5 a. M. Wakthe 5 a. M. Wake up tot like her but that that is justn wish. Shes wonderfully and is also [inaudible] carman and linda were and are my inspirations and im so lucky to have the opportunity to introduce my mom, my favorite educator and the best mom to the stage. [applause] not always do you get to be introduced by your daughter but i think we are getting more seats in here. [applause] via here to talk about this book that you all are going to buy it because you dont make money writing books. My book is still the royalties are going back and this will go to the arts academy kids so its really important that you buy it from independent bookstores as well. How many of you are teachers right now teaching . How many of you have ever taught . Okay i feel better. How many of you are leading the schools or organizations . Cow many of you have ever led schools or organizations . How many of you are graduate students . How many of you are a former graduate student of mine . Thank you for being here. So, i moved the book to start a larger conversation about what we believe will help students succeed after high school. I also wrote the book because im really angry. I am angry at what it takes to really create access and equity in this country. We continue to think it is the responsibility of the most vulnerable , those with the least amount of access to create themselves. I wrote the book to say that its just not true. I told this story and i get crucified a lot for this but i want to tell you this because it was a lot of my motivation. She was one of my students at the academy graduated at the top of her class and was accepted with a full scholarship. She was a first generation scholarship kid. Its disappointing there are not more at harvard. There should be. For complicated t reasons, she never stepped foot on her college campus. She lost her scholarship in the summer after high h school becae she missed a deadline to send in a deposit to hold her space. For the reasons that combine a lack of experience in the absencand absenceof cultural anl capital and im surebs some sha. This one dramatic mistake had an effect on the course of her life. This story became the impetus for this new book. When i stepped down from the arts academy i wanted to take a more critical look at what i haveve accomplished a. I. Began to interview a long night, those that have gone on to college and those who had not. Those had done well in graduated and in total i interviewed over 90 students and spoke in the form only to dozens more. Her story i would soon find out was not an exception. I begin to reflect on the promise that i made each year to buy 125 freshmen. All of you i would say in and of some elite just like this will go on to college or a postsecondary career. You will go on to a conservatory thatol was college with all of u will go on to college. Its the right promise to make. I still feel that way, but my emphasis was wrong. I didnt do enough to promote Career Opportunities along with college and as i listened to my former students, five of some shins or myths became a clear refrained if we carefully begin to interrogate them and that is the invitation of the buck, i believe we will continue to build better bridges between Higher Education and pre k12 education. The book is organized around these five. I want you tohe hear them. Money isnt an obstacle. Number two, race doesnt matter. Justr. Work harder. College is for everyone. If you believe your dreams will come true. The College Acceptance rates of students from the Boston Arts Academy is very high. I could have just been pleased with those statistics. 94 to 98 are accepted to college and waited nearly two thirds graduate within six years. These are extraordinary figures for any school particularly urban school, but i wanted to understand what happened to those that didnt go to college or were not successful and i wanted to understand the journey of those in college. Its too easy for us to assume all students start in the same place and everyone has access to the same degree of knowledge to navigate. As a recent New York Times article says this came out just as i was turning the puck into o the publisher and i would quote for young people with collegeeducated parents, the path to Higher Education may be stressful but there is a roadm roadmap. If thehe essay is lackluster aty can hire a writing coach and no one will be all the wiser. If they cant decide which college is the best fit they can visit and when they ar are tempd tare temptedto get off, their pl push them on. Few of these are in place for the win, or firstgeneration students and that is what this book is about. We assume the deep social inequities can be overcome by individual efforts and everyone has an equal chance of success and if we just work harder we will be fine. We assumed this because there are so many wonderful stories of those who make it and in the book i tell those stories. Many of you may have heard of diane in the country we love she played the little latina and orange is the new black. She was p a part of the interviewed for this book, but we make the assumption that those who just lack determination are not sufficiently gritty are the reason folks will not get ahead, and this great pedagogy if you will is something that has been popularized in our schools of education and this just work harder kind of ethos, so i want you to critically examine that. Im going to read an excerpt from the book wherere i describd to classrooms, one where the teacher is all about great if the other where the behavioral expectations are little more relaxedd