Last month, in a cover story on urban education as a run-up to Waiting for Superman, TIME Magazine tackled the idea of "what makes a school great". As is becoming the norm, TIME concluded that great teachers are the backbone of great schools.TIME believes that money is not the primary issue for difficulties in attracting top candidates: "But as a whole, the profession lacks something almost as precious as money: PRESTIGE." Lack of prestige... a disregard for the "profession" of teaching... a stigma of a low-performing profession... a culture that is building teaching around a "public service / volunteerism" mindset... all of this creates a void of prestige, says TIME. In America, for example, only 23% of teachers come from the top third of their college class while 47% come from the bottom third. So, they asked, how do you recruit great teachers?
So if it’s more prestige than money... what's the answer to the "prestige" issue?
My answer is quite simple. In fact, it's not my answer at all. It's God's. You want prestige in teaching, He'll give you prestige: "What good will it be for a man if he gains the wholeworld, yet forfeits his soul?" "The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." "And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." "Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all."
There's no lack of prestige in teaching. The "lack" is in the definition of prestige, not in the location of it.
"I got to help with bathroom lines both times went, and I found that I incorporated some of the KIPP training techniques we learned. You can definitely say I’ve been “KIPP-notized”!! I had the students stand in one square tile, with one tile in between each person. "
"Secondly, I noticed the importance of calling students by their names. After I called one student by name, he responded with a smile, "Oh, you know my name? I didn't know you knew my name." He was glad I knew his name. I want to make it a point to learn a few names each day until I can call every student by name. I practice the students' names silently to myself as I circulate the room during class."
"Students perked up when I greeted them at the door with a handshake and a smile. I couldn't believe it. They would be strolling in, blank faces, pretty nervous, and then I would stop them at the door, ask for their names, and then just say, "It's nice to meet you." They're faces completely changed! "
"Finally, I am happy to report that my lesson plan (the first I ever wrote) went smoothly and that it was the part of today I absolutely enjoyed the most. The students seemed to be engaged, enjoy the story, meet the objective, and enjoy the activity."
"As I always do first thing in the morning, I went to fix my pot of coffee. My beautiful, awesome wife had left a note for me for my first big day. The Lord, without a doubt, used this not to refocus me. The card Courtney picked out had Colossians 3:12 as its verse: " clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.."Are you kidding me- what an awesome verse to set the tone for the day, for the year, for life. What if I went into every day and every conversation striving for these ideals. As if that were not convicting enough, Courtney gave me one more verse to reflect on, Ephesians 5:1-12: "Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And, walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.." To me, that is perfect for what we teachers are to do. As we see Christ's perfect example of how to live life. He led by being a sacrifice. He modeled for us what we are to do for our students- give them our all-"
"I am so thankful for today. I'm thankful to be in Memphis and working in Memphis City Schools. I'm thankful for supportive friends and family. I'm thankful for all the things I have learned this summer that made today a successful first day."
On Monday, June 28th, the MTR visited Memphis' City Hall and met privately with Mayor AC Wharton. Mayor Wharton thanked our the residents for their commitment to Memphis and to urban education. He also encouraged them to work hard and be proactive in their schools and in the city.
On Monday, June 26th, the MTR was treated to a wonderful lunch and tour of St Jude Children's Hospital... recently designated as the #1 Childrens Pediatric Hospital in America by US News & World Report AND voted the 2nd best place to work in US academia by The Scientist magazine.
The energy, momentum and blessing that is St Jude was incredibly evident. After our tour, Dr. Bill Evans, St Jude's CEO, spoke with our group. Of the many highlights, my favorite was this...
In the 1950's, the survival rate of childhood leukemia ws 4%. Today at St Jude's the survival rate is 94%. And Dr. Evans encouraged us with the following statement, "So, you see, we're in the same business. St Jude's is saving children's lives medically and the MTR is about saving kid's lives academically."
We're thrilled to partner with St Jude in such important work: children.
Colleen Oliver, Senior Program Officer of US Education with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spoke to the MTR Class of 2011 on July 8th. Colleen shared the Gates' core values of their foundation: (1) Every person has equal value; and, (2) Every person has the right to a healthy and productive life. These two values drive their investments into three primary areas: (1) Global Health (malaria, AIDS, polio, maternal health care); (2) Global Development (micro-finance, agriculture, clean water, green efforts); and, (3) US-Based Programs (urban education and Northwest US efforts). As support, Colleen shared that 1,000,000 students drop out of school every year in the US and more than 1,000,000 Africans die of malaria every year.
A few of the many fascinating subjects / comments she touched on included:
1. As Memphis' faith-based community goes, so goes the work in Memphis. Memphis' faith-based community is our city's greatest asset.
