By Michael Evans, Assistant Director of Urban School Services
“Jennifer just told me that white people have to marry white people and brown people have to marry brown people,” began my four-year-old daughter, Janelle, debriefing after a short encounter with her five-year-old friend next door.
My daughter continued her story, “But when I told her that was not true, she told me you had to marry that way to follow the rule.” My daughter, who never backs down from such a discussion, countered with, “My aunt married a white man!” And then her friend exclaimed, “Then she broke the rule!”
Broke the rule! I thought. What rule? And when did this child learn to make such a strong conclusion about interracial marriage? Was it through parents’ direct orders? Did her family have a bad experience with an interracial couple? Or was this child making this conclusion based on her observations of the world? Regardless of the impetus, this child had developed a rule in her five-year-old mind that no doubt will shape her view of interracial dating and marriage for the rest of her life.
I tell this story because I imagine that our lives are filled with hidden rules that are working together to shape our thinking, our responses, our choices, and our ministries. These rules may not always be articulated, but they have a power that needs no voice.
Let me relate another story:
A visiting pastor recently shared with our congregation his struggle to accept his daughter’s decision to marry a Latino man. Though highly educated and involved in church ministry for over 30 years, he realized his attachment to a stereotypical view, a hidden rule he had accepted of Latino men being great lovers but irresponsible fathers and husbands. He was thankful that the Lord dealt with him. He was able to confront his wrong thinking and move forward with blessing and affirmation of the marriage. He is now thoroughly enjoying his son-in-law.
Jesus’ ministry was very much about challenging the accepted rules of the day. People were aghast as He began to break rules and cross well-established lines to minister to people: the woman at the well, the lepers, the poor, the children, the prostitutes, the demon-possessed, the tax collectors, the sinners. A brief review of the Gospels reveals a Jesus who was not afraid to break the culturally accepted rules. Jesus was not living according to accepted societal norms. He was living out of a revelation of the heart of God. He was more committed to serving and loving people than following man’s guidelines.
In my work with urban schools and children, there are several “hidden rules” that continue to surface and that I am very unwilling to accept. Let me share some with you:
- Hidden rule: Urban, minority children cannot learn as well as their suburban, white counterparts. During a school visit with a predominately white suburban school serving urban, minority children, an administrator shared that the board had recently reviewed test scores. In this process, they recognized areas of deficiency in math. A member of the board, while trying to explain the deficiency, made a quick comment: “Well, what do you expect? You know the students we have.” I refuse to accept the hidden rule that urban children cannot perform well academically. I refuse to accept the hidden rule that poor children should have less expected of them. And I refuse to accept the hidden rule that has been around for centuries: that as a general rule, most minority children simply do not have the mental capacity to master education.
- Hidden rule: “Christian schooling is a luxury available only to those who can afford it.” I just heard a close friend of mine make this comment. I was immediately taken aback until I realized that indeed this hidden rule has colored Christian education and the Christian community for quite some time. We offer Christian schooling to those who can afford it or are fortunate enough to gather resources through scholarships and gifts. We need a change in our thinking—a new mode of operation. We must create new systems to fund our schools and open the doors to those wanting a quality education who cannot even begin to consider paying $350 to $500 per month per child for tuition! Are we so entrenched in our current way of operating that we cannot imagine and create a more equitable, universal system of offering Christian education?
- Hidden rule: Children living in urban communities deserve less educational resources than children living in suburban communities. I live in West Hempfield Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, one of the best school districts in the county. We spend in excess of $8,500 per pupil for education in the public school system. If you drive just 2.5 miles from my house, you will end up in the middle of the city of Columbia, home to one of the poorest school districts in the county, where they spend $4,500 per pupil for public school education. The implications are great: children are expected to succeed in West Hempfield and given the resources to do so; children are expected to do poorly in the Columbia School District. As I drove through that community the other night, I dreamed of a Christian school system in Columbia where students would have the opportunity to come to a Christ-centered school that provided adequate resources and did not penalize them for their economic status. All children deserve the resources and high expectations for educational success.
- Hidden rule: Most Christian schools are not equipped to deal with the issues of urban children—the challenges, the brokenness, and the problems—so their focus should be on what is doable, and they should not feel responsible for “those” children. Isaiah 61 describes the kingdom of God that Jesus came to establish on earth (see also Luke 4): “to preach good news to the poor…to bind up the brokenhearted…to proclaim freedom for captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…to comfort all who mourn...to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes…oil of gladness instead of mourning…a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” As Christian educators, we must be challenged to consider the scope and emphasis of our ministries. Are we living in a kingdom reality as expressed above, targeting the poor and the brokenhearted and those held captive in failing systems of education and those imprisoned by low expectations?
While I realize the challenges involved in running a Christian school, I also challenge each of us to consider how we are going to respond to the educational genocide that is occurring in our urban school systems around America. In the recent report from the National Center for Educational Statistics, six cities were targeted for study, and the findings are staggering as they detail the educational crisis in these cities. For example, a reading assessment for fourth graders reveals that in Washington, DC, where 88 percent of the students are African American, 72 percent of these black students are “below basic” in their skills. This means three out of every four black fourth graders in DC are functionally illiterate! What are we as God’s people going to do?
At the end of the conversation with my daughter, I sat her on my lap and purposefully undid the images that her friend’s “hidden rule” had conjured in her mind regarding interracial marriage. I pray that we, too, would allow our Heavenly Father to hold us close to His heart as He replaces some of our hidden rules with His reality about the educationally left-behind children of our society.
The Meantime Volume 3 Number 1