Let's Read to the Children

Let’s do something beautiful for God …and for our community. Let’s say, “Here we are, Lord, send us.”
I read a disturbing report the other day about the underachievement of African American males being a “national catastrophe.” The report, posted by Richard Prince of the Maynard Institute, quoted a nreport done by the Council of the Great City Schools which said that “black males continue to perform lower than their peers throughout the country on almost every indicator.”
The study said that there has been no “concerted national effort to improve the education, social and employment outcomes of African American males, who are not receiving appropriate attention from federal, state and local governments, or from community organizations.”
Dorothy Gilliam, a journalist who founded a group called Prime Movers, which provides mentors for high school journalists, said that the lapse for black kids starts early. “If young children are not being read to and communicated with at a level that encourages them to be inquisitive and learn, they are behind from the beginning.”
The report cited a host of social realities for black children which contributes to their academic performance.
We know all those factors. We’ve heard them all before.
So, let’s do something. Let’s do something beautiful for God …and for our community.
Beginning in 2011, let’s have a literacy program for young children. Let’s make it simple: having kids here at the church, with those who are so inclined to be here to read to them, get them to talk, open their minds and their natural inquisitive natures.
Let’s read to them stories we have all taken so much for granted. Let’s read to them so that they hear words and notice sentence structure. Let’s read to them so that their little eyes glisten and their spirits yearn for more.
Let’s do this. Let’s be a part of the solution, loving our kids and our community enough to do what we must for our kids. Perhaps the nation, the state, and the city will provide grants for us to build our program. Perhaps if we take one step, the Lord will take two.
That’s what we always say, right?
One of the reasons I always want a 12 foot Christmas tree in front of the church is to make a statement that Jesus is the light of the world…and Advent is the light of the community.
Let’s be a light; let’s serve our children. Let’s do it and set up a quantitative tool so that we can measure our progress and the progress of the kids.
It is a fact that all kids want to do well in school, and when they don’t they get discouraged. They become behavior problems, and eventually, they drop out. Once they drop out and begin to get into trouble, they become food for a greedy and unjust justice system.
So, let’s do something beautiful for God. Let’s make it a goal to help our kids, to keep a few more kids out of gangs, to raise the self esteem of our little black boys and prepare them to be competitors in this world that loses no love for those of our community who fall through the cracks.
Anyone interested, email me. Let’s meet and get this going. Let’s plan it out so that it has substance and form. Let’s set it up to be a success, to draw any kid who needs to come and who wants to come.
Let’s do something beautiful for God …and read to the children.

Pastor Smith