Justice Seekers

“That’s not fair” said a student this morning as they encountered the first conflict of the day. I took a moment to help said student recognize that fair doesn’t mean everyone gets the same thing, it means everyone gets what they need.

At a conference on Christian education that I attended a few years back, a speaker summarized the central task of what Christian schools are called to. Beyond simply “filling” students with information, his summary was that “Christian schools ought to seek to recapture the first loves of our students and redirect them to the core of the gospel.” By first loves he meant the things that students long for, the priorities they organize their growing understanding of the world by, the objects or experiences they find value and identity in, and ultimately what it is they think they are living for.

This morning I listened in as a classroom re-visited the familiar story of Christ’s pathway to the cross. Students were led to consider the trial at which Jesus was accused of falsely teaching and leading people away from what was considered true and right in the eyes of the Sanhedrin. The students were both stretched and surprised as they saw the unjust nature of that particular trial, and the importance of valuing and maintaining justice as a society. Connections to stories of injustice, either personal or more public like those highlighted by the high-profile court case starting today, were meaningfully connected. This is the stuff of significant learning that changes lives.

Jesus speaks to us at length about the importance of taking up the plight of those who experience injustice in its many forms. It is our prayer that LCES works alongside the efforts of family and church to train the habits of our children to not only know the gospel, but as part of their core-being response “be” the gospel to a world that needs it. That’s a habit worth practicing! SJ