So I grew up in East Los Angeles, not even realizing I was poor. My dad was a high-ranking gang member who ran the streets. Everyone knew who I was, so I thought I was a pretty big deal, and I was protected,and even though my dad spent most of my life in and out of jail, I had an amazing mom who was just fiercely independent. She worked at the local high school as a secretary in the dean’s office,so she got to see all the kids that got thrown out of class, for whatever reason, who were waiting to be disciplined.Man, her office was packed.
我在洛杉磯東區長大。從來沒意識到我很窮。我老爸是街頭黑幫頭目之一。大家都知道我是誰，所以，還真把自己當回事了，我還受到保護，儘管我老爸常進班房。但我有一個非常了不起的母親，一名非常獨立的女性。她在本地的一間中學工作是學校主任室的一名秘書。所以，她要面對很多因為各種原因被趕出課堂，準備接受處罰的孩子們。她的辦公室總是人滿為患的。
So, see, kids like us, we have a lot of things to deal with outside of school, and sometimes we’re just not ready to focus.But that doesn’t mean that we can’t.It just takes a little bit more.Like, I remember one day I found my dad convulsing, foaming at the mouth, OD-ing on the bathroom floor.Really, do you think that doing my homework that night was at the top of my priority list? Not so much.
像我們這類孩子，要處理許多校外的問題，有時我們只是還沒準備好集中精神學習而已。但這並不意味著我們做不到。只不過我們要比別人多付出一些罷了。比如說，我記得有一天，我發現我老爸抽搐、口吐白沫、因為過量吸毒昏死在浴室的地板上。說真的，你認為在這樣一個晚上做作業會是我要處理的最重要的事嗎？當然不是。
But I really needed a support network, a group of people who were going to help me make sure that I wasn’t going to be a victim of my own circumstance,that they were going to push me beyond what I even thought I could do.I needed teachers, in the classroom, every day, who were going to say, "You can move beyond that."And unfortunately, the local junior high was not going to offer that. It was gang-infested, huge teacher turnover rate.
但我確實又很需要一個支持網絡，——一群能幫得了我的人他們可以保證我不會成為我生活環境的犧牲品，他們會鞭策我超越我對自己的期望。我需要老師，在教室裡，每一天他們會對我說：「你能比現在做得更好的。」但不幸的是，本地的初中無法滿足我的需要,當地幫派林立，老師的更換非常頻繁。
So my mom said, "You’re going on a bus an hour and a half away from where we live every day."So for the next two years, that’s what I did.I took a school bus to the fancy side of town.And eventually, I ended up at a school where there was a mixture.There were some people who were really gang-affiliated, and then there were those of us really trying to make it to high school.Well, trying to stay out of trouble was a little unavoidable.You had to survive. You just had to do things sometimes.So there were a lot of teachers who were like, "She’s never going to make it. She has an issue with authority. She’s not going to go anywhere."Some teachers completely wrote me off as a lost cause.
所以，我媽媽說：「你要每天坐一個半小時的公交車到另外一間學校去讀書。」所以，在隨後的兩年裡，我就這樣去那裡讀書了。我每天乘坐校車到鎮上富裕繁華的地方。最後我來到這間學生成分很多樣化的學校。學生當中有些人是幫派成員，而其他的是我們這些十分努力完成中學課程的人。其實，嘗試從麻煩當中脫身是在所難免的。因為你要活下來有時候，就免不了做些身不由己的事。所以，也有不少老師曾說：「她是讀不到畢業的。她不接受管教。她不會有任何出路的。」有些老師甚至認定我已經不可救藥。
But then, they were very surprised when I graduated from high school.I was accepted to Pepperdine University, and I came back to the same school that I attended to be a special ed assistant.
所以，當我高中畢業時他們全都驚呆了。後來我被Pepperdine大學錄取了，畢業後，我回到我高中時的母校當了一名特別教育助理。
And then I told them, "I want to be a teacher."
後來，我告訴他們：「我要做一名老師。」
And boy, they were like, "What? Why? Why would you want to do that?"
他們聽到後都很驚訝地問我：「什麼？為什麼？你怎麼會想到要當老師呢？」
So I began my teaching career at the exact same middle school that I attended, and I really wanted to try to save more kids who were just like me.And so every year, I share my background with my kids, because they need to know that everyone has a story,everyone has a struggle, and everyone needs help along the way. And I am going to be their help along the way.
可我就這樣開始了我的教學生涯，任教於我的高中母校。我真的想要挽救更多的有過和我一樣經歷的孩子。所以，每年，我都和我的學生分享我的故事，因為他們有必要知道每個人都有自己的故事，每個人都有過掙扎，而每個人在自己前進的道路上都需要別人拉一把、護一下。而我正是那個他們人生旅途上需要找的人。
So as a rookie teacher, I created opportunity.I had a kid one day come into my class having been stabbed the night before.
所以，作為一個菜鳥老師,我為他們創造了機會。一天，一名學生走入我的課堂，他在前一天晚上被人刺傷了。
I was like, "You need to go to a hospital, the school nurse, something."
我對他說：「你得去醫院，或者找學校的護士什麼的處理一下你的傷。」
He’s like, "No, Miss, I’m not going. I need to be in class because I need to graduate."So he knew that I was not going to let him be a victim of his circumstance, but we were going to push forward and keep moving on.And this idea of creating a safe haven for our kids and getting to know exactly what they’re going through, getting to know their families —I wanted that, but I couldn’t do it in a school with 1,600 kids,and teachers turning over year after year after year. How do you get to build those relationships?
