Inspired

I have spent five of the last eleven days at two different conferences.  BLC'09 is a gathering of teachers, administrators, consultants and educational leaders who are committed to changing the ways students  are taught, largely but not exclusively, through the use of technology.  November Learning, the creation of educational consultant Alan November, puts together the conference which offers some cutting edge thinking on what schools should be doing.  

My favorite session however, had nothing to do with technology. Angela Maiers reminded those who attended her workshop about the important role schools play in the development of character.  Her theme dovetailed nicely with what I took away from The Leadership Summit, sponsored by the Willow Creek Association and hosted by Canyon Ridge Church.  Our faculty administrative team attended the two-day event in lieu of a retreat we hold this time of year.  It was time well spent.

A chunk of my time this summer has been spent in discussions about money.  Despite increasing financial aid by a third for next year, our funds are nearly exhausted.  Parents are still losing jobs on an almost daily basis, and students who have spent more than a third of their life at Faith face the prospect of not finishing at our school.  It is heartbreaking.  I have had families whose homes are in foreclosure say they would rather lose their house than give up a Faith education and I touched on that in March.

But over the last two days, the needs of other people were brought into sharp focus. There remain too many places where people live on about a dollar a day; there are too many places (one is too many) where children die from starvation; too many places where a simple $0.20 injection would prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child; too many places where the lack of clean water, mosquito netting or basic medical care shortens the lives of entire villages.

Even in the worst economic crisis many of us have ever seen, the Faith community is blessed beyond belief.  And while it is important that we attend to the needs of those hurting within driving distance of our school, we are doing our world a disservice if we don't engage our students with calamity facing peoples in Africa, Asia, South America and in the core of America's industrial centers.

One of my goals for our school is that our community (students, faculty, parents, churches) makes a difference in the world.  The issue is not resources, but will.  We see pockets now: MS servant event; food drives; Pennies for Patients, etc.  In eleven years here nothing made me prouder than our response to the Asian tsunami and the Gulf hurricanes three years ago. But I believe we can make a bigger impact through a sustained commitment to learning about the world around us, finding out where there is need, and developing (or joining) strategies to address the need.

I am not naive. I don't hope to end a world problem.  I just want Faith to be part of the solution.