I thank God every day I can send my students to a Catholic school. Their school does a beautiful job of complimenting our parental teachings on what it means to love one’s neighbor as Jesus loves us. I much prefer this type of teaching to what most public schools call “tolerance” programs. (More on that later.)
My daughters play volleyball on their high school team. One of the topics of discussion after one of their away games at an inner-city Detroit school was the moment of silence asked for during the game in memory of one of the students at the opposing school who died tragically as an innocent bystander in a shooting incident. My children and their friends were deeply affected, being forced to think about what it would be like to live and go to school in a place where they often feared for their safety. An interesting fact is that their opponent is a predominantly African American school, while my children attend a school where there are few students of such ethnicity. (This seemed to matter little to my children and their friends, however…)
There are, however, many students at my children’s school from Mexico, the South American countries and even Spain and Korea, due to a flourishing boarding program in the middle school, and an active student exchange program in the high school. My children have met some of their best friends through these international programs, and stay in contact with these new friends via Facebook. Two of my daughters have even taken trips to Mexico and Spain to visit these friends or to go on mission trips.
Also, as a result of the athletic program at my children’s school, they have met several Jewish students from the Jewish academy in their sports division. My children comment on how they very much enjoy playing against this school because these students have one of the best attitudes of any of the school’s they play. In a word, these students are “good sports.” (Interestingly, one of their most coveted activities at my children’s high school is the senior trip to Israel to visit the Holy Land, where the students get to experience some of what they see on the news first hand.)
I mention these situations because, in our world and culture today, my children’s private Catholic school would not be viewed by many as a place that encourages the popular concept of “tolerance.”
I was watching “Starting Point” on CNN this morning, a program which includes a group of young “journalists” who embrace the popular “tolerant” worldview. During their conversational chat, they brought up the American Family Association’s “feud” with the Southern Poverty Law Center. AFA is currently opposing the SPLC’s public school program “Mix It Up” Day. The program is supposed to discourage bullying by asking students to sit with children at lunch who they would not normally sit with. (What a nice idea…this is something I try to encourage my kids to do at their school regularly. We frequently discuss their efforts to make friends with new students, or to be inclusive to students they perceive as marginalized. That is what it means to be Christian.)
The CNN journalists said the AFA and SPLC should just sit down together and try to talk things out rather than by “hating” each other. (Similar to what is happening at “Mix it Up” Day. Again, what a nice idea…)
