As we sat in a circle and discussed what made our school unique I asked the teachers, “If you could create a vision for our school what would it be? What is the end goal of our school? How is it going to impact the community? What is the big picture? What is your vision for this school?”
Their answers stunned me. They weren’t trite or mundane but spoke directly to the needs of the community.
They wrote:
Our vision is to:
Reduce Prostitution
End Child Marriage
Educate Poverty
Eliminate Illiteracy
Usually when you ask a group of teachers to create a vision for their school they come with answers like: A student-centered learning environment. A nurturing, safe, and professional place to learn. Increaseacademic achievement. Developing lifelong learners. Higher test scores.
While these visions are great and may meet the needs of those individual schools; the needs of our schools in Kenya are so vastly different.When your community is inundated with systemic poverty, illiterate and uneducated adults, child marriages, and prostitution, both voluntary and forced, your vision can not be mundane.
Your vision has to be one that creates hope and brings change to your community. Our schools do that.
In the midst of a community plagued by these issues our schools have become a beacon of hope. They are a place where not only will children receive an astounding education but will be equipped to transform their community. They are surrounded by teachers that love them and pour into them academic knowledge and biblical truths. They are empowered to face the darkness around them and point towards the light. In doing this our students bring hope to their community so that soon… child marriage will end, illiteracy will be eliminated, prostitution will be reduced, and the impoverished will be educated.
It is a vision worth having.
About the author: Dusty Strickland is one of our amazing Education Coordinators. He has been in education for the
past 10 years. He taught for 5 years as a 5th grade Social Studies and Science teacher. Following this he worked as a Reading Interventionist at the high school level and then became an Instructional Coach. As an Instructional Coach, he develops and delivers professional development for his teachers, observes classrooms, models and co-teaches lessons, and works with struggling teachers. Throughout his career Dusty has worked in Elementary, Middle School, and High school.To get involved with our schools, consider sponsoring a child today: https://retouch.is/sponsorship/