God's Heart for Urban Education 3

David Waters was at our gathering the night David Montague spoke. Afterwards he wrote a great article on MTR. Here's part of that article.

Virginia Boyd wants to serve God and Memphis by becoming the best math teacher any city school kid has ever had.

David Montague and Robin Scott want to serve God and Memphis by helping Virginia do that.

"You don't have to talk about the love and compassion and mercy of Christ to demonstrate it," said Montague, a former stockbroker turned public school evangelist. "Becoming the best math teacher a kid's ever had is a valid response to the gospel."

Montague and Scott are leading the Memphis Teacher Residency, one of many nonprofit organizations that have responded to the Gates Foundation's $90-million challenge to put an effective teacher in every Memphis City Schools classroom.

Like Teach for America and the Memphis Teaching Fellows, MTR seeks to recruit, train and support outstanding urban educators in Memphis. What makes MTR different is its mission to do that "within a Christian context."

MTR's "Christian context" comes in the motivation, not the implementation.

"It's a shared mission, that's the heart of it," said Scott, a former Indiana public school teacher and MTR's director of education. Teaching in large, urban systems "is too hard, too demanding not to have a sense of mission about it," Scott said. "You have to see urban education as a calling."

MTR recruits and accepts only candidates who believe that teaching in large, urban public schools systems is a Christian calling, not just a career. But candidates also must believe they should not discuss their faith in a public school setting.

"America is not short on information about the gospel," said Montague, a former Christian missionary who directs MTR's work from offices in the basement of Union Avenue Baptist Church. "It is short on demonstrations of the power of the gospel."

MTR's mission is to demonstrate the love of Christ by recruiting Christians who are committed to transforming the city's public schools into bastions of academic excellence for all children.

Christians committed to seeing academic achievement gaps as biblically unjust.

Christians committed to sacrificing their own standards of living to improve those of others.

Christians committed to serving their neighbors' children and not just their own.

"Twenty years from now," said Dr. Maxie Dunnam, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church, "when our educational system is more effectively and fairly serving the children of our city, we will look back and realize that David Montague and Memphis Teacher Residency Program played a major role in getting us to that place."

Read more here.

God's Heart for Urban Education 2

And now for some good news...God is up to something in Memphis!

Before diving into what that "something" is, let's hit a couple of theological points. The Bible speaks of a God who is not only capable of doing extraordinary things, but also one who desires to do so. In other words, our God is not only strong but also loving. If you believe this, then there's another point that the Bible makes clear over and over, and it's this: God loves to do the impossible, and He loves to use weak, desperate and dependent people in the process.

Everybody knows that Memphis has some BIG problems. Several times it has ranked at the top of various "worst cities" reports. So what a great place for God to do something extraordinary! As David pointed out, the richest man in the world has given $90 million to Memphis schools, and the most powerful man in the world has given $500 million to Tennessee, much of which will make its way to Memphis.

Oh yeah, and it was just announced that this same most powerful man in the world will be heading to Memphis in a couple of weeks to give the commencement speech at Booker T. Washington High School!!!

David believes that the epicenter for urban education reform is our city. All of the education reform organizations are now making their way to Memphis, and the world is watching to see what will happen next.

And what about the Church? Well, we get the opportunity to be the subversive community that we were meant to be. As David reminded us, the Roman Empire came to believe that Jesus was supreme not because the Christians were the most powerful political organization. It was actually just the opposite. The Christians had no political clout. They had actually been persecuted for 300 years. Instead, they were living out their beliefs in radical ways. They entered into the problems and saw God do the extraordinary through them living their ordinary lives with Gospel intentionality.

Today let us too enter into the big problems of our city, and together dream God-sized dreams, and then let us watch God do what only He can do!

God's Heart for Urban Education 1

Last night David Montague, director of the Memphis Teacher Residency, spoke at NC on the topic of God's Heart for Urban Education. You can listen to the talk here. In my opinion David has one of the voices that needs to be heard when it comes to education reform in our city. Below are some of the notes I took while listening to him.

