From Volume 8, Number 3, Winter 2002

St. Aidan in the 'Hood

by Christopher Bygonaise

I discovered the Saint Aidan Trust,` as well as Celtic Christianity in general at about the same time that t began my full-time teaching career in an inner-city public high school. Reading about the Celtic Saints was a great help, because it gave me a model during one of the most challenging times in my life. I never imagined myself teaching in an inner-city school; I felt that I was destined for something "better" or more prestigious. I entered the school, with the belief that these kids were supposed to change for me; to suit my expectations, rather than the other way around. I definitely had quite a few prejudices and attitudes that needed working out. St. Aidan himself was able to remind me of something I would need to succeed in spite of myself.

My story has a precedent in that of Corman and Aidan. Inexperience and arrogance led me at first to follow in the footsteps of Corman, "...a man of austere disposition who did not go down well with the English..." to whom he was sent to evangelize. Corman ultimately gave up his mission claiming that the English were "an ungovernable people of an obstinate and barbarous temperament" (Mitton 11)! After one month in my school, I remember uttering the same sentiments. They were the problem, not I!

Corman's attitude was mine at first, and it made success impossible. My first approach was to move in with full arrogance and pride; aloof and academic, and demand that my students conform to my expectations. Race was a large, but ultimately not insurmountable obstacle, as l had to win people over who might be suspicious of me and my background. To many of them I was seen as the enemy, whether implicit or explicitly stated, and it had been both at times.

I was reminded of the many Celtic missionary saints who went abroad to live among foreign and possible hostile people, and that it was always a slow, steady and understanding attitude that broke through barriers. Experience, therefore, has brought me to adopt the Celtic approach, one that understands differences, prejudices, poverty, fear, anger and mistrust; one that places me in humble service with reliance on God, rather than on the relentless pursuit of creating clones of myself, which is what I believed was my job. I now ask God to help me to be what these students need me to be, rather than what I think I should be for them.

Aidan's advice to Corman reminds me of the struggle I had within myself. Aidan said, "Brother, it seems to me that you were too severe... You should have followed the practice of the Apostles, and begun by giving them the milk of simpler teaching, and gradually nourished them ..." (Mitton 11).

At the beginning I didn't expect too much success. I believed I was only there temporarily, and ever kept my eye on the calendar and my last day. Now I believe that I was brought here and given this job to do my best, to be student as well as teacher. God wants us to be fruitful even in situations that might be temporary. Instead of complaining about my lot, I began to give thanks and praise for a job, for the lessons, for the training and for a chance to do some good, what ever that might be. That has made a great difference. It wasn't until I realized that I was in service, rather than the one to be served, that I managed to turn around my lessons as well as my attitude toward these kids. In Romans 15:8 we read that "Christ became a servant and a minister…" and that "through love [we] should serve one another" (Galatians 5:13). Just as Saint Aidan preferred to walk along side a horse rather than ride it, I learned that I also needed to get off my "high horse" and find ways of serving them if I were ever going to have a breakthrough.

Happiness is different for everyone. I was like Aidan's predecessor Corman, in that I only measured success by how many students I could convince to adopt my definition of success. I was wrong to do that. My job is to help them develop their own definition of it, while helping them to understand their true value as well as the benefits of a dignified and positive lifestyle

It's hard to work in an inner-city school because our children are so hurt, so damaged from life at a very early age. Self-defensiveness and mistrust cause change to come slowly and often invisibly. We don't quickly see our progress, or the fruit of our labor. That really doesn't matter as much as being a role model in spite of it. We never know what is going to make an impression on our students. Sometimes it's how we deal with problems, how we talk to them after they've screamed at us, how we go out of our way to talk to parents, and hopefully sometimes, but not often enough, even our lessons!

Looking back I can see the wisdom in God's plan. There are things that I am confronting now, that I never would have learned elsewhere. I am exactly where I should be at the current time, and I must thank a humble saint who lived 1,500 years ago for opening my eyes through his example.

Sources

Mitton, Michael. The Soul of Celtic Spirituality in the Lives of its Saints. Twenty Third Publications. Mystic, CT. 1997.

Amplified Bible. Zondervan Publishing House. Grand Rapids, MI. 1987.