Introduction

This site was designed to provide convenient access to resources that I refer to during confirmation class. This site does not replace the face-to-face conversations in our regular classes. It is designed to provide supplemental materials to fill in the background, to whet the appetite, and sometimes to push a confirmand beyond what she might be expected to master. Some of this material is obviously only for more adventurous students.

I should note that the "review and discuss" questions were originally organized for a ten-week study that included units from each category. The last week also included information about our local presbytery's and congregation's histories and government. I encourage you to organize this material in any way that suits your curriculum.

I'm using a method of teaching that you may not be used to. Don't think of the quiz as an event marking the end of your learning. Study the material and take the quiz and then go back and repeat the study and quiz pattern over and over until YOU feel you've learned what YOU wanted to learn. Don't feel intimidated about taking a quiz many times over. No one else needs to know your score. These quizzes are to help you learn, not to put some meaningless grade in your "permanent record."

For Religious Educators

These pages were initially started back in 2003 for use with confirmands in a small Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation here in Chicago. I've heard from over a dozen educators inside and outside of the PCUSA since then who used pieces of this material in their classes. I'm tickled to pieces that anyone finds these pages useful. I built them initially to hold my notes for teaching, and now I hope to make them useful to the larger Church. They are freely offered to anyone of any religious tradition who finds them useful. If you have the time, I'd love to hear what you've been able to use of this material and how you integrated it into your curriculum. Additionally, if you find errors in the coding or in the text, please let me know at stu@stusmith54.com.

You're welcome to link to these pages, or, if you're technologically inclined, you're welcome to cut and paste this code into your own website. All I ask is that you link back here and that you respect my desire to keep these supplementary materials available without charge to everyone.

Stu Smith
Chicago, Illinois
September 2013