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I have spent my entire life

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either at the schoolhouse,
on the way to the schoolhouse,

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or talking about what happens
in the schoolhouse.

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(Laughter)

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Both my parents were educators,

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my maternal grandparents were educators,

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and for the past 40 years,
I've done the same thing.

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And so, needless to say, over those years

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I've had a chance
to look at education reform

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from a lot of perspectives.

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Some of those reforms have been good.

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Some of them have been not so good.

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And we know why kids drop out.

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We know why kids don't learn.

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It's either poverty, low attendance,

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negative peer influences...

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We know why.

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But one of the things
that we never discuss

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or we rarely discuss

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is the value and importance
of human connection.

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Relationships.

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James Comer says
that no significant learning

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can occur without
a significant relationship.

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George Washington Carver says all learning

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is understanding relationships.

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Everyone in this room has been affected
by a teacher or an adult.

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For years, I have watched people teach.

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I have looked at the best
and I've looked at some of the worst.

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A colleague said to me one time,

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"They don't pay me to like the kids.

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They pay me to teach a lesson.

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The kids should learn it.

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I should teach it, they should learn it,

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Case closed."

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Well, I said to her,

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"You know, kids don't learn
from people they don't like."

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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She said, "That's just a bunch of hooey."

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And I said to her,

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"Well, your year is going to be
long and arduous, dear."

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Needless to say, it was.

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Some people think that you can either
have it in you to build a relationship,

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or you don't.

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I think Stephen Covey had the right idea.

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He said you ought to just
throw in a few simple things,

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like seeking first to understand,

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as opposed to being understood.

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Simple things, like apologizing.

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You ever thought about that?

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Tell a kid you're sorry, they're in shock.

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(Laughter)

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I taught a lesson once on ratios.

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I'm not real good with math,
but I was working on it.

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(Laughter)

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And I got back and looked
at that teacher edition.

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I'd taught the whole lesson wrong.

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(Laughter)

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So I came back to class
the next day and I said,

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"Look, guys, I need to apologize.

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I taught the whole lesson wrong.
I'm so sorry."

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They said, "That's okay, Ms. Pierson.

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You were so excited, we just let you go."

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I have had classes that were so low,

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so academically deficient, that I cried.

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I wondered, "How am I
going to take this group,

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in nine months,

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from where they are
to where they need to be?

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And it was difficult, it was awfully hard.

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How do I raise the self-esteem of a child

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and his academic achievement
at the same time?

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One year I came up with a bright idea.

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I told all my students,

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"You were chosen to be in my class

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because I am the best teacher

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and you are the best students,

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they put us all together

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so we could show
everybody else how to do it."

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One of the students said, "Really?"

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(Laughter)

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I said, "Really. We have
to show the other classes

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how to do it, so when
we walk down the hall,

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people will notice us,
so you can't make noise.

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You just have to strut."

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(Laughter)

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And I gave them a saying to say:

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"I am somebody.

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I was somebody when I came.

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I'll be a better somebody when I leave.

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I am powerful, and I am strong.

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I deserve the education that I get here.

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I have things to do, people to impress,

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and places to go."

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And they said, "Yeah!"

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(Laughter)

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You say it long enough,

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it starts to be a part of you.

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(Applause)

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I gave a quiz, 20 questions.

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A student missed 18.

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I put a "+2" on his paper
and a big smiley face.

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(Laughter)

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He said, "Ms. Pierson, is this an F?"

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I said, "Yes."

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(Laughter)

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He said, "Then why'd you
put a smiley face?"

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I said, "Because you're on a roll.

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You got two right.
You didn't miss them all."

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(Laughter)

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I said, "And when we review this,
won't you do better?"

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He said, "Yes, ma'am, I can do better."

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You see, "-18" sucks
all the life out of you.

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"+2" said, "I ain't all bad."

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For years, I watched my mother
take the time at recess to review,

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go on home visits in the afternoon,

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buy combs and brushes
and peanut butter and crackers

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to put in her desk drawer
for kids that needed to eat,

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and a washcloth and some soap
for the kids who didn't smell so good.

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See, it's hard to teach kids who stink.

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(Laughter)

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And kids can be cruel.

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And so she kept those things in her desk,

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and years later, after she retired,

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I watched some of those
same kids come through

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and say to her, "You know, Ms. Walker,

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you made a difference in my life.

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You made it work for me.

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You made me feel like I was somebody,

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when I knew, at the bottom, I wasn't.

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And I want you to just
see what I've become."

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And when my mama died two years ago at 92,

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there were so many former
students at her funeral,

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it brought tears to my eyes,
not because she was gone,

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but because she left
a legacy of relationships

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that could never disappear.

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Can we stand to have more relationships?

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Absolutely.

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Will you like all your children?
Of course not.

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(Laughter)

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And you know your toughest
kids are never absent.

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(Laughter)

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Never.

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You won't like them all,

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and the tough ones show up for a reason.

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It's the connection.
It's the relationships.

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So teachers become
great actors and great actresses,

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and we come to work
when we don't feel like it,

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and we're listening to policy
that doesn't make sense,

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and we teach anyway.

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We teach anyway,
because that's what we do.

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Teaching and learning should bring joy.

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How powerful would our world be

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if we had kids who were
not afraid to take risks,

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who were not afraid to think,

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and who had a champion?

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Every child deserves a champion,

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an adult who will never give up on them,

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who understands the power of connection,

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and insists that they become
the best that they can possibly be.

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Is this job tough? You betcha.

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Oh God, you betcha.

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But it is not impossible.

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We can do this. We're educators.

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We're born to make a difference.

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Thank you so much.

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(Applause)