What do you believe is the value of education?

Education changes lives. It opens doors of opportunity. Especially today, when we’re dealing with a lot of 21st century problems, it’s important to have a sound educational background. Right now, there really are a lot of internal and external threats to our democracy and an educated population is the number one cure for any threat to democracy

What do you believe is the value of education?
Education changes lives. It opens doors of opportunity. Especially today, when we’re dealing with a lot of 21st century problems, it’s important to have a sound educational background. Right now, there really are a lot of internal and external threats to our democracy and an educated population is the number one cure for any threat to democracy.

Would you say that in some ways, we as a society, have lost sight of taking some ownership for the next generation?
Society is really focused on the here and now. No one’s really looking at the future. If we could get back to those values of looking out for the next generation, I think we will be a better society.

How can educators better listen to and act on the voices of their students? How do you try to do that?
My classroom is always a collaborative partnership for my students. I let the students know that they have just as much voice in their learning as I do. I always respect their opinion as part of open communication. When you do that, the kids feel valued and those lessons tend to move out into other aspects of their lives.

What other things are you finding that are useful from an education perspective with your students?
One of the main things that I try to teach them is how to process information. In the 21st century, learning information comes at you so quickly — you have information in the palm of your hand. I need to teach you to determine what’s a good source versus what’s a bad source, what’s bias and what’s propaganda.

Do we as Americans ask too much of our teachers?
Yes. Teachers are often tasked with solving societal issues, and it’s easy to blame a lot of society’s problems on teachers because everything is measured in the classroom. We don’t properly take into consideration the kid who comes from a home of abuse, a home of neglect, a home of poverty. We let society off the hook for some of the issues that our kids are going through, and we put all that blame on the teacher.

Do you have any thoughts about how we can give better support to today’s teachers and students?
It’s simple. It’s equitable funding. Making sure that all students and all teachers have the resources they need. They need more counselors, more mental health services and more wraparound services.

We ask teachers to wear too many hats. For example, I had a student one day in class who came up to me and said, “I want to concentrate, but there are voices in my head telling me not to pay attention.” Luckily, we happened to have a school psychologist in the building that day, and I escorted her down to the psychologist to get the help she needed. If that psychologist wasn’t there, that kid could have had a complete mental health breakdown.

What would you tell young people who might be thinking about teaching?
If you want to change the world, the best way to do that and make an impact is to be a teacher. If you’re a teacher, you can get thousands of kids to have a greater impact in this world. It’s like Tupac said, “I might not be the person who changes the world, but I might spark the mind that does.”

What draws you to juvenile detention work?
I feel that the kids in juvenile detention are the most vulnerable kids in society. They’ve often been failed on numerous levels by the various symptoms of our society — from schooling to social services to the justice system. By being there, I feel like I’m truly making a significant difference in their lives.

What persists in challenging you about teaching?
The secondary trauma. You’re working with kids on the edge and it’s really hard. Just in the past 18 months since I was named Richmond City Teacher of the Year, I lost 20 students to street violence.

Can you say more about recruiting and retaining male teachers of color. How can we do a better job of that?
It starts with creating better experiences for the students of color in school. Quite often, for students of color, school is a traumatic place. They don’t see education and teaching as a
viable option.

We should invest in teaching programs. Teacher education programs are some of the least funded school programs in college.

How do you encourage students to work through difference and come together, and how can we do a better job of that in our country?
I’m a history teacher and one of my favorite activities is to put the students in the mindset of a certain character or certain situation in history and it may not be something that they agree with. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes and start to think about their issues and their problems. When you do that, you tend to start to empathize with people a little more.

What should people know about teaching in a juvenile detention center?
You have to be a master of pedagogy and differentiation. You have multiple kids on multiple levels all in the same class, and so you need to be very flexible and create a culture of collaboration and caring.

It takes us back to the old African American schoolhouse when you had kids all in one room or one shack. They had to work together. The older ones had to help the younger ones and that’s the environment that I create in my classroom.

What are some of the other challenges working within a juvenile detention center?
Access. Your students may have an interest that you can’t nurture because they can’t get the tools. For example, if you have a student who’s really into barbering or carpentry or something, I wish we could give them the hands-on tools they needed to get the license or to get that certification.

What do you believe is the value of education?
I believe the value of education is truly defined by where the individual is with their efforts to understand what’s happening around them. Education is a way people are able to improve their life, the way to understand the world that’s around them, and it is a way to influence the future not only for themselves, but for their families.

My wife and I are both in education. We’ve dedicated our lives to education. We’re doing important work.

