All Our Children

Lallie B. Lloyd

Description

All Our Children aims to create a moral imperative for congregations, faith leaders, and faith-based social justice groups to make advocating for quality public education for all an explicit part of their mission through partnerships with under-resourced public schools. Includes an Introduction and Epilogue as well as chapters executive summary and discussion guide written by diverse voices within the Episcopal Church, laying the theological groundwork while showcasing examples of how partnership between church and school can lift up “education as forming humans” as one way to serve God’s mission in our neighborhoods.

Foreword Gay Clark JenningsIntroduction Lallie B. Lloyd

Part One Discoveries of Disparity
A Social Movement for Education Justice Lallie B. Lloyd
Why We’re Here Diane Carson
Finding Jesus in Unexpected Places Jackie Whitfield
Part Two A Theology of Relationship
Public Relationships and Public Institutions Liz Steinhauser
Partners for the Kingdom Benjamin P. Campbell

Part Three Education as Justice
6. In the Beginning Catherine Roskam
7. Turnaround Audrey Henderson
8. An Ecumenical Public Education Initiative W. Andrew Waldo

Part Four The Reality of Socioeconomics
9. Gaps and Crosses A. Robert Hirschfeld
10. They Were Reading on the Bus R. William Franklin

Part Five Partnerships of Church and School
11. Giving Up Outreach Projects Hal Ley Hayek and Amy Slaughter Myers
12. Transforming Mission Alexizendria Link
13. The Journey Ruth Wong
Epilogue Lallie B. Lloyd

Appendix
A. Types of Partnerships
B. Ten Steps to Successful Church-School Partnerships
C. Partnership Prayers

Selected Bibliography

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Social Issues
• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Church Publishing Incorporated
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780819233486
• Langue: English

Extrait

All Our Children
All Our Children
The Church’s Call to Address Education Inequity
edited by Lallie B. Lloyd
foreword by Gay Clark Jennings
Copyright © 2017 by Lallie B. Lloyd
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV ® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ® ), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved
Church Publishing
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New York, NY 10016
www.churchpublishing.org
Cover design by Jennifer Kopec, 2Pug Design
Typeset by PerfecType, Nashville, Tennessee
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A record of this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8192-3347-9 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8192-3348-6 (ebook)
To all our grandchildren
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword Gay Clark Jennings
Introduction Lallie B. Lloyd
Part One: Discoveries of Disparity
One
A Social Movement for Education Justice

Lallie B. Lloyd
Two
Why We’re Here

Diana Carson
Three
Finding Jesus in Unexpected Places

Jackie Whitfield
Part Two: A Theology of Relationship
Four
Public Relationships and Public Institutions

