How America's Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty

TEDxBeaconStreet

13:50

Filmed Nov 2015

Key Points: Kandice Sumner addresses the disparity between public schools from personal experience, both current and as a child. As a child, she was bussed into a white neighborhood and had access to resources and instruction that her local friends did not have. As her awareness  of the inequality grew, she experienced a form of “ survivor guilt” as she considered how her advantages  were offering a future that was simply not available to her friends. In her words, “See, as I got older, I started to have this unlawful feeling in my belly, like I was doing something that I wasn't supposed to be doing; taking something that wasn't mine; receiving a gift, but with someone else's name on it. All these amazing things that I was being exposed to and experiencing, I felt I wasn't really supposed to have.

 I wasn't supposed to have a library, fully equipped athletic facilities,or safe fields to play in. I wasn't supposed to have theatre departments with seasonal plays and concerts -- digital, visual, performing arts. I wasn't supposed to have fully resourced biology or chemistry labs, school buses that brought me door-to-door, freshly prepared school lunches or even air conditioning. These are things my kids don't get.”

As an instructor, Kandice Sumner fund raises, advocates, and inspires her students as readers. She implores us to donate our time, money, resouces and opportunities –“Whatever is in your heart” to help.

Audience: Parents, educators, administrators

Relevance:  We need to advocate for equity in our school system. Every child in our country should be offered the same opportunities to an education despite their soio economic status. Until that time, there are ways we can help, one idea is to participate via apps such as “DonorsChoose.”