Children and Reverence in Church: A Workshop with Dr Margaret Carter

Behaviour-change specialist Dr Margaret Carter once again afforded us her time and expertise when she held a workshop at the Church of St Ignatius for catechists on children and reverence in Church. During the workshop, Dr Carter discussed behavioural expectations for children, and shared the processed by which children learned how to behave. She exhorted participants — catechists from several parishes in the archdiocese — to support children in developing their mastery of these behaviours, and revealed how parents can also play their part in forming their children’s behaviour positively.

Dr Carter’s workshop on Children and Reverence in church was held on 4 January for catechists in the archdiocese. The workshop, according to participant Cecelia Teo, “opened a door for me to gain greater insight into ways to partner the child in reverence”.

Catherine Ong, a catechist from the Church of St Ignatius, lauded Dr Carter’s engaging presentation: “Dr Carter is a very engaging speaker and the sharing of her knowledge in working with the children on their social behaviour and emotional well-being has been most insightful for me.”

Apart from the workshop for catechists, Dr Carter also ran a Character Building workshop for parents people working with kids, a focus group for principals of our preschools on 29 December 2014, and professional development training for educators, held at the premises of Holy Family Kindergarten, a full-day programme which also included a tour of the Holy Family Kindergarten and Thanksgiving Mass with our Director ad interim, Fr Edward Seah.