How America's public schools keep kids in poverty
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0:01 - 0:03I want to talk to you about my kids.
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0:04 - 0:08Now, I know everyone thinks
that their kid is the most fantastic, -
0:08 - 0:10the most beautiful kid that ever lived.
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0:11 - 0:13But mine really are.
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0:13 - 0:14(Laughter)
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0:14 - 0:16I have 696 kids,
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0:16 - 0:21and they are the most intelligent,
inventive, innovative, -
0:21 - 0:25brilliant and powerful kids
that you'll ever meet. -
0:25 - 0:30Any student I've had the honor of teaching
in my classroom is my kid. -
0:31 - 0:35However, because their "real"
parents aren't rich -
0:35 - 0:37and, I argue, because they
are mostly of color, -
0:37 - 0:40they will seldom get to see in themselves
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0:40 - 0:42the awesomeness that I see in them.
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0:43 - 0:45Because what I see in them is myself --
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0:46 - 0:48or what would have been myself.
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0:50 - 0:52I am the daughter of two hardworking,
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0:52 - 0:55college-educated, African-American parents
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0:55 - 0:57who chose careers as public servants:
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0:57 - 1:01my father, a minister;
my mother, an educator. -
1:01 - 1:05Wealth was never the primary
ambition in our house. -
1:05 - 1:07Because of this lack of wealth,
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1:07 - 1:09we lived in a neighborhood
that lacked wealth, -
1:09 - 1:12and henceforth a school system
that lacked wealth. -
1:12 - 1:16Luckily, however, we struck
the educational jackpot -
1:16 - 1:19in a voluntary desegregation program
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1:19 - 1:22that buses inner-city kids --
black and brown -- -
1:22 - 1:25out to suburban schools -- rich and white.
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1:25 - 1:29At five years old, I had to take
an hour-long bus ride -
1:29 - 1:31to a faraway place
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1:31 - 1:33to get a better education.
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1:34 - 1:38At five years old, I thought
everyone had a life just like mine. -
1:39 - 1:41I thought everyone went to school
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1:41 - 1:43and were the only ones
using the brown crayons -
1:43 - 1:45to color in their family portraits,
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1:45 - 1:48while everyone else was using
the peach-colored ones. -
1:49 - 1:52At five years old, I thought
everyone was just like me. -
1:53 - 1:56But as I got older, I started
noticing things, like: -
1:57 - 2:00How come my neighborhood friend
don't have to wake up -
2:00 - 2:01at five o'clock in the morning,
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2:01 - 2:04and go to a school that's an hour away?
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2:04 - 2:07How come I'm learning to play the violin
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2:07 - 2:10while my neighborhood friends
don't even have a music class? -
2:11 - 2:15Why were my neighborhood friends
learning and reading material -
2:15 - 2:17that I had done two to three years prior?
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2:18 - 2:20See, as I got older,
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2:21 - 2:25I started to have
this unlawful feeling in my belly, -
2:25 - 2:29like I was doing something
that I wasn't supposed to be doing; -
2:29 - 2:31taking something that wasn't mine;
-
2:32 - 2:33receiving a gift,
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2:34 - 2:36but with someone else's name on it.
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2:36 - 2:39All these amazing things
that I was being exposed to -
2:39 - 2:41and experiencing,
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2:41 - 2:44I felt I wasn't really supposed to have.
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2:45 - 2:49I wasn't supposed to have a library,
fully equipped athletic facilities, -
2:49 - 2:52or safe fields to play in.
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2:52 - 2:54I wasn't supposed to have
theatre departments -
2:54 - 2:57with seasonal plays and concerts --
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2:57 - 2:59digital, visual, performing arts.
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3:00 - 3:04I wasn't supposed to have
fully resourced biology or chemistry labs, -
3:04 - 3:07school buses that brought me door-to-door,
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3:07 - 3:10freshly prepared school lunches
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3:10 - 3:11or even air conditioning.
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3:12 - 3:14These are things my kids don't get.
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3:15 - 3:16You see, as I got older,
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3:16 - 3:19while I was grateful
for this amazing opportunity -
3:19 - 3:21that I was being given,
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3:21 - 3:24there was this ever-present pang of:
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3:24 - 3:27But what about everyone else?
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3:27 - 3:31There are thousands
of other kids just like me, -
3:31 - 3:32who deserve this, too.
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3:32 - 3:34Why doesn't everyone get this?
