WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
February 18th 2007
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“The Life and Witness of Lucy Craft Laney”
Deuteronomy 6:1-14
I believe it is impossible to measure the impact of a teacher upon lives of his or her students. I say this not to flatter the many professional educators in our midst but because it is true. I am sure the each one of us remembers those teachers who have impacted our lives. Some of these teachers have been professional educators but there are many other teachers who have taught us important life lessons. Parents, grandparents, family and even the family of faith have an important role to play in the lives of children. They look to us for guidance and direction. Each child is affected by the way we nurture them and welcome them in the family of faith.
Historically, in North American churches, the role of education is something which was often done by an apparatus of the state. Most commonly this was done in the schools. As our public education system came into being, it used the protestant interpretations of the bible to guide moral teaching. While this worked well for those in the protestant churches, it proved rather detrimental when our privileged system came to an end. Many of us in the church are simply unprepared to take on the role of passing along the stories of faith and our faith to the next generation. The fight over how to respond to the “taking God out of school,” is one for which I am not interested. I am not interested because as we wage this fight the next generation of our children is left to fend for themselves. It is those of us in the church that bears the responsibility of nurturing faith in all children with whom we can have an impact. Unless we take up this challenge our children will be unable to claim faith in Jesus Christ and the stories of our faith for themselves.
This morning we come face to face with an educator who took this challenge to heart. In time when education was simply unavailable to her people, she did whatever it took to educate the children with whom she had contact. Lucy Craft Laney was born on April 13th 1854 in Macon Georgia. Though it was eleven years before the end of slavery, Lucy was born free. Her father, the Reverend David Laney, a noteworthy Presbyterian minister and carpenter had purchased his families freedom before her birth.
Throughout her life, Lucy had many teachers. Her parents taught her the importance of dedication, hard work and generosity towards all people, particularly to those in need. By the time Lucy was four years old, she could read because someone noticed her keen interest in books. Because those around her took notice of her, Lucy’s significant intelligence was nurtured.
By age of nineteen, Lucy Craft Laney graduated with the first class to ever graduate from Atlanta University. After graduation Lucy focused her full attention to teaching. After a few years of moving from town to town, Lucy finally settled in Augusta, Georgia. It was there that she partnered with the Christ Presbyterian Church to form a school. The first year Lucy only had six students and very little money. By all appearances it was a venture that was doomed to fail. However, two years later the school had graduated its first class and had 234 students. In fact, in order to serve all the students seeking an education, a new facility and more money was needed.
The scale of this project meant she would have to find a more suitable partner. That year, Lucy Craft Laney saved all the money she could and paid her way to Minneapolis MN. It was there that she attended the Presbyterian churches General Assembly to ask for their support. While many were moved by her story and the need, the church was faced with a severe lack of funding and as a result, mission funding had to be reduced. However, a collection was taken to cover her traveling expenses.
After returning to Augusta, Lucy received a letter from the president of what is now called; the Presbyterian Women. The woman’s association was so moved by her work and dedication that they sent her a check for ten thousand dollars for Lucy to continue God’s work. She was so moved by this gesture that Lucy named the new school after the head of the Presbyterian Women. In the fall of the next year the Haines Normal School moved to its new location.
As an educator, Lucy Craft Laney was a visionary who pioneered what was known as the total school curriculum. She believed that the basics were important but believed that more was needed in order to develop whole person. The school taught the traditional arts and sciences but also job training and vocational programming. She inculcated, in her students, a sense of responsibility and service. But her work did not end with the Haines Normal School. In fact, Lucy Craft Laney created the first black Kindergarten in Augusta, the first black nursing school in Augusta, and the first football team from a black high school in the state Georgia.
Lucy’s influence was far reaching. It even reached the White House. In the early days of the Haines School, a woman by the name of Mary McCloud Bethune came and worked with her. Bethune was so impressed with Lucy’s dedication and planning, that she moved to Florida and founded the Bethune-Cookman College. Not only is she credited with founding the college, Bethune later became an advisor to president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Her influence ran from a small school in the basement of a church to the halls of power in this country. It is am impressive story. However, who really knows the untold impact that this one woman had on the lives of so many people simply because she dedicated her life to children.
There is no doubt that education is important. And, the importance of education is critical to any community of faith. We live in a time when the culture does not do this work for us. However, I believe that is a good thing. It our responsibility to be the bearers of our tradition, it is our responsibility to educate all our children. It is up to us, each one of us, to make sure that all the children know the stories of our faith so that they too may claim it as their own. Without us, how will they know that the greatest commandment is this?
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
May the life and witness of Lucy Craft Laney touch each one of us to so that we will do whatever is necessary, whatever is asked of us to be educators for all God’s children. Amen.