and id reading this in the hope that you will all come out of here, buy the book and say great is and what we need to be talking about right now, so here we go. This is on page 84 in case any of you want to follow. Im going to read from my big print text. 2,512th graders facing their teacher and a big debate the big video screen. We are about to begin the unit and this is the video i promised yesterday we would watch. A hand shot up in a little girl with braids and ribbons in her hair asked in a whisper is that the one where we see the snake actually walk out of its skin . Yes, we will see that and take notes like scientists as we watch. Everyone nodded eagerly. The teacher distributed clipboards and papers and a nervous excitement rippled through the class. E clearly this was a lesson they had eagerly anticipated. When we are ready and sitting up and tracking me, i will start the video. The students repositioned themselves and held their clipboards to the ready in their laps. However, two students in the back row of the drug were overtaken with giggles and seem to have a hard time either putting in the paper or paying attention. The teacher redirected them a couple times but they were in a world of their own. All others had their eyes facing forward and were not paying much attention to the giggling but certainly the teacher said it is clear to me that the class is not ready to engage in learning. Lets go back to the desks until we have 100 engagement. You are not respecting the learning process and have completely forgotten. Did you move your back muscles over the weekend plaques to many of you are slouching. Im going to stop from the text for a minute to make sure we know whats landing is. Raise your hand if youve heard the acronym, situps, look at question, not an attractive speaker. Part of the grid ethos is that all kids know how to do that on demand. The little girl, returning to the text whispered to her friends we are not showing respect. Her friend nodded. The students quietly got to their seat an and became heir of despondent street silently back to their desks. Now we will have to wait until tomorrow to see the video and i really do not want a dinner. When the class was dismissed for lunch teacher demanded everyone line up outside silently. As they proceeded to the cafeteria, they passed a second gradehe class walking and. Very common in a lot of schools these days. They held their arms crisscrossed a most like they were in a straitjacket, their cheeks puffed out as if they had caught a bubble inside. Theye proceeded silently to the cafeteria where they dropped their arms and relaxed. There were five different classrooms in the cafeteria and all of them, they ate in complete silence while the teachers monitored the room. Im going to stop from the text because i think in the book i dont tell you what schools these are from, but this is not an exceptional school. Want you to think it is. I visited many schools like this. I inquired of silence lunch was a punishment for bad behavior and i was informed i went for lunch was a regular occurrence. We want students to have time in the day that they are quite peaceful, but it felt anything but peaceful to me. It seemed more like a prison with the teachers at guard. I was stunned that this has become a regular practice. Gone is the joy of meeting friends at lunch and chattering about anything or nothing. Gone is being a carefree kid. As in many schools, all of the teachers are young and white and female. What message does it send to kids that are not of the dominantid culture . The school to me felt oppressive. While making eye contact and nodding at speakers isnt wrong, this land system isnt contextualized to a variety of learning environments. It resulted in an emphasis on behavior over active learning. In other words you were consideredd a good learner if yu could demonstrate this plan slat this is a minimal condition of learning. In mostg situations for many students the behavior had nothing to do with the learning. Of course it is hard to teach if they are cutting in class but the third grade Science Teacher described that it had clearly been trained to stop in the absence of a 100 compliance. In the conversation later the teacher admitted she felt badly about the decision to abort a lesson in favor of behavior. In this school bpd that students are not i practicing slant, then thes learning will be compromised. Its like the broken window theory you have to take care of the small things before the big things or nothing will get fixed. But this adherence that i have been witnessed in the so man soo excuse schools makes me wonder about the message we send to our young people. The word of process kept comingh to mind and a little room existed for the divergent thinking. I reflect on another school and visited which was the opposite of the no excuse schools. In the urban Public School in new york city i witnessed a group of eighth graders discussing the novel by james baldwin. What struck me in addition to their level of discourse how they arranged themselves in the classroom some sat on top of their desks and others were on chairs and a few were standing. Not everyone was in a circle. One sat outside the circle and participated in a discussion even though he looked angry the entire time. Another sat at the teachers desk. When i asked if the seating arrangement was distracting to him or other students, he looked at me curiously. Why should it matter how they said if they are saved if they g and respecting one anothers opinions. That is my goal. Can they talk to one another from the text and