Jay’s Blog – For the Least of These
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One of Jesus’s most famous, and perhaps most sobering, account is that of the Final Judgment in Matthew 25:31. Although He teaches most often through parables, which some understand and others don’t, here Jesus wants to make sure with this there’s no confusion. He says that, when Judgment Day comes, and He sits on His throne with the angels of Heaven, all of us will be gathered together with sheep (the chosen) on the right, and goats (not chosen) on the left. We’d all like to think of ourselves as sheep, as did the original hearers of the story. But Jesus won’t let us off the hook that easily.
Jesus welcomes the sheep into His Kingdom:
Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
The goats, who rejected and further marginalized “the least of these”, will face eternal punishment. Jesus wanted to be clear with us that our faith in Him, whether we are truly His, is marked by how we love and care for the least of these.
Scripture identifies the least of these as the poor, the marginalized, the downtrodden, the overlooked. In Jesus’s estimation, they aren’t the least of these because they matter less. Throughout the gospels, Jesus makes clear that these are subject to His special care, concern, and protection. Instead, they are “the least of these” both because of how they’re viewed by the surrounding culture and because of the meekness and humility that follow being overlooked and marginalized.
According to the Learning Disabilities Association of America, 20 percent of children in the United States–between 4 and 15 million children, depending on the definition– have some form of learning and thinking difference. Of these neurodiverse learners, only 8 to 10 percent have diagnoses and specialized learning plans in school. About 1 in 5 have learning or attention differences, such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, or ADHD. These are neurological in nature and don’t impact intelligence.
Roughly one in 54 students has Autism Spectrum Disorder, a developmental condition that affects behavioral, social, and communication skills. These students have more profound learning needs, often requiring a “shadow”, a learning supervisor or supporter. Learning differences are no respecter of faith, which means that these statistics are true for Christian families within the Body of Christ, i.e., those families we typically serve at our school.
I know what it means to have a learning difference. Throughout my life, I’ve had ADHD, and when I was a K-12 student, it was neither widely diagnosed, understood, nor addressed. I was simply “scattered,” “unfocused,” “overly talkative,” and “a daydreamer.” I didn’t know why I couldn’t focus or pay close attention in class. I just couldn’t, and I felt embarrassed and, at times, stupid. I had a few teachers who saw that I was actually intelligent and who took the time to help me learn, showing me rudimentary techniques like writing notes and what I was reading over and over as a way to help me focus. As I graduated from high school and went to college, I learned how to activate the hyperfocus of which I was capable, the ability to sit in a chair for hours reading and studying things I cared about. Eventually, I graduated in the top 15 percent of my class at law school, wrote for the Texas Tech Law Review, and eventually wrote my dissertation for a PhD.
But I never forgot what it felt like to be that kid, embarrassed and stupid and unfocused.
Years later, as head of this school, I’m praying to the Lord in 2017, asking Him for vision for what and who we should be as a school. Where should we go next? And as I prayed, I heard the small, still voice ask a question: “Do you love all the children I love?”
I knew what the Lord was asking. He was asking whether we, as a school, truly loved and served the least of these. Every time I remember that moment, it crushes me. Because as much as I wanted the answer in that moment to be “Yes, Lord!”, I knew that our school did not. At the time, we were pretty homogenous, serving kids who looked like the majority population, were upper middle class and, for these purposes, almost exclusively neurotypical, falling within a narrow band of high learning ability.
We had experimented with outsourcing help for some of our kids to some therapists in the past, but nothing on a broad scale. We had claimed it was a “resource issue,” but had we ever asked God to provide the resources to do it, or was that just an excuse not to love?
I shared with our leadership team and board what the Lord was placing on my heart, and asked them to pray for affirmation if this was truly the direction we should head. The Lord spoke to them as well, and the result of this visioning process was a plan to build out an Academic Success Center, a system within our school that would serve students with all of the learning differences discussed above, eventually even expanding, on a limited basis, to autism and Down syndrome.
Investing in our Academic Success Center took significant resources. Although parents pay a fee for their children to receive services, not all families can pay the full fee. Some of our families who receive financial assistance require supplemental ASC assistance, as well. We have to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to cover the cost of this program. But, I have to tell you, folks, these are the easiest dollars I raise every year. Because once people see what’s happening here, how Jesus is providing for the least of these through this beautiful ministry, they want to make it flourish and grow.
