Good morning…
Our post from last week What Is Mine To Do? has invited some very dynamic dialogue. Yesterday I shared one reader’s response. Today I share with you another subscriber’s perspective.
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Dear Sue,
Thank you for your thoughts today, and for your service in your community. I was anxious to read your post as soon as I saw the title, What Is Mine To Do? So many of my dear friends are struggling with the demands of caring for aging parents, supporting adult children with substance abuse issues, helping raise grandchildren . . . the list goes on and on.
I planned to forward your email to one particular friend. I thought it was exactly what she needed to hear, until I read this: “The fact that there are kids less than 10 miles from my house that can’t read or write and are just being passed along in school is INCOMPREHENSIBLE to me. How are these teachers and schools getting away with this? It’s no wonder the cycle of poverty continues in those areas.”
I decided not to send it to her because she is a public school teacher. She has gone to work every day, for over 25 years, teaching children in underserved areas. Illiteracy in this country is much more complicated than teachers and schools “passing children along.”
I retired from teaching four years ago. I taught first graders in Georgia public schools for 25 years. I devoted many years of my life to teaching children to read. Most of the time I was successful, but sometimes I was not. I can’t begin to tell you how hurtful it was to read those words in your post today.
As in any job, there are teachers who are lazy and don’t do their jobs. The great majority, though, are hard-working, caring individuals. They take work home most nights, and are up early, back in the classroom the next morning.
Thank you for allowing me to share this with you. I have so much respect and admiration for you. I know “teacher bashing” was neither the point nor the intent of you email today. I decided, when I retired, that I would support and stand up for public school teachers whenever I could. For that reason, I guess, I felt I needed to reach out to you.
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I did not respond to her right away. I needed to hold open my heart to the painful clash of passionate perspectives. I prayerfully pondered, “God, what is your view of this complex challenge?” Is it possible that both of these women paint with their words different pieces of the illiteracy puzzle? After a few days, I crafted a reflective response, nudged by the Spirit.
“I have been prayerfully pondering your thoughtful response to our post,” I emailed her back. “I also come from a family of public school teachers, my mom, my dad, my mother-in-law. My sister, my brother and his wife, my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law and her husband, all have invested their entire careers as deeply committed educators. Just like my husband and me, our kids would have definitely gone to public school if we had not sensed the greater value in them attending the same private school where my husband has been chaplain and teacher, coach and administrator for over twenty-five years.”
“Illiteracy in our community is such a complicated issue, and I completely relate with the thoughts you share here,” I continued. “My homework helping friend felt overwhelmed and depressed trying to support a second grader who can’t write her seven letter name and knows nothing about any of her school assignments. I have felt the very same feelings of powerless inadequacy as I interact with these needy kids. This kindhearted woman got mad at a system that passes them along – in truth I also find it hard to comprehend how these educational gaps can be closed within the ten mile radius of our home.”
“Two hours twice a week, a group of us are working one-on-one with these kids who have such varying academic needs,” I shared, “and I think we all wonder at times, ‘What am I doing that makes any difference?’ I feel complete and utter admiration for the teachers who spend all day every day with thirty or more of these underserved kids learning in one classroom. Teachers certainly have to be called and equipped by God to do this important ministry for those most vulnerable in our community.”
“So, I guess I relate to my friend’s outrage at the broken system and at the same time I join in your deep desire to do all we can do to support these teachers who are on the front line in this battle to overcome the complicated effects of poverty in our community,” I explained the common ground I sense beneath our feet. “I do truly appreciate your perspective and hope to continue to harness God’s creative connectivity as we seek to support the needs of all of God’s children.”
“Hi there, again,” I felt drawn to write her later in the day. “I received permission from a reader to share the private email string she and I exchanged following last week’s post, What Is Mine To Do? I would love for you to read it before I post it. I have included it here. (See yesterday’s post Drink And Serve.) On Monday I will post photos of our awesome experience of serving breakfast to one hundred KIPP teachers on Valentine’s Day. The joy, love, and peace of God was so very palpable, which the photos only begin to capture.”
“I am wondering if I might share our email exchange also,” I asked. “I think our intimate interaction shows how essential it is to express our INCOMPRESSIBLE outrage in a way that doesn’t cast blame or shut down the transformational conversation that is so crucial to the healing of our hearts, our community, our world as a whole. It is vital for us to see what it looks like to move forward with God, even when we may disagree on important issues. Let me know if sharing your words anonymously is okay with you. Happy Sabbath.”
“I’d be glad for you to share our conversation,” she replied. “Thank you for your grace and wisdom, and your willingness to listen to all voices ❤️.”
“Listening to all voices allows God’s mysterious mosaic to take form among us,” I concluded. “It is not ‘this’ or ‘that’ thought which fully expresses the whole truth – one right thought, one wrong thought – it is the living, loving Spirit beneath all of our unique voices that makes God’s presence feel more real to all of us. 🥰 Thanks for bravely sharing your passionate pieces of God’s healing puzzle!”
Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.
But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.
In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. (And I am learning to add “those who think ‘this’ and those who think ‘that’.”) Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:23-28, MSG).
As we wear our faith well day in and day out, in oneness with Christ our ordinary lives continue to fulfill God’s original promise.
God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth” (Genesis 1:27-28, MSG).
What eclectic beauty! Empowered by God’s Spirit, even when we disagree, we are each uniquely dressed in Christ’s love for every living thing.
…Sue…
P.S. All of the books the original wish list compiled by Leigh Jones to replenish the library at PAWkids have been donated. Leigh put together a handful of additional child-friendly options recommended for Black History Month. If you are still looking to join in the joy of donating books to the kids in the Grove Park neighborhood of our city, please touch on this new link: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/dl/invite/7AB8OBd?ref=cm_sw_em_r_un_un_DBNk8AcD3oe5c
How fun it is to see God’s Spirit spurring such generosity!
