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I want to talk to you about my kids.

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Now, I know everyone thinks
that their kid is the most fantastic,

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the most beautiful kid that ever lived.

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But mine really are.

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(Laughter)

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I have 696 kids,

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and they are the most intelligent,
inventive, innovative,

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brilliant and powerful kids
that you'll ever meet.

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Any student I've had the honor of teaching
in my classroom is my kid.

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However, because their "real"
parents aren't rich

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and, I argue, because they
are mostly of color,

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they will seldom get to see in themselves

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the awesomeness that I see in them.

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Because what I see in them is myself --

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or what would have been myself.

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I am the daughter of two hardworking,

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college-educated, African-American parents

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who chose careers as public servants:

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my father, a minister;
my mother, an educator.

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Wealth was never the primary
ambition in our house.

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Because of this lack of wealth,

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we lived in a neighborhood
that lacked wealth,

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and henceforth a school system
that lacked wealth.

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Luckily, however, we struck
the educational jackpot

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in a voluntary desegregation program

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that buses inner-city kids --
black and brown --

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out to suburban schools -- rich and white.

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At five years old, I had to take
an hour-long bus ride

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to a faraway place

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to get a better education.

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At five years old, I thought
everyone had a life just like mine.

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I thought everyone went to school

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and were the only ones
using the brown crayons

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to color in their family portraits,

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while everyone else was using
the peach-colored ones.

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At five years old, I thought
everyone was just like me.

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But as I got older, I started
noticing things, like:

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How come my neighborhood friend
don't have to wake up

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at five o'clock in the morning,

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and go to a school that's an hour away?

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How come I'm learning to play the violin

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while my neighborhood friends
don't even have a music class?

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Why were my neighborhood friends
learning and reading material

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that I had done two to three years prior?

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See, as I got older,

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I started to have
this unlawful feeling in my belly,

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like I was doing something
that I wasn't supposed to be doing;

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taking something that wasn't mine;

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receiving a gift,

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but with someone else's name on it.

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All these amazing things
that I was being exposed to

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and experiencing,

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I felt I wasn't really supposed to have.

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I wasn't supposed to have a library,
fully equipped athletic facilities,

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or safe fields to play in.

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I wasn't supposed to have
theatre departments

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with seasonal plays and concerts --

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digital, visual, performing arts.

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I wasn't supposed to have
fully resourced biology or chemistry labs,

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school buses that brought me door-to-door,

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freshly prepared school lunches

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or even air conditioning.

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These are things my kids don't get.

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You see, as I got older,

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while I was grateful
for this amazing opportunity

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that I was being given,

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there was this ever-present pang of:

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But what about everyone else?

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There are thousands
of other kids just like me,

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who deserve this, too.

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Why doesn't everyone get this?

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Why is a high-quality education
only exclusive to the rich?

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It was like I had some sort
of survivor's remorse.

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All of my neighborhood friends
were experiencing

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an educational train wreck

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that I was saved from through a bus ride.

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I was like an educational Moses screaming,

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"Let my people go ...

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to high-quality schools!"

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(Laughter)

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I'd seen firsthand how the other half
was being treated and educated.

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I'd seen the educational promised land,

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and I could not for the life of me
justify the disparity.

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I now teach in the very same school system
from which I sought refuge.

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I know firsthand the tools
that were given to me as a student,

86
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and now as a teacher, I don't have
access to those same tools

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to give my students.

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There have been countless nights
when I've cried in frustration,

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anger

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and sorrow,

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because I can't teach my kids
the way that I was taught,

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because I don't have access
to the same resources or tools

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that were used to teach me.

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My kids deserve so much better.

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We sit and we keep banging
our heads against this term:

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"Achievement gap, achievement gap!"

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Is it really that hard to understand

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why these kids perform well
and these kids don't?

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I mean, really.

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I think we've got it all wrong.

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I think we,

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as Gloria Ladson-Billings says,

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should flip our paradigm and our language
and call it what it really is.

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It's not an achievement gap;

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it's an education debt,

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for all of the foregone schooling
resources that were never invested

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in the education of the black
and brown child over time.

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A little-known secret in American history

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is that the only American institution
created specifically for people of color

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is the American slave trade --

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and some would argue the prison system,

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but that's another topic
for another TED Talk.

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(Laughter)

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The public school system of this country
was built, bought and paid for

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using commerce generated
from the slave trade and slave labor.

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While African-Americans were enslaved
and prohibited from schooling,

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their labor established
the very institution

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from which they were excluded.

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Ever since then, every court case,
educational policy, reform,

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has been an attempt
to retrofit the design,

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rather than just stopping
and acknowledging:

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we've had it all wrong from the beginning.

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An oversimplification
of American educational history.

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All right, just bear with me.

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Blacks were kept out -- you know,
the whole slavery thing.

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With the help
of philanthropic white people,

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they built their own schools.

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Separate but equal was OK.

