Overview – Public Education
Focus Text: Mark 9:30-37
“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
Scripture Commentary by Rev. Molly Shivers, Pastor, Clover Garden United Methodist Church, Chapel Hill
Grandiose adult visions can inflate until they crowd out any view of the small and the young. Such was the case with Jesus’ disciples in the Gospel of Mark and in this pericope. The disciples just don’t seem to understand who Jesus is and what he has come to bring about on earth. Instead, they are caught up in their limited dreams and visions of what discipleship means.
Pastoral Reflection by the Rev. Molly Shivers
If we take Jesus’ actions of Mark 9: 30 – 37 seriously, we must consider the littlest and the least in any situation that we encounter as people of faith. Who are the littlest and least in public education? Obviously, the children would qualify as the littlest, and they often get the least. Public education is supposed to benefit children primarily, but it seems the adults get so busy arguing that they lose sight of the children. The children are then left on the fringes, out on the margins of the discussion, waiting for the adults to decide who they think is the greatest and the best.
Personal Vignette by Action for Children North Carolina and the UNC Center for Civil Rights Leandro Advocacy Project
In an attempt to ensure every child has access to a sound basic education, parents, students, and school boards from low-wealth counties filed a lawsuit in 1994 against the State of North Carolina and the State Board of Education for failing to provide fair and adequate public education funding. Known as the Leandro decisions, the North Carolina Supreme Court twice ruled (first in 1997, then in 2004) that every child in North Carolina has a constitutional right to “an equal opportunity to receive a sound basic education.
Key Fact
For the 2010-2011 school year there were 1,434,436 students enrolled in the NC public school. The dropout rate for grades 7-12 is 2.6% while the graduation rate is 74.2%.
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Focus Text – Mark 9:30-37
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put [her] among them; and taking [her] in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
Mark 9:30-37
Additional Texts
If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones [children] who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:6
Hear, my child, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many. I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered; and if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
Proverbs 4:10-13
Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”
Matthew 19:13-14
Other Lectionary Texts
- Jeremiah 11:20
- Proverbs 31:10-31
- Psalm 1
- Psalm 54
- James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
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Commentary on Mark 9:30-37
Sometimes adults and children make an uneasy blend. Adults can often feel that their work is more important, and their conversation more meaningful. They see children’s matters like children themselves: small and irrelevant. The hopes and heartbreaks of children don’t seem particularly important or relevant to many in an adult world.
Grandiose adult visions can inflate until they crowd out any view of the small and the young. Such was the case with Jesus’ disciples in the Gospel of Mark and in this pericope. The disciples just don’t seem to understand who Jesus is and what he has come to bring about on earth. Instead, they are caught up in their limited dreams and visions of what discipleship means.
For eight chapters in the Gospel of Mark, the writer has been trying to show us who Jesus is. In typically rapid-fire Markan fashion, the narrative has taken us through the proclamation of John the Baptist, the Baptism of Jesus, the Temptation in the Wilderness, countless exorcisms and healings, and several miracles. The Twelve are called. The sick are cured. The possessed are set free. The hungry are fed. When Jesus comes to town, stuff happens. This Jesus is something new altogether.
In the midst of this tumultuous pace, the narrative slows long enough for a pivotal declaration in Chapter 8. Jesus is on the road with his disciples. “Who do people say that I am?” he asks. The disciples give various responses. Then the focus narrows. In response to Jesus’ poignant and piercing question, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responds, “You are the Messiah.”
Peter’s faith confession forms the hinge for the entire Gospel of Mark. From this point forward, Jesus reveals more and more of his nature as the Messiah. He begins to teach the disciples what it means to be a follower of the Messiah. “If any want to become my followers,” Jesus says in Mark 8: 34, “let them deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me.”
Jesus’ disciples repeatedly fail to understand the nature of the Messiah and the cost of discipleship. In verses 30 through 32 of the lectionary text, Jesus is trying to teach his obtuse followers as they travel through Galilee. He tells them that the “Son of Man” will be betrayed and killed, but that he will rise again. Characteristically, the disciples do not understand their teacher, but they are afraid to ask him what he means. They do not seem to know that Jesus is referring to himself as the “Son of Man.”