find evidence about the point of view and build off of what each other said . What about the fact not everyone was living by the same rule, clearly the directions were to sit in a circle. He began somewhat impatient with me. What i like everyone to sit in a circle . Of course. Do i want to sacrifice valuable teaching and learning time to be constantly reminding students of that expectation and more importantly do i want to make sure the classroom is a place theres also breathing room . I know whats going on with carlos and edward. The rest of the class doesnt care. I wasnt sure that i was satisfied with the answer. Ive wanted to do if he had seen the practice where the rules for easily and quickly adhered to in the teacherand teachers felt ted begin to. Many are asked to leave because theyy were not disciplined enough. He held up his fingers to make the air quotes. You wont see those banners all over my wall. My job is to teach them to thi think. I was not comfortable with the lack of structure and consequence in the classroom and i wondered if it could be used in this case. They learned to listen to one another. I know many of my colleagues believe by following the formula kids will go into college that i dont think they are asking the students for the community where they come from what success would look like for them. Its learning about selfdetermination and i know that its a lot to ask of teachers that we cannot keep seeing ourselves as these a historicalal beings. Anin his teachers didnt particularly like me we need to understand students of color are in then situation because of the systemic racism. We have to critically examine how we might be perpetuating that. Mr. Johnson went on to describe how they were doing in high school. They know how to think critically and independently. So in a this book i question the longrange effectiveness into the race and class effectiveness and training teachers in these methods would create a Classroom Teachers deserve. The benefit of the learning and grids may have been overrated and the curiosity does that google the most may be the most curious learners later on. They were the key to the productive economy and are not well facilitated by the no excuse approach. Another of them should i address is one of this college is for everyone to. We know that isnt true were realistic about we prepare them for careers that will leave middleclass white kid we must change over language to college and career ready and move the way from what i see here. Here is the national statistic. Hi School Graduates enrolling in college meanst nearly half of te students do not and what kind of preparation are we giving them . To answer that i like both locally and internationally and here is what i conclude. We must do a better job with curvier and Technical Education, with workca experiences while younger people were in high school. I want you to consider the next statistic it took a long time to get this one. Those with highest c unemploymet rates come with families of an income above 120,000. The teams with the highest employment rate and here i argue for Work Experience come from thfamilies with income over 120,000 so we are perpetuating again and again income inequality. Those younger peoplthose youngem lowincome sectors are in the greatest need of Work Experience but the least likely toth receie them. In switzerland one of the countries i looked at as a counter experience, Students Experience ant cohesive approach to education and work. At least 50 of 16 to are involved in Vocational Education and one of the hallmarks of the system is that it is permeable to. There is the sense that apprenticeships are a high status way to learn. I saw this level of career and Technical Education in some schools in the country, not nearly enough. In the book i talk about one school 50 miles from here located in the workingclass Community Just outside boston and here is what a student said to me. Using college as a place to grow up as expensive. Im glad ive been exposed to so many different areas i might want to specialize in. Another studentnt told me he was graduating from the alliedhe Health Program and was certified as a nursing assistant but knew he didnt like patient care and would be going on t to meijer tn clinical lab science. D he felt he didnt like direct service work for th that the sce behind disease. I could have written another book about my experiences here in the schools with the career and technical Vocational High School. School. The school holds such a promise for people and it has been under it for three decades. I believe having a strong sense of what youre interested in pursuing in college or the curvier Technical Program needs to become a focus of high schools across the country. In the book i also talk about forprofit schools because they have come in saying they are filling thee gap, but the Horror Stories was enough to move me very quickly away from them although i did try in some cases to give them a good look. Elizabeth warren, the senator from massachusetts hasat a webse that serves as a watchdog and she urges us to stay vigilant especially in the time where i fear that forprofit colleges are coming back. In the book i have many suggestions about how to reinvigorate the curvier and Technical Education. To ensure they have Work Experience and not just middle and upperclass students. And not just the 40 hours of community service, but a real commitment and i even suggested the book i envision a program where all willhe have the chance between high school and college or as a part of their senior year to work in an