Are we on the same page about the value of education in our country?
I’m not sure we’re all on the same page of what the value of education is. I think some look at education as a way out of poverty, I think some look at it as a way of trying to create the standard of living that they would like to have, but I also think some people see it as a way of making money by taking advantage of the institution of education and trying to figure out how they can better themselves.

I think the true value of education is to help individuals learn to think better, to analyze, to problem solve, to be able to understand the world that we’re in and improve it for themselves and others.

There’s a great debate happening across our nation right now about how or whether to work with people who have different beliefs than your own. What do you think about that? And what should we be teaching our children?
In Bibb County, our vision is that our students would demonstrate strength of character and will be college or career ready.

For us, it begins with students demonstrating strength of character. Part of that is being able to talk to others who may have different views, and being willing to listen and learn, and try and find a way to move forward. In school settings, that’s where we’re able to bring young people together — sometimes for the first time — in large numbers, so they can learn the importance of collaboration and cooperation.

You have to learn to go slow in order to go fast. Part of that is students learning to be leaders of themselves and then leaders of others. We’re currently implementing a program called “The Leader in Me” for our students. They’re able to develop the abilities to create what we call the private victory where they’re able to know that they can lead themselves by being proactive, beginning with the end in mind and putting first things first.

Do you believe Americans’ perceptions of teachers has changed from when your parents were teaching?
I do. When my parents were active in the profession, they were some of the ones that community leaders looked to. They were educated, entrusted with their neighbors’ children. They saw them in church. They saw them in the neighborhood. My dad was a pastor and my mom was the first lady of a church. In older days when all the parents weren’t college-educated or maybe even high school graduates, they wanted someone who they thought possessed more knowledge than they did to educate their children.

Today, things have changed. We have more educated individuals. People think that if they have gone through school, they have an idea of what it should be like. They want it to be like what it was when they were in school or what they thought it should have been like.

The level of respect for the teaching profession has also changed. For so long it’s been said that teachers are not paid enough, and that they’re not respected enough. That statement has had an indirect consequence on the level of respect the profession once had.

How do you believe we can elevate the teaching profession
in our country? And what are you doing in your own district
to support teachers?
Superintendents are starting to look at running the school district more as a business. It’s not just that you come to the school, and a teacher goes into the classroom, closes the door and teaches. It’s more of an enterprise.
I think school leaders are now looking at the value added above just the education. We have determined that if a child goes through our school system they will leave with a better understanding and more capabilities in leadership, scholarship and citizenship.

What is the single greatest challenge facing teachers today?
There is so much more expected of teachers today. We are required to take all the children that come through our doors, but a lot of times they’re coming with more issues than what teachers have been trained to do.
I remember my mom used to get off work, and kids would be out of school at 3:30. She could leave at 4:00, we could be home at 5:00, and she could prepare dinner, and we’d be eating by 6:00. Today, teachers have a hard time finding that balance.

You have made a great deal of effort to improve the graduation, literacy and attendance rates in your district while creating a positive culture for teachers and staff. Tell us about that and some of the other accomplishments that make you most proud.
When I arrived in Bibb in 2015, we were still coming through what we considered kind of a dark period. When it was announced that I was going to be superintendent, I was asked, “What are you going to do?” And my statement was, “We’re going to change the culture of where we are.”

The graduation rate has gone up since 2014. It was about 57% and we’re at 78% trying to get to 80%. In Georgia, we have what’s called a College and Career Ready Performance Index, which is a performance index of how well the school district is doing, and they put us on the letter grade. When I arrived, we were at about 60.03%, which was almost an F. We’ve risen to about 68%, and we’re trying to get about 70% so we will be a C district. People see the progress that is happening.

In the year ahead, how will your accomplishments be impacted by Academy for Classical Education (ACE) becoming a state charter school?
The Academy for Classical Education will be the second state charter school included in Bibb County. Currently, they are a part of the district, and the school’s information will be included in 2019 records and have been for the last five years. When you look at their demographics, they have a percentage of students that have less poverty than the school district as a whole. They have less diversification as far as racial demographics are concerned in the district. They also have higher test scores.

They had their first graduating class this year, and I think they graduated 99% of their kids. So, losing a school that’s graduating 99% is not going to help us rise from 78%. They will do good work, but so will we.

What makes you hopeful about the future of K-12 education?
I’m hopeful about K-12 education because we still value public education. The current group who are becoming teachers are as idealistic about the profession as those that came in 25, 30 years ago.

They’re coming in having been told schools are tough. They’re coming in knowing that you’re not going to get rich in public education. They’re coming in knowing that kids are coming with more issues than they had before, but they’re still coming. And we have teachers who are coming into teaching for a second career, and that group is bringing new energy as well.

Our teachers are coming with more knowledge and understanding of how to reach and help students learn.