When the group arrives in Capernaum, they are questioned by Jesus about their argument along the road. They had been arguing about who was the greatest, a point of controversy among social groups in antiquity. No one will answer Jesus’ query, but he seems to know already the texture of their dispute. Jesus sits down to teach and says succinctly that those who wish to be first must place themselves last of all, as a servant to all.
Jesus further demonstrates what he means when he talks about being last. He takes a little child (paideon in the Greek) and places the youngster in the midst of all of the assembled adult men. This little child is an example of powerlessness. He gathers the child into his arms and says that to welcome a child in his name is to welcome him. By saying “a child in my name,” Jesus is referring to the disciples. Followers of Jesus are as dependent on hospitality and welcome as a little child. Followers of Jesus are without power and status in the world. They form kinship with the little and least for they have become as the little and the least. Any act of hospitality performed towards a child—a disciple—is the same as offering that hospitality to the Messiah, Son of God and Son of Man. Moreover, any act of hospitality offered to Jesus is the same as offering that act towards the one who sent him, whom we Easter people know to be God. The kenotic power of the Triune God stands behind all that Jesus says and does. This same kenotic power fills all that Jesus’ disciples do in the world.
By The Reverend Molly L. Shivers, Director, Burlington District Congregational Health Services Team
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Pastoral Reflection on Mark 9:30-37
There’s nothing like the first day of school. When I was a child, I would wake up on the first day of school with a mixture that was about 95% excitement and 5% fear. The fear came from not knowing who my teacher was and not knowing who was going to be in my class. Would my teacher be the same one that my sister had the year before? Would my friends be in my class? Would that same insufferable boy be in my class, too?
The early-morning August air was mild and moist as I walked from my house to Estes Hills Elementary School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It seemed like the tang of expectation hovered in the air along with the humidity. As I emerged from the trail onto the playground, I eagerly scanned the grounds for my friends. I crossed the playground towards the school building, already knowing which corridor I needed to travel in order to find my new classroom. I had enrolled at Estes Hills as a second grader, and I attended there through sixth grade (those were the days before 6th – 8th grade Middle School).
How did I know which class to enter? I learned my new classroom when I saw my name by the door. In the younger grades, my name might be written on a picture of a bright red apple or a jaunty yellow box of crayons. In the older grades, my name might simply be on a list posted by the door, but my name was always there.
In second grade, I hadn’t yet learned the word hospitality, but I sure knew what hospitality felt like. Hospitality felt like my name posted by the door. Hospitality also felt like the smiling welcome of my new teacher. My teacher waited by the door that first day of school, as eager to meet me as I was to meet him or her. In fact, in some ways, it seemed that my teacher already knew me, and not just because he or she had instructed my older sister the previous year! Somehow the weeks of preparation that my new teacher had put in while preparing for my arrival had established a prevenient hope and a relationship between the two of us.
As an adult, I think often about the teachers of my childhood. I have my own child in school now, and I see from the perspective of one who is no longer an enrolled student, but a parent. I see local school board meetings that rival tabloid television in their rhetoric. I see principals and superintendents statewide fight to attract and retain quality teachers. I see the achievement gap continue to widen in a divided Chapel Hill. I see middle schools and high schools consistently hiring security guards. I see funds for music and arts education shrinking. I see overwhelmed special resources and special education teachers. I see the uneasy panacea of end-of-grade testing rule the day while children continue to get left behind.
If we take Jesus’ actions of Mark 9: 30 – 37 seriously, we must consider the littlest and the least in any situation that we encounter as people of faith. Who are the littlest and least in public education? Obviously, the children would qualify as the littlest, and they often get the least. Public education is supposed to benefit children primarily, but it seems the adults get so busy arguing that they lose sight of the children. The children are then left on the fringes, out on the margins of the discussion, waiting for the adults to decide who they think is the greatest and the best.
