Not so Blindsided
In the Seattle School District, if you are an African or an African American high school student, compared to your White classmates, statistically you are:
- Twice as likely to dropout of high school (12.9/6.5%).
- 2.5 times more likely to be truant (21/8.2%).
- 14 times as likely to have limited English proficiency (13.9/.9%)
- 6 times as likely to qualify to receive a free or reduced price lunch (69.9/11.4%).
- More than twice as likely to be living with one parent (70.3/31.9%).
- More than ½ a grade point lower in your GPA (2.37/3.02).
- Half as likely to get an A (25.3/51.6%), even on getting a B (28.9/26.3%), twice as likely to get a C (28/14.9%) and more than twice as likely to get a D (17.8/7.2%).
I don’t share these to make anyone feel pity or to feel bad. What I’d like people to feel is what I feel: I’m mad. This is just one population of young people who are living in a world where the random chance of their race is a major factor in their opportunities in life. There are also Asian kids, American Indian kids and Latino kids that experience a school system that at best is not geared for them, and at worst is biased against them. They live in situations that, through no fault of their own, are less than many of their peers. What I feel is a mixture of sad and mad—I hope you might let these ideas slip into your heart that you too might taste the bitter bile of sadness and feel the adrenaline of your anger.
In the movie “Blindside”, Leanne Tuohy and her family take in a homeless African American boy, Big Mike. The story is one of hope, love and redemption—but not just for Big Mike. Without spoiling the story (if you haven’t seen it, make sure you do) I’d like to say that Leanne and her family are changed at least as much as Big Mike. They chose to risk, love and believe in him. What they gain in return is just as Jesus speaks in Matt.19:29, a hundred times as much.
What I know to be true is there are more kids out there than we can imagine, who need an adult friend like Leanne. Some of them are Big Mikes, some are little Mikes, some are named Michelle, Susie or Sophia. They won’t all grow up to be professional football players but they might sell you your next house, sew you up in the ER, wait on your table at a restaurant or fight the fire at your house. They may need more help than a flawed school system, in a broken world can offer them. They need an adult who loves them without condition.
That’s why I am so proud of our Young Life Leaders. They are out there loving kids. Because we live in a multicultural world, many of these friendships are across cultural lines. And even though we talk about numbers of kids in our clubs and going to our camps, it really is like Leanne and Mike. Like Charles and Nate. Like Ashley and Jianna. Like Matt and Paul. Like Alicia and Julia. It happens because these leaders risk themselves in extending in a relationship with a young person. It changes both of their lives—that is a promise.
The whole school system looks like a huge mountain in the way of an equitable world. But what if Jesus, when he said, “By faith you can move mountains,” he was meaning we could do it if we each picked up our shovel and moved it a shovelful at a time?
Keep shoveling. We may not transform the school system but we can level the playing field for a few. Who knows what they might do when they pitch in with their shovel?
