NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk educators started their new year Monday with inspirational speeches built upon one idea: there are ways to see that every child does well.
“We need to ensure success for every one of our children who come through our doors,” Norwalk Superintendent Manny Rivera said to the teachers, administrators and school resource police officers who filled the auditorium of Brien McMahon High School beyond capacity, with many having to stand at the back of the room for the annual Norwalk Public Schools convocation.
The sentiment was driven home by prominent education advocate Geoffrey Canada, the keynote speaker. “Every day in our schools and our classrooms come examples that nothing has worked, people have given up, they have thrown in the towels and guess what? The kids believe them,” Canada said, urging the educators not to give in to the self-fulfilling prophecy.
Canada, 62, is most noted for serving as CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, a position he retired from in February after 31 years. In his spirited and often humorous presentation, he urged his colleagues to employ great determination in making sure every one of their students succeeds in his or her studies.
“We have decided that some of our kids cannot be educated, cannot be saved,” Canada said. “Because we think we have the proof. The proof is 30 years of failure for certain kids in certain communities who look like certain kinds of folk. … People in our industry have decided, ‘We know these kids aren’t going to be able to get a job so guess what we are going to do? All the guys who can’t work will end up going into that alternative way of making money. We are going to make sure we have plenty of jail cells in America for them.”
The United States of America has the number one incarceration rate in the world, he said. North Korea is not even close, he said.
“People keep saying we don’t have the money to educate these kids. This is what drives me crazy,” he said.
It costs an average in $30,000 a year to incarcerate someone in America, he said. But it’s $60,000 in New York state and $157,000 in New York City, he said. Budget cuts to schools are rampant in America but the programs being cut are the ones that keep kids in school, he said. “There’s this idea that kids come to school to suffer,” he said, getting laughter with his line about the “six kids who live for algebra.”
“If you work with kids you should have the same expectations for those kids as you have for your own kids,” he said. “…We have to think outside the box.”
Canada concluded his presentation by reading one of his poems, at the end of which the audience cheered and gave him a standing ovation.
Rivera also spoke of his effort to change the school system. “Last year I jokingly referred to the Old Norwalk Way. I’ll tell you, that’s a tough monster to bring down. Changing bad habits, bad practices and the old ways of doing businesses, it’s not easy,” Rivera said.
Time to take the gloves off, he said.
“We can no longer tolerate the old way of doing business when we know that some of our students are getting shortchanged. We need to be relentless about doing what is right for every child and creating a culture that works. Let’s not tolerate anything that gets in our way,” Rivera said.
Mayor Harry Rilling, Board of Education President Michael Lyons, and the president of the Norwalk Federation of Teachers, Bruce LeVine Mellion also spoke to the teachers,
“We are on the path to greatness under Dr. Rivera,” Mellion said.
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