Next, consider the teachers. According to the National Education Association, “The statistics for turnover among new teachers are startling. Some 20 percent of all new hires leave the classroom within three years. In urban districts, the numbers are worse—close to 50 percent of newcomers flee the profession during their first five years of teaching” (www.greatpublicschools.org). In this current climate, simply showing up for work in the public schools has become an act of faith. How can we draw teachers back into the room, into the center of the discussion and the embrace of supportive communities?
I wonder if we have become like Jesus’ disciples who argue along the road about who is greatest. We are adults busy viewing the world in the way that we like; we are so consumed with grandiose dreams and faithless visions that we don’t see the children. Oh, the interest of the children makes a great tag line for the latest political scheme. Consider, for example, the great hoax of the “Education Lottery” perpetrated upon the people of North Carolina. This lottery is supposed to benefit the children, but, will it—really? According to the Raleigh Report, published by the North Carolina Council of Churches, “The pattern in other states has been that funding from the state budget drops about as much as lottery revenues provide to a dedicated purpose . . . The result is that, a few years later, education is no better off financially than it was to begin with” (Raleigh Report, March 24, 2005).
People of faith are mandated to care for the littlest and the least. Support of the children educated in our public school systems and the adults who teach them can take many forms. The first step is to become like a child, receiving the hospitality of a loving Savior. For God, every day is like the first day of school. Our names are posted by God’s door and God waits just inside to welcome us.
By Rev. Molly Shivers, Director, Burlington District Congregational Health Services Team
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Worship Aids for Mark 9:30-37
Responsive Reading
We give you thanks, O God:
For the splendor of your creation and the amazing beauty of our world,
We thank you, Lord.
For the wonder of life; for minds to think and hearts to love and hands to serve,
We thank you, Lord.
For our parents and grandparents, for teachers, for friends, for all who have helped us to grow and learn to love whatever is just and true and good,
We thank you, Lord.
For the gift of all children today in our family and in our community and the blessing and joy of caring for them and bringing them up,
We thank you, Lord.
Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings:
Guide us and help us, O Lord.
In our homes that we may have calm strength and patient wisdom to bring up our children,
Guide us and help us, O Lord.
In our communities of North Carolina as we offer all children the quality and varieties of education and other services they need to participate fully in the creation of a just and peaceful society.
Guide us and help us, O Lord.
In giving our ideas, talents, and support to our public schools, to local and state school boards and legislative bodies which are responsible for educating 90% of the children of North Carolina, so that we may ensure quality education for all,
Guide us and help us, O Lord.
In finding ways to assist teachers and staff and administrators of our public schools so that they may be renewed continually in their chosen vocation to help all your children to develop their gifts fully – physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually,
Guide us and help us, O Lord.
That our children and young people may be inspired and mentored and grow in their will and the vision to learn,
Guide us and help us, O Lord.
Loving God, we are beginning a new school year. We will learn more about your creation and what we can do to make it a good place for all. We will make new friends and be with old friends. We do not expect it to be easy. Still we know you will be with us every step of the way, to guide us, to give us understanding and strength, to pick us up if we fall, and help us to make new beginnings. We promise we will do all we can to find ways to serve you and all whom you have made and love.
Amen.
(from the NC Council of Churches’ Committee on Public Education, Celebrating a Public Education Sabbath)
You Came as a Child
Lord Jesus, we remember you came to us as a baby, and lived among us as a child. You needed the care and attention of your family and community to grow and to learn according to God’s plan. You understand what this is like. Today we pray for the children who have the task of growing and learning in our day. They are both blessed with opportunities and challenged by obstacles. We pray that you open our eyes. In what ways are you calling your people to help? How can we work toward assuring that all children get the chance to “increase in wisdom and stature” and to grow into the persons you would have them be? Guide us individually and as a congregation. In your leading, we place our hope.
Amen.
(from the NC Council of Churches’ Committee on Public Education, Celebrating a Public Education Sabbath)
Alternate Responsive Reading
Lord, who kept not the children from coming to you,
who welcomed them into your arms, who told us that we must come to you with the faith of a child:
We pray for the children in our communities who are receiving their education from public schools. As many of us were educated in the public school system, we ask your guidance and wisdom in sustaining the school system,
a system that welcomes all children regardless of race, ethnicity, geography, gender, disability, or economic status.
