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What I want to do this afternoon

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is something a little different than what's scheduled.

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Foreign policy, you can figure that out

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by watching, I don't know, Rachel Maddow or somebody,

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but — (Laughter) —

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I want to talk about young people and structure,

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young people and structure.

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This was last Wednesday afternoon

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at a school in Brooklyn, New York,

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at Cristo Rey High School, run by the Jesuits.

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And I was talking to this group of students, and take a look at them.

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They were around me in three directions.

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You'll noticed that almost all of them are minority.

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You'll notice that the building is rather austere.

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It's an old New York school building, nothing fancy.

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They still have old blackboards and whatnot.

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And there are about 300 kids in this school,

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and the school's been going now for four years,

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and they're about to graduate their first class.

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Twenty-two people are graduating,

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and all 22 are going to college.

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They all come from homes where there is, for the most part,

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just one person in the home,

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usually the mother or the grandmother, and that's it,

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and they come here for their education

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and for their structure.

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Now I had this picture taken, and it was put up

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on my Facebook page last week,

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and somebody wrote in,

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"Huh, why does he have him standing at attention like that?"

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And then they said, "But he looks good." (Laughter)

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He does look good, because kids need structure,

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and the trick I play in all of my school appearances

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is that when I get through with my little homily to the kids,

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I then invite them to ask questions,

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and when they raise their hands, I say, "Come up,"

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and I make them come up and stand in front of me.

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I make them stand at attention like a soldier.

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Put your arms straight down at your side,

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look up, open your eyes, stare straight ahead,

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and speak out your question loudly so everybody can hear.

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No slouching, no pants hanging down, none of that stuff.

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(Laughter)

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And this young man, his name is -- his last name Cruz --

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he loved it. That's all over his Facebook page and it's gone viral.

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(Laughter)

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So people think I'm being unkind to this kid.

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No, we're having a little fun.

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And the thing about it, I've done this for years,

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the younger they are, the more fun it is.

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When I get six- and seven-year-olds in a group,

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I have to figure out how to keep them quiet.

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You know that they'll always start yakking.

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And so I play a little game with them

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before I make them stand at attention.

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I say, "Now listen. In the army,

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when we want you to pay attention,

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we have a command. It's called 'at ease.'

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It means everybody be quiet and pay attention. Listen up.

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Do you understand?"

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"Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.""Let's practice. Everybody start chatting."

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And I let them go for about 10 seconds, then I go, "At ease!"

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"Huh!" (Laughter)

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"Yes, General. Yes, General."

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Try it with your kids. See if it works. (Laughter)

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I don't think so.

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But anyway, it's a game I play, and it comes obviously

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from my military experience.

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Because for the majority of my adult life,

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I worked with young kids, teenagers with guns, I call them.

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And we would bring them into the army,

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and the first thing we would do is to put them

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in an environment of structure, put them in ranks,

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make them all wear the same clothes,

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cut all their hair off so they look alike,

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make sure that they are standing in ranks.

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We teach them how to go right face, left face,

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so they can obey instructions and know

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the consequences of not obeying instructions.

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It gives them structure.

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And then we introduce them to somebody who they come to hate immediately, the drill sergeant.

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And they hate him.

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And the drill sergeant starts screaming at them,

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and telling them to do all kinds of awful things.

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But then the most amazing thing happens over time.

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Once that structure is developed,

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once they understand the reason for something,

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once they understand, "Mama ain't here, son.

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I'm your worst nightmare. I'm your daddy and your mommy.

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And that's just the way it is. You got that, son?

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Yeah, and then when I ask you a question, there are only three possible answers:

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yes, sir; no, sir; and no excuse, sir.

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Don't start telling me why you didn't do something.

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It's yes, sir; no, sir; no excuse, sir."

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"You didn't shave.""But sir —"

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"No, don't tell me how often you scraped your face this morning.

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I'm telling you you didn't shave."

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"No excuse, sir.""Attaboy, you're learning fast."

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But you'd be amazed at what you can do with them

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once you put them in that structure.

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In 18 weeks, they have a skill. They are mature.

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And you know what, they come to admire the drill sergeant

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and they never forget the drill sergeant.

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They come to respect him.

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And so we need more of this kind of structure and respect

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in the lives of our children.

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I spend a lot of time with youth groups,

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and I say to people, "When does the education process begin?"

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We're always talking about, "Let's fix the schools.

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Let's do more for our teachers. Let's put more computers in our schools.

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Let's get it all online."

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That isn't the whole answer. It's part of the answer.

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But the real answer begins with bringing a child to the school

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with structure in that child's heart and soul to begin with.

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When does the learning process begin? Does it begin in first grade?

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No, no, it begins the first time

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a child in a mother's arms

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looks up at the mother

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and says, "Oh, this must be my mother.

