Marian Wright Edelman, the Founder and the President of the Children’s Defense Fund opens her book called The Sea is So Wide and My Boat is So Small with a prayer:
“God, we have pushed so many of our children into the tumultuous sea of
Life in small and leaky boats without survival gear and compass.
Forgive us and help them to forgive us.
Help us now to give all our children the anchors of faith and love,
The rudders of purpose and hope,
The sails of health and education, and the paddles of family and community,
To keep them safe and strong when life’s sea gets rough.”
In Judaism, education is a highest priority. If you don’t have funds to build a school and a synagogue, a school must come first. Education is the responsibility of the parent, and if the parent is unable, for any reason, that responsibility falls upon the community. And teachers are given the greatest honor. Parents bring us into the world. Teachers through what they teach us, bring us into the world to come. Our teachers help us create a better and brighter future for our children.
God forgive us. We have failed so many of our community’s kids.
We have pushed so many of our students into a turbulent sea with insufficient education to keep them afloat. Help us now to work in partnership with those of every faith and those of no faith, with those of every political persuasion and every background.
Let us not battle but together build for the children of Charlotte and North Carolina a solid education every step of the way from early childhood to our community and state colleges so that they can have stable vessels of knowledge and wisdom to carry them through life.
May we anchor our students with the basic necessities of food and shelter that enable them to pursue a passion for learning.
May capable teachers be the rudders that set them on their course and may we support, adequately compensate and show honor to our North Carolina teachers for their noble service by recognizing them as the professionals that they are.
Failing to support our teachers and their classrooms by providing assistants in the elementary years and offering early childhood educational opportunities to the economically disadvantaged robs our children of opportunities to grow.
May we provide our students with paddles of skill so that they can reach their destination of their choice and live meaningful, productive, and holy lives.
May our children be safe in our schools. May our children be successful in our schools. May all of us help to make it so. Amen.
One Response
Beautiful prayer, Rabbi. Thank you for standing up for children and education and reminding us of our obligation to do the same!