Religious education and the needs of adolescents from broken families

Abstract

Nicholas was a pious middle-aged man who lived in a quiet village. He was sitting on a stone in the courtyard of his house. The smell of chicken broth his wife was cooking for noon filled the air. Though quite inviting it was not tempting for Nicholas. The news he had just received paralysed him like a cold shower on a January morning. Nicholas was lost in his thoughts. Tradition ... Religion ... Values ... ? The man leaves the woman, my son leaves his wife ... , they part ... , live in separated homes, sleep under different roofs … And the promise? They promised, in front of God and others to love each other until death. And their disagreement? They said they were quarrelling all the time and this did not reflect positively on the kids. And the children? They ought to have a stable home filled with love and respect, a projection of God's love for them. And the Christian family values? They need to recall a positive picture of their family life to port with them in their future settings. The traditional family is being shaken from its roots heading towards a time of change and pressure. While the divorcing rate is rising alertly in the countries where divorce is legalised, in countries where divorce is not legalised, like Malta, there is equally an increase in marital separation rate. The dismantling of the family is having its repercussion on society and even on the members involved, be it the spouses or the children. The urgency of the situation motivated me to look at the effects and relation between family breakdown and adolescents while proposing a religious education schema to help the distressed adolescents in the areas highly influenced by the parents' separation. Divided into three chapters, this dissertation first examines the definitions and functions of the family, its lifecycle, and its role as a transmitter of values. The first chapter ends, by referring to the phenomena of family separations, as one of the main problems the family is facing today even within the local sphere. The second part focuses on the psychological and sociological needs of the adolescent. While analysing the relationship adolescents have within their family, this chapter shall review how this relationship is effected by the parents' separation. It shall examine at long how the adolescent's quest for identity is disrupted and how negative role models tend to influence the adolescent. The last part of chapter two will investigate in depth the repercussions of marital separation on adolescents in respect of their emotions, behaviour, academic success, and future commitments. The concluding chapter will elaborate on suffering within a Christian perspective while explaining how Christ, the God of the victim, gave meaning to suffering. In the light of local and foreign research, the aims and role of religious education in schools and as part of the schooling system, will be analysed and the question of how for it is responsible for both immediate and future needs of the student will be examined. [...]