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3:34 - 3:39Why is a high-quality education
only exclusive to the rich? -
3:40 - 3:43It was like I had some sort
of survivor's remorse. -
3:43 - 3:46All of my neighborhood friends
were experiencing -
3:46 - 3:48an educational train wreck
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3:48 - 3:52that I was saved from through a bus ride.
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3:52 - 3:55I was like an educational Moses screaming,
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3:55 - 3:56"Let my people go ...
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3:56 - 3:58to high-quality schools!"
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3:58 - 3:59(Laughter)
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4:00 - 4:04I'd seen firsthand how the other half
was being treated and educated. -
4:04 - 4:07I'd seen the educational promised land,
-
4:07 - 4:11and I could not for the life of me
justify the disparity. -
4:14 - 4:18I now teach in the very same school system
from which I sought refuge. -
4:19 - 4:23I know firsthand the tools
that were given to me as a student, -
4:23 - 4:27and now as a teacher, I don't have
access to those same tools -
4:27 - 4:29to give my students.
-
4:29 - 4:34There have been countless nights
when I've cried in frustration, -
4:34 - 4:35anger
-
4:35 - 4:37and sorrow,
-
4:37 - 4:40because I can't teach my kids
the way that I was taught, -
4:41 - 4:45because I don't have access
to the same resources or tools -
4:45 - 4:47that were used to teach me.
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4:47 - 4:50My kids deserve so much better.
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4:50 - 4:53We sit and we keep banging
our heads against this term: -
4:53 - 4:56"Achievement gap, achievement gap!"
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4:56 - 4:59Is it really that hard to understand
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4:59 - 5:03why these kids perform well
and these kids don't? -
5:03 - 5:04I mean, really.
-
5:05 - 5:07I think we've got it all wrong.
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5:07 - 5:08I think we,
-
5:08 - 5:10as Gloria Ladson-Billings says,
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5:10 - 5:15should flip our paradigm and our language
and call it what it really is. -
5:16 - 5:17It's not an achievement gap;
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5:18 - 5:20it's an education debt,
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5:20 - 5:26for all of the foregone schooling
resources that were never invested -
5:26 - 5:30in the education of the black
and brown child over time. -
5:31 - 5:34A little-known secret in American history
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5:34 - 5:39is that the only American institution
created specifically for people of color -
5:40 - 5:41is the American slave trade --
-
5:42 - 5:44and some would argue the prison system,
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5:44 - 5:46but that's another topic
for another TED Talk. -
5:46 - 5:47(Laughter)
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5:48 - 5:52The public school system of this country
was built, bought and paid for -
5:52 - 5:56using commerce generated
from the slave trade and slave labor. -
5:57 - 6:01While African-Americans were enslaved
and prohibited from schooling, -
6:01 - 6:04their labor established
the very institution -
6:04 - 6:06from which they were excluded.
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6:06 - 6:11Ever since then, every court case,
educational policy, reform, -
6:11 - 6:14has been an attempt
to retrofit the design, -
6:14 - 6:17rather than just stopping
and acknowledging: -
6:17 - 6:20we've had it all wrong from the beginning.
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6:21 - 6:25An oversimplification
of American educational history. -
6:25 - 6:27All right, just bear with me.
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6:28 - 6:31Blacks were kept out -- you know,
the whole slavery thing. -
6:31 - 6:33With the help
of philanthropic white people, -
6:33 - 6:35they built their own schools.
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6:35 - 6:37Separate but equal was OK.
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6:38 - 6:40But while we all know
things were indeed separate, -
6:40 - 6:42they were in no ways equal.
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6:43 - 6:48Enter Brown v. the Board of Education
of Topeka, Kansas in 1954; -
6:48 - 6:51legal separation of the races
is now illegal. -
6:52 - 6:58But very few people pay attention
to all of the court cases since then, -
6:58 - 7:03that have undone the educational
promised land for every child -
7:03 - 7:06that Brown v. Board intended.
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7:06 - 7:10Some argue that today our schools
are now more segregated -
7:10 - 7:15than they ever were before we tried
to desegregate them in the first place. -
7:16 - 7:20Teaching my kids about desegregation,
the Little Rock Nine, -
7:20 - 7:21the Civil Rights Movement,
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7:21 - 7:24is a real awkward moment in my classroom,
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7:24 - 7:27when I have to hear
the voice of a child ask, -
7:28 - 7:31"If schools were desegregated in 1954,
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7:31 - 7:34how come there are no white kids here?"
