Over the next few weeks we will be packing for our move to Hattiesburg, where I will be appointed to the position of Associate Minister at Main Street UMC. We will be leaving Meridian, my hometown, along with many friends and family, which will be difficult and a little sad. But the new position and city promises to be full of challenges and we already have friends in Hattiesburg, so all in all we are quite excited about the possibilities.
We are encountering many challenges though… the sorts of challenges that force us to think and pray through difficult issues. I was reminded of one of those challenges last week by Simon, my soon to be 8 yr old son.
Up front I should say that Jenny and I have felt a very specific call to ministry. God has placed within our hearts the desire to work with those persons who are often abandoned by society, particularly in urban environments. That sense of call has led us to Main Street, and has led us to purchase a house in the downtown area, only a couple of blocks from the church and those communities where people struggle day to day with poverty and its effects. We love the environment, and feel more than comfortable there… but there is a catch. As with most ‘urban’ environments these days, the public schools have become less than great. This is of course part of the challenge facing poor families, whose only choice for their children is a school that is under- performing, or struggling at best. In addition, the public school where we will be living offers absolutely no racial diversity, something that is important to Jenny and I since one of our children is Caucasian and the other Asian. Hawkins Elementary, the public school where we will be living, has no Caucasian or Asian children. In fact, in 2006 it was 99% African American.
And this brings me to last week. Simon is a particularly gifted young boy who is extremely articulate for his age. He reads on a 5th grade level (even though he is going into 2nd grade) and is planning to be in the ‘Talented and Gifted’ program this year. In Meridian he has attended a wonderful public school, and even there he has been bored at times, forcing the teacher to find special work assignments. Placing him in a school that is struggling, where teachers do there best to get students up to minimum levels, will surely be a problem, since Simon will almost certainly be bored (never a good thing for a bright 8 yr old). In addition, as we began to speak with Simon about his new school possibilities, he said, “I don’t want to go to a school where there is no one like me… I want to at least be around some people that are white like me.” I think this is a natural impulse, the desire to be around others who look like us, think like us, see the world the way we do, and I cannot fault Simon for it. I suspect, even though she is too young to articulate it, Gracie, our daughter, would express the same sentiments.
At the same time, it is this very tendency to self- segregate that I often find myself arguing against. In fact, Jesus pressed others to fight this tendency, speaking of the kingdom of God as a place of all nations and ethnicities, pushing people to see their neighbors as not just those like themselves, but all people, regardless of background or nationality. It is too often the tendency of those who have
more (intelligence, financial means, etc) to abandon those with
less, and I believe it is this tendency that lies at the root of many of our injustices and inequalities in society. I believe this was part of the sinfulness of humanity that Jesus pressed others to ‘repent’ of.
So how do I teach Simon and Gracie what I value, what I believe, about the dangers of self- segregation, while at the same time making sure they get a good education and reach their potential, without enduring too much unnecessary stress? I have the financial means (barely) to put them in a private Catholic elementary in the neighborhood where they can receive a wonderful education. The school is mostly Caucasian though (85%), with a few children of Asian (2%), Hispanic (2%), and African American heritage (11%). As a supporter of public schools, putting them in this school would not only seem to violate some deeply held principles of mine, but might undermine my witness to my beliefs… after all, who would listen to someone advocating for public schools if that someone is not willing to send his children there? And yet, I find myself leaning toward doing just that… favoring the welfare of my children, perhaps to the detriment of others. I wish this were a simpler world, one where ethical decisions were obvious. But sometimes every decision seems to be located somewhere in the ‘gray’ area.
