As UUA staff we sometimes speak with congregations where an age-divided, curriculum-based religious education program is working well. And why should it not? There are some truly great UU curricula bringing together some of the best of experiential and play-based pedagogy.

Here are some things we’ve noticed when talking to these congregations.

Relationship Is Centered

Relationship is centered above lesson plans. Lessons can always be delayed when opportunities to build community and practice covenant arise in real time. Teachers have permission to pause to attend to the group’s needs if a conflict arises. They allow space for children to share joys, tend to grief, and acknowledge fear, especially following tragedies that impact children, from school-based violence to climate disasters.

Relationships being centered also means listening to children, youth, and families about which programs are best meeting their needs and continuing to adapt the programs offered to meet these emerging needs.

Volunteers Are Well Supported

We also observe a focus on nurturing volunteers. When volunteers find their lives enriched by volunteering, they’re more likely to continue volunteering! This includes working to find the right matches of volunteers to program needs, such as volunteer passions, or the age group they love most, or the chance to learn a new skill that enriches their lives. It includes prioritizing the spiritual and pastoral support of volunteers. It means being there for them in ways that make the role more doable, whether that’s collecting the supplies they’ll need for a lesson or gently coaching them through challenges that arise in the classroom.

A resource to help you think about where you can do more nurturing is a UU Leadership Institute class with Laura Beth Brown called Volunteer Sustainability. The course is, in part, based on the bookStop Recruiting, Start Retaining, which may also be a helpful resource for your congregation.

Greater Financial Investment

Because of the many societal factors contributing to fewer free hours people can contribute to volunteering, your program may need more paid staff time than in the past. It could be in the form of more hours for a religious education professional and/or for paid teachers. This is an investment in your direct ministry to and with families.

Paid Religious Educator

Most congregations with successful curriculum-based programs have a paid religious educator who can coordinate, implement, and lead the program. The religious educator is responsible for the selection of curriculum, teacher training, classroom support, and being a pastoral presence on Sunday mornings.

As volunteers have become more stressed, it’s more important for the religious educator to prepare the lessons for them. This ranges from selecting specific activities from the published curriculum to preparing supplies and giving them training on how to guide their class. Volunteers aren’t required to give a lot of time outside of Sunday mornings.

The professional religious educator also coaches volunteers to ensure the program meets the needs of children with disabilities and neurodivergent children. They may make additional spaces available for those children who need something not available in a classroom on a Sunday morning, or for whom a particular lesson is not accessible or engaging. The professional educator will connect with families to better understand their children. Volunteers who are or were professional teachers may be helpful in this area, but they may have older ideas and be out of touch with the perspective of current parents.

Paid Teachers

Some congregations use paid teachers, or one paid teacher with a volunteer to support them in each classroom. The work to prepare to lead the curriculum is done by the paid teacher. There’s a consistent adult in the classroom – which supports the development of meaningful relationships – and adult volunteers can rotate in and out.

Paid Childcare and Nursery workers

Many congregations pay at least one person for their nursery. Most pay two (some have a volunteer be the second adult). Having more paid staff, including paid childcare for non-Sunday morning events, can more fully support your program. It is especially helpful when congregations are able to provide enough hours and pay to retain staff so that our youngest children have reliable adults who they get to know.

The Curriculum Is Something Families Can Commit To

In congregations where curriculum is working, families are bought in. This might mean they covenant to a specific attendance like first Sundays or weekly for 6 weeks for example, with flexibility that’s adaptive to life’s challenges. Or it might mean that the group is working towards or looking forward to something like an overnight retreat or a trip. Buy in might take the shape of understanding the vital influence of the offering, like jr. or high school Our Whole Lives for example.

The Bottom Line

If families were not as stressed as they are now (see: U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on Parenting and How We Can Respond) or if your congregation had plenty of volunteers, you might need fewer paid staff hours. But nearly every congregation we know of is unable to recruit the number of committed, consistent volunteers it takes to run a fully fledged curriculum-based religious education program the way it was done 30 years ago.

If you are committed to an age-divided, curriculum-based model, your congregation will need to build more staff time into the budget than was needed in the past. Your investment in religious education staff should include professional development through the Sparks program and other avenues, so your congregation will benefit from emerging wisdom from the larger community of professional religious educators.

Honoring your thriving curriculum-based program

We don’t want our messaging about “de-centering curriculum” to devalue the positive impact of thriving, curriculum-based programs. And we don’t want congregations to take these programs for granted. We have watched other congregations’ curricular programs unravel without attention to relationships, volunteer support, and robust staffing.

We hope congregations and congregational leaders hear that, with attention and intentional investment, curriculum-based programs can continue to meet the spiritual needs of children, families, and youth.

If your congregation needs some support and coaching about where to be sure you have enough support to continue your wonderful programs please reach out to your region’s Congregational Life staff!