Two percent and counting

When President Obama urged more young Americans to become teachers in last week's State of the Union address, he sparked more than a nation-wide recruitment campaign. This Monday movie maker Spike Lee and Education Secretary Arne Duncan teamed up at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia to specifically encourage more black men to become educators, with more details here at the Huffington Post. Lee noted that, today, there are 8,500 unfilled teaching positions available in the nation, recorded on teach.gov. There are 3 million teachers in the United States. Less than two percent are black men.

Lee and Duncan repeatedly stressed the importance of education, which should be on par with business, technology, and law for graduates choosing their profession. Those who choose to pursue degrees in education have the opportunity to influence generations of children, who grow into adolescents, who grow into young adults - who, in turn, choose whether to work or to take the side streets, entering the world of crime. Lee and Duncan hinted at the fact that black male teachers have the powerful potential to appeal to black male students, showing them a straight path that they can follow.


And it's true - we do need to create role models. But at what cost? Monday's talk at Morehouse College sparked a wave of interest from the media, but will it be enough to incite more black college undergraduates to enroll in graduate schools of education? The wage gap between that of a starting teacher and a financial consultant remains embarrassingly wide. And Spike Lee himself - arguably another black male role model for today's students - is a film-maker, not a teacher. He chose Hollywood, not a classroom in the Bronx. It's that simple. Again, America, we're delivering well on media coverage and well-articulated speeches, but not so much on concrete steps that would ensure change. Duncan's take on the TEACH campaign, which encourages minorities to study education, is a small step forward. Here's hoping more is on the way!

To talk more about issues central to education in the U.S. today, come to Tutorpedia Foundation's 2nd Annual Benefit, on February 23 in San Francisco, for a dialogue with the Director of Race to Nowhere, Vicki Abeles, along with other education visionaries: Dennis Littky, co-founder and co-director of the internship-based charter network, Big Picture Learning; and Farb Nivi, founder of the innovative ed-tech company, Grockit. Spread the word to your friends and colleagues, educators and non-educators alike, because we can all be motivated to make a change in how and why we educate. Great food, impressive auction items, and a raffle will top off the evening. All proceeds from the evening provide free one-on-one tutoring for low-income students in the Bay Area.