2. "If I could have all of you in my school, we would solve all the problems."
3. Memphis absolutely is the epicenter of urban education reform in America. Memphis has all the demographics and challenges of the largest districts in America but (as the 24th largest district in the US) is yet small enough to quickly see cause and effect of reform efforts. Therefore, we've become this great laboratory for many local and national efforts.
So, as Colleen said, "If we can do it here then there will be NO EXCUSE... If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere in our nation. And it will happen here."
4. Teachers make the difference. Great teachers in every classroom is the strategy to make it happen. And therefore the MTR -in training great teachers for every classroom- is the right place at the right time.
We really are the very tip of the arrow in urban reform... for Memphis and for our nation.
I spent an hour or more at Borders this afternoon with Ruthie and Mary Van. While they read about 20 Bearenstein Bears books, I picked up two magazines: Fortune and Sports Illustrated.
I read two articles that were so insightful that I wanted to share a few aha’s.
First, and most importantly, I read the article the $600 Billion Challenge from Fortune’s July 12, 2010 edition.
Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet are on a crusade to approach the 400 wealthiest persons in the world (all billionaires) with the challenge to give away 50% of their wealth during their lifetime or at death.
As an attachment to this article, Warren Buffet wrote a short essay explaining his personal pledge to give away 99% of his net worth. His explanation is fascinating. So much so that when I returned I had a quick team meeting with May and Annie to read it with them and talk through the main points.
Please read Buffet’s essay at here. Without detail, my aha’s were Buffet’s candor, humility and efforts to use his resources for the needs of others. Don’t miss this article.
Second, and much less significant, was the article on Pete Carroll from Sports Illustrated. Carroll is the former coach of the USC Trojans. During his 9 years at USC his teams went 97-19 and won two national titles. He is now the head coach of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
I thought it was interesting that he has three team rules:
1. Protect your Teammate (read: resident, sibling, student, parent, child, friend, etc) on and off the field. 2. Be Early for Everything 3. No whining or complaining.
Last night at dinner Team Montague “celebrated” Independence Day.The celebration was mostly a short review of the key dates and people of the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War.Following the review we read from the Declaration of Independence and talked about some our “aha’s” or “musts”.There were no fireworks, at least not at the table, not last night.That will come tonight.
A few thoughts from our time that I want to share …
First, I think having a “view” or “philosophy” on the celebration of holidays is important for a family.Our nation generally has two types of national holidays: Historical and Religious.The risk with all holidays is that we embrace the ceremony and forget the substance.We love the nostalgia of tradition and diminish the significance of the facts, the story, the sacrifice.
So, in our house, I want to celebrate all holidays by reminding my family of the substance and story of the day.Independence Day is NOT simply cookouts and fireworks.Independence Day is remembering the story and courage and history and implication of our nation’s birth.And, as our family does that, we are subtly reminded that holidays, both types of holidays, are rooted in reality and not simply in cultural norms and fairy tales.
And as I remind them of the reality of historical holidays I am also reminding the family that religious holidays are also rooted in reality.Just as Independence Day is about facts and truth and reality… so are Christmas and Easter.Just as we recognize and discuss and interpret the reality of the work of our forefathers in our nation’s history, so will we recognize, discuss and interpret the reality of Jesus’ virgin birth, perfect life, death and resurrection in our spiritual history.Easter is no more an honoring of the Easter Bunny and Christmas is no more an honoring of Santa Claus than is Independence Day an honoring of fireworks.So we will celebrate both accordingly.
Second, from reading the Declaration of Independence, we learned a three really important “musts”.MUST #1… thoughtful communication and respect must be given to people in the matters of conflict or division.
Thomas Jefferson (and others) began the document with the following introduction:When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another … a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
In conflict, “elite” leaders (such as our nation’s founders) demonstrate the importance of expressing differences rationally, systematically and with grace and class.Conflict does not have to be worked out with simple emotion and aggression… and certainly should not start that way.And the power to express differences rationally comes from the truth and validity upon which our arguments stand.Often in life I notice (both in others and in myself) that the weakest (least “right”) arguments are the ones that are accompanied with the most emotion and volatility among their bearers.And it is the strongest (most right and fair) arguments that are accompanied with the least volatility and aggression.Point:The power is in the “truth” not in the person, presentation, sincerity, emotion or hostility.May we take this mindset into our families and friendships and schools.
And how much more so should this apply to our spiritual life?In matters of morality and obedience and God’s word our power is simply in the truth of God’s word in our lives and not in finger pointing self-righteousness.
