jennifer-roberts Intention is a powerful force. Our intentions influence the choices we make, the way we move through the world and we the way we interact with other people.
Identifying and fulfilling our intentions is not a linear process. The road is long, winding and unpredictable. It can be messy, frustrating and often lonely. There are times when it may be hard to see a clear path ahead and the path is littered with opposition. But none of these challenges will deter the person who understands who they are and why they were sent. Knowing our purpose informs our intentions. The combination of these two forces helps us stay focused and engaged.
Intention is relevant in every area of our lives. I spend a lot of time thinking about intention especially as it relates to the way we educate students in Prince William County, Virginia and in this country. I often think about what an educator’s response to “What is your intention?” would be if asked the question.
I dare not speculate their answers to this question, but I will share what I see and what I believe. I see a local and national public school system that is failing to help Black students accurately understand who they are as people. I see a public school system that is failing to validate Black students and create opportunities for them to pursue their purpose. I see a public school system that is failing to use the cultural capital of Black students as a resource to help them see themselves as smart, gifted and worthy. I see a public school system that is failing to identify the natural strengths of Black students and to explore their untapped potential. I see a public school system that is preoccupied with employing warm bodies and enabling ineffective educators instead of actively recruiting educators with a passion to teach Black students. This is not to say that there are no excellent educators or student champions because there are excellent educators in district leadership as well as at just about every school.
I believe in the power and purpose of true educators. I believe that there will always be students and there will always be educators. I believe that even in this broken American education system, there are educators whose burning desire is teach students where they come from, who they are and what they can become. True teachers can’t help but teach because that is what they were created to do. True teachers are not merely looking for a job; they are actively seeking to impact lives and generations through education. True teachers are armed with more than a license; they are armed with a passion to educate their students by any means necessary. I believe that these amazing people exist and will continue to exist. These are the all-stars of the past, present and future.
Sadly, some teachers will secretly and publicly argue that some students don’t want to learn. That is a lie. Children are naturally curious, and I have never met a child who did not want to learn. Shortly after legalized slavery was abolished in 1865, one of the first independent acts that some formerly enslaved Black people did was build schools. They wanted to be educated and they wanted their children to be educated. For generations, they had been intentionally denied access to an education because slave owners and those who supported the institution of slavery knew full well that an uneducated, enslaved person was less of a threat to their sick way of life, but an educated Black person could set the world on fire. An uneducated, enslaved person, who did not know his origin, his worth or his potential did not anger White people; it was the Black person who dared to walk in his power, take up space and create opportunity for himself, his family and his community that enraged White people.
We don’t have time to waste. We must act with a sense of urgency if we are to save our children from a system that is failing them. We cannot keep talking about what “should” be happening. We must face the grim reality of what is happening. Our beautiful, Black children are dying slow emotional and mental deaths in public schools that continually demonstrate that they have no real interest in effectively and fully educating them. We should not have to hope that our child is at the right school and in the right class with the right teacher to have a chance at being seen let alone supported. We must hold educators accountable for the damage that they are doing to our Black children each day and ask them, “What is your intention?
Intention is how God was able to create the world and everything and everybody in it. Intention is how Solomon was able to build a beautiful temple to honor God. Intention is how Jesus Christ himself was able to lay down his life for all of humanity and rise again on the third day. Intention is how Harriet Tubman was able to escape slavery and return to plantations to rescue more people. Intention is how Mary McLeod Bethune and Booker T. Washington were able to build schools with nearly no resources. Intention is how Intention is how Ida B. Wells was able to travel all over the country and publish a newspaper that unapologetically elevated conversations about the horrors of lynching. Intention is how Fannie Lou Hamer was able speak out against racism despite being emotionally and physically abused by local citizens and law enforcement officers. Intention is how Oprah Winfrey was able to build a media empire and a school. Intention is how Dr. Steve Perry has built not one but three schools that effectively serve predominantly Black and Brown students and sends 100% of its graduates on to college.
And so, educators, I ask you, what is your intention? It’s a simple question and your response has the power to help or hurt the students who have been entrusted to you. What inspires you to show up at school each day? What is it that influences the way that you interact or don’t interact with your students? What is it that impacts the lesson plans that you create or don’t create? What is the intention behind the disciplinary decisions that you make? What motivates you to see some students as capable and others as lazy and not wanting to learn?
Are you motivated to do whatever it takes everyday to help each of your students learn where they come from, who they are and what they have to offer the world? Are you able to see the end from the beginning? I can see it because I know my intention. I know who I am, and I know why I was sent. I fully understand my purpose in life and my daily intentions are influenced by my purpose. My purpose is to use my life as a platform to bring glory to God. My intention is to create safe learning spaces in which all students in my sphere of influence can learn who they are and how they can contribute to our local, national and global communities. My intention is to help every student identify their life’s purpose and be about the business of using their individual gifts and abilities to pursue it. I’ve shared my intention. Now it’s your turn. What is your intention?
