In the old days Catechism was the name of a lesson in school, a bit like Religious Education (RE) today.
But really Catechism wasn't a bit like modern RE. For it involved learning by heart ('by rote') a set of questions and answers about the Christian faith.
It sometimes seemed that it didn't really matter whether anyone understood the questions and answers - all that mattered was that the pupils could recite the answers from memory. (Perhaps that's not entirely fair.)
Just to confuse things, the set of questions and answers, which can be found in the Book of Common Prayer (1662), is called 'A Catechism'. Candidates for the sacrament of confirmation would be expected to know their catechism by heart.
Originally, catechism (or catechesis) was the name given to the process of teaching people who wanted to become Christians (called 'catechumens') and be baptised about the Christian faith.
Incidentally, the 'ch' in the middle of 'catechism' is pronounced like a hard 'c' or 'k', so the word is "ka-ta-kism".
© J D Yule 2003