First, some stats ('cause everybody loves stats, right):

• Memphis is the 24th largest school district in the U.S.
• There are 8-10 million students in those 25 largest districts
• Of those, 50% (4-8 million) will not graduate
• In 2010, the average ACT score in the city school district was 16.6
• In the county, the average is 28.3
• The injustice issue, according to David, is this 70% gap between the rich and the poor
• Average income for someone who doesn't graduate from high school is $17,000
• Average income for someone who doesn't graduate from college is under $25,000
• 90% of public school students in these 25 largest school districts will make under $25,000 for the rest of their lives. This is not sustainable.

David next talked about the role of the church in the history of education reform. He started with the 1800's, during which time it was illegal to educate slaves. He drew heavily from Frederick Douglass' autobiography, which is a free Kindle download. In the 1890's Jim Crow laws emerged, which supposedly gave "separate but equal" status for African-Americans, but in reality was anything but. One of the worst things about all of this is that the people who were passing these laws were sitting in pews on Sunday mornings, not seeing any discrepancies.

Fast forward to 1954, when Brown vs. Board of Education ordered desegregation, and you see another big shift. Now children of different races could go to school together. However, this was not to be the case, because it was during this time that many private schools, many of them opened by churches, began to come into existence. David was quick to point out that the injustice issue was not the opening of these private schools, but the fact that once again we were not putting the same resources into the schools in neighborhoods of choice that we were in neighborhoods of poverty. Check out the recent Memphis Flyer article for more on this.

That's the sad and bad news. Fortunately, David did not stop there. But since this is turning into a rather long blog post, I will. Tomorrow you get the good news!

To Consolidate or not to Consolidate

...is not the real question.

To be sure, it's an important question, but it's a secondary question. In my opinion, the primary question is the same one that Cain asked God as a response to God's question, "Where is Abel your brother?" Cain's response: "Am I my brother's keeper?" This is a question that needs to be asked as we as Memphis voters consider this decision.

I admit that I am not very into politics, and I realize that there is a lot that I do not know. But the more I learn, the more I am convinced that we, especially those of us in our county who consider ourselves to be followers of Christ, need to ask this question. How responsible are we to one another? How responsible are we to those children in our city who do have anyone taking responsibility for them? The answer to questions like these will determine how we make decisions in regards to an issue like this one.

The Commercial Appeal has a great section devoted to this issue on their website. One of the most helpful is this chart. It's very telling.

CA Article Getting Around

My pastor from our Nashville days just emailed me to say that our story is featured in a post at GetReligion.org.

Education Forum Tonight

Tonight we're having another education discussion for parents thinking about sending their children to Peabody next year. Some of us from this year's class will be sharing about our experience. Peabody's principal and a couple of teachers will be on hand to answer questions as well.

Where's the Love for the Grizzlies?

Yesterday the Grizzlies signed Rudy Gay to a 5-year deal worth $80 million. The critics are all over that move. The funny thing is that those same critics would have been just as upset had the Grizzlies let him sign with another team. They would have been claiming that the Grizzlies continue to show that they don't want to spend money (remember the Pau Gasol deal?).

Just a couple of days ago the experts at ESPN made their predictions as to where the top free agents would end up. Guess what they thought about Rudy Gay and the Grizzlies? None of them thought he would end up staying in Memphis. That shows the lack of respect people have for the Grizzlies (or Memphis). So the Grizzlies stepped up and paid Rudy Gay. And, yes, they probably paid too much. But I think they had to do it. They had to keep Rudy Gay as a Grizzlies.

So just remember. The Grizzlies were the surprise team this season. They exceeded everyone's expectations. And I think they'll continue to do so.

Update on Peabody Elementary School

This Lamplighter article was written by Lurene Kelley, who is a part of our little community of CY residents sending their kids to Peabody Elementary School next year.