area that speaksks to their passions. Of course in this book those who know me i take on the countrys current obsession with highstakes testing. This is one of the reasons there is no room in the curriculum for the education. We have become so focused on sorting out the students in the schools that weve lost sight of the importance ofof teaching empathy and how to get along with those different from you. At the time the Democratic Institutions are being daily undermined, i believe that a curriculum focused on the student agenc agency activism cp prepare young people to enter a world in which they have the tools to reshape that reality. We must continue to embrace the largest purposes of education to help our young people understand the context of their lives including the linguistic and a history ahistory as well as thef others different from themselv themselves. I know from seeing the young people play today that education in the arts does just that and we need to ensure that the young people graduate from high school having learned metaphorically speaking to walk in one anothers shoes if we must learn to embrace language, culture, and movements that are foreign to our own perspective. We must learn to express connections through drawing, painting, building and painted the differences from becoming impediments to change. As teachers it is our job to help people critically perceive the world and the way they exist in the worl world and not the wd is a static reality, but the reality in the process of transformation. Even in the era of trump, i remain hopeful. In large part by hope is derived from the generations of students ivive talked into those that i will continue to teach. Teach. My hope is further strengthened because of the amazing teachers i have known who continue to do such amazing work each day. They create classrooms where students can realize the individual collective dreams come us with humility i hope this book you the tools to keep fighting, and i thin thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]ib i talked a lot in the book into a understand the practice but what i take on in the book is the Unhealthy Alliance that too many schools have made and those Service Schools have to interrogate that. The ad it to Work Together is critical but the adn that you dont i succeed or it is your fault is not true in that is what i try to break out. Do you address Teacher Retention . If you describe those to teachers figuring out how to prioritize because everything is a negotiation but over time if you stay with it long enough to get that tradeoff to say this is the line in the sand i dont care if you set this way but today hardly need you to show me your understand the difference between fact anda the opinion. And without multiyear negotiationeg these things i will negotiate in these that i want Teacher Retention is key to that because then they feel they dont reach that point of the chaos and reality of the changing classroom. N not only in my book but all of my work it takes eight years to make a the teacher. My students hear me it takes eight years then you can Start Talking about what you want too do. We have to get a lot better at Teacher Retention because at your three you just get your feet in between three and eight you begin to figure it out years number eight you to start doing some good work. With the students that Start College and believe how did they make bad back again . There isnt a lot of options for nontraditional students. This is what started this. And then to tell the story of one still working to pay off the loans. One of the stories i talk about is the fact that kids who were not on scholarship can drop their class during the semester to take it in the summer but those with scholarships cannot so redouble jeopardizjeopardiz e a lot of the least, those with the least experience. It is a critique of Higher Education was appalled with this 21st century at the lack of infrastructure. And if it was evaluated the way prek12 was evaluated they would be shut down they accept as but dont graduate as. It isnt you personally but between Financial Aid is hair raising it took me calling a College President nt of one of my alums who did not have the wherewithal to do her Health Insurance to get her back and rolled. These are not exceptional stories. I had hoped to during the Obama Presidency we would do a massive Loan Forgiveness Program so we have so many young people out there still working paying back College Loans and they will never get a College Degree and that should send alarm bells everywhere. That is a lotth of what i wrote about. Hopefully you can change your institution. This responsibility is it to provide the guidance . College. And i argue for a better bridge to say colleges have gotten off so easy that they dont think it is their responsibility but it is. With all of the admissions people from the boston area colleges and i did that to bring us together and it was so clear to me that those College Folks did not think it was their responsibility. Use and is prepared and we will take them and idle the fetid successful. This book tells me it is not. As an eight year teacher they give for that previous comment. [laughter] as you raise the issue of the internships and Vocational Education in this country to help us move past the college for all model focusing on the location fields for all students as well. You mentioned the Vocational High School in boston and ultimately theg underfunding is one thing good do you feel there is room for internships or parttime workt with the introduction and then they begin to solidify