UUCARDS - Member - Virginia Steel

Virginia Steel

Contact Information

Virginia Steel
22 Sylvan Way
Wayland, MA 01778

508-358-7517

virginia@thesteels.com

Biography

Virginia Steel, usually called Ginny, retired after 34 years as a Director of Religious Education. She is the author of the primary grades curriculum "What is Religion - For Others and For Us?" This curriculum exemplifies her interest in promoting conversations about religion itself, about God, prayer and worship, as areas of children's explicit curiosity and the reason most of them attend our. R.E. programs. More recently she published the reference books "Which Lesson? UU Curriculum Content Finder." (First and second editions).

After retiring, Ginny worked on a comprehensive curriculum plan for the Church of the Larger Fellowship and continues to share resources and ideas through the REACH listserve.

Materials

What is Religion for Others and For Us?

Which Lesson? (2nd edition)

Which Lesson? Supplement to Second Edition

Ordering Information

Resources and Order Form

Member Profile

WHY DO YOU WRITE CURRICULUM?
I wrote "What is Religion - For Others and for Us?" because I felt that primary age children's questions about religion and religious topics deserve exploration. Parents consistently report that their children ask about such topics as God, prayer, church, and about their friends' experiences in other religions. Not only would this curriculum honor the children's curiosity, help them develop their own ideas and strengthen their relationship with their UU congregation, it would also help parents discuss "religious" topics with their children.

I wrote "Which Lesson: UU Curriculum Content Finder" when I realized that the wealth of curricula produced by independent writers and by the UUA was vastly underutilized by DREs who did not have time enough to survey it for themselves. As a DRE in contact with many other DREs I decided that a concise guide to our curricula could be a great boon in curriculum planning. It would also provide access to many of the resources that our congregations already have, bringing their inherent value to the fore.

HOW IS THIS MATERIAL APPLICABLE TO UU RELIGIOUS EDUCATION/EXPLORATION?
Both the curriculum and the "curriculum content finder" are directly and explicitly applicable to UU religious education/exploration.

HOW DO YOU PREPARE MATERIAL THAT IS INCLUSIVE RELATED TO GEOGRAPHY, ANTI-OPPRESSION AND (WELCOMING DIVERSITY?
"What is Religion...?" uses many stories from "From Long Ago and Many Lands," which are broadly diverse in terms of geography and cultures.

WHAT RESOURCES HAVE YOU USED AND HOW HAVE YOU PROTECTED THOSE RESOURCES? HOW MAY PEOPLE USE YOUR MATERIALS? (Copyright concerns about using materials created by others, and about protecting your own materials) I got written permission for material written by others that I included in my curriculum.
I ask that anyone using my material attribute it to me.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE IMPORTANCE OF INDEPENDENT WRITERS?
Independent writers will always be crucial to our religious education/exploration programs because they can be more "agile" than a large organization in responding to observed needs, and because good ideas can (and do) come from all kinds of places and all kinds of creative people.