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7:34 - 7:35(Laughter)
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7:35 - 7:36These kids aren't dumb.
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7:37 - 7:39They know exactly what's happening,
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7:40 - 7:41and what's not.
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7:42 - 7:44They know that when it comes to schooling,
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7:45 - 7:46black lives don't matter
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7:47 - 7:48and they never have.
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7:50 - 7:57For years, I tried desperately
to cultivate in my kids a love of reading. -
7:57 - 8:00I'd amassed a modest classroom library
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8:00 - 8:04of books I'd accumulated
from secondhand shops, -
8:04 - 8:06thrift stores, attics -- you know.
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8:06 - 8:09But whenever I said those dreadful words,
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8:09 - 8:11"Take out a book and read,"
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8:11 - 8:13you'd think I'd just declared war.
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8:13 - 8:15It was torture.
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8:16 - 8:17One day,
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8:17 - 8:20after I'd heard about this website
called DonorsChoose, -
8:20 - 8:23where classroom teachers create wish lists
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8:23 - 8:25of items they need for their classroom
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8:25 - 8:27and anonymous donors fulfill them,
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8:27 - 8:31I figured I'd go out on a limb
and just make a wish list -
8:31 - 8:35of the teenager's dream library.
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8:36 - 8:40Over 200 brand-new books
were sent to my room piece by piece. -
8:41 - 8:45Every day there were new deliveries
and my kids would exclaim with glee, -
8:45 - 8:47"This feels like Christmas!"
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8:47 - 8:48(Laughter)
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8:48 - 8:50Then they'd say,
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8:50 - 8:52"Ms. Sumner, where did
these books come from?" -
8:52 - 8:54And then I'd reply,
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8:54 - 8:58"Strangers from all over the country
wanted you to have these." -
8:58 - 9:01And then they'd say, almost suspiciously,
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9:02 - 9:04"But they're brand-new."
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9:04 - 9:05(Laughter)
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9:05 - 9:07To which I'd reply,
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9:07 - 9:09"You deserve brand-new books."
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9:10 - 9:14The whole experience hit home
for me when one of my girls, -
9:14 - 9:17as she peeled open a crisp paperback said,
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9:18 - 9:22"Ms. Sumner -- you know,
I figured you bought these books, -
9:22 - 9:25'cause you teachers
are always buying us stuff. -
9:25 - 9:29But to know that a stranger,
someone I don't even know, -
9:29 - 9:31cares this much about me
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9:31 - 9:33is pretty cool."
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9:34 - 9:36Knowing that strangers
will take care of you -
9:37 - 9:39is a privilege my kids aren't afforded.
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9:40 - 9:42Ever since the donation,
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9:42 - 9:46there has been a steady stream of kids
signing out books to take home, -
9:46 - 9:48and then returning them
with the exclamation, -
9:48 - 9:50"This one was good!"
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9:50 - 9:51(Laughter)
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9:51 - 9:53Now when I say,
"Take out a book and read," -
9:53 - 9:56kids rush to my library.
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9:57 - 9:59It wasn't that they didn't want to read,
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9:59 - 10:03but instead, they'd gladly read
if the resources were there. -
10:06 - 10:07Institutionally speaking,
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10:07 - 10:12our public school system has never
done right by the black and brown child. -
10:12 - 10:15We keep focusing on the end results
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10:15 - 10:16or test results,
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10:16 - 10:18and getting frustrated.
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10:18 - 10:20We get to a catastrophe and we wonder,
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10:20 - 10:23"How did it get so bad?
How did we get here?" -
10:24 - 10:25Really?
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10:25 - 10:28If you neglect a child long enough,
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10:28 - 10:31you no longer have
the right to be surprised -
10:31 - 10:32when things don't turn out well.
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10:33 - 10:35Stop being perplexed
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10:35 - 10:37or confused
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10:37 - 10:38or befuddled
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10:39 - 10:41by the achievement gap,
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10:41 - 10:42the income gap,
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10:42 - 10:43the incarceration rates,
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10:44 - 10:49or whatever socioeconomic disparity
is the new "it" term for the moment. -
10:49 - 10:52The problems we have as a country
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10:52 - 10:54are the problems we created as a country.
-
10:55 - 10:58The quality of your education
is directly proportionate -
10:58 - 11:00to your access to college,
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11:00 - 11:02your access to jobs,
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11:02 - 11:04your access to the future.
