By Fay Voshell
I have found myself remembering a child's prayer dating back to 1711. That year was a time in which little children were brought forth into a world they often too soon departed. Parents prayed with their children, reminding them about the fragility of life.
"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
Bless me Lord my soul to take."
The prayer isn't prayed much anymore. It's considered too violent and too morose for little lips to repeat.
Yet as we know, little souls were and are taken to God. Death came to a Connecticut schoolhouse last week. Violently, suddenly, before the children had another night's sleep. Solemn Death, as poetess Emily Dickinson noted not only stopped for her; but the Grim reaper also passed by children at recess.
But there is another great evil visiting the classrooms of our public schools every day, though it is often not recognized as such. That is the absence of learning about and confronting Evil.
When did we begin to think our children would be better off if they never knew about Evil? When did we begin to think we could spare all of them from even thinking about death and eternity? When did we decide the great questions facing humankind no longer need to be discussed, much less answered? When did we decide we humans could protect children from all harm, taking on the role of an omniscient and sovereign God even as we refused to give our little ones the moral compass and spiritual armor that would help keep them safe as they marched through life's fiery trials?
When we decided we could make school be an artificial paradise where no harm would ever intrude. Ever. That's when
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