Almighty God, the Benevolent Teacher, we ask special blessings upon the teachers in our public schools who work for a modest income to teach our children to become responsible citizens and seekers of wisdom and knowledge.
Give them energy and vision for their passion, so that our children may be in good hands. We ask that you give us strength to work tirelessly to improve the education system for the betterment of the whole community – to work to ensure that all of our children are afforded an equal opportunity to receive a good education.
Amen.
(by Jason R. Jenkins, with material from the NC Council of Churches website)
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Suggested Hymns for Public Education
Bless All Those Who Nurture Children
Moravian Book of Worship 665
Come, Teach Us, Spirit of Our God
New Century Hymnal (United Church of Christ) 287
Earth and All Stars
The Hymnal (1982) 412
Presbyterian Hymnal 458
Lutheran Worship 438
His Eye Is On the Sparrow
United Methodist Hymnal 549
The Hymnal (1982) 581
New Century Hymnal (United Church of Christ) 396
Moravian Book of Worship 785
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Quotes about Public Education
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically… Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.
Aristotle
The highest result of education is tolerance.
Helen Keller
When schools flourish, all flourishes.
Martin Luther
The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.
Thomas Jefferson
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Vignette about Public Education
A Leandro Update
In an attempt to ensure every child has access to a sound basic education, parents, students, and school boards from low-wealth counties filed a lawsuit in 1994 against the State of North Carolina and the State Board of Education for failing to provide fair and adequate public education funding. Known as the Leandro decisions, the North Carolina Supreme Court twice ruled (first in 1997, then in 2004) that every child in North Carolina has a constitutional right to “an equal opportunity to receive a sound basic education.”
Ten years after the first Leandro decision, many students are not receiving a sound basic education. Data on end-of-grade tests clearly show that many students, especially those in low-wealth areas and high-poverty schools in urban districts, are not receiving a sound basic education. Test results for all K-12 schools for the 2005-2006 school year show that in 1 out of 6 schools, fewer than 60% of students scored at or above proficient on end-of-grade and end-of-course tests.
The UNC Center for Civil Rights Leandro Advocacy Project suggests the following policy options to address these issues:
- Adequate funding must be provided for disadvantaged students and school systems.
- Implementation of a Personal Education Plan (PEP) should be ensured for every student who is at risk of academic failure.
- Salary incentives should be provided to teachers and administrators working in hard-to-staff schools to help school districts attract and retain highly qualified teachers.
- North Carolina must increase the supply of highly qualified new teachers.
- Teachers must be provided with educational and workplace supports.
- Principals must receive training in school management both at the beginning and throughout their careers.
- Appropriate facilities must be provided so that students, teachers, and principals can focus on their jobs.
North Carolina must act to ensure that all children receive a sound basic education. The three fundamentals—high quality teachers, excellent administrators, and adequate resources—are interrelated. Individually, each is necessary but is not enough. North Carolina must find a way to ensure that all schools have every piece of this interlocking puzzle in place to fulfill the promise of Leandro to all students regardless of where they live. While important strides have been made, North Carolina must step up its efforts to address education inadequacies and guarantee that every child has an equal opportunity to receive a sound basic education.
By Action for Children North Carolina and the UNC Center for Civil Rights Leandro Advocacy Project, “What Stands Between North Carolina Students and A Sound Basic Education?” March 2007; www.ncchild.org/images/stories/LeandroReport_final_forWeb.pdf
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Contacts and Resources for Public Education
www.nccouncilofchurches.org/programs/public-education
This link is home to The North Carolina Council of Churches Public Education focus site. On the Committee’s homepage, the following useful resources may be found: a 23-page packet designed to instruct churches on how to offer a Public Education Sabbath; an instructive resource on Education Vouchers; and a pamphlet on how local congregations can be more involved with public schools.
www.ncjustice.org
The North Carolina Justice Center is North Carolina’s leading private, nonprofit anti-poverty organization. Its mission is to reduce and eliminate poverty in North Carolina by helping to ensure that every North Carolina household gains access to the resources, services and fair treatment that it needs in order to enjoy economic security. The Justice Center’s focus in Public Education can be found on their homepage, under ‘Areas of Work.’