Liz Steinhauser
Five
Partners for the Kingdom

Benjamin P. Campbell
Part Three: Education as Justice
Six
In the Beginning

Catherine Roskam
Seven
Turnaround

Audrey Henderson
Eight
An Ecumenical Public Education Initiative

W. Andrew Waldo
Part Four: The Reality of Socioeconomics
Nine
Gaps and Crosses

A. Robert Hirschfeld
Ten
They Were Reading on the Bus

R. William Franklin
Part Five: Partnerships of Church and School
Eleven
Giving Up Outreach Projects

Hal Ley Hayek and Amy Slaughter Myers
Twelve
Transforming Mission

Alexizendria Link
Thirteen
The Journey

Ruth Wong
Epilogue
Lallie B. Lloyd
Appendix
Types of Partnerships
Ten Steps to Successful Church-School Partnerships
Selected Bibliography
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the authors whose stories are the heart and soul of this book; to the members of All Our Children’s leadership team over the years, including Yamily Bass-Choate, Ben Campbell, Don Cowles, Bill Franklin, Meg McDermott, Suellyn Scull, Anne Tuohy, and Vicki Zust; and to my colleague Mary-Liz Murray, whose skill and professionalism are matched by her good humor and open heart.
This network, this movement, this dream would not be manifest in the world as it is today without the early, abiding, and generous support of Trinity Wall Street.
Foreword
In May 2016, just after the sixty-second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs. Board of Education , I traveled to Buffalo, New York, at the kind invitation of my friends Dean Will Mebane and Bishop Bill Franklin to attend an All Our Children forum. The timing was auspicious for a gathering of Episcopalians concerned with equity in public education. Brown vs. Board , which struck down state laws establishing racially segregated schools, was argued before the Court for the plaintiffs by Thurgood Marshall, an Episcopalian and deputy to the 1964 General Convention. We celebrate the Feast of Thurgood Marshall on May 17 in honor of his fight for justice in our schools and our society.
But, as I said in Buffalo, we need to do more than just honor the struggle of those who went before us. Brown vs. Board changed laws, but in the six decades since that landmark decision, the gains we achieved toward a system of public education that treated all students fairly, regardless of their race, have largely disappeared. The Atlantic recently reported that an analysis of federal data reveals that “in virtually every major U.S. metropolitan area students of color are much more likely than whites to attend public schools shaped by high concentrations of poverty.” 1
As community members, we know that the toxic mix of segregation and poverty found in far too many of our public schools is the product of failed social policies that cost taxpayers billions of dollars that flow through the school-to-prison pipeline. As Christians, we know that we are not respecting the dignity of every human being when children attend deteriorating public schools that cannot possibly help them reach their potential. And as Episcopalians, we know what we need to do.
Luckily, Lallie Lloyd and the passionate advocates of All Our Children have picked up the mantle of our brother Thurgood Marshall and can show us the way. Their work is buttressed by Resolution B005 of the 2015 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which endorses church-school partnerships. The resolution’s explanation details the staggering human and financial cost of educational disparity in the United States and says, “The church speaks a word of truth into this bleakness—holding a mirror to this scandal with unvarnished clarity. The church also brings a message of hope . . .”
In these pages, you will read about Episcopalians who are bringing messages of hope and holding up mirrors. At our very best, we Episcopalians are good at doing both. We can show up to tutor children, and we can speak at school board meetings where funds for reading teachers are on the table. We can collect school supplies and backpacks for children who need them, and we can meet with our state legislators and insist that the state budget fund education in more equitable ways. We can make sure kids get lunch during the summer when they might go hungry, and we can vote for candidates who support child nutrition programs. We can welcome immigrant and refugee families to our local schools, and we can refuse to countenance bigoted, hate-filled speech about immigrants with either our silence or our votes.
We can do charity, and we can do justice. We Episcopalians understand that acts of mercy and loving kindness matter most when they go hand in hand with advocacy that seeks to eliminate the root causes of poverty, inequality, injustice, and violence. Church-school partnerships give us the chance to do both, and I hope that the stories you are about to read will inspire you to join the All Our Children movement.
The Reverend Gay Clark Jennings President, House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church December 2016
_____________
1. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/03/separate-still-unequal/471720/
Introduction
Like other religions and denominations, the Episcopal Church has for many years and in many ways affirmed the importance of quality public education for all children as a justice issue, a moral issue, and a community issue. Since 1985, Episcopalians have passed resolutions at eight General Conventions and participated in ecumenical and interfaith collaborations resulting in documents such as the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.’s “The Church and Children: Vision and Goals for the 21st Century” policy statement in 2012. 1
However, the quality of US public education has deteriorated over these same decades.
More than twenty years after he was fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem to black fourth graders in Boston, Jonathan Kozol spent two years documenting the inequities between rich and poor students in cities like Detroit, New York, San Antonio, and Chicago. He documented in vivid heart-wrenching prose the inequalities between rich and poor children at school. In 1991 Kozol called his landmark book Savage Inequalities , and we are required to acknowledge now that our inequalities have become even more savage.
The Church’s statements, agreements, and resolutions have had little impact, which should not surprise us. Resolutions are not enough.
The Episcopal Public Policy Network (EPPN), 2 which implements national policy positions taken by General Convention can be of limited help here, in part because none of the Episcopal Church’s education resolutions directs a specific federal action, and in part because the federal role in education is dwarfed by the state and local roles. Only 8.3 percent 3 of the total funding for K-12 education comes from Washington, so while the US Department of Education has powerful regulatory and programmatic influence—and this is where the EPPN can make a difference—the US Constitution is unequivocal that public education is a state responsibility: it is a matter for our states, cities, and towns. To make a difference in public education, the church needs to be involved locally, regionally, and statewide.
About This Book
Instead of approaching the question of the church’s role in addressing our national education crisis as an abstraction (“What should the church do?”), we have instead gathered concrete examples of what the church is actually doing. When we ask about “the church’s” role in addressing education inequity, we acknowledge that the church is both an institution and a movement. This bipolar reality explains why some passages in this book describe the church’s role as either bottom-up or top-down. Resolutions, programs, and large initiatives proposed by church conventions bookend what local people in local contexts are doing in response to their particular calls from the Holy Spirit to act in their own contexts.
As editor, I share these chapters with some trepidation. Our sample is small and includes only a few voices, experiences, and perspectives. The stories and voices collected here are neither a scientific sample, nor a cross-section that cap