In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul encourages Christians, saying, “If we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to use them properly.” (Romans 12:6)
More than 2,000 years later, students at Newark Blessed Sacrament School are being encouraged with the same words.
In August 2022, for the 2022-23 school year, the school introduced an interest-based learning program, which allows students to exercise the gifts that God has given to them.
“With interest-based learning, it helps motivate kids,” principal Josh Caton said. “It helps keep them engaged in what they’re doing. It allows kids to do some different things, in a school our size, they would not have been able to do.”
At Blessed Sacrament, which has 161 students and one classroom per grade from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, the interest-based learning program took shape in a couple of ways.
Every Tuesday, all students returned to their homeroom for a “Romans 12 period,” Caton said. Students had one hour to do whatever interested them. This past school year, some children spent the hour writing a play, building a computer, playing the piano or cross stitching.
Caton said he and staff members brainstormed a name for the period that reflected the time children would spend exercising their gifts.
“We started looking at some Scripture verses, and we landed on this one (Romans 12:6), which talks about, since we’ve each been given unique gifts, we should exercise them.
Our mission with the Romans 12 is to help kids identify and then develop what are their own unique gifts and talents.
“Part of the idea, too, with Romans 12 and interest-based learning, is that it is helping kids to move toward their vocation. For instance, a child that’s doing music as part of the Romans 12 program, is that something that they enjoy enough that they’d like to continue to pursue, or how might they serve the Lord and serve the Church through their love of music?
“We want kids to identify, ‘I really enjoy this. What does that mean? Why did God create me and give me this desire to learn more about this? What is He calling me to do with these gifts and talents?’”
The idea was also inspired by a conversation Caton had with a former Blessed Sacrament pastor.
“He said something to the effect of, ‘God created our hearts, so if our hearts are desiring something good, whether that’s learning in a particular way, like about music or art, or research into animals, then we should be listening to that because it may be a way that God is calling us to our vocation and our future,’” Caton said.
Each Romans 12 period begins with a prayer. The students ask for Blessed Carlo Acutis’ intercession and prayers as the patron of the program.
Acutis was an English-born Italian Catholic who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15. He was known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his computer-programming skills, which led him to create a website documenting Eucharistic miracles throughout the world.
Blessed Sacrament students celebrated Acutis’ feast day on Oct. 12 this past year with ice cream sundaes at school.
A second way in which the interest-based learning program took shape is through the school’s Crusader Clubs. Once a month at Blessed Sacrament, whose school mascot is the crusader, students meet with an assigned club. Caton said every adult in the school building, including himself, leads a club.
Caton leads the drama club, he said, while other staff members lead the cake decorating club, cooking club, art club and others with activities that students “would not normally do in a regular class setting.”
Unlike the Romans 12 period, in which students work on interest-based activities in their homeroom, Crusader Clubs include students from kindergarten through eighth grade. This brings together children of different ages with a common interest, Caton said.
Some teachers have assigned interest-based learning projects in their classroom as well.
Gearing up for the second year of the program, beginning in August, some logistics must be worked through, Caton said, such as properly managing a kindergartner and an eighth-grader in a Crusader Club. In cooking club, for example, an older child might be able to do things that a younger child cannot.
The school plans to refine the interest-based learning program as it goes, Caton said. The school would like to expose children to more activity options. As the program progresses, Caton would like school staff members to help children in “choosing the right project, refine what they’re interested in and where to go with it.”
Caton said the “biggest challenge” is when a child says he or she doesn’t know what to do during the Romans 12 period.
In the younger grades, another challenge has been when a child proposes an idea for the Romans 12 time, and five or six others want to do the same activity.
Caton said this is not necessarily bad, as one child’s idea might expose others to new concepts, however, the period is designed for students to recognize and develop their unique gifts and talents.
Another idea for the program is to create a space in the school to showcase students’ finished projects. In the future, Caton said, he hopes to take photos of the projects and create a “wall of success” to inspire other students.
“Success breeds success,” he said.
By offering a Romans 12 period and Crusader Clubs at Blessed Sacrament, the school has also expanded its curricular offerings.
“We can’t offer advanced computer coding, or something like that, but if they’re interested in that, they can choose to use their Romans 12 time to do some of that,” he said of the students.
“Prospective families might come by and say, ‘Do you have a gifted program?’ And what I can say now is, ‘While we don’t have a specific program for gifted students, we can, however, allow your student to really challenge themselves in new and unique ways with our Romans 12 time.’”
Time dedicated for interest-based learning helps to develop a child’s vocation, Caton said, which ultimately leads the child back to God. And with gifts given by God, to paraphrase the words of St. Paul, “each of us is to use them.”