Third, we learn that our nation began with this awesome belief that ALL people – BECAUSE we are Created by the SAME God – are EQUAL and have the same rights to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness as another.Hear these famous and beautiful words from the second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,…
How great a nation to be founded on such a principle.And here is Must #2… Since this charge comes ultimately from God (the Creator-Endower) and not from Thomas Jefferson, this call to secure these rights to all people falls NOT ONLY upon governments, but also upon the PEOPLE of God… individuals.You and me.The “securing of these rights” MUST be my concern, and not only a government or district concern.
The MTR believes that all children are created equal (white, black, Hispanic, Asian, majority, minority, urban, suburban, public, charter, private, poor and rich) simply because all children are created by the same God.God says in Proverbs 22:2, “Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord God is the Maker of them all.”And therefore, ALL children have the same right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.And since education is a common ingredient to each of these, WE BELIEVE it is a MUST that ALL children have the right to sit before a great teacher within a great school.
And we believe that it is not only the responsibility of the state to provide this right, but it is also the responsibility of His people, individuals, to protect, provide and produce these rights.And we believe there is no better way to produce this right than by great leaders choosing to become great teachers for the children most likely to miss this opportunity.
Last – and I love this part – see the community of ownership of this ideal among our leaders… each taking personal responsibility of this ideal as more important to themselves than their very own honor, net worth and even life itself.See the very last words of this document:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
And so how did this pledge “play out”?In great victory, we now know.
So, Must #3is that for victory to be accomplished it must require the greatest of commitments – the greatest sacrifice of fortune, reputation and life – within a sense of mutual community.Every child can have a great teacher and a great school.However, the cost and commitment will be high. It is not for the weak or faint of heart.Great causes never were.Never will be.
And does this not point us to Christ himself?Who for the sake of mankind to have the right to come close to God not only pledged but also lost His honor, fortune and life itself.
We now come with the same mission….We have come at this time to uphold not simply the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, but to uphold this common mission that comes from Above-our-constitution with our lives, fortunes, and honor.Jefferson, Washington, Adams in a sense… and more importantly Christ in full, made Himself poor so that others might be rich; put Himself at risk so that others might be secure; put Himself away so that others might be brought in.
This is our heritage.This is our mission.This is our Story. These are our Musts.
Pitt Hyde, AutoZone founder and Memphis philanthropist, came to share with the MTR Class of 2011 on June 9th. Among other things, he stressed the importance of CREATING and ENVIRONMENT where everyone wants to EXCEL. Everyone wants to be on a winning team. So, he made AutoZone into this culture and stressed the importance of making classrooms this same culture. In addition, we saw how one man with a Big Goal and a vision for innovation changed the way America bought, sold and used auto parts.
Kem Wilson Jr., Principal and Executive Vice President of the Kemmons Wilson Companies and son of Holiday Inns founder Kemmons Wilson, spoke to the MTR on June 14th. Kem shared with us his father's life story and the influence of Holiday Inn. Of most interest were the lessons that included (1) Hardship and difficulties are important and helpful in producing greatness and "success"; (2) The importance of vision and setting Big Goals; (3) The value of Hard Work; and (4) The understanding of how the creativity and innovation of one man in Memphis changed the way America traveled.
(Urban Context 1.1) Hope VI Revitalization Program is a federal housing redevelopment initiative that began in 1993. The goal is to use federal money to incentivize urban areas to redevelop low-income housing projects into more attractive and sustainable communities. Memphis has just won its fifth Hope VI grant. This $22 million award will go to the redevelopment of the Cleaborn Housing project that feeds Vance Middle School and Booker T. Washington High School (south downtown area).
The project will include demolishing 460 distressed units and replacing them with 400 new apartments, 140 of which will be public/low income housing units. MHA has executed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Shelby County Government Head Start program to enroll families in both the Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
The Head Start program has partnered with Porter Leath, a United Way agency, to provide home visitation services to support residents who are pregnant.
Blacks in Memphis lose decades of economic gain, says the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/business/economy/31memphis.html?scp=1&sq=memphis&st=cse This is a national phenomenon, not simply a Memphis thing. However, this article does an excellent job in describing the plight of many homeowners nationally. Briefly, the loss of wealth within our nation has mostly been a loss of home equity (and of homes in general). For a decade (or more) lending for the purchase of homes has been extremely easy. As a result, many people were able to borrow more and more money at seemingly low interest rates to buy homes. This easy money (creating a greater demand for homes) drove the value of homes sky high for years. Everyone seemed to win, for a while. Banks loved it because they were making money hand over fist through loan origination fees and interest payment collections. And homeowners loved it because they were able to buy bigger homes than they should have and all the while fooled into thinking their homes were great long-term investments. What is more, as their homes "appreciated" in value, homeowners were tempted into borrowing more money on their new and higher home value through second mortgages.... until it all came crashing down. This facade of irresponsibility - irresponsibility of lenders and consumers - has now wiped out trillions of dollars from bank's balance sheets and individual's savings. What is left is explained in the last line of the article, "“Some days it feels like everyone I know in Memphis is in trouble,” Mr. Banks says. “We’re all just begging to stay in our homes, basically.”