Peabody Elementary has been in the heart of this neighborhood long before the community was called “Cooper-Young,” but is the school really in the hearts of CY residents? That’s the question school administrators would like its neighbors and local business owners to answer with a resounding ‘yes’… and some money, ideas, and elbow grease to back it up.

According to the school’s principal, Kongsouly Jones, because Peabody is a desirable optional school, approximately 50 percent of the student body comes from open enrollment. This means that nearly half of the children at Peabody live outside its designated boundaries.

Mandy Grisham, a member of the Peabody Leadership Board, says the first step in giving the school a more neighborhood feel is obvious – have more children who live in and around Cooper-Young enrolled at Peabody. This fall, approximately 10 children from the Cooper-Young Parents Network (CYPN), parents who live in or near the neighborhood, will be enrolled in this year’s kindergarten class (In fact, my own child will be among these kindergartners.)

Read more here.

Crazy Yahoo

I just went to Yahoo to check my email account. On the front page there's a headline that says, "City of Memphis asks Herenton to return..." I immediately checked to see what kind of craziness was going on in our city. Turns out we're not asking him to "return" but to "return money." That's much better.

A Community is Forming

Last night we had several families over for pizza and discussion. The topic of discussion: Peabody Elementary School. Three years ago my desire was to one day send my children to our neighborhood public school. At the time I hoped that one or two others would decide to join us. Last night I realized that my dreams have been two small. There are currently 10 families leaning towards sending their children to Peabody next fall. We have known a few of these families for awhile, but some are new friends. But the cool thing is that with all, the hopes and dreams are the same. It's definitely an exciting time!

Mandy has done an excellent job leading and facilitating these discussions. Check out her blog, as I'm sure she'll be writing about this.

Beyond Babyland

Beyond Babyland, a one-hour film, followed by a 60-minute panel discussion, premieres Monday, January 18 at 8:00 p.m. on WKNO/Channel 10. Award-winning filmmakers David Appleby and Craig Leake examine the problem of infant mortality in Memphis' poorest zip codes, and look at some of the people and organizations working to turn the tide and make a positive impact in our community.

Church Buildings For Sale

Over the past 24 hours I've noticed at least five church buildings for sale. All are listed by Charles Callis, known as "The Church Man." One of the more recent churches to decide to sell is Union Avenue United Methodist Church, at the corner of Union and Cooper. I would like to know how many church buildings are for sale in Memphis. I couldn't find any stats on his Crye-Leike website or at Loopnet. Here's a good article on Memphis Daily News about the Methodist Church building.

My Pretty Wife's Blog

Did you know that Mandy is blogging? She hasn't been very forthcoming with this news, so I will. That's what husbands are for, right! Last night she posted a 2-part synopsis of the Playback Memphis' new improv "experience" called Memphis Matters. Check it out!

Left Behind

No, not that Left Behind. This one. This week's Memphis Flyer has a great article about the new outer loop (I-269) that is set to be complete in less than three years. The question that is asked is how this will affect the city. Will this continue to push people out to the suburbs (whatever the suburbs will be defined as now)? Read the article, then check out these maps and graphics for more info.

Public School Closer to a Reality

I first wrote a post on our thoughts regarding public education in Memphis around a year and a half ago. Since that time we've continued the conversation with so many others about what it would look like for more people from our neighborhood to send our kids to our neighborhood elementary school (Peabody Elementary School).

It's hard to believe that Adam will be starting Pre-K next year. A few months ago we decided that we would like for Adam to go to Peabody's Pre-K program. We realized that we met the income requirements, so we began pursuing it. Last week we found out that 29 students tested lower than him, which means that he is 9th on the waiting list. We were a little disappointed, but knew that if God had other plans for Adam, that was what we wanted. So we began looking for Plan B. Mandy called several private pre-k programs. A few still had available slots.

We then found out that the principal at Peabody was referring familes who didn't get into the their Pre-K to Red Robin Academy, which is located in First Congregational Church here in Cooper-Young. So this morning Mandy and I met with Robin Mayweather, the founder and director of the academy. Right before pulling up, Mandy made the comment that we were going to have to figure out how much we could spend for Adam's education this year (part of the draw to public education is that it's free).

