I recently attended a White House event.
After showing my identification, guards confirmed my name on the guest list, and I walked into the East Room where the president and Mrs. Obama shared comments with me. Okay, me and 150 other people, as well as the White House press pool. After their remarks, I met with various White House staff and discussed reaching out to children.
Seventy-five minutes after entering our nation’s most important residence, I stood in a cold breeze on Pennsylvania Avenue and tried to gather my thoughts. My visit had no connections with popular and polarizing debates over stimulus packages, bailout funds, war, healthcare reform, and the recent Massachusetts election. Instead, I pursued the politics of kids. The what? The politics of kids: what’s truly important for our nation’s children. I learned plenty during my visit. Let’s go back in the White House and I’ll explain.
Created, in part, to recognize National Mentoring Month, the event took place on January 20, and it brought together about 30 mentoring organizations from across the country. The invitation to attend came as quite an honor and opportunity for Kids Hope USA. Attending with me were one of our church program directors, a mentor, and the young boy the mentor meets with every week. As the four of us made our way out of a security checkpoint and faced the east entrance to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, our seven-year-old companion spoke for all of us when he exclaimed, “Wow—this is sure a big house!”
The East Room reminded me of a hotel ballroom—a ballroom that included lot of television cameramen, photographers, and reporters focused on the words delivered by the First Lady and President Obama.
Some people like the president and his wife, some don’t. For anyone involved with reaching out to children, though, the words they shared—with no policy positioning attached—showed a piece of common ground everyone can claim as important. Especially everyone who loves children.
“People are doing [mentoring] because they want to be part of your lives,” Michelle Obama said to mentees. “They want to hear about your hopes and dreams and your passions and your struggles. They are here because they believe in your potential … each of us has the ability to move beyond the circumstances we were born into.”
I’m certain every mentor agreed with her words.
“We know the difference a responsible, caring adult can make in a child’s life,” said the president, ” … being that person in their lives who doesn’t want to let them down, and that they don’t want to let down; and refusing to give up on them—even when they want to give up on themselves.”
More agreement.
The common ground between the White House and the attendees: The need children possess for a caring adult to extend a loving hand. That’s the politics of kids.
After the First Couple’s remarks, we were given the opportunity to meet with staff members who oversee areas like the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. According to a few officials, our organization was one of only two faith-based mentoring programs invited. As such, many folks ask me about the progress made by churches in reaching into communities via mentoring. They were especially interested in discussing public schools, where many principals and superintendants desire partnerships with churches. (School administrators want houses of faith to step forward and interact with school children.)
Several conversations focused on how church/state separation can exist alongside church/state cooperation for the benefit of children. For too long, it seems, the church/state separation issue has focused exclusively on school prayer. As a result, churches erroneously believe school doors remain closed to them. But why don’t we focus on what can happen rather than what can’t? And here is what can happen: People from churches, motivated by God’s love, can extend love and hope to children who desperately need someone in their lives. That’s the politics of kids.
The enthusiasm expressed at the White House to learn how churches can play a large role in touching the lives of schoolchildren filled my heart with hope. I’ll let people much smarter than I am handle the many Democrat vs. Republican issue debates. The politics of kids, on the other hand, knows no party lines. Instead, many kids need to know that they matter to someone. That someone cares. That someone loves them. Too often, a “someone” does not exist in their lives. No matter how you vote, you can be that person.
After the White House, the four of us went to dinner. Before our food arrived, our high energy first-grade mentee wore out, leaned on his coat, and fell asleep. With a smile. For an entire day, he felt special. That’s the way, I believe, life is supposed to work.
That’s the politics of kids.
“Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you.” Isaiah 43:4a
  |
David Staal, senior editor of Today’s Children’s Ministry, serves as the president of Kids Hope USA, a national non-profit organization that partners local churches with elementary schools to provide mentors for at-risk students. Prior to this assignment, David led Promiseland, the children’s ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois. David is the author of Words Kids Need to Hear (2008) and lives in Grand Haven, MI, with his wife Becky, son Scott, and daughter Erin. Interested in David speaking at your event? Click here
©2010, David Staal