"In my Father's house there are many mansions (rooms)", says Jesus. See John 14:2-4. The Christian context on housing is that there really is an after-life. This world is not all there is. There is more and better to come. There are promises given by Jesus to His people. And these promises inform the thoughts and hopes and wishes and desires of His people here and now. One such promise is that Jesus, in heaven, has prepared for us mansions - or rooms - for us to live... with Him... forever. And this promise we believe by faith. And therefore, since we believe it, we live the here and now accordingly. And the "accordingly" is that we do not put our best housing hope in a city or neighborhood or zip code or gated community or square footage or acreage, etc. For the greatest of all these does not nor will not ever compare to the housing that is to come in heaven.
So, housing in Memphis is informed by our housing in heaven. Jesus-followers are patient people who know the best is yet to come. Therefore, we can be delayed-gratification people who gladly live beneath our means knowing that all of our housing-lusts are filled perfectly, tomorrow.
And the reality of today is that this gospel-centered housing world view might actually help keep us from "begging to stay in our homes".
Recently, I posted a blog describing the forces impacting large urban cities, like Memphis. Most significantly, technology and outsourcing have significantly reduced the number of mid-level jobs in American cities. Mid-level jobs are those jobs that required mid-level skills and paid wages that supported middle-class lifestyles. These jobs were mostly the industrial / manufacturing (unionized) jobs. The industrial revolution provided ample access to these jobs and therefore to a rising standard of living.
Today, however, things have changed. Automation and cheap overseas labor have taken away these mid-level jobs leaving "most of the lesser-skilled city workers employed in the services rather than in the more promising unionized factory jobs. As a result, the city's (Memphis) racial and ethnic ghettos have become repositories for a sizable number of extremely poor residents with very limited job prospects." (Opportunity Lost, Pohlmann, page 37)
More recently, see Belaboured (Economist, May 29, 2010). This article chronicles the transition of a Chicago South Side neighborhood that has seen the loss of factories give way to a potential opening of a Wal-Mart... with much lower wages: "Mildred McClendon, who has lived on the South Side since 1968, is one of those who say they would welcome Wal-Mart if it paid a middle-class wage. She remembers when the area’s factories whirred. Her husband worked at Automatic Electric and the Wal-Mart site in Pullman was home to a steel plant. The retail stores that replaced the factories, she insists, must pay more. If Wal-Mart agrees to raise wages, other retailers will follow suit. This is the argument put forward by Chicago’s unions and their supporters. But remembering the old days is unlikely to do them much good."
Into this urban economic reality we go to teach the next generation... Into this urban economic reality, education is more important than ever. It means life or death.
Recognizing that God, speaking through the writer Paul in the book of Philippians (chapter 2), has called us to "look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others", entering Memphis' highest-needs schools to be fantastic math, english, science, spanish, french, history or elementary teachers is absolutely a valid and necessary response to the gospel. For what is the alternative?
For important urban context (1.1) see "As jobs fade away" in the May 8th Economist.
This is an excellent overview of what is significantly impacting our lower-educated urban population. In summary, over the past 30 years or so, technology has drastically improved efficiencies and therefore drastically eliminated whole classes of middle-skilled jobs that provided middle class lifestyles. As a result, there continues to be large numbers of both very low skilled minimum wage jobs and high skilled high paying jobs. The jobs in the middle, however, have shrunk.
In addition, due to population trends (see last blog entry, "Deep Magic") there is a growing percentage of a lower educated population and a declining percentage of a higher educated population. This fact has had the supply and demand result of putting a declining wage pressure on the middle and low skilled jobs and a rising wage pressure on the high skilled jobs. As a result, since 1979 there has been significant positive change in real income for highly educated persons and a significant decline in real income for those with limited education. See chart and excerpts below.
"Americans were keenly aware of this growing inequality even before the recession; in 2007, the top 1% of earners took home 23.5% of all income earned, the highest share since 1928. In recent decades the American economy has become increasingly polarised. Jobs have been plentiful for low and high-skilled workers, but employment opportunities for middle-skilled labourers have become much scarcer. Technology is the main culprit. Automation and outsourcing have claimed whole classes of jobs. The supply of skilled workers has failed to keep pace with demand, so the college wage premium (see chart) has increased."
