bierkergaard

Luke 9:18 "Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?" I had several very fascinating conversations with students and parents/guardians today at school. A commonality in the conversations? Me asking a question based on something they said, perhaps an offhand comment. Unrelated to the purposes of why they came in to see me. Sort of like opening a door, the question opened up a room of stories. Some of them very sad. It is easy to not ask questions in an attempt to focus on the presenting problems at hand, move on, and keep things clean and tidy. Yet, without taking the time to pursue an opportunity to understand, the connections are not strengthened and the bonds are not bolstered. Communication and Community.   I have an African-American 70 year-old grandfather who has taken in his grand-daughter. We got in a conversation about racism. He has seen a lot of years and he speaks of a differ

In American society, there are few commonly shared institutions. Places where people of different beliefs learn to interact, communicate, and disagree in a civil manner. Learning to disagree fairly and constructively is perhaps the hardest lesson of all. I know that I am still learning how to do so. The public schools used to function in this role. These days the public school is one of the primary battlegrounds; education in general has become idealogical warfare. With the start of school, it is useful to reflect on the state of affairs.  There is no longer a common bus where we all ride to a civil society. As with most conflicts, it is easy to paint opponents in a negative light and present one perspective as right and the other perspective of wrong. This is fundamentally questionable. Very little in life is a simple as this, particularly complicated issues such as public education. There is a lot right with public education, there are things wrong. I have been greatly bummed