NASHVILLE – This year’s National Charter Schools Conference has been chock full of figures in the movement calling for improvement and introspection.
One of the most widely publicized calls came from U.S. Education Secretary John King, on the issue of school discipline.
King, who helped found Roxbury Preperatory Charter School in Boston, said children of color are more likely than their peers to be suspended or expelled, and this hampers their ability to succeed in schools. Charter schools, he said, are in a position to find better ways to close those gaps.
“Don’t get caught up in battles about whether charters are a little better or a little worse than average on discipline,” he said. “Instead, focus on innovating to lead the way for the sake of our students.”
He made a few ad libs that deviated from the published version of his speech.
This excerpt from his remarks, as delivered, makes all the more clear that for him, this issue is personal.
I want to share a very personal perspective on this issue. The students who are frustrating us most often are the ones who need the most from us. I know that from my own life, when I wasn’t handling structure and rules well, it was because of the chaos I had experienced at home, outside of school.
I grew up in Brooklyn, in New York City. My mom passed away when I was eight, in October of my fourth-grade year. My dad, who was very sick with undiagnosed Alzheimer’s, passed away when I was 12. And living there those four years with my father was a period where it was chaotic, and often unstable and unsafe, at home. And after my father passed, I moved around between family members and schools.
It was teachers — New York City public-school teachers — that saved my life. They made school this place that was safe, engaging and nurturing. Those New York school teachers are the reason I’m alive today, and the reason I’m standing here today.
But by the time I was a teenager, I was angry about the experiences I had had. I was frustrated, and I rebelled against adult authority. I made a lot of mistakes, and actually got kicked out of high school.
It’s often observed, but I believe that I’m the first Secretary of Education to have been kicked of high school. But I hope I won’t be the last.
Because after I left, after I was kicked out of school, at the next high school, the teachers could have looked at me and said, “Here is an African-American, Latino male student from New York City Public Schools who’s got a family in crisis, who got kicked out, what chance does he have?” They could have walked away. They could have turned their back. They could have given up. But they didn’t. They chose to invest in me. They chose to give me a second chance. They chose to believe that those mistakes that I had made were ones from which I could come back. That I could be better. That with their support, I could do better. They gave me a second chance, and with the help of some extended family members, helped me to find my way.
I believe, on these issues of rethinking discipline, we have a chance as a community to lead the way.
