive with respect to the resultant impact on society.

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