The bell is poised to ring. The teacher breathes deep. Pencils sharpened to a perfect point and stacks of brilliant colored paper arranged in neat bins. Bulletin boards fresh and bottles of glue in tight little rows. Everything in just the right place.
Waiting for eager voices to enter with nervous laughter. A new school year stands ready to begin. Be it public, charter, or private, our nation’s schools will open their doors to millions of this year.
Millions of hurting students. And millions of exhausted teachers.
The church has an opportunity.
I’m moving into my 12th year of teaching. I’ve been in public schools and private schools. No matter where you are, the need is great.
Often we get caught up in policies and procedures, standards and testing. We take sides, we argue, we draw lines in the sand. But every teacher I know will tell you the greatest problem education faces today is the brokenness of our nation’s children.
Have you ever tried to take a final exam knowing you’ve just been kicked out of your home? I taught a student faced with that very heartbreak this year—a good kid, a 17 year-old almost-man with tears in his eyes.
He wasn’t the only one of my students kicked out of his home. There were others. Always one too many. I’ve taught homeless students. Students working close to 40 hours a week just to help parents pay rent. Students whose parents invite them to get high.
There are days I see so much heartache, I struggle to climb from the bleakness.
The church has an opportunity.
If I have learned anything from the classroom it’s this—students respond to love. So do teachers. Though the Gospel message cannot be shared in every classroom across our nation, the love of Jesus Christ cannot be stopped.
One of the greatest displays of love is through the act of service. Because love is always an action. When love is acted out, without an agenda, humanity is moved. How can you, your women’s ministry, small group or even church serve your neighboring schools—public or private?
I have a few ideas.
- Take a teacher dinner on the first day of school—any day of school.
- Ask a teacher from your community if she needs classroom supplies.
- Donate food to the school food bank, backpack ministry, or other various charities that work to feed children over the weekends and through the summer months.
- Offer to feed sports teams before games.
- Cater a lunch for your neighboring school’s faculty during preplanning or other times throughout the year. Or just bring donuts one morning.
- Volunteer to be a reading buddy for students. Or just volunteer.
- Mentor older students by meeting them for lunch or showing up for their school events.
- Can your business hire or apprentice economically disadvantaged students?
Some ideas are simpler than others. Some require a greater investment. This list is just the beginning of possibility. But Jesus never promised loving was easy. His idea of love took Him to a cross with nail-pierced hands.
Love isn’t without effort, but it’s necessary. For our nation’s schools to survive, they need to experience the hands and feet of our Jesus kind of love.
The church has an opportunity.
Heather Iseminger, her husband Michael, and their two children live in Florida. Heather teaches high school language and composition. You can read more from Heather at her blog, PetalsofJoy.org.