We have over a dozen teachers on both campuses working with 161 students, nearly 20 percent of our K-12 student enrollment, in elementary, middle, and high school, and Grace U. One of our Upper Campus students says, “I like being part of ASC and going to Learning Lab. It’s smaller, which helps me focus on the work I need help with. The teachers are really supportive, and do a great job explaining things when I don’t understand. They help me reach my academic goals.”
I know that bar graphs aren’t really supposed to bring tears to your eyes, but every time I look at our MAP (national assessment) scores for our ASC students as compared to the rest of our Grace kids, as well as the national norms, I get choked up. They tell the true story–the fact that our ASC students match, and in most cases exceed, the national norms of neurotypical kids elsewhere at every grade level in reading and math. They even tightly track the general population of Grace students, demonstrating first that learning differences are rarely a reflection of intelligence and second that the ASC is really, really effective at meeting kids where they are, loving and serving them.
But graphs and numbers only tell part of the story, and probably not the most important part. Sarah Jones, who leads the ASC at the Upper Campus, reminds us that the ASC enhances a school where kids already feel seen, known, and loved:
In a world that often celebrates quick results and visible achievements, students whose journey in life includes learning differences can often be overlooked. We have the profound opportunity to celebrate these differences that were made in the image of God. We have encompassed a deep hope within our ASC that seeks to ensure every student feels seen, valued, and is a testimony to God’s glory and work in their lives. We have to teach more than academic skills from our Christian perspectives. We have to build confidence, develop executive functioning skills, and create safe spaces where students feel that mistakes do not equal failures, but serve as stepping stones to greater success.
When teachers love and provide support like this, it changes kids. One student shared how the ASC changed her academically. “I never believed I would get over my anxiety and learn how to take time to think enough to pass high school. And now, I just received an academic scholarship to college.” Another shares how working with these teachers allows students to shed long-held lies they tell themselves, like the ones I did all those years ago: “Many teens like me think negatively about ourselves. The training for a growth mindset and the tools they give us help us work on skills without the negativity. I am truly learning that I can be different. Not less.”
Some of our children have more profound learning differences than others. Lily, whose siblings attended Grace years ago, has Downs syndrome. Her parents never thought all of their children would be able to attend Grace. Yet, now Lily joins her brothers and sisters as a Grace student, in a place where, as her parents say, she is “known, loved, and challenged.”
One of our children with autism, Liam, has special training with his teacher, Debbie Elrod, during much of the day, and enjoys inclusion with Grace U students for specials like art and music. Liam’s mom shares that, “one of the scariest places to be as a parent is to wonder: where is my child going to have a place? When you have a child with learning differences, that question is amplified. I want him to be loved and where people are going to see him in the way the Lord beautifully and uniquely crafted him. Through Grace and the ASC, not only has my child learned in a way that’s unique to him, he has been loved extraordinarily with the love of Jesus by both teachers and classmates.”
Anthony, another student with autism, is graduating from Grace this year. When Anthony first came to Grace in fifth grade, his previous school told his parents that he had topped out educationally–he would never read, write, or be able to do math. Yet, by sixth grade at Grace, he was doing all three. After graduation, Anthony is going to school in either Houston or California to learn filmmaking and editing, something his parents never dared dream for him years ago, now made possible through their partnership with Grace. “Grace saved our family,” his mom says.
Anthony’s dad points to a very real truth, as well. “Grace has changed Anthony, but Anthony has changed Grace.” These kids change the lives of our neurotypical kids, those who learn “normally,” teaching them to be more empathetic, compassionate, other-centered, and loving. More like Christ, which is probably why Jesus wants us to love the least of these. So we can learn to love like He loves, develop His heart, and be His children. All of these students make us a richer people, and our school community a more Jesus-filled place.
“Do you love all the children I love?” Heck yeah, we do. And it’s changed everything.
Jay Ferguson, Ph.D., Head of School at Grace Community School, writes regularly on his blog, JaysBlog.org.