Holy card swap deepens students’ understanding of faith

By Matt Weafer
Western Kentucky Catholic - March, 2008

Saints are models of Catholic Faith — teachers and examples of devotion and sacrifice.

At the OCES K-3 Campus, learning about saints is more than educational; it’s fun. Students trade saint cards like baseball cards or Pokemon and hunt for new and different saints, earning cards by performing good deeds and achieving academic milestones at school.

During Catholic Schools Week in February, teachers hosted spin-off games from popular television shows, such as Deal or No Deal or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The only difference was students won holy cards by answering questions based on religion.

First-grader Sarah Englert had never watched Deal or No Deal before, but was the big winner of the K-3 Deal or No Deal. In Diane Fulkerson’s classroom, as the “cases” hung on the chalkboard and one of the student’s moms hid behind a screen and played the banker, the students took turns picking cases and making deals to win holy cards.

Fulkerson even fashioned a buzzer out of a bell and a little box that students could hit if they wanted to make a deal.

During Englert’s turn, she picked her first case and held on to it until the end of the game, never wavering, never making a deal. And when she opened her case, she saw the number 25, which was the highest number of holy cards in the game.

Englert now has collected 166 different saint’s holy cards. She collected them through good deeds at school, good grades and games, and some she purchased at stores.

Some of the other games during Catholic Schools Week were Bible Jingo, Bible Jeopardy and a religious version of Wheel of Fortune.

Principal Lori Whitehouse said holy card collecting was popular 50 years ago but has lost popularity lately. “At the K-3 campus, we wanted to bring the tradition back while teaching about the saints,” she said.

Every morning before class, Whitehouse reads a paragraph about the saint of that feast day over the intercom.

“Our goal is for all the children at the K-3 Campus to learn about the saints, the holy men and women who were models for us on how to live our Catholic Faith,” Whitehouse said. “We also emphasize that the saints are powerful intercessors for us. They don’t answer our prayers, but they pray for us and since they are already in heaven, we hope they have an inside connection.”

And the children love it. They love the collecting, trading and learning about new saints.
Fulkerson said most students can tell you who his or her favorite saint is and explain why.

On Saint Day, when students dress as their favorite saints, Englert dressed as St. Elizabeth of Hungary because she helped the poor, she said.

“Teaching about the saints was already part of the religion curriculum,” Whitehouse said, “but by adding holy card collecting to that, it has given the children a hands-on way to learn more about them.”

Parents join in the collecting, too. Whitehouse said many parents have reported enjoying flipping through the students’ binders where they store their cards and refreshing their memories off saints.

Also, parents purchase large collections of holy cards and donate them to the school to help provide a wide selection of cards for the students.

Fulkerson said the classrooms are stocked with a few saint books as well so students can learn even more about new saints.

“The children love the stories of saints,” Whitehouse said. “Some had ordinary lives and some were heroes and martyrs, but the one thing they all had in common was their belief in their faith.”

On parent told Whitehouse that her son and daughter — both of whom attend the K-3 campus — spent the entire summer playing with their collection of cards. They would hold them up like flash cards and see who could guess the saint first, she said.

“In today’s society, our children need good role models,” Whitehouse said. “The saints are perfect role models that our children can look to as examples of how to live their lives and their faith.”

Printed first in the Western Kentucky Catholic.