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11:06 - 11:11Until we live in a world where every kid
can get a high-quality education -
11:11 - 11:12no matter where they live,
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11:12 - 11:14or the color of their skin,
-
11:14 - 11:18there are things we can do
on a macro level. -
11:19 - 11:23School funding should not
be decided by property taxes -
11:23 - 11:25or some funky economic equation
-
11:25 - 11:28where rich kids continue
to benefit from state aid, -
11:28 - 11:32while poor kids are continuously
having food and resources -
11:32 - 11:34taken from their mouths.
-
11:35 - 11:39Governors, senators, mayors,
city council members -- -
11:39 - 11:41if we're going to call
public education public education, -
11:41 - 11:43then it should be just that.
-
11:44 - 11:47Otherwise, we should
call it what it really is: -
11:47 - 11:48poverty insurance.
-
11:49 - 11:51"Public education:
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11:51 - 11:54keeping poor kids poor since 1954."
-
11:54 - 11:55(Laughter)
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11:57 - 12:02If we really, as a country, believe
that education is the "great equalizer," -
12:02 - 12:06then it should be just that:
equal and equitable. -
12:06 - 12:11Until then, there's no democracy
in our democratic education. -
12:11 - 12:13On a mezzo level:
-
12:14 - 12:17historically speaking, the education
of the black and brown child -
12:17 - 12:20has always depended
on the philanthropy of others. -
12:20 - 12:23And unfortunately, today it still does.
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12:24 - 12:28If your son or daughter or niece
or nephew or neighbor -
12:28 - 12:30or little Timmy down the street
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12:30 - 12:33goes to an affluent school,
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12:33 - 12:36challenge your school committee
to adopt an impoverished school -
12:36 - 12:38or an impoverished classroom.
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12:38 - 12:41Close the divide by engaging
in communication -
12:41 - 12:43and relationships that matter.
-
12:44 - 12:46When resources are shared,
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12:46 - 12:48they're not divided;
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12:48 - 12:49they're multiplied.
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12:50 - 12:52And on a micro level:
-
12:52 - 12:54if you're a human being,
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12:54 - 12:55donate.
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12:56 - 13:00Time, money, resources, opportunities --
-
13:00 - 13:02whatever is in your heart.
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13:03 - 13:05There are websites like DonorsChoose
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13:05 - 13:07that recognize the disparity
-
13:07 - 13:10and actually want
to do something about it. -
13:12 - 13:14What is a carpenter with no tools?
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13:14 - 13:17What is an actress with no stage?
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13:17 - 13:19What is a scientist with no laboratory?
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13:20 - 13:23What is a doctor with no equipment?
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13:23 - 13:25I'll tell you:
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13:25 - 13:26they're my kids.
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13:27 - 13:29Shouldn't they be your kids, too?
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13:30 - 13:31Thank you.
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13:31 - 13:37(Applause)
- Title:
- How America's public schools keep kids in poverty
- Speaker:
- Kandice Sumner
- Description:
-
Why should a good education be exclusive to rich kids? Schools in low-income neighborhoods across the US, specifically in communities of color, lack resources that are standard at wealthier schools -- things like musical instruments, new books, healthy school lunches and soccer fields -- and this has a real impact on the potential of students. Kandice Sumner sees the disparity every day in her classroom in Boston. In this inspiring talk, she asks us to face facts -- and change them.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:50
Retired user commented on English subtitles for How America's public schools keep kids in poverty | ||
Brian Greene commented on English subtitles for How America's public schools keep kids in poverty | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How America's public schools keep kids in poverty | ||
Gabriel Tallineau commented on English subtitles for How America's public schools keep kids in poverty | ||
Peter van de Ven commented on English subtitles for How America's public schools keep kids in poverty | ||
Peter van de Ven commented on English subtitles for How America's public schools keep kids in poverty | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How America's public schools keep kids in poverty | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How America's public schools keep kids in poverty |
Peter van de Ven
typo at 10.41: "the incarceration rates,\"
Peter van de Ven
typo at 5.10: "and call it was it really is." was->what
Gabriel Tallineau
Typo at 4.50 : "against" and not "again".
Brian Greene
The typos at 4:50, 5:10 and 10:41 were fixed on 11/8/2016.
Retired user
Hi, another typo in 1:40
and were the only ones using the brown crayons => and WE were the only ones using the brown crayons