www.ncchild.org
North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute is a statewide, non-profit, nonpartisan organization. NCCAI promotes well-informed governmental decisions by compiling and widely sharing accurate, up-to-date statistics; analyzing indicators of child well-being; and conducting policy research and development. To advance the best interests of children and youth, NCCAI directly influences the attitudes and actions of citizens across North Carolina. NCCAI currently focuses on four issue areas: Child Health and Safety, Early Care and Education, Child Maltreatment, and Juvenile Justice.
www.cisnc.org
Communities in Schools of North Carolina is an independently incorporated not-for-profit directed by a board of directors representing both private and public interests in the state. Communities In Schools is the nation’s largest stay-in-school network, serving just over one million youth in 154 communities across the United States. CIS is providing the link between teachers and the community – by bringing caring adults into the schools and community sites to meet children’s needs.
http://ncforum.org
The Public School Forum of North Carolina is a not-for-profit policy think tank which is a partnership of business leaders, education leaders, and government leaders in North Carolina. In addition to research and work in the public policy arena, the Forum oversees programs in communities across the state. Currently, the organization has created and oversees a network of twenty elementary- and middle-school programs that offer young people the hourly equivalent of eighty additional days of school and another network of high schools that have introduced hands-on technology training into their curriculum.
www.nccumc.org/hand
Hand in Hand is a project of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church that equips churches of all sizes to build a supportive partnership with a local public school in order to reach out to children and youth in the community who are in need of support. The partnership also strives to build a more supportive relationship between the church and the school staff.
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Key Facts about Public Education
1. For the 2010-2011 school year there were 1,434,436 students enrolled in NC public schools. The dropout rate for grades 7-12 is 2.6% while the graduation rate is 74.2%
2. In the 2009-2010 school year, 66.3% of students passed the ABC’s End of Grade tests. This was an increase of 2.4% from the previous year.
3. For 2009-2010, the total percentage of students reading at or above their grade level was 70.1%. When looking solely at students with Economic Disadvantages, only 57% were reading at or above grade level, compared to 84.5% of non-economically disadvantaged students.
4. In 2009-2010, the percentage of students who performed at or above their grade level in math was 81.8%. Comparatively, 73.2% of Economically Disadvantaged students performed at or above grade level in math, versus 91.2% for non-economically disadvantaged students.
5. In 2009-2010 North Carolina did not meet its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals. North Carolina reached 68 of 82 targets on its adequate yearly progress goals. For elementary and middles school the AYP is determined by assessing end of course and end of grade tests. For high schools the AYP is determined by end of course testing in Algebra I, English I, and the tenth grade Writing Assessment. Although high school students take end of course assessments in seven other subjects, only Algebra I, English I, and the tenth grade Writing Assessment are calculated into the AYP goals.
6. The average teacher’s salary for 2009-2010 in NC was $46,850, compared to the national average at $55,202. NC ranked 36th in the nation. In 2006-2007, NC ranked 26th in the nation in teacher pay.
7. The North Carolina Commission on Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps has devised twelve recommendations and the twelfth one states: “Conduct formal studies of best practices in the education of major racial/ethnic groups, in particular Hispanic/Latino and Asian students, including research from countries of origin. Most teaching practices in North Carolina classrooms do not reflect knowledge of cultural, social, and learning factors represented by the full range of the racial and ethnic composition of the students being taught. As with the recommendation to document the history and educational practices of African American and American Indian students, the purpose of these studies is “to build a credible body of knowledge about minority cultures that can be used to prepare educators, especially teachers, to more comfortably exchange or interact across ethnic/cultural lines in the classroom and beyond.”
8. Some other recommendations from The North Carolina Commission on Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps include: (1) reduce then eliminate the disproportionate number of minority students in special education programs; (2) fund then apply instructional strategies that expose low functioning minority students to more advanced content curriculums; (3) design and implement a public information campaign encouraging a greater measure of involvement from local communities; (4) devise strategies to increase involvement of parents; (5) that school districts allow teachers the time needed to update and/or improve their skills.
