In smaller towns, you often hear the idea that we are losing our best of our youth to the bigger cities. There is an assumption at the root of this statement that I want to address. The assumption? The best of our youth get good academic grades, go on to college, and get jobs a small town cannot support. And so, small towns it is suggested are left with the leftovers. We speak of those who remain in ways that suggest that if only they had went to college they would really be more valuable.
In Martin Luther’s day, the main discussion about youth was whether they were dedicated enough to the Lord to join a holy order or if they were going to just do a normal job, which necessarily showed lack of devotion to the Lord. Luther railed against this idea, teaching about how every vocation (calling/job) was holy to the Lord, one God had appointed for that person. As long as the work was done with diligence and integrity, all work was holy work, important to God.
It seems to me that those of us who operate with the theological understanding of vocation have something to say to our culture as well. And what is that?
Not only the college educated have a important role in society. Not only their work is consequential. We will affirm all people in their callings, regardless of their academic education. As long as they are willing to work and learn the knowledge necessary for work, we affirm them as important, just as important as those who have gone on to vocations requiring more education.
We need be no less proud of the mechanic as we are the engineer. The woman who raises her kids is just as valuable as the woman sitting in the board room. Education level does not equal worth. Worth is determined by what the individual offers to whatever community they live in and their dedication to it.
Does this mean we stop caring how our kids do in school? No, if our kids are in school, they should dedicate themselves to those tasks. But if they do not ace the SAT, we do not treat them as a lower class citizens. We do not belittle them as less valuable that those who did. We should rather redirect them into places where they can serve their neighbor and provide for their family.
Those who refuse to work and fulfill a useful role in the community should still be rebuked. But those working hard and learning what they need to to do their jobs should not be treated as the lowly ones left behind in our little communities, ones who could have done better. No, we rejoice in all our kids, those dedicated to vocations that took much academic education and those that do other useful things in our community which required education not available in the college setting.
Some of the most valuable people I know never went to college. And I suppose that will never change. Yes we might lose some great kids to the bigger cities, but we also retain some great ones right here in small town America.
