LaTia Powell has a sincere and honest passion for teaching and believes that God has called her to raise leaders. Knowing that every child has a purpose and calling, she has accepted God’s invitation to make this a reality for every child who enters her sphere of influence.
I teach in a public school because I believe that the public school is where I am needed.
During my seven years of teaching, I have been faced with children from many different backgrounds. I’ve taught the wealthy, the privileged, the homeless, the abandoned, the orphaned, the lost, the impoverished, and, most often, the broken. I believe that the Lord has given me hope so that I can give it to those who feel that they don’t have any.
I teach in a public school because some of these children will never have anyone who can tell them what they can do, because they are constantly bombarded by what they can’t do. I teach in a public school because it’s like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get!
The challenge is in trying to cause learning to happen regardless of personalities, socioeconomic status, and parental involvement. To see a child’s eyes light up from learning or to hear children laugh during a lesson because their teacher cracked another corny joke makes it all worthwhile. Every time my students jump out of their seats and shout Yes! while doing the happy dance, I’m reminded that I am right where I’m supposed to be. I aim to be the teacher who my students will remember for the rest of their lives, especially those students who feel that they don’t have a purpose or a destiny.
I want all the children I encounter to leave me knowing that where they come from doesn’t determine their destiny.
I teach in a public school, and in Richmond Public Schools in particular, because I want all the children I encounter to leave me knowing that where they come from doesn’t determine their destiny. All children deserve to know that they have a chance to do and be whatever it is they want to do and be.
Being a Christian and being a teacher go hand in hand: one—because sometimes the only way you make it through the school year is if you pray! And two—I also try to make my faith-filled lifestyle evident in how I teach and how I encourage my students. To this day, you can ask any of Ms. Powell’s students who they are, and they will tell you they are the smartest fourth graders in Richmond Public Schools, and they actually believe it! They believe it because I refuse to speak anything to them or over them but life.
As a Christian I have learned how my words have the power to produce life or death. I am called to raise leaders. They are the ones who will run our city, our state, our country. They will be our doctors, our lawyers, our pastors, our realtors, and our government officials. They will be the ones who help create the laws for the next generation.
I realize that I can’t afford to speak anything over them but life. In some situations, it’s the only positive thing they hear.
Because the students need to be bombarded with the positive, the kind citizens of Richmond should be more involved in the inner-city schools. There are many readers of this article who have a gift, talent, or skill that could lighten the burden of a Richmond Public Schools teacher. Whether it’s helping with a craft related to Virginia studies or playing a cool math game to help kids remember their math facts, everyone can help.
These children are soon going to be adults who take care of us, but now they need us to take care of them.
Denise’s* two children attend Heritage Academy, one of them for the past three years. It took an entire year to gain this mother’s trust as we worked to address gaps in her daughter’s education. Recently, while Denise was in my office to discuss the learning disabilities of her younger child, I asked her if she knew that God loved her and had a plan for her life. She burst into tears. Her plan is not working. A single mother of three, each with a different father, she was recently homeless because of being abandoned by the third man. The children went to live with her parents while she pulled her life together living at a motel from week to week. Finally she joined the children at her parents’. Denise prayed to receive Christ that day we talked, and we have seen small steps of progress. She now joins her children in growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—at a Christian school that welcomes the least and the lost.
*Name has been changed.
The Meantime Volume 6 Number 2