Setting the barhigh
Self-confidence is one of the many lessons the Imani School teaches its children.
Patricia Hogan Williams, head of the Imani School, recently won the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce’s Pinnacle Award for economic success and community giving. The school opened in 1988 as a ministry out of Pastor KirbyJon Caldwell’s Windsor Village Methodist Church with 25 children ages 3 and 4. It now has 325 students, predominantly African-American, in grades pre-K through eighth, with a program for infants from 6 weeks through 2 years old. The school celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.
Q: What are the school’s core values, and how are they applied?
A: Our mission is to develop self-confident, academically excellent Christian leaders. Everything that we do is very intentional at hitting those three characteristics. The name “Imani” mean faith in Swahili. We chose that name because we wanted to develop a faith and confidence in oneself and faith and confidence in God. We also thought it reflected both who we are as a people and who we are as children of God. We’re very intentional about what we do, about what we teach, how we teach.
Everything is focused, directed, very purposeful. We don’t hope children become self-confident. We are very intentional in developing selfconfidence. We do that in many different ways. In the way that we talk to our children, in the way we encourage our children, in the way that we teach them to encourage themselves and to affirm themselves. That’s every day, every classroom. The morning begins with self-affirmations. So we believe that when the children repeat these affirmations it’s like putting money in the bank. You don’t need it right now. You might not even want to put it away. But it’s there for you to withdraw at the time that you’ll need it, and you made that deposit into yourself. Every child takes speech beginning in kindergarten because we think that’s important in teaching our children how to stand up and to speak with confidence. What we know is that our children have to be both confident and competent. One without the other doesn’t work.
Q: What do you see as some of the biggest challenges in education today, and how does the Imani School address them?
A: The achievement gap in the education of children has become the new civil rights issue in American education now. How do we close what the National Assessment of Educational Progress has cited as being a four-year achievement gap between white students and African-American students? We set the bar high. We don’t water down the curriculum. We teach up and then have our children reach up. We begin very early with very high expectations. In many ways we’re very old-fashioned in our approach. We believe in teaching mastery. We don’t just introduce subjects. We make sure that our children have mastered the necessary content, yet we allow for creativity as well. So many things, though, that parents have a responsibility to do, too. And that is to be an advocate for their own children. If the school does not have expectations for your child, you have to have them. You have to make sure that even if homework isn’t assigned, homework is done. Another thing we teach our children is, how do you spell success? W-or-k. Nothing is going to be given to you. You’re going to have to work for it.
Q: How important is it to offer quality education in particular to AfricanAmerican students?
A: It’s critical. It’s not an option. It becomes more critical every year. We have a responsibility, I believe, to our children. The most damaging factor in limiting the achievement of AfricanAmerican children is the belief that they cannot learn and the acceptance of substandard performance as being inevitable. So we set the bar very high. We set it high, and the children don’t disappoint us. They live up to or down to your expectations.
Q: How does the school prepare its students for the world we live in today?
A: When children feel good and feel confident about themselves, if they’re OK with themselves, they can also be OK with other people. We develop that self-confidence, that self-love and appreciation of other people. Our children fare very well. Not only do they get sought after, but they are recruited by the most selective schools in the Houston area, which is important to me. I want my children to be able to go where they want to go school, not where they are let in.
When you prepare the children to be both competent and confident, you’ve got a winning combination. I’m so proud of them. What more could you want?
Q: How do you feel about winning the Pinnacle Award, and what does it mean for the school?
A: It was really very affirming. We’re really grateful for it. I appreciate that this was for recognition for this amazing team of teachers, of educators, and their hard work. They’re truly committed to children and see their role in making sure that every child becomes their best self. And so the recognition by the Pinnacle Awards is affirmation to them, to all of us, that we’re on the right track. They spend and give so much more than we could ever compensate them for. But they give it because they’re committed to the product, to making a difference. So we are so appreciative in being recognized for that work.