"Middle-skill jobs have declined as a share of occupations across Europe as well, and inequality has increased, though not as much as in America. How to maintain a stable middle class amid sweeping technological change is a problem the developed world is only beginning to appreciate. Governments will be sorely tempted to protect workers, but a flexible, well-educated labour force is likely to fare best in the transition."
So, a new issue is upon us (as stated in the article): how to maintain a stable middle class amid sweeping technological changes (advancements and efficiencies). A well-educated workforce is the Economist's best answer.
So what is the "Christian Context" of this new western issue?
In his commencement speech to Harvard in 1978, Alexander Solzhenitsyn spoke these fascinating words: “However, in early democracies, as in American democracy at the time of its birth, all individual human rights were granted because man is God’s creature.Thus, freedom was given to the individual conditionally, in the assumption of his constant religious responsibility.Subsequently, however, all such limitations were discarded everywhere in the West; a total liberation occurred from the moral heritage of Christian centuries with their great reserves of mercy and sacrifice… The West ended up by truly enforcing human rights, sometimes even excessively, but man’s sense of responsibility to God and society grew dimmer and dimmer. The defense of individual rights has reached such extremes as to make society as a whole defenseless against certain individuals.It is time, in the West, to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.”
This is fascinating.What began as “theology”… that because you were created by God, then you do have certain rights – no matter your race, religion, economic or educational status, etc.And so “individual’s rights” were created by God because He created us in His image… the same Maker is the maker of us all. However, the other side of this theological coin is that man not only has INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, but also has been gifted by this same God with INDIVIDUAL OBLIGATIONS.
Now, in “modern history” we have thrown off God (Time Magazine April 8, 1966 “Is God Dead”) but have quite conveniently kept the notion of individual rights. Yet we have twisted these "rights" to mean that one may do whatever one wishes. Rarely in this culture that screams for the right to do and say and be anything does anyone still clamor for the right to do and serve and love and help others.
So the Christian context is that it is time, again, to defend not so much our human rights as our human obligations. And our obligations - as mandated by a good God - is to (among other things) look out for the poor and the needy. To seek injustices and make them fair and right. To do unto others as we would have others do unto us. To look out for our neighbor.
This is a great leadership point.We need people-of-courage who will think in terms of (Godly) obligation and not personal rights.Or, in different terms, we need people who will think of rights in terms of other’s rights, and not simply our own.
And there is no greater unmet "right" today than the right for every child in America to sit before a great teacher within a great school.
He points out what we already know... that there is a large, and growing, education gap between whites / asians and blacks / hispanics. Thirty-two percent of whites and asians have college degrees while only 15% of blacks and hispanics do - a larger disparity than a decade ago.
However, he points out another trend that is important to understand, "Non-whites are expected to outnumber white Americans by 2042, and among the under-18 population in the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, they already do. At the same time, good-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree are dwindling, as the country transitions away from manufacturing jobs that once supported the middle class into an ever-more high-tech economy.Taken together, these trends suggest a mismatch between the future American workforce and the type of work a country must produce to stay competitive in the global economy. Educational disparities are growing at a time when the population of those less likely to be educated is growing, and as the proportion of jobs requiring higher education is growing, too."
The result of a growing U.S. percentage of a lower educated population is that "If we do nothing to close the (education) gap, we’ll wind up with an economy that matches our less-educated workforce."
Something has to give, as he puts it. He proposes three solutions to maintain a US global competitive advantage and sustain a large US middle class: (1) change the structural direction of the US economy so that it can financially support a growing non-college degreed population; (2) reverse the population growth trends of the nation; or (3) CLOSE the education gap. It goes without saying that only option #3 is viable.
There are several takeaways to this article and issue. First, and most obvious, but as a reminder, this is the SINGLE GREATEST SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUE in America today.
Second, and very important to get, is this: the situation is so desperate and the education bar is so low in high poverty areas that real and meaningful gains can, should and WILL be made. The significance of these gains, I believe, will be a creation of momentum that will draw the more hesitant and pessimistic into the battle. But for now we need the "first followers"... those who are drawn not to the progress but to the need. The first followers will be the ones that seem crazy to jump into "despair". But soon, their hard plowing will produce fruit. And the sweetness of the fruit will attract a crowd, and a tipping point will have been reached.
Need is the new opportunity. Turning negatives into positives. Using the low bar to demonstrate huge gains to bring the masses. Taking advantage of dysfunction to bring progress. Just like the "deep magic" of Narnia... death being tricked to usher in life.
My nephew, John, sent me the above link to a CNN article about the culture of "hook ups" on the Vanderbilt (and most any) college campus.
