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Walk Like Jesus: Living Inclusion through Catholic Education

This course invites educators and students into a journey of discipleship, exploring what it means to walk like Jesus in daily life, classrooms, and communities. Grounded in scripture and Catholic tradition, it focuses on practicing love, justice, mercy, and humility in the ordinary and the complex. Rather than beginning with policy or doctrine, the course starts with Jesus (His actions, relationships, and teachings) and follows His model of inclusive, incarnational love.

Welcome to the course! This learning experience is designed to help you explore inclusive education through a blend of practical strategies and powerful storytelling. Before diving into the course content, your first step is to choose the story that will guide your learning.

About This Course

This course supports you in building inclusive, flexible learning environments that recognize and amplify the strengths of every learner. While you’ll deepen your understanding through interactive learning interludes, everything begins with story.

Each course is anchored in a set of narrative case studies—realistic, practice-based stories that illuminate inclusive strategies in action. These stories will help you reflect, connect, and see how the course concepts apply in real school contexts.

Choose Your Story

Each story features:

A Prologue to set the scene
Four Chapters that trace growth, tension, and change
An Epilogue to reflect on learning and impact

Choose one story to follow throughout the course. Pick the one that most closely matches your role, context, or interests. This story will provide a consistent lens as you move through the learning interludes and activities.

Not sure which to choose? No problem. You can always return to this page to explore other stories. Many learners choose to follow more than one story to see how inclusive practices come to life in different settings.

What Happens Next?

Once you’ve chosen your story:

If you're learning independently, head to the Course Content section and begin with Learning Interlude 1.
If you're learning with a facilitator, they’ll guide you through the journey using the facilitation materials provided.

You're ready to begin. Scroll down to explore the stories and pick the one that will guide your path through the course.

The Circle on the Floor

Jaylen is a quiet, observant kindergartener who has just joined Ms. Pina’s class at Emmaus Catholic School. He uses few spoken words, prefers parallel play, and resists joining group activities, especially circle time. While the other children gather for songs and stories, Jaylen watches from the edge of the room or under a cozy nook. Some classmates notice, others shrug it off. Ms. Pina doesn’t force participation. Instead, she shifts her posture: she kneels nearby, mirrors Jaylen’s play, and creates space for connection without pressure.

Guided by her faith and grounded in the Gospel, Ms. Pina begins inviting her students to consider: Who is missing from our circle? What does it mean to walk with someone like Jesus did? Through prayer, storytelling, and small rituals of noticing, the classroom begins to change. Roles are adapted, stories are retold through movement and image, and new rhythms of welcome unfold.

This is not a fast transformation but it is a sacred one. By the end of the year, the circle on the floor is wider, softer, and more full of grace. Jaylen begins to take part, in his way, in his time, reminding everyone that inclusion isn’t about where you sit, but how you are seen.

Prologue - The Empty Spot in the Circle ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 1 - The Shepherd Who Waited ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 2 - A Mat for Two ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 3 - The Circle Grows Wobbly ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 4 - The Bell and the Whisper ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Epilogue - The Circle Remains ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Not the Same, Still Belonging

Mateo is a kind and curious Grade 3 student who participates in religion class with his peers but isn’t preparing for First Communion. His family has chosen a different spiritual path, and while Mateo is respectful and engaged, his classmates begin to notice he isn’t doing the same activities. One day during a discussion about the Eucharist, a classmate blurts out, “So Mateo’s not in Jesus’ family?” The comment is met with silence and a wave of discomfort that Ms. Bennett, the classroom teacher, doesn’t brush aside.

Later that day, Ms. Bennett quietly checks in with Mateo. “I’m okay,” he says. “But I wish it didn’t feel like I was outside the circle.” That night, she prays with both heartache and hope. What does it mean to walk like Jesus when the community itself must wrestle with who belongs and why?

Through intentional classroom rituals, student-led reflection, and the power of visual storytelling, Ms. Bennett leads her class on a journey of rediscovering who Jesus welcomed and how we can do the same. The learning doesn’t change Mateo’s path, but it reshapes the hearts of those walking alongside him.