We went on a tour, then talked with Mrs. Mayweather in her office. We asked several questions, and then Mandy asked her for a tuition schedule. She looked at us a little strange, then said that the Pre-K program is the same as the one at Peabody. Both are a part of Memphis City Schools. That is, they're both free! We just kind of looked at each other.

It looked a door had been closed; one that, at the time seemed like a real "God thing." And now a new door opens, one which has all of the same goals and values behind it. There are still some things that we are a little concerned about, but for the most part, it seems like God is in this. I love the idea of walking Adam to school and of being involved with the families of the school. It just seems to fit so much of what we are trying to do here in Cooper-Young.

Cal Who?

Great article on Memphis' new head basketball coach!

Coach Cal Leaving?

Apparently Coach Calipari is announcing this afternoon whether or not he is leaving Memphis for Kentucky. It is going to be troubling for so many in Memphis if he leaves. Not only will we be losing a great coach (and a great Memphian), but we also stand to lose several prized recruits. It's also troubling for another reason, though: How concerned should we be that something like this puts us in such a state of depression? In the grand scheme of things, how big a deal is this?

Memphis Desperate for Money

Shelby County tax appraisals have started coming in, and residents are not happy. In a climate of decreasing values, it would seem logical that tax appraisals would also follow downward. However, that's not the case with most parts of the county. Here are a couple of articles (link, link) from The Commercial Appeal. Midtown & Downtown residents will find out at the end of this month, but I'm sure the bad news will continue.

A second example centers around my neighborhood. Over the last week or so we've had a code enforcement officer going around ticketing residents for very minor infractions (for example, having mardi gras beads on the porch). Now the first problem with this is that I'm on the safety committee of the CYCA, and it's going to appear to some that this is our doing. However, the primary problem is the motivation. Is it all about Memphis' need for money?

Everyone is struggling, and this includes the government, but the government shouldn't make their problems go away by adding to the problems of their residents. That's my 2 cents.

A Good Day

Today was a really good day. It was a family day. It was truly Sabbath. This morning I decided to take Mandy and the boys to Victorian Village. I had driven all around this historic part of Memphis but had never driven down Adams Ave. We're going to go again sometime soon and go on a tour.




When we got back I used an emusic coupon to get some new music - 50 new songs to be exact. I love music. Some of my finds: Bon Iver's Blood Bank, Great Big Sea's newest album, some Over the Rhine, a few songs by Adele, some Sufjan Stevens, and some Andy McKee.

After that Dad, Evan and Kelsey came over. Dad and I watched the Tigers beat UTEP. Great game. And it was great to see UNC lose to Maryland in overtime. We also enjoyed a little BBQ from Paynes after the game.

Finally, as if the day couldn't get any better, I introduced Adam to Star Wars tonight. We watched the first hour of Episode IV: A New Hope. Before you get too worried, I fast forwarded several scenes. Right before putting him to bed, I asked him if he liked it. His response: "I love Star Wars." That's my boy! My mom wants me to come by sometime soon and go through my toys, comics and baseball cards in their house. I'm looking forward to showing off my collection of Star Wars toys to Adam.

Oh, one last thing...in addition to being able to say Momma and Dada, Micah can now say Night night.

Most Miserable Cities

God loves Memphis. Too bad others don't. Forbes just named Memphis the #2 Most Miserable City to live in. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Sandwiched between Stockton and Chicago is Memphis, Tenn. The home of FedEx has an incredibly high rate of violent crimes, with only Detroit faring worse. The 1,218 violent crimes per 100,000 residents is more than twice the rate in the New York City metro area. The city's sales tax and rate of government employees committing crimes also fall within the 10 highest in the U.S. Pro sports has been a mess in Memphis in recent years as well. The city's lone major franchise, the Memphis Grizzlies, has lost 74% of its games during the past three years, the worst in the NBA.