CIU Today Fall 2015

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Another student high-fives him for being
correct.
“Thank you for congratulating him,”
Smith commends the second student.
The kids are having fun as they learn, but
Smith has command of the excitement.
When several students want to answer
at the same time, or argue about whose
answer is correct, Smith reins them in.
“Voices off,” Smith announces.
Some students respond, “Yes ma’am.”
Others keep talking.
“Voices off,” she says in a louder voice.
“Yes, ma’am,” they all respond.
“Eyes on me,” Smith continues.
“Eyes on you!” All the students shout.
Order has been restored in a loving way,
a microcosm of what Smith would like to
see on a larger scale.
“I think the urban community is really
falling apart,” Smith told me during the
break. “It also affects the greater good,
the bigger community, and the kids are
affected by it. So for me (teaching) ends
up being a ministry.”
Her Dream
Smith shares her faith as appropriate in
a public school setting, such as praying
with students over lunch and telling her
students why she goes to church during
the holidays. But she says “the part that
is missing” at Conder is the spiritual
aspect of education, centered around
“resilience,” the core of her CIU doctoral
dissertation.
“That’s really important because the
spiritual building up of a person builds
resilience ... you can rely on the Holy
Spirit, it’s going to build resilience in you
that a non-believer wouldn’t have,” Smith
explained.
“Students who live in poverty come
with a lot of lack,” she continued, “so
resilience is the ability
to be successful in spite
of the adversity you are
going through. These
students come with a
lot of adversity, things
are against them, they
are already labeled
in some cases, and
resilience-building for
them is the support we
provide educationally
that they lack at home.”
So her dream is to
open an urban Christian
school, combining
some of the best
that has already
been implemented
at a magnet school
such as Conder, with
Christianity.
“I’ve always wanted
to be a leader in
education,” Smith said, who at age 39, is
a third generation educator in her family.
“God planted (a vision) in me about five
years ago, for a (Christian) residential
school because of the situations these
students come from.”
Smith explains that a residential school
will minister to the whole family as
parents work on stabilizing themselves in
careers or education, while knowing their
children are in a safe place with Christian
house parents. She is praying about
whether the school would be a private
school, which most parents would have
difficulty paying for, or a charter school.
“What would make my school unique is
the fact that I’m building resilience, and
that’s the blessing that came out of my
(doctoral) dissertation,” Smith said.
Her Passion
Smith has 15 years of teaching
experience and was named the school
district’s Teacher of the Year for 2007-
2008. If there is a down side to her
dream, it is going from the classroom to
an administrator’s position.
“I love to see growth when (the students)
make connections because of the learning
I gave them. Ah! It’s awesome,” Smith
said excitedly just thinking about it.
“That is going to be the hardest thing
in leaving the classroom. I think God is
leading me into leadership, but I have to
see little faces.”
“God planted (a vision) in me about five
years ago, for a (Christian) residential school
because of the situations these students
come from.” –Dr. Tara Smith
Tara Smith (right) and her twin sister Tamara S. Riley listen
as Tara is presented her doctoral degree during the May
commencement at CIU. Tamara received a Master of
Education degree at CIU in 2000.
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AN URBAN SOLUTION
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