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Pastoral Care

The Northeastern Catholic District School Board is pleased to offer the services of our Pastoral Care Worker, Michael Buhler, to our students and staff as part of our effort to enhance and enrich our Catholicity. Mr. Buhler continues to be active in all of our school communities, visiting classrooms and working with our teaching and non-teaching staff members. In collaboration with our teaching staff, he enhances and supports the Catholic values, policies and goals of the Board.

Mr. Buhler works with liturgical committees and supports the faith journey of students through relationship building, counseling, opportunities for faith development and retreats. He offers support to teachers in infusing Catholic teaching into all subject areas. He also serves teachers and other staff in adult faith formation. He raises social justice issues with students and staff and provides relevant information as to how we might respond as Catholics to global issues.

As a spiritual guide, he provides insight and gospel teachings while promoting and modeling the mission statement of the Board to "...guide our students on a journey of discovery that celebrates life."

Mr. Buhler can be reached by email at buhlerm@ncdsb.on.ca.

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Reflections

Media and Consumer Awareness:

May 2009

We are surrounded by screens. Television screens, computer screens, cell phone and MP-3 screens, and electronic billboard screens all vie for our attention. And where there are screens there is not only an interaction with ever-pervasive technology, there is also an open door to the world of marketing and consumerism.

No one can deny that our lives benefit from technology, but this does not mean we should shy away from asking critical questions of it in order to maintain a healthy distance from ever changing technology. Critical questioning and analysis provides us with perspective and context, for our society and for our own lives. For example, we can ask how our closeness to technological gadgets like cell phones and Blackberries have altered the way we perceive our day, from the way we use and perceive time or the way we engage with other people, or even the way we find ourselves one more step removed from nature and the natural rhythms and relationships of life. Do we have quiet time to ourselves or are we always fidgeting with gadgets or calling or texting someone? Do we see the face of the person we meet? Do we listen to others? Do we listen to our own soul? Do we reflect on our learning, and chose carefully the words we will use with others?

Far from being a discussion relevant only to older youth and adults, the subject of media awareness raises concerns relevant to the youngest members of our community, our children. On the CBC radio show “Ideas” (February, 2009; “The Hurried Infant”) it was revealed how children exposed to media like “Baby Einstein” videos actually have language development delayed; or how young children exposed to an hour or more per day of television can be at much greater risk of identified behavior issues such as Attention Deficit Disorder.

John Paul Russo’s book The Future Without a Past proposes the idea that a child’s constant exposure to television and internet leads to expectations of speed and access to information, information that is often presented without a framework of context or interpretation. These expectations lead to notions of the least effort, unrestrained opining, and reliance on visual images rather than text to quickly grasp a concept before moving on to the next information search. These notions point to the removal of the time and energy required for careful searching and reflection which comes with diligent reading. Yet there is no other way for a human being to analyze ideas and issues, and to converse with another human being intelligently and respectfully, except out of a learning experience that fosters a diligent and humble learning of the material. Visual imprints as found on the screen are weak, and do not allow a person to ingest carefully and meaningfully the subject at hand.  

Another concern is the ever-increasing ways in which public space and community is threatened by marketing, which relies on these screen technologies to reach us. In the book Consumed, by Benjamin Barber, we read not only of the rise of private over public, community existence but also how adults are “infantilized” by modern marketing, causing adults with easy access to credit to seek after and to buy the latest thing–or anything for that matter–which we feel a desire to buy, a desire grown in large part by a marketing system that spends annually well in excess of 230 billion dollars in North America alone. Public, community existence involves citizens. Citizens take an active role in their community, from raising children to supporting their church to helping out with municipal projects. Private existence, on the other hand, involves infantilized consumers. Consumers seek out what they desire for themselves, and are never far away from further stimulations and self-centered pleasures; the TV, radio, internet, cell phone, the mall, the latest purchase or fad, the MP-3 player or latest gaming experience are always close at hand. These are activities and experiences that separate the person from the community and the rest of creation–a true, private existence.

In The Future Without a Past it is noted that over the last 30 years membership in voluntary organizations has fallen to a half: “from churches, community clubs and labour unions...to literary discussion groups...and bowling leagues... The downward trend is not monocausal, (but) one cause stands out...the culprit is television... Today, by conservative estimates, the average American watches television three hours a day, which amounts to about 40 percent of leisure time.”

At an Ontario Ministry of Education presentation last year on the media, it was revealed that the average screen time for a Canadian 8 to 18 years old was a staggering six and a half hours per day. 68% of this age group have access to TV and the internet in their bedrooms, and 53% have no family rules on access or content of viewed material. This has led to concerns that reach beyond the exposure of our children to lascivious marketing. Now the concern is the easy access and exposure of our children to violent and pornographic shows, pictures, and games.

We are called to live as authentic human beings. “The glory of God is man fully alive” (St. Irenaeus). Not only as morally upright citizens (participants) of our society, but as thoughtful people who seek to continue growing and maturing even as we affirm others to fulfill the same call. The proper place for screen technology and the consumer world is for each mature human being to understand for themselves. Our Church is one place where our search for meaning will find an anchor. Through our faith we can be truly inspired by the hopeful vision that life is good and people are good. In seeking to live a dignified life that humbly respects creation and values the people we meet, we can begin to counter the pervasiveness of screen technology and the consumerism that follows this technology. Our schools, too, must cast a critical eye on the use of screen technology and the media images we present to our children. Are we helping our students look critically at the use of screens over books, at the use of images over text? Are we helping students appreciate the care and time required to read a book and to understand the themes to be found in a work of literature? In light of the rich history of Catholic education and scholarship, it behooves us to ask these questions of a technology that is increasingly finding a home in the classroom.

Michael Buhler
Pastoral Care Worker
Northeastern Catholic District School Board

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