Briefly, it describes the pervasive (estimated 75%+) experience of college students getting drunk and hooking up with strangers on most any given party night.
To which I replied to John with some encouragement of a Gospel-Centered Sex Ethic that goes something like this...
Our view of God dictates our view of sex. Or, said differently, our sex life is a demonstration of our view of God.
God is One God who is faithful to his bride, the bride of Christ, the church. He is not capricious. He is not fickle. He is not faith-less. He does not "hook up" with one person or people and then cast them off and "hook up" with another people. He is promised / committed to one bride and remains faithful to that bride forever. Therefore, we do the same in our lives, with our bodies. This becomes our sex-ethic. We demonstrate to a watching world the character and nature of our God. We, too, will be committed to one person - a spouse. And we will remain faithful to her, forever... all of our lives. We will not go from one women to another. We will not hook up with anyone available. For this is not who our God is. So this will not be who we are. Get this... In this way, as we interact with women in this way, then our celibacy becomes our worship and we can take greater joy in our celibacy (in singleness) or fidelity (in marriage) than we could ever take pleasure in the fickleness of the hook up culture.
And this living (by faith) the character of our God INSTEAD of living out (by faith) the character of the world shows the world that we value God above the world... and this is what brings God glory... which is the purpose for which we were created.
And, in a incredible twist, this sex ethic (which sounds restrictive) actually grants us great freedom. Freedom from guilt, shame, insecurity, drama... and frees us to have the capacity to think more of others, to serve, to love, ... and to teach - well.
(for more insight on a gospel sex ethic, please see Sandy Willson's AMEN series on Galatians - specifically "Faithfulness" and "Self Control" at www.2pc.org)
I read an interesting article in the Economist last night, "Social mobility and inequality, Upper Bound", http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15908469.(MTR Language Arts Wall: Yes. You underline titles of magazines, newspapers, books, and movies. The titles of parts inside them, such as chapters or articles, are put in quotes ["..."].)
My takeaways (as they apply to Cultural Maturity 1.0 Urban Context)...
Statistics of Interest: * Real income for men in their 30's has dropped 12% over the last generation. * There has been a 20% increase in income inequality over the past 40+ years * The top 10% of income earners took home 50% of all income earned in 2008 (which is a larger proportion than the wealthy earned in1928, the year before the Great Crash)
Why? The article says the primary reason for this inequality of income (and therefore the difficulty of mobility out of poverty) is due to the advancement of technology that has lessened the need for middle-skilled workers... driving down both employment opportunities and wages.
What to do? The Economist mentions two key social changes that most positively impact upward social movement as (1) Earning a college degree, and (2) Marrying before having children. Finally, the author comments that the "next step" is that America should focus on investing in the "productivity of the young".
1. I can think of no better way to "invest in the productivity of the young" than by being a fantastic teacher. You have chosen a field (teaching) of great importance and leverage... that is, if you happen to care about justice, impacting the next generation, not wasting your life, being a servant and not a consumer and ultimately glorifying God by your motivations of giving Him the things He loves.
2. I wanted you to be reminded and equipped with "data" that can inform your casual conversations with students. Knowing some key issues that are the real leverage points (actions that can most "make" or "break" a life) for life are important for a culturally mature teacher. Encouraging and equipping students to have the opportunity to graduate from college and the vision to desire marriage before becoming a parent are important conversations to have.
I know you know these things... I just wanted you to know that Main Street agrees.
Then, shortly after reading this article, we had dinner as a family. We're reading Acts at the dinner table and we came to this last night: "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and sign, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." (Acts 2:22-24)
And it occurred to me.... there is another kind of "upper bound-ness", another kind of "upward social mobility". First, there is a real sense of physical and felt needs that come with poverty and a lack of technological skills. These needs provide a real sense of oppression. And we are to use our lives to enter into places that offer us the ability to provide opportunities and relief. This is a God-given and God-demonstrated mandate (is that not what He did for us). Helping people rise above suffering is very much a proclamation of the gospel.
Yet there is another sense of "upper bound-ness" and upward mobility. This sense is the reality of an upward mobility that not suffering nor poverty nor lack of technological skills nor the lack of a college degree can prevent. It is the very real promise that through Jesus Christ - raised from the dead - nothing, no sense of poverty... even the extreme poverty of death itself... can keep us down. For through Christ, not even death can keep its hold on us.
Christ, alone, is the ultimate upwardly socially mobile answer. And because of that, we personally have no need to fight for own upward social mobility - it has been accomplished for us. And because of Christ, there is hope - even for the one who might never happen to reach the upward bound-ness of the American dream. And with Hope, no one is truly in poverty.
