The education of our youth is a sacred responsibility. We, as Unitarian Universalists, are passing along our tolerance, love and ethics to our young people and helping them to navigate the wider world. Is this the responsibility of one person, group, or sub-group of a congregation? Of course not! This is the responsibility of everyone in a congregation and in our entire denomination.
Personally, I love the way our congregation connects with our youth. We have a caring community of parents, RE Committee members, and our larger church to hold and care for our young people. We also have an amazing group of youth who are looking for ways to connect with our adult community. Is there room for improvement, for more? Of course! That’s why we have a structure in place to assist with this process, to assess and strengthen our relationship with our young people. Helping out in our classrooms once or twice a year is a great way to be involved in this co-creative process. We would love to have your assistance and for you to get to know our young people. We need you to be involved!
In contrast to the warmth of our OCUUC community, this month I was called in to work as a substitute at my previous job in the public school system. What did I find? A system gutted by budget cuts, valiant teachers and classified staff struggling to keep their chins above water with crushing work loads after mass staff lay-offs over the past two years.
I have also been following the story of public school teacher Rigoberto Ruelas, an involved and devoted LA teacher whose value-added score for raising math and English proficiency, published on a web site by the Los Angeles Times, rated him a “less effective” teacher. While the facts are not completely in, his family reports that he was despondent over the publication of this score. His body was found at the bottom of a ravine below a bridge.
While I share the love and ties that we have as a community at OCUUC, and treasure our relationship with our young people, I still have one foot in a low-income neighborhood in Anaheim. I see a public that is hostile to the very people who we have entrusted to educate our youth, denying them the basic resources and respect they deserve to do their jobs adequately. What can we each do to help? Upstream, write your local, state and federal legislators and demand adequate staffing and funding for public schools. Downstream, see what you can do to help out. Volunteer to work a half day at a school in Anaheim or Santa Ana. You’ll come away with a totally different view of our public education system. Very sadly, it’s not the public school system we attended 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago.
In Gratitude,
Rayna Hamre
OCUUC Director of Religious Education