Teachers Who Pray

As a brand-new teacher, Marilyn Rhames faced a class of third graders for the first time and felt inadequate to tackle the task before her. Many of her charges lived in the nearby neglected, dilapidated Ida B. Wells housing project for low-income earners. “The low-rise row houses were very run-down. They looked as if no one could be living in them, but the children in my class lived there.”

Most of those homes have since been destroyed. In their place, “Six-hundred-thousand-dollar brick homes are now being erected in the same area,” Rhames says.

But in 2004, when Rhames embarked on the teaching career in Chicago she’d felt led to pursue after working as a journalist in New York, the pall of urban blight hung over the area. “I looked in the eyes of my students and realized they had a life that was severely challenged. I knew I needed God to help me teach them.”

Such were the quiet beginnings of Teachers Who Pray, now a nonprofit and 501 (c) (3) organization that encourages educators to pray for the needs of public schools and public schoolteachers across the nation.

Rhames’s class was entirely African American–about half her students hailed from the projects; the other half lived in Lake Meadows, a nearby middle-income apartment complex.

“Some of my students were two levels above grade level, others were two levels below,” Rhames says. “I felt stretched beyond my limits. I am a believer in the power of God and the power of prayer. I felt that I definitely needed to tap into the spiritual realm in order to do my job because the task before me felt impossible.”

The new teacher received no training or support from the school administrative staff or principal, though Rhames admits that she didn’t ask for it. “The school had its own problems. The administrators weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing for the kids–that was also part of the struggle.”

Rhames would remain at the poorly run school for two years, during which time she would meet with one or two other Christian teachers for the purpose of praying for the needs of the school.

When Rhames moved on to teach at a promising turnaround school in Englewood, one of Chicago’s most distressed and violent neighborhoods, the need for prayer–despite the school’s full-scale physical renovation, new books, and new staff–was apparent. Rhames invited more staff members to pray with her.

The goal of Teachers Who Pray.
By 2012, Teachers Who Pray had become a 501(c)3 with the goal of galvanizing an entire nation of teachers who believe in the power of prayer to effect change in the nation’s public schools, accomplished chiefly by weekly prayer meetings teachers are legally allowed to hold on school property before or after school.

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“Our goal is for believing teachers to come together at least once a week at their school to pray for the needs of the school. No one knows more about what the school needs than the teachers.” Teachers’ own needs are sometimes overwhelming. “I’ve discovered that teachers bring their personal needs with them to the prayer meetings. Sometimes that’s where we have to start, because if the teachers are broken or in personal turmoil, that impacts how effective they can be in the classroom.

“When I asked teachers what they wanted to pray for, they told me about domestic violence, severe financial troubles, or health concerns.” Rhames has encountered teachers coping with homelessness and catastrophic illness. “I am constantly redefining what Teachers Who Pray is about,” Rhames says, convinced that that is what God is asking of her.

“As we pray we become whole.”
Rhames has also encountered teachers who are not Christians, who lack any kind of faith background but who are eager to understand the spiritual background of life. She relates the story of a male teacher whose life was “falling apart” in front of her.

“It was obvious that he was struggling, and I finally asked him what was wrong. He said he had a cancerous tumor in his leg and was being treated for it. He was married with two little kids and had just bought a house. He was also a new teacher trying to manage everything on his own, including this illness. I invited him to the prayer meeting and he came several times. He knows there’s a higher being–but that was as f

ar as his faith went. He said if we wanted to pray in the name of Jesus he was completely open to learning more about him. A year later, his doctor said he was cancer-free. He said he didn’t know what he would have done without Teachers Who Pray.

“He was someone I would not have thought to ask to come to Teachers Who Pray. That was my ignorance, because God wants everyone to come to Christ,” Rhames says.

“He now has a much stronger faith in God and was interested in going to church. He has since relocated his family to a different city, but I planted a seed and Teachers Who Pray is part of his faith journey.”

Rhames says she can’t put God in a box. “As we pray, we become whole. You discover things you didn’t even know existed about the world and about yourself. Your eyes are opened. You see life from a different perspective. God reveals what he wants you to do, whom you should invite to the next meeting. God shows us how to be a light in the darkness.”

Unfortunately, Chicago Public Schools is in a very dark place, Rhames says, “and it’s getting darker by the day.” She continues to ask God to use Teachers Who Pray as a beacon of light. In the 11 years that Rhames has taught, she has seen darkness in other teachers, in school administrators, in students–”the kids are so broken”–and in families.

In one school, a parent of a preschooler broke into the school and stole several computers–on Martin Luther King Day in an African American community. Another parent got hold of the school credit card and used it to pay a utility bill. At another school, the principal and assistant principal carried on an extra-marital affair–both were married to other people.

“There are a lot of smart, hardworking people who work in the district,” Rhames says, “but some of the leadership is corrupt.” She notes that the former CEO of CPS pleaded guilty to corruption charges.

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Under God and under the law.
Although it’s clear that Rhames and other schoolteachers are on the front lines and some would concede that prayer is definitely needed, is it really legal to pray on school property?

Rhames is unambiguous. “In order to have a national nonprofit I cannot advocate breaking the law. I wouldn’t want teachers jeopardizing their jobs. Some people do break the law all the time (by, for example, praying over children), but I think that’s an unwise strategy for doing God’s work. And there are more things that we can do than that we cannot do.”

Rhames says a lot of people don’t know what’s

allowed under the law. To educate teachers and to clarify any misconceptions around the separation between church and state, Teachers Who Pray offers a legal tutorial on prayer in schools at each of its conferences. She says the organization stands on legal ground as well as biblical ground.

Rhames stated the following:

• Teachers cannot pray in front of students.
• Teachers cannot encourage or discourage student prayer. (Teachers cannot legally make any kind of value judgment on prayer, but they can legally give students space where they can pray.)

“Our job is to teach,” Rhames says, “not to try to persuade students to believe one faith or another. It would be irresponsible of me to tell people to break the law. I always tell teachers not to do anything that puts them at risk. If people say I said it, it brings a reproach on Teachers Who Pray.”

On the other hand, Rhames says that if teachers would just do what they can do, they would leave an impact.

“Teachers can pray before or after school–it is considered protected free speech. If I can gossip about, say, Beyoncé, I can pray. But if someone tells me they don’t want to hear about Beyoncé, then I don’t tell them, because that could be considered harassment.” Rhames also says that teachers can share their faith with parents if the parents are interested.

“We have the power and influence to edify teachers to be their best. They have the opportunity to change lives. Impacting the head of the classroom is impacting the class. Happy, motivated, inspired teachers in the classroom is the best way to transform a school.”

For more about Teachers Who Pray, go to www.teacherswhopray.org/. The organization’s tagline? “Taking Education Advocacy to the Highest Level.”