Prologue - The Question That Hung in the Air ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 1 - The Table With Room for More ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 2 - Drawing Belonging ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 3 - Our Circle of Welcome ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 4 - The Communion Journal ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Epilogue - The Picture at the Prayer Table ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

The Crosswalk

Elijah is a thoughtful, observant Grade 5 student who lives across the street from Emmaus Catholic School. Each day, he walks his younger sister Sofia, who uses a walker, to and from school. Lately, they’ve been avoiding parish events because the church parking lot doesn’t have a marked crosswalk, making it difficult and unsafe for Sofia to cross. Elijah’s concern grows quietly, but firmly.

When Mr. Tanaka, their teacher, invites students to write letters about something they’d change in their neighborhood as part of a civic responsibility unit, Elijah sees his chance. His letter is clear, honest, and specific and it draws attention. A few classmates tease, “It’s just a sidewalk, not a big deal,” but others start to see things differently.

What begins as a simple assignment becomes a school-wide learning moment about justice, access, and dignity. With support from Mr. Tanaka and encouragement from the principal and parish, Elijah becomes a quiet leader. He reminds his community that walking like Jesus means noticing who is being left out and standing alongside them, even when it's inconvenient.

Prologue - The Uneven Curb ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 1 - A Letter That Saw More ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 2 - Whose Problem Is It? ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 3 -From Problem to Possibility ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 4 - The Day the Paint Was Fresh ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Epilogue - The Path That Got Wider ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Peace Between the Lockers

Leila and Skylar were once inseparable. They were always partners in group work, joint leaders of the school announcements, always laughing in the halls. But something shifted during a recent science project. A misunderstanding turned into blame. Blame turned into gossip. And gossip, spread through text threads and whispers, turned into silence.

Now they pass each other by the lockers without a word. Classmates feel the tension. Some take sides. Others look away. Their teacher, Mr. Santos, notices not just the fractured friendship but the ripple effects in the classroom. During a reflection on the Beatitudes, Mr. Santos poses a quiet challenge: “What does it mean to be a peacemaker when you’re the one who’s hurt—or the one who’s hurt someone else?”

Instead of assigning fault, he invites both girls into a restorative conversation rooted in dignity and grace. With gentle support, they begin the slow, brave work of listening, sharing truth, and seeking peace. Their story reminds everyone that walking like Jesus doesn’t mean avoiding conflict. It means moving through it with honesty, courage, and love.

Prologue - The Silence Between Them ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 1 - The Circle with Two Empty Chairs ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 2 - Listening That Hurt and Healed ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 3 - The Post-It on the Locker ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 4 - Ashes and Olive Branches ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Epilogue - The Wall Display of Peace ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

The Stations Project

Aiden is a quiet, perceptive student in Grade 9 at Emmaus Catholic School. He keeps to himself in class, often drawing in the margins of his notebooks. He was always observing, rarely speaking. Most people know him as “the kid who’s good at art,” but few know that Aiden has also been carrying the heavy, invisible weight of depression. He hasn’t told anyone, not even his best friend, about the long stretches of emptiness and self-doubt that fill his days.

As Lent begins, Mr. Caron, the Grade 9 religion teacher, introduces a class project: to reinterpret the Stations of the Cross using modern experiences and student-led artistic expression. Groups are assigned different stations and invited to explore what it might mean to carry the cross today. Aiden chooses “Jesus Falls the First Time.”

Through this creative process, Aiden begins to express, visually and courageously, what he has never said aloud. His honesty invites others to open up as well. The classroom transforms into a sacred space of truth, dignity, and belonging. By walking like Jesus through vulnerability and shared sorrow, Aiden finds himself no longer alone and reminds his school community that inclusion means making space for the burdens we can’t always see.

Prologue - The Sketch No One Saw ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 1 - The Station He Chose ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 2 - The Unspoken Becomes Seen ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 3 - The Day of the Display ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Chapter 4 - The Cross We Carried Together ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )
Epilogue - The Road Beyond the Stations ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )