Educating Our Youth

Educating Our Youth

During our staff training we had the opportunity to watch a film about the education system in America called "Waiting For Superman." The documentary highlighted five families that were currently involved in one of the most surreal aspects of our present public education system, school lotteries. These school lotteries that leave the fulfillment of a child's hopes and dreams to nothing more than a series of random numbers. This was my first time watching this film but as I was watching it I began to become heartbroken because the parents desired a great education for their children but weren’t able to get it because of the low quality of schools in their area. I could empathize with these parents because being a parent myself I want the best for my children, especially with their educational endeavors. I enjoyed this quote by the narrator of the film, “I think that every kid, no matter where they are born or what they have been given in life, deserves a great education." I believe we, as a country, and especially Christians should desire a great education for all kids across America. It shouldn’t matter the status of the child or where they come from to determine the type of education they get. After watching this film I was left with this question: how do I as a Christian respond to the current state of our education system? I believe we have answered this question at Sunshine by volunteering in our local schools and providing afterschool programs for our kids. Although we aren’t in government to change laws that can help better our schools we can do tangible things like this to support our local schools and come alongside our kids to support them.

Nikki Blodgett
Summer Youth Intern
Nikki will be junior this fall at Moody Bible Institute. She is a youth ministry major.