I work with 5th-grade kids in a school on the south side of Chicago. The classroom in which we work has a bullet hole in the window (out of which one of my students pushes pencils), and across the street is an empty lot which, until very recently, was the location of one of the projects. Broken bottles and various other trash items clutter the street, and the school itself is worn out, dingy, and full of tired teachers and kids from low-income families. Did you know that 87% of children who attend Chicago public schools come from low-income families? Indeed, SARAH, where would these kids’ motivation come from?
I think of my childhood and my education—17 years in small, well-run private schools—and then I look around me at the schools on the South Side, and the chasm is so wide I can’t believe I grew up in the same country. How can I look at such things and not notice a problem with our current system? How can I not wince when I think of the billions being spent on the military . . . and the budget cuts on education?
There’s no easy solution. But I don’t think that we can depend on individuals to give their money to improve the Chicago public school system. And that’s the school system of only one city. Shouldn’t the government be providing funds so that the kids attending these schools have as much of a chance as I did?
I just haven’t been able to get this topic out of my mind—I’ve been struggling with the huge gap between the rich and the poor, both in our own country and among all the countries of the world. Why was I born to college-educated parents in small-town USA; why was I given a straight, well-constructed road to success? What I’m getting at: We don’t have a right to what we’ve been given. Our money, our homes, our resources, don’t belong to us to use however we see fit. With our wealth, with our resources, comes a great deal of responsibility, and when we hang, tight-fisted, onto our material possessions, we aren’t acting responsibly.
Granted, we don’t have a very trustworthy system in place. We can’t trust our government to use our money in the best possible way. But there must be ways that we, as Christians, can pool our resources to help one another out—to combine the ideas of socialism and capitalism and use them in the most effective way possible. As Norm said, “The use of the two ideas’ greatest benefits can only help propel the gospel.” Why couldn’t Christians set a new example, create a new way of thinking and acting (or, looking at the early Christians in Acts, follow an example set long ago)?
Al
Feb 26 2003
07:34 am
I work with 5th-grade kids in a school on the south side of Chicago. The classroom in which we work has a bullet hole in the window (out of which one of my students pushes pencils), and across the street is an empty lot which, until very recently, was the location of one of the projects. Broken bottles and various other trash items clutter the street, and the school itself is worn out, dingy, and full of tired teachers and kids from low-income families. Did you know that 87% of children who attend Chicago public schools come from low-income families? Indeed, SARAH, where would these kids’ motivation come from?
I think of my childhood and my education—17 years in small, well-run private schools—and then I look around me at the schools on the South Side, and the chasm is so wide I can’t believe I grew up in the same country. How can I look at such things and not notice a problem with our current system? How can I not wince when I think of the billions being spent on the military . . . and the budget cuts on education?
There’s no easy solution. But I don’t think that we can depend on individuals to give their money to improve the Chicago public school system. And that’s the school system of only one city. Shouldn’t the government be providing funds so that the kids attending these schools have as much of a chance as I did?
I just haven’t been able to get this topic out of my mind—I’ve been struggling with the huge gap between the rich and the poor, both in our own country and among all the countries of the world. Why was I born to college-educated parents in small-town USA; why was I given a straight, well-constructed road to success? What I’m getting at: We don’t have a right to what we’ve been given. Our money, our homes, our resources, don’t belong to us to use however we see fit. With our wealth, with our resources, comes a great deal of responsibility, and when we hang, tight-fisted, onto our material possessions, we aren’t acting responsibly.
Granted, we don’t have a very trustworthy system in place. We can’t trust our government to use our money in the best possible way. But there must be ways that we, as Christians, can pool our resources to help one another out—to combine the ideas of socialism and capitalism and use them in the most effective way possible. As Norm said, “The use of the two ideas’ greatest benefits can only help propel the gospel.” Why couldn’t Christians set a new example, create a new way of thinking and acting (or, looking at the early Christians in Acts, follow an example set long ago)?