A Child Is Born

Christians all over the world celebrate a great evening tonight. Our faith tells us that salvation has entered this world through an infant. Yet grace has come to us through a helpless and perhaps, snotty young child. It is a child no different from those we regard as a member of a low-income family that will probably qualify for a reduced-fee or even free lunch. It is a child who is likely to be an English-language learner. Will this child then have the grit to thrive in basic education? Or will this child be placed in a class of low expectations? Denied of privilege, this child may not even be prepared to enter kindergarten in a school where life begins as a race, a competition where getting ahead is key to academic success. How does a child of poverty cope with a world where life is a zero-sum game? How can a child surmount these challenges if the only way one child gains something is for another child to lose something? With this in mind, our faith shows likewise how important equity is in basic education. Every child is a hope. Every child is a gift. A Happy Christmas to all.

Woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld


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