Teachers Who Pray

There is actually an organized group by that name, and they are mostly in public schools. “I have well over a thousand teachers engaging with the Teachers Who Pray network,” Marilyn Rhames, the founder of that network told Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Insitute (AEI). “We have 131 school-based chapters, averaging about eight teachers per chapter in district, charter, private, and religious schools.”

“Most of our teachers work in traditional public schools, though you can say that we are ‘agnostic’ as to the types of schools we serve.” Rhames had her own epiphany on 9/11 when she was working as a reporter in New York City.

She felt the calling to go back to her native Chicago and work as a public school teacher. “I started praying for my students and school during my teaching residency in 2003,” she remembered. “I was placed in a highly dysfunctional K-8 school on the West Side of Chicago.”

“The principal was crazy. She told us in the first staff meeting that she hired us because we were physically attractive. She also told us that whoever didn’t follow her orders would be fired, adding that she wasn’t going anywhere because she liked ‘the green stuff’—motioning for money with her fingertips.” Rhames actually prayed, and then petitioned, to get rid of the principal.

Arguably, they were answered: the principal was moved to a desk job. Under union rules, that’s a miracle.

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