I recently talked with a college student who was considering either the MTR (urban education) or medical school (medicine) as his first steps toward a career. After several weeks of consideration, he emailed me to let me know he was going to pursue medicine.
I'm thrilled with his decision. Not because the world simply needs another doctor. Which I’m sure it always will.But because the world needs to an even greater degree great doctors for those in the places of most need.
It just so happened that immediately following our conversations, I saw this article, Nepalese Doc is God of Sight to poor. I was intrigued and read it with interest.
IMMEDIATELY (this was on a Sunday afternoon), I gathered my four daughters (ages 15, 14, 11, and 9) on the bed for a family meeting (what we call "announcements"). I read the article to them aloud, and then proceeded to ask each of them what they were thinking as they listened to the story. All their responses were honest. But the one that most stirred the heart of their dad was this one: "Dad, I was thinking that I could be that doctor one day."
It stirred my heart because, I think, a “future story” of living life for greatness (according to a gospel vision) was being set in my children’s heart.Life is a story.And having a “future story” – a vision - that aligns with God’s story is the secret to life.
So I came into work the next day and sent my new medical friend a link to this article with the following instructions: "In repayment to me for alerting you to this article, you owe me a five sentence summary of your aha's by Friday at 3pm." I'm sure he thinks I'm wacko. And I'm not sure I'll ever hear from him again. I do hope he reads the article.For I hope that he has a “future story” for medicine that also aligns with God’s story.
I hope you will read this article, too.
See below.
And now here is your question from me: What lessons from this article apply to the intersection of your life and urban education?
Nepalese doc is God of Sight to poor
By MARGIE MASON
The Associated Press
Sunday, March 21, 2010; 12:01 AM
HETAUDA, Nepal -- Raj Kaliya Dhanuk sits on a wooden bench, barefoot, with a tattered sari covering thin arms as rough as bark. Thick clear tears bleed from her eyes, milky saucers that stare at nothing.
For nearly a year, cataracts have clouded out all sight from the 70-year-old grandmother's world. With no money, she assumed she'd die alone in darkness. But now she waits quietly outside the operating room for her turn to meet Nepal's God of Sight.
"I am desperate. If only I could see my family again," she whispers in her native tongue. "I feel so bad when I hear the baby cry because I can't help him. I want to pick him up."
Dhanuk and more than 500 others - most of whom have never seen a doctor before - have traveled for days by bicycle, motorbike, bus and even on their relatives' backs to reach Dr. Sanduk Ruit's mobile eye camp. Each hopes for the miracle promised in radio ads by the Nepalese master surgeon: He is able to poke, slice and pull the grape-like jelly masses out of an eye, then refill it with a tiny artificial lens, in about five minutes. Free of charge.
It's an assembly-line approach to curing blindness that's possible thanks to a simple surgical technique Ruit pioneered, allowing cataracts to be removed safely without stitches through two small incisions. Once condemned by the international medical community as unthinkable and reckless, this mass surgery 'in the bush' started spreading from Nepal to poor countries worldwide nearly two decades ago.
Thousands of doctors - from North Korea to Nicaragua to Nigeria - have since been trained to train others, with the hope of slowly lessening the leading cause of blindness that affects 18 million people worldwide. And later this year, U.S. military surgeons will train under Ruit for the first time.
Ruit estimates sight has been restored to about 3 or 4 million people through his method. Most of them live in the developing world, where a loss of vision can be worse than death because of the added burden thrust on families already drowning in hardship. The soft-spoken portly doctor in acid-washed jeans and sneakers guesses he alone has removed 100,000 cataracts over his 30-year career.
"You realize there are drops which make an ocean," says Ruit, 55, an ethnic Sherpa who grew up poor in a remote mountain village on the border near Tibet. "They're such wonderful cases that make you fully convinced of the power of the work."
Sometimes the four-day mass eye camps are held in hospitals. Other times the surgery is performed in a classroom or government building in areas so remote or mountainous, they can only be reached by helicopter. Ruit has traveled to Afghanistan, Myanmar, Tibet and many other difficult places to work.
"I've never seen anything like this," says Dr. Paul Yang, chief resident at the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center, who came to the Nepal eye camp to learn Ruit's trademark technique. "In the U.S., all the technology is more modern and more optimized, but it can't compete with the volume here. ... You take back what's learned here and apply it elsewhere for your whole life."
Cataracts, which form a white film that cloud the eye's natural lens, commonly occur in older people but also sometimes affect children or young adults. The condition first causes vision to blur or become foggy because the eye is unable to focus properly. As the cataract grows and matures, it can eventually block out all light. Exposure to harsh ultraviolet radiation, especially at high altitudes as in Nepal, is a major risk factor.
