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My Brother's Keeper

by Kathy Brown on January 29th, 2010 | 2 comments

Having just returned from a meeting in Hawaii, I am reflecting on a number of conversations that meant more to me than the warm sand over my toes, palm trees that did the hula, the scent of floral leis, or even the sound of surf through the open lanai door at night.  Yes, the mental postcard that remains with me is a flashback of real people speaking from their heart about issues that matter to me and to them.

It is important to clarify these women with whom I chatted are not mere acquaintances.  We have gathered together before.  Most of them are in their fifties, they have wonderful families, and I count them as very dear to me.  They are also smart, articulate, and they sincerely care about many of the problems in our culture. 

One of my passions is changing the educational system in America.  Now that Ohio is my home, I live near Cleveland where the schools are failing entirely.  They rank at the bottom of every measurement scale.  In the course of sitting under the cabana, slathered with sunscreen, the conversation turned to this very topic.  It was clear that I was about as outnumbered as a conservative on “The View.”  However, I enjoyed listening to the concerns that were shared; mostly we were like-minded on the difficulties of teaching these days, on the lack of family solidarity and a general slouching of the work ethic and morality.  The obvious question was:  what should we do about it?

That’s when the answers became interesting.  One of my companions, who works hard on behalf of others as a fundraiser, wanted mandatory pre-school beginning at age two.  She felt that by the time kindergarten rolled around, it was too late to rehabilitate.    I wondered if that would apply to my kids, if they were still young.  Assured it would, I blurted out (not to my credit I suppose) that it sounded like the old Soviet Union or Communist China. 

My best friend in the group, whose son works in the roughest public schools in Boston, is a thinker and says it like it is.  She is usually a Democrat liberal, but confessed that she voted for the Republican Scott Brown.  That, by the way, sent me off rejoicing that perhaps things could really change.  She turned to me and, in her blunt way, inquired, “So what would you do to make schools better?”  As I explained that more money wouldn’t fix the problem, but more parental choice may, she upped the ante.  “So, how would that work exactly? Even if parents received vouchers to take wherever they wanted to go, wouldn’t children of irresponsible parents get lost in the shuffle? Would there be, by default, a school for all those students inclined to fail? “   I wanted so much to have a reply that would tie the whole matter up in a wrapped package expertly delivered.   Instead, we wondered if there is still a right in our country to be a negligent parent.  Or are we to be our brother’s keeper; and if so, who decides what worldview will be taught to them? 

Before we enjoyed the green flash of a Hawaiian sunset, we scattered.  But left behind, like footprints at low tide, was a Centurion’s dream topic begging to be explored.  And before you could say “aloha” or “mahalo” . . . it was. 

From Matthew 18:6

“ . . . but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

 

  

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This website was established by Kathryn M. Brown. Kathryn was commissioned as a Centurion in 2008 after participating in BreakPoint’s Centurions Program. This is a study program founded by Chuck Colson of BreakPoint and Prison Fellowship to equip Christians to train others with a biblical worldview and to turn the world right-side up through biblical thinking and living. For more information, visit www.breakpoint.org/resources/centurions.