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But while we all know
things were indeed separate,

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they were in no ways equal.

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Enter Brown v. the Board of Education
of Topeka, Kansas in 1954;

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legal separation of the races
is now illegal.

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But very few people pay attention
to all of the court cases since then,

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that have undone the educational
promised land for every child

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that Brown v. Board intended.

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Some argue that today our schools
are now more segregated

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than they ever were before we tried
to desegregate them in the first place.

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Teaching my kids about desegregation,
the Little Rock Nine,

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the Civil Rights Movement,

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is a real awkward moment in my classroom,

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when I have to hear
the voice of a child ask,

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"If schools were desegregated in 1954,

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how come there are no white kids here?"

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(Laughter)

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These kids aren't dumb.

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They know exactly what's happening,

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and what's not.

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They know that when it comes to schooling,

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black lives don't matter

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and they never have.

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For years, I tried desperately
to cultivate in my kids a love of reading.

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I'd amassed a modest classroom library

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of books I'd accumulated
from secondhand shops,

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thrift stores, attics -- you know.

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But whenever I said those dreadful words,

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"Take out a book and read,"

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you'd think I'd just declared war.

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It was torture.

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One day,

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after I'd heard about this website
called DonorsChoose,

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where classroom teachers create wish lists

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of items they need for their classroom

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and anonymous donors fulfill them,

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I figured I'd go out on a limb
and just make a wish list

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of the teenager's dream library.

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Over 200 brand-new books
were sent to my room piece by piece.

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Every day there were new deliveries
and my kids would exclaim with glee,

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"This feels like Christmas!"

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(Laughter)

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Then they'd say,

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"Ms. Sumner, where did
these books come from?"

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And then I'd reply,

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"Strangers from all over the country
wanted you to have these."

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And then they'd say, almost suspiciously,

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"But they're brand-new."

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(Laughter)

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To which I'd reply,

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"You deserve brand-new books."

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The whole experience hit home
for me when one of my girls,

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as she peeled open a crisp paperback said,

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"Ms. Sumner -- you know,
I figured you bought these books,

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'cause you teachers
are always buying us stuff.

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But to know that a stranger,
someone I don't even know,

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cares this much about me

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is pretty cool."

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Knowing that strangers
will take care of you

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is a privilege my kids aren't afforded.

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Ever since the donation,

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there has been a steady stream of kids
signing out books to take home,

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and then returning them
with the exclamation,

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"This one was good!"

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(Laughter)

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Now when I say,
"Take out a book and read,"

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kids rush to my library.

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It wasn't that they didn't want to read,

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but instead, they'd gladly read
if the resources were there.

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Institutionally speaking,

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our public school system has never
done right by the black and brown child.

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We keep focusing on the end results

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or test results,

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and getting frustrated.

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We get to a catastrophe and we wonder,

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"How did it get so bad?
How did we get here?"

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Really?

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If you neglect a child long enough,

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you no longer have
the right to be surprised

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when things don't turn out well.

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Stop being perplexed

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or confused

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or befuddled

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by the achievement gap,

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the income gap,

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the incarceration rates,

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or whatever socioeconomic disparity
is the new "it" term for the moment.

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The problems we have as a country

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are the problems we created as a country.

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The quality of your education
is directly proportionate

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to your access to college,

219
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your access to jobs,

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your access to the future.

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Until we live in a world where every kid
can get a high-quality education

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no matter where they live,

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or the color of their skin,

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there are things we can do
on a macro level.

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School funding should not
be decided by property taxes

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or some funky economic equation

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where rich kids continue
to benefit from state aid,

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while poor kids are continuously
having food and resources

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taken from their mouths.

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Governors, senators, mayors,
city council members --

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if we're going to call
public education public education,

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then it should be just that.

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Otherwise, we should
call it what it really is:

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poverty insurance.

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"Public education:

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keeping poor kids poor since 1954."

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(Laughter)

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If we really, as a country, believe
that education is the "great equalizer,"

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then it should be just that:
equal and equitable.

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Until then, there's no democracy
in our democratic education.

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On a mezzo level:

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historically speaking, the education
of the black and brown child

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has always depended
on the philanthropy of others.

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And unfortunately, today it still does.

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If your son or daughter or niece
or nephew or neighbor

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or little Timmy down the street

247
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goes to an affluent school,

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challenge your school committee
to adopt an impoverished school

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or an impoverished classroom.

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Close the divide by engaging
in communication

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and relationships that matter.

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When resources are shared,

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they're not divided;

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they're multiplied.

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And on a micro level:

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if you're a human being,

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donate.

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Time, money, resources, opportunities --

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whatever is in your heart.

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There are websites like DonorsChoose

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that recognize the disparity

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and actually want
to do something about it.

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What is a carpenter with no tools?

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What is an actress with no stage?

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What is a scientist with no laboratory?

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What is a doctor with no equipment?

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I'll tell you:

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they're my kids.

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Shouldn't they be your kids, too?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)