the identities. Back in the late 70s as a middle School Teacher we were required to teach we also had woodworking. And all of my sixth and seventh and eighthh graders had to do internships and in cambridge used to have a program were many, many had weeklong internships so these are not new ideas i dont say i am so smart i havent figured out but to say, we have to bring this back that we did very well in the past. It is critical these are places where kids can begin to model what if i did this as a career . What they see is very limited. I dote believe it is the schools responsibility not college it is prek12 to broaden andnd not shrink the curriculum. Hello. What you said about grit as the e those really spoke to me. I also think of the mindset of working hard and have you explore that . I talked about grit and growth mindset this is where the idea is came together and then nicely try to and package them so there is nothing wrong with the idea of persevering and being tenacious. Grit is not a bad thing. What is bad is the way we have taken this and i tell the story is in the book just be greedier with the pitchers of the bulletin board. Whatat about max just being nice today . And then just through critically examine the way they swallow this and they do try to be nice. Im notot trying to be an to bash anybody. I dont know if she knew how her work would be taken by the schools. I sort of thing she did. We can start selling books any time. [laughter] ica have a question about the obligations in massachusetts and elsewhere that you mentioned the teacher who had a loose environment was a man. Did you observe gender differences . I field of male teachers command something different. I saw a lot of very disturbing male teachers in those type of school so i am not sure i differentiated. That iss interesting. I dont think i saw them commanding better or worse than women but more akin to the grit to philosophy or not. I will have to think about that. Thanks for the presentation. So many wonderful points. I want to reflect about the nature of the opportunities available to to 40 percent of the population right now. With immigrants and African Americans and the impact from that oppression that you spoke of has on and how they look at education and also what we need to bedu doing t because we can and talk about Vocational Educationn but if there are not decent jobs and instead meeting the needs of powerful corporations destroying communities, what does that mean for our educational systems and progressive systems . And also, i need to emphasize the p of power of community from which students come to be more important than the power of educators and administrators and social workers because they think we devalue and underestimate the capacity of indigenous leadership within the community. Very few people would recognize the incredible capabilities of folks in a the community who may be low in come but holding up their communities despite the horrible assault. I want to throw out a possible way to consider moving forward that we spend more time talking about creating opportunities for parents or not parents or those who never had an opportunity to go to school but from their community to work with teachers and students to begin what we need to i do to change education. Fight a nuclear missing of fundamental step stood in san of the Youth Leadership in boston is incredible with parents and others in the community then teachers to come together really developing. Thanks for those comments. One of the reasons i wanted to star with young peopleun is you did not see a conductor they were working together and they figure thatt out. Hi linda. I am a great fani of your parents and they are here today and invited me to come. And through them i am a great fit of you but as a principal of the school formally and see you in action for a whole day. I think youre terrific can really onto something. She is being paid. Ng [laughter] i wanted to take you up on something that you mentioned which honestly i did not feel as important that now that they dohy the importance of internships for students even elementary but middle school and highschool. This is the experience i had now im wishing there could be more and replicated in other places. I worked for harvard one of my positions was as an assistant director at the kennedy school. We looked at education education, policy and health. This was primarily on a masters degree level and dr. Lovells. One day the head of the center a graduate of this School Called me in and said i have just met with someone in my office now i want you to meet him he is the head of the of workforce programs in cambridge. I really think we should put our money where our mouth is and take on one of the students through this program and that started icing gave most rewarding relationship that went on for all the years that i continued to be without center and tell a went on to another position. And she said we will take one of his students this was is in public housing. Most of them were there may be some recruiters eighth graders retook power for student who was fabulous we gave herav projects for the center as a Research Centers and she got to know a little bit of our research and administration andnd had a. Cspan party and invited me and my mother. [laughter] i will cut you off because we have a few other questions but a danger of going to is wonderful. But very briefly i want to say that this student we had the longest was maria and were still in close touch we encourage church to apply and she went to a college and the same thing happened to her