If you are born into a poor community you have less of a chance of graduating from high school and you may never attend college or trade school. If this is you, this means your school does not have new materials or textbooks, your school may be crowded and stress-filled, and your school may have a reputation for poor performance and low morale. Consequently, new school teachers will be reticent about choosing your school as their first job out of college. Teach for America places dynamic, motivated college graduates in some of our nation’s underprivileged schools. Teach for America trained me and found work for me here in South Dakota. But, only God would make that work holy.
On my confirmation day, I sat in that huge cathedral, ready to make promises I didn’t fully understand. Now in this realm, in my new career of educational leadership, I truly see what it means to seek and serve Christ in all people. For me, it means that every little miracle that shows up at my classroom door represents a sacred mystery. For me, it means if I look closely into the eyes of the student I am teaching, I might catch a glimpse of the divine looking back at me. For me, it means that I will let my hands, feet and legs say my prayers for me and my every act of service will be a hymn of gratitude.
Would that we all could live with that kind of commitment to the First Great Commandment and merge it into the Second. God bless this man.
As someone who taught fourth and fifth grade for twenty-one years, I want to agree with Michael Drawbaugh about the importance of the Baptismal Covenant. I would suggest that the promises made in the Baptismal Covenant and the commitments made preceding it should be the starting point in our discussions about relationships in the communion. In the same way our commitments to those baptized, particularly in the case of the baptism of infants and children, should be a starting point for our thoughts on social policy.