Charles posted on March 18, 2010 09:54
I don’t know who the gentleman was on the news earlier this week, didn’t catch his name, but I’m fairly certain he is a member of President Obama’s administration, most likely the Education Secretary. In the brief time it took to order and collect my daily breakfast sandwich (and 3 chocolate chip cookies) to go, however, I knew that I did not agree with something I overheard him saying in an interview.
Now, that said, if you’re reading on only to find some ammunition for opposing democrats (or republicans for that matter), or to prove to someone why liturgical worship is better than contemporary or Burger King is tastier than McDonalds, then you really shouldn’t read much farther. I’m not out to skewer the new President’s stand on education or herald it over the former President’s. This guy on TV was basically saying that the new plan was to scrap “No Child Left Behind” in favor of something else. While I am telling you up front that I don’t believe the new plan will work, I never felt the old one was going anywhere either. In short, no political agenda here.
What really caught my attention was his reason why the new plan is going to work. “We are going to throw an unprecedented amount of money at education and…”
The ‘and’? Teacher accountability – The Law. More money…and more rules. Carrot and stick. Ho hum…
The reason I know the new program won’t work any better than the old one is because money doesn’t educate kids. Teachers educate kids, and by teachers I mean: school teachers, Lutheran school teachers, Sunday School teachers, Pastors, parents, grandparents, etc. Children are taught by the important people around them who give of themselves out of love and not for personal gain.
You are a teacher, parent, grandparent, etc. (select all that apply) and I am a teacher, parent, grandparent. And, unless you are very different from me, nobody has sent you a check yet for loving and teaching your kids.
But suppose someone did. Would it make you love or teach them any more than you already do? No, I believe that you already give it your all.
When God looked at our sinfulness, He, also, did something unprecedented - unheard of and unthinkable, too. He sent His only Son to die on our behalf, to pay the debt we owed. No amount of anything else would do, not even money. Only the unselfish and personal sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.