that she got into terrible debt with credit cards, could not pay them off and had to drop out. It took about eight years but she managed to graduate and finally, at that time sponsored by the state was a program in the summertime for kids at a certain income level so that way we could employ eight at a time to do programs of a wish we could do more now. Thanks for sharing. One more question. People may say the push toward Vocational Training is pushing back the opposite way and is irrelevant so how do you engage that . With 18 years ago i grew up here and i found it interesting that schools or progressive schools provide students with carpentry and internships but they dont call it vocational they dont even call it a title but yet they have these experiences that life skills are valuable better seen differently based on social economic so is there a repackaging . Dont call a vocational or parts and crafts . [laughter] i will do the first questionon because i am aware as anyone of the tracking that we historically perpetuated with vocational schools. For the black and brown kids that was the track for those who could not go to college and i am appreciative that term is now career and technical if you with 40 minutes from here you would see a building but they are state of the art and absolutely gorgeous not just plumbing and carpentry and cosmetology but also the strongest are in the life science and health science. So they are leaving with job skills. If you think of all the design and Digital Communications you can graduate and the academy is now a career and Technical High School have to pathways. Also visual communications is the other kids can graduate with a certificate going right into the workforce. I love your idea to repackage so these are experiences all kids can have by would be very excited as a parent in cambridge it did lose its accreditation a few years back and kids would go out but now it is back with the idea that all ninth graders should take the exploratory as part of the highschool curriculum going through various studios. Maybe if we use that word that would get us further faster. The lights are hot you are sitting in one to make sure i sign and there it is food but thank you so much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] host introducing you to the firsttime author his book is called mr. Chairman. Lou is the . An insurance man for 50 years behind the scenes mastermind of the Republican Party at the local state and National Level for a pioneer of political polling, a television, the best known for putting the Republican Party together again after the 64 but goldwater debacle at that time many people thought there may not be another Republican Party but they called on the list and he put the Party Back Together to develop a coordinating committee to get liberals together because they knew they had to have a united party. So then elected president in 68 with nixon but in 66 when he was chairman nixon wanted the National Committee to play for it before airplane to campaign and he was told there no draft to give one to romney and rockefeller he said would not forget this and he didnt and in 1969 after bless pulled off his miracle nixon dumped him and forced him to resign in. Guest did to making ambassador to denmark and he said nixon guys just glowed he said rather go back to sell insurance and that is what he did. He was friends with president eisenhower, taft always behind the scenes type of guy. Host theres always a little bit of tension between president eisenhower and taft. Did he try to bridge that . A very good point. Two times bliss tried to get the nomination with taft and he lost both times. Bliss was disappointed but in 52 eisenhower was the nominee coming into ohio just before he got to ohio he was in the state where the campaign was chaotic and he like to order and when you are they candidate things move along on schedule. After ohio things moved just like that and they became fast friends and he went to gettysburg and eisenhower endured bliss to become National Chairman in 1965. Then nixon would it come to some of the meetings and bliss had to put the Party Back Together he was the enforcer. The way you describe him earlier in south lake up precursor to ronald reagan. Yes. And to know he cannot get elected and talking to the top political aide and said this is ray bliss did not believe him because he was conservative and he said can i call you right back . So he called the number fact that he was given and he said this is ray bliss. The can i tell the you called me . He said tell anybody that you want. He said it was ray price he helped to raise money all across the country to be elected mayor. He said he thought the Republican Party should be big enough for everybody. In to believe passionately in the twoparty system. Just to make sure they had to parties in this country. What is the difference then and now . I dont know what ray bliss would do now all the special Interest Groups have taken power and he fought against that as chairman. One of the most colorful fights was against the john birch society. They thought eisenhower was a communist and he did a speech saying that he wasnt so then goldwater hooked up with another group and bliss got the finance chairman but there wasnt the social issues like now like an control or abortion they would have driven him crazy because the party was supposed to be something everybody could be part of not just antiabortion or proabortion but. Republican. I dont know what he would do. That is a good point. I am the invent coordinator your politics prose on behalf of