KNEE JERKING & COMMON CORE

Knee-jerking can be dangerous, especially for educators. 

Knee-jerking.  You know, a reflexive/ “knee jerk” response.  Like when President Obama pats his dog on the head and Republicans issue a statement denouncing the socialist movement to give animals the same rights as humans.

Knee-jerking.

We're all guilty of it, especially in our politics.  Most of the time it's slightly stupid.  Sometimes it's seriously funny.  But, it can be profoundly dangerous, especially when you don't realize that someone is manipulating your knee-jerks to make you march zombie-like in a direction you wouldn't choose if you were thinking instead of just reacting.

I'm thinking about the debate in Alabama over repealing Common Core Standards.

A couple years ago, when we started the process (the quite poorly executed process) of explaining Common Core Standards in Alabama, most classroom educators knee-jerked against it.

It was just more crap to memorize. We’d have to dump all those AHSGE desktop files and classroom posters and create a whole new set of documents to mindlessly copy and paste into lesson plans and student notebooks. 

We knee-jerked against Common Core without really examining it.

Then it became the rule, so we accepted it, but few classroom teachers (none I know personally) were actually excited about it.

Now, the Republican-dominated Alabama legislature is trying to repeal Common Core in Alabama, and educators are up in arms.

Why?

Now, I’m not a Republican.  I think that the current crop of Republican state legislatures is deliberately trying to destroy public education in America.

But, why are so many of educators suddenly passionate about protecting a set of rules for which they felt zero passion a few weeks ago?

Knee-jerking.
And I felt it, too.  That involuntary flinch forward into spontaneous activism  because THEY are against something related to education.  THEY being Alabama Republicans, the ancient enemies of all institutions with the word “public” in their designation----- public schools, public lands, public parks, public restrooms, ...

I am not opposed to the Common Core Standards. 

Or, as the debate is current framed, I am not in favor of the Republican plan to repeal Common Core Standards. 

(Notice the subtle difference there.  Are we considering the merit of the standards or are we reacting to a move by our political opponents?)

But what has effectively happened is that the Republican opposition to Common Core has achieved in 2 weeks, what 2 years of powerpoint presentations from the Alabama Board of Education had failed to accomplish:   Educators across the state now overwhelmingly support/buy-in to the new Common Cores Standards.

I’m not telling you to stop calling your legislator.  I’m not telling you what to say when you call him/her. 

All I’m asking you to do is ask yourself 2 questions:

(1) Did you arrive at your current position on this issue  by way of reason or by way of a series of knee-jerks?

(2) And if you knee-jerked to this point, who is it who’s been tapping your knee?

Educators are the smartest group of professionals in this country.  We’re so smart that people pay us to make other people smart.  So, if we let ourselves get knee-jerked around the socio-political landscape, then what hope is there for rest of America.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

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Mail all contributions to :
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Montgomery, AL 36116

BLESSING AT THE SCHOOL INTERSECTION

At certain times in my life, God has positioned me with a particularly gifted group of people who are only together in a certain place for a limited time.  Those intersections of person, place, and anointing teach you things about your work and yourself that you could not have learned any other way.
 
I like to think that those intersections happen for all of us.  I know that when they happen we often don’t realize how special the moment was until it’s passed.

This past Friday night I realized that I had been at such an intersection, ironically in a context that supposedly excludes God.

Friday night, the youth praise dance team of the church I pastor performed before a packed house at the most powerful youth worship service I’ve ever been a part of.  The worship was at Anointed Remnant International Ministries, which is pastored by Rev. Willie Bradley.  I worked with Pastor Bradley/ Lt. Col. Bradley  when he was commander of the JROTC unit at Stanhope Elmore High School.

The youth conference was sponsored by the Gateway Youth Initiative, a ministry of the church pastored by Rev. Emmett Johnson.  I worked with Rev. Johnson/ Sgt. Major Johnson when he was JROTC instructor at SEHS prior to Pastor Bradley.

The M.C. for the youth conference was a young brother named Jhae Ray.  Brother Ray was my office aid while I was assistant principal at Stanhope Elmore High School.

The offering was blessed by a young minister named Damian Williams, who was a student while I was A.P. at SEHS.

The praise team that led devotion included 2 other graduates from my time as A.P. at SEHS.

The adult praise team of the host church was led by a man my wife taught at Carver High School.  His wife, one of the lead singers of the praise group, was my student at Carver Jr. High School. 

As youth choirs, soloists, praise teams, and youth preachers came forward to minister in an evening of mind blowing praise, prayer, and petition, I saw student after student and graduate after graduate who love Jesus with all their hearts and are deeply and dynamically engaged in the work of their churches.

We complain sometimes about the government taking God out of the schools, but I don’t think God ever actually left.  

I think that a lot of people in our schools stopped talking to God, but He never stopped being there.  

All the while some of us have been acting as if God was gone from public education, God has continued to work with and work on those of us who still seek him at school.  All the while God has continued to save, anoint, call, and commission students and educators to serve Him in magnificent ways.

I realize now how blessed I have been to walk the educational halls I’ve walked.  I see a little more clearly that Holy Spirit filled Christians in the public school system are not the powerless, nearly extinct species that we thought they were. 

I don’t quite understand it all yet, but I do see that those intersections inside the public school were more than progressions in a professional career.  They were Divine appointments as part of an eternal agenda. 

It’s not “just” school.  It’s an intersection of God’s people involved in God’s agenda.

I’ll remember that.

You, remember that.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a pastor, writer, community organizer and consultant for education and ministry.

Call him at 334-288-0577
Email him at atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend Anderson at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116