February 18th 2007
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“The Life and Witness of Lucy Craft Laney”
Deuteronomy 6:1-14
I believe it is impossible to measure the impact of a teacher upon lives of his or her students. I say this not to flatter the many professional educators in our midst but because it is true. I am sure the each one of us remembers those teachers who have impacted our lives. Some of these teachers have been professional educators but there are many other teachers who have taught us important life lessons. Parents, grandparents, family and even the family of faith have an important role to play in the lives of children. They look to us for guidance and direction. Each child is affected by the way we nurture them and welcome them in the family of faith.
Historically, in North American churches, the role of education is something which was often done by an apparatus of the state. Most commonly this was done in the schools. As our public education system came into being, it used the protestant interpretations of the bible to guide moral teaching. While this worked well for those in the protestant churches, it proved rather detrimental when our privileged system came to an end. Many of us in the church are simply unprepared to take on the role of passing along the stories of faith and our faith to the next generation. The fight over how to respond to the “taking God out of school,” is one for which I am not interested. I am not interested because as we wage this fight the next generation of our children is left to fend for themselves. It is those of us in the church that bears the responsibility of nurturing faith in all children with whom we can have an impact. Unless we take up this challenge our children will be unable to claim faith in Jesus Christ and the stories of our faith for themselves.
This morning we come face to face with an educator who took this challenge to heart. In time when education was simply unavailable to her people, she did whatever it took to educate the children with whom she had contact. Lucy Craft Laney was born on April 13th 1854 in Macon Georgia. Though it was eleven years before the end of slavery, Lucy was born free. Her father, the Reverend David Laney, a noteworthy Presbyterian minister and carpenter had purchased his families freedom before her birth.
Throughout her life, Lucy had many teachers. Her parents taught her the importance of dedication, hard work and generosity towards all people, particularly to those in need. By the time Lucy was four years old, she could read because someone noticed her keen interest in books. Because those around her took notice of her, Lucy’s significant intelligence was nurtured.
By age of nineteen, Lucy Craft Laney graduated with the first class to ever graduate from Atlanta University. After graduation Lucy focused her full attention to teaching. After a few years of moving from town to town, Lucy finally settled in Augusta, Georgia. It was there that she partnered with the Christ Presbyterian Church to form a school. The first year Lucy only had six students and very little money. By all appearances it was a venture that was doomed to fail. However, two years later the school had graduated its first class and had 234 students. In fact, in order to serve all the students seeking an education, a new facility and more money was needed.
The scale of this project meant she would have to find a more suitable partner. That year, Lucy Craft Laney saved all the money she could and paid her way to Minneapolis MN. It was there that she attended the Presbyterian churches General Assembly to ask for their support. While many were moved by her story and the need, the church was faced with a severe lack of funding and as a result, mission funding had to be reduced. However, a collection was taken to cover her traveling expenses.
After returning to Augusta, Lucy received a letter from the president of what is now called; the Presbyterian Women. The woman’s association was so moved by her work and dedication that they sent her a check for ten thousand dollars for Lucy to continue God’s work. She was so moved by this gesture that Lucy named the new school after the head of the Presbyterian Women. In the fall of the next year the Haines Normal School moved to its new location.
As an educator, Lucy Craft Laney was a visionary who pioneered what was known as the total school curriculum. She believed that the basics were important but believed that more was needed in order to develop whole person. The school taught the traditional arts and sciences but also job training and vocational programming. She inculcated, in her students, a sense of responsibility and service. But her work did not end with the Haines Normal School. In fact, Lucy Craft Laney created the first black Kindergarten in Augusta, the first black nursing school in Augusta, and the first football team from a black high school in the state Georgia.
Lucy’s influence was far reaching. It even reached the White House. In the early days of the Haines School, a woman by the name of Mary McCloud Bethune came and worked with her. Bethune was so impressed with Lucy’s dedication and planning, that she moved to Florida and founded the Bethune-Cookman College. Not only is she credited with founding the college, Bethune later became an advisor to president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Her influence ran from a small school in the basement of a church to the halls of power in this country. It is am impressive story. However, who really knows the untold impact that this one woman had on the lives of so many people simply because she dedicated her life to children.
There is no doubt that education is important. And, the importance of education is critical to any community of faith. We live in a time when the culture does not do this work for us. However, I believe that is a good thing. It our responsibility to be the bearers of our tradition, it is our responsibility to educate all our children. It is up to us, each one of us, to make sure that all the children know the stories of our faith so that they too may claim it as their own. Without us, how will they know that the greatest commandment is this?
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
May the life and witness of Lucy Craft Laney touch each one of us to so that we will do whatever is necessary, whatever is asked of us to be educators for all God’s children. Amen.
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