Last year during two research projects, I encountered in a few students a quality that I feel needs more careful attention—spirituality. Some children and adolescents in the schools in which I worked were living in the kind of poverty and degradation that would shock most of us, and yet they were thriving. In every instance, these students were deeply religious. The ones I met were Christian, yet none of them was concerned with censorship, gaining control of the curriculum, or other issues often identified with the Religious Right.
Although I don't consider myself spiritually mature enough to speak knowledgeably on student spirituality, I am reminded by a verse from a Psalm that everything doesn't need to be accompanied by an academic explanation—“Out of the mouths of babes and infants, He draws His defense against His foes.” In that spirit, I offer the following voices and experiences.
In one meeting, graduates brought back to their high school to talk about how the experience of school could be improved spoke repeatedly of God and Jesus. One had been deeply involved in gangs and drugs at school. In another instance, a young couple who had both engaged in criminal activity (one had “done time”) now work to help their own and other children in the school and neighborhood. They, too, credit God and Jesus and a local minister for saving their lives.
One middle school student wrote: We have a Levite club at school. It's fun to talk about God with our friends. My mom comes with me when we have prayer in the morning. It's really cool.
Another middle school youngster wrote about how the club meetings held on campus before school were an important influence on her life: The Levite Club is such a positive club. It's the best one at [the school]. We don't just talk, we are THE ACTION of changing our students' minds about school being stupid. We have changed so many kids' attitudes toward school for the better. We've grown more than 30! I am a leader there because to me the best thing I could do for anybody is tell them about my friend JESUS CHRIST, then they don't want gangs anymore, it's not enough. But tell them about JESUS and some just are so happy they can't get enough. I'm part of this because I care.
I hope these young people's voices will remind us in the midst of our arguments over laws and policies that there are children in our schools desperately in need of something more in their lives than the issues we argue so vehemently for or against. I offer their words in defense of God and children.