可他說：「我不去，老師，我不會去的。我得來上課，因為我一定要畢業。」他知道我不會讓他因為自己的生活環境而被拖累，相反，我們要促使他們邁出第一步和繼續向前進。所以，我很想為這幫孩子營造一個安全的學習環境，想了解他們所經歷的一切,想了解他們的家庭——我希望能這樣做，但是，在一間有1600名學生的學校裡，我沒法關注到他們每個人。而且，年復一年，還有大量的老師離職，你又怎麼能建立師生關係呢？
So we created a new school. And we created the San Fernando Institute for Applied Media. And we made sure that we were still attached to our school district for funding, for support.But with that, we were going to gain freedom: freedom to hire the teachers that we knew were going to be effective;freedom to control the curriculum so that we’re not doing lesson 1.2 on page five, no;and freedom to control a budget, to spend money where it matters, not how a district or a state says you have to do it.We wanted those freedoms. But now, shifting an entire paradigm, it hasn’t been an easy journey, nor is it even complete.But we had to do it. Our community deserved a new way of doing things.
所以，我們創辦了一所新學校。我們的新校名字是聖費爾南多應用媒體研究所。儘管我們仍然要掛靠在我們的學區以獲得資金和支持。但是，我們享有很大的辦學自主權：如聘請教師的自由，我們只聘那些高效的老師；同時，我們還擁有課程安排的自由，這樣子我們就不會受教材的束縛,不會；我們還可以控制我們的預算，將資金花在重要的事情方面，而不是花在學區或州的教育部門規定的事情上。我們需要這些自主權。但此時，我們已經做到了辦學模式的徹底轉變，其中的過程是艱辛的，這一革新目前也並非完善。但我們必須要做好這件事。我們的社區需要一種新的辦法來做好這些孩子的教育工作。
And as the very first pilot middle school in all of Los Angeles Unified School District, you better believe there was some opposition.And it was out of fear — fear of, well, what if they get it wrong?Yeah, what if we get it wrong? But what if we get it right? And we did.So even though teachers were against it because we employ one-year contracts — you can’t teach,or you don’t want to teach, you don’t get to be at my school with my kids.
作為洛杉磯聯合學區內的第一間試點中學，自然有人對我們的辦學方式提出反對的意見。反對是出於某種擔心——擔心萬一辦不好怎麼辦？對，如果我們辦不好會怎麼樣呢？但問題是，如果我們辦好了呢？後來，我們的確辦得很成功。所以，儘管老師們反對，因為我們只和老師籤定一年期的工作合同——如果你教不好，或者你不想教，你就不能在我們的學校混下去。
So in our third year, how did we do it?Well, we’re making school worth coming to every day. We make our kids feel like they matter to us.We make our curriculum rigorous and relevant to them, and they use all the technology that they’re used to. Laptops, computers, tablets — you name it, they have it. Animation, software, moviemaking software, they have it all.And because we connect it to what they’re doing — For example, they made public service announcements for the Cancer Society.These were played in the local trolley system.Teaching elements of persuasion, it doesn’t get any more real than that.Our state test scores have gone up more than 80 points since we』ve become our own school.
到了我們辦學的第三年，我們的學校是什麼樣子的呢？我們已經使學校成為了學生每天都想去的地方了。我們已經讓我們的學生感覺到我們在乎他們。我們為他們量身定製課程標準，他們可以使用他們習慣使用的各種電子產品。手提電腦、臺式機，平板電腦——你能想得到的，他們都有。動畫、軟體、電影製作軟體這些東西他們全都有。我們把這些東西和他們的學習、生活聯繫在一起——比如說，他們會為癌症協會做一些公益廣告。這些廣告在有軌電車系統上播放。有說服力的教學當中沒有什麼是比這更真更成功的實踐了。我們的州考成績在不斷上升。目前已經比我們學校創辦初期提升了80分。
But it’s taken all stakeholders, working together — teachers and principals on one-year contracts, working over and above and beyond their contract hours without compensation. And it takes a school board member who is going to lobby for you and say,"Know, the district is trying to impose this, but you have the freedom to do otherwise."And it takes an active parent center who is not only there, showing a presence every day, but who is part of our governance, making decisions for their kids, our kids.Because why should our students have to go so far away from where they live?They deserve a quality school in their neighborhood, a school that they can be proud to say they attend,and a school that the community can be proud of as well, and they need teachers to fight for them every day and empower them to move beyond their circumstances.Because it’s time that kids like me stop being the exception, and we become the norm.Thank you.
但這是各利益相關者共同努力的結果——如一年工作合同期的老師和校長，他們的工作時長遠遠超出了比合同中規定的時間，而沒有得到任何額外的補償。而且，這還多虧有一名校董在遊說過程中提出以下的表達，「要知道，學區正準備推行這個，但是你們有另闢蹊徑的自由。」同時，也受益於一個活躍的家長中心，他們並不僅僅是每天露個臉而已，而且積極地參與了學校的治理，幫他們的孩子——我們的學生——做決策。為什麼我們的學生非得到離家這麼遠的地方上學呢？他們應該擁有一間在自己的社區裡資質好的學校，一間他們能引以為豪的學校，一間社區為之驕傲的學校，而他們也需要每天都在為學生爭取權利的老師，鼓勵他們擺脫目前的困境的老師。因為，是時候，讓像我這樣的孩子不再是非主流，而成為主流了。謝謝。