Dhanuk is one of three elderly women at this camp who's blind in both eyes from cataracts. She and the long queues of other skinny, barefoot patients move like choreographed ants from eye exams to dressing rooms for blue gowns and scrub caps, then to local anesthesia and finally to one of four operating tables.
Ruit is at ease while peering into the microscope hanging over the operating table as upbeat Nepalese music plays in the background. When the electricity goes out, his latex-clad fingers continue moving confidently with only one backup light shining into the eye he's restoring.
Dhanuk, who's the size of a 10-year-old child, is carried in and laid on the table. She cannot see Ruit or the visiting Thai surgeon who's practicing the technique on patients across the room.
"I'm afraid," she says, worried it won't be successful. Her long silver-streaked hair is pulled into the scrub cap, and thin golden bangles glow against her dark, cracked arms.
But she lies still and silent. All she really wants is to be able to feed herself again, go to the toilet alone and get back to her chores. She doesn't want to be lonely and frightened in one of the world's poorest countries, where life is as harsh and rugged as the Himalayas that shape it.
After smoothly creating a tunnel and a cut into the eye that Ruit compares to entering a boiled egg, the Indian-trained ophthalmologist pulls out a thick yellowish mass and uses a vacuum to clean out the rest of the eye. He carefully slides a tiny lens into place for focus, and Dhanuk's eye is now clear and brown, instead of opal. A quick, painless procedure.
Ten minutes later - after two other patients' surgeries are completed - she returns to the table for removal of the second cataract. Both eyes are then bandaged, and she's led downstairs to a small room filled with other patients just out of surgery. Here, she sleeps on the floor bundled under her son's watch.
The scene at this eye camp held at a hospital on Nepal's plains near the Indian border resembles an orderly refugee camp. Massive tents filled with wooden pallets, blankets and about 300 patients and relatives cover a huge section of the lawn. Women stir giant cauldrons of lentils, rice and vegetables over smoking fires outside, providing patients with three meals. Buses are constantly arriving with more people in need. No one pays for anything, and the entire cost is about $25 per surgery. That's $12,750 for all 510 patients, equal to only about three or four surgeries in the U.S.
Costs are kept down by keeping things simple. Using lenses manufactured at Ruit's Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, these remote eye camps are sustained through donations and fees from more affluent Nepalese patients seeking surgery.
At the teaching hospital, Ruit does more sophisticated surgeries. There's an eye bank for cornea transplants, and every day about 900 people - from a former prime minister's relatives to beggars off the street - arrive for outpatient treatment. Millions of lenses produced there have also been exported to dozens of countries, from Germany to Japan and Vietnam.
But it's not the technique or the lenses or the hospital Ruit is most proud of. It's the ripple effect from all of the doctors who come to Nepal to train under him and then go on to teach others who repeat the cycle.
Ruit says this is the master plan he and the late Dr. Fred Hollows, from Australia, always had not just in Nepal, but for the entire developing world. One French surgeon, for example, trained in Nepal under Ruit and took the technique to West Africa where 300 doctors in 15 countries are now using it.
With Ruit's stitch-free method, the vision restored is not quite as sharp as with the more expensive Western-style surgery. But it's close, according to a study conducted by Dr. David Chang, a prominent cataract surgeon from the University of California, San Francisco. It's also cheap, and the risk of complications is no higher.
"Dr. Ruit is as skilled as any cataract surgeon I know, and I suppose it is natural to wonder what he could earn with these same skills in an affluent country," says Chang.
Ruit admits life could have been much more comfortable if he'd simply left Nepal for a job in the West. But not many people have the opportunity he has had to make life better for others, he says.
"This is really too good for money," he says.
The next morning at the eye camp in Hetauda, Ruit stands in front of the hospital in the warm sun looking at five rows of about 200 patients from the day before. All of them, bundled in worn shawls and knit caps, have eye patches waiting to be removed.
Dhanuk is third in line on the front row. As soon as the bandages are removed, her face fills with life. She leaps to her feet smiling and pulling her hands to her chest in a prayer position, a traditional Nepalese way of giving thanks.
After nearly a year of total blindness, Dhanuk drinks in the blue sky, the green grass and all the other patients around her. She easily counts fingers, and then Ruit asks her to squeeze his nose if she can see it. It only takes a second for her jump up and grab it with both hands. Applause erupts in this moment Ruit calls the power of vision.
"It's so nice to see everything! I had a very slim hope, but god has blessed me!" Dhanuk says, smiling. "I used to pray before going to sleep to all the gods and goddesses for my sight to come back. I prayed to god, but I think god did it through this doctor."
