31/Jul/2008
ONLINE
EXCLUSIVES
UBC Column
Aftershocks
By Dr. Jay Hogewood, Pastor
University Baptist Church
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now. ~Romans 8:22
It was one of those moments taking the kids to school that the weight of faith mounted on my heart and head. “Do earthquakes happen everywhere?” My daughter asks. For the next few minutes we tie plate tectonics to natural disaster to God’s ways in the world. My son and my daughter are my captive audience: they cannot help that their dad is a preacher looking for any ripe moment to ply his craft.
Driving down Perkins Road is the best time to talk about anything from politics to LSU athletics, from world events to spiritual significance. And since neither child has worked up the nerve to jump out of a rolling car, they have to endure their dad’s round-abouts.
“Well, I guess an earthquake could happen anywhere, but usually only in certain places around the world,” I opine as if I really am a geologist. This set off a small tremor or two on their Richter scale. “Okay, but could one ever happen here?” They wonder; and since I’m not up to guarantees that I can’t keep, I offer: “Hmm, maybe, but it’d be really unusual.” I had hoped that they’d find comfort in the “really” before the “unusual,” but this topic was going to stick around for awhile. “What does God do in an earthquake?” That was my daughter’s follow-up.
This was more than my two sips of coffee had prepared me for that morning. And the spiritual aftershocks of the agony in China were rippling through our car. As I was struggling to answer, the kids were reading my hesitation like a thriller novel. Their ears must’ve been as wide open as their eyes. They were ready for some insight, some preacherly assurance or fatherly comfort, at least a fleeting glimpse of faith in the face of a challenging question to faith.
“I don’t know.” That was all the preacher had to offer? It was all my heart and head could muster: a meager, humbling, “I just don’t know.”
In the midst of twisted pain and crushing anguish with earthquakes to the left and cyclones to the right, the world forms the threshing floor of faith. These moments upon this sphere provide just enough space to consider again: God, are you there? Are you anywhere?
After a couple more minutes of pregnant pause, a small voice eventually rose up in our car. But it took one of my children to hear it first then put it in words I could get my arms around. “God is right there through the whole earthquake…helping people who are hurt…and everyone who is sad.”
I’ll admit that this whisper is not loud enough to drown out all my questions or maybe yours. I don’t believe it’s even supposed to. But that God is right beside us through all the tremors and troubles is an aftershock all its own – a shattering promise of comfort against the crippling waves of pain.
Teetering,
Jay
Is your child gifted?
By Jacqueline Mouton
When a child brings home a report card with bad grades because he or she has blown off assignments, it is easy to categorize the child as being problematic.
However, the International Association for Learning Alternatives (IALA), an association dedicated to promoting learning alternatives in education, says that boredom is a leading cause of low school motivation. Low motivation often leads to apathy and a decline in very capable students’ grades.
According to Linda Scholl at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, there are a sizable number of gifted children who find little in the standard curriculum to rouse their interest. Often times, unless they are challenged, these children will continue to bring home poor report cards. There is nothing more trying for a parent than when their child is not performing at their full potential. It can be even more frustrating when a child is gifted and not utilizing his or her “gift.”
According to Scholl, nearly 3 million kindergarten through 12th-grade students in the United States are identified as gifted, but 80% of them do not receive specialized instruction.
The Baton Rouge Gifted Program is an educational program for students from Pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade. Students enrolled in the gifted classes will find smaller classes and will be taught at a higher degree of complexity than the curriculum offered in regular classes.
Children who are currently enrolled in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System (EBR-PSS) may be recommended for gifted evaluation by a parent, teacher or guidance counselor. According to the Baton Rouge Association for Gifted and Talented Students, if the EBR-PSS receives a parental request to screen a child, they are obligated to do so: “High-scoring children are recommended for a full evaluation by the EBR-PSS Pupil Appraisal Department where, if deemed certifiable, are granted entry to the gifted program.”
Parents may also use a private psychologist to seek evaluation of their child’s giftedness. Even if a child is certified as gifted, the Gifted Program is not for everybody and a psychologist can help parents decide on the best educational course for their child.
For more information on the Baton Rouge Gifted Program visit: http://giftedtalented.ebrschools.org.
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