An Encounter with Helen Hoens

It was about seven years ago when happenstance caused me to have a brief conversation with a woman who walked up to my seminar discussion table during a break at the College of Saint Elizabeth (CSE), at its peaceful campus in Convent Station, NJ.

Governor Chris Christie leans in on a question
from the audience at the Raritan Valley Community
College in Branchburg, NJ, on April 11, 2013

A large group of adults had registered for a presentation by Michael Christensen and Rebecca Laird, co-authors of a book revolving around the person and teachings of Henri Nouwen.

Nouwen, a Dutch-born Catholic priest who passed away in 1996, was a world renowned spiritual writer who still commands a large following across a wide spectrum of the Christian community and beyond.

Fluent in French and English, Nouwen taught at prestigious learning institutions including Notre Dame, the divinity schools of Harvard and Yale and at other venues.  He was a prolific writer with nearly 40 books to his credit.  He even spent some time in Central Jersey with a few enthusiasts in the Somerset Hills.

You, Me and the Abbotts

Finally, the New Jersey Supreme Court has issued a ruling that it should have handed down years ago: It recognized that half of the Garden State’s poor children live outside of the 31 Abbott districts.

With this recent decision, none of the Abbotts will receive less than the swollen base amounts which they have regularly obtained from the state. The clock is not being turned back; nor is the cash spigot to the Abbotts being shut off. Instead, the increasingly growing flow of supplemental dollars which New Jersey no longer has is simply being ratcheted down, leaving some of it to be redirected to New Jersey school districts that are just as deserving.

The high-pitched, partisan rhetoric which began decades ago circa 1976 has resulted in an on-going tug of war between core cities, suburbs, and edge cities. The exclusionary demands of Abbott proponents have been and continue to be based on the assumption that ever-enlarged pots of gold are the sole solution to the learning challenges within the Abbotts.

There is no sustained, serious discussion by Abbott proponents of the role that a stable and nurturing home environment plays in the educational and societal formation of young minds. The compelling argument that a successful family is – in most cases – the predominant motivating source of educational outcomes remains conveniently tucked away behind a curtain of denial.

Shoveling cash into school buildings, supplies and salaries is much easier than helping to reverse the deteriorated status of family life which is at the root of New Jersey’s educational problems in many communities. It’s much easier for politicians and judges to give palliative treatment to symptoms rather than to remedy the causes.