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She's the one who feeds me.

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Oh yeah, when I don't feel so good down there,

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she takes care of me.

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It's her language I will learn."

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And at that moment they shut out all the other languages

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that they could be learning at that age,

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but by three months, that's her.

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And if the person doing it, whether it's the mother

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or grandmother, whoever's doing it,

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that is when the education process begins.

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That's when language begins.

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That's when love begins. That's when structure begins.

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That's when you start to imprint on the child

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that "you are special,

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you are different from every other child in the world.

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And we're going to read to you."

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A child who has not been read to

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is in danger when that child gets to school.

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A child who doesn't know his or her colors

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or doesn't know how to tell time, doesn't know how to tie shoes,

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doesn't know how to do those things,

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and doesn't know how to do something that

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goes by a word that was drilled into me as a kid: mind.

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Mind your manners! Mind your adults! Mind what you're saying!

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This is the way children are raised properly.

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And I watched my own young grandchildren now come along

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and they're, much to the distress of my children,

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they are acting just like we did. You know? You imprint them.

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And that's what you have to do to prepare children for education and for school.

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And I'm working at all the energy I have

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to sort of communicate this message that

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we need preschool, we need Head Start,

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we need prenatal care.

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The education process begins even before the child is born,

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and if you don't do that, you're going to have difficulty.

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And we are having difficulties in so many of our communities

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and so many of our schools where kids are coming

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to first grade and their eyes are blazing,

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they've got their little knapsack on and they're ready to go,

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and then they realize they're not like the other first graders

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who know books, have been read to, can do their alphabet.

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And by the third grade, the kids who didn't have

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that structure and minding in the beginning

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start to realize they're behind, and what do they do?

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They act it out. They act it out, and they're on their way

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to jail or they're on their way to being dropouts.

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It's predictable.

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If you're not at the right reading level at third grade,

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you are a candidate for jail at age 18,

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and we have the highest incarceration rate

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because we're not getting our kids the proper start in life.

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The last chapter in my book is called

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"The Gift of a Good Start."

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The gift of a good start. Every child ought to have a good start in life.

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I was privileged to have that kind of good start.

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I was not a great student.

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I was a public school kid in New York City,

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and I didn't do well at all.

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I have my entire New York City Board of Education transcript

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from kindergarten through college.

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I wanted it when I was writing my first book.

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I wanted to see if my memory was correct,

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and, my God, it was. (Laughter)

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Straight C everywhere.

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And I finally bounced through high school,

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got into the City College of New York

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with a 78.3 average, which I shouldn't have been allowed in with,

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and then I started out in engineering,

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and that only lasted six months. (Laughter)

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And then I went into geology, "rocks for jocks." This is easy.

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And then I found ROTC.

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I found something that I did well and something that I loved doing,

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and I found a group of youngsters like me who felt the same way.

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And so my whole life then was dedicated to ROTC and the military.

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And I say to young kids everywhere, as you're growing up

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and as this structure is being developed inside of you,

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always be looking for that which you do well and that which you love doing,

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and when you find those two things together, man, you got it.

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That's what's going on. And that's what I found.

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Now the authorities at CCNY were getting tired of me being there.

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I'd been there four and a half going on five years,

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and my grades were not doing particularly well,

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and I was in occasional difficulties with the administration.

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And so they said, "But he does so well in ROTC.

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Look, he gets straight A's in that but not in anything else."

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And so they said, "Look, let's take his ROTC grades

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and roll them into his overall GPA and see what happens."

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And they did, and it brought me up to 2.0. (Laughter)

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Yep. (Laughter) (Applause)

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They said, "It's good enough for government work.

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Give him to the army. We'll never see him again. We'll never see him again."

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So they shipped me off to the army,

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and lo and behold, many years later,

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I'm considered one of the greatest sons the City College of New York has ever had. (Laughter)

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So, I tell young people everywhere,

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it ain't where you start in life, it's what you do with life

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that determines where you end up in life,

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and you are blessed to be living in a country that,

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no matter where you start, you have opportunities

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so long as you believe in yourself,

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you believe in the society and the country,

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and you believe that you can self-improve

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and educate yourself as you go along.

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And that's the key to success.

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But it begins with the gift of a good start.

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If we don't give that gift to each and every one of our kids,

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if we don't invest at the earliest age,

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we're going to be running into difficulties.

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It's why we have a dropout rate of roughly 25 percent overall

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and almost 50 percent of our minority population

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living in low-income areas,

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because they're not getting the gift of a good start.

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My gift of a good start was not only being in a nice family,

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a good family, but having a family that said to me,

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"Now listen, we came to this country in banana boats

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in 1920 and 1924.

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We worked like dogs down in the garment industry every single day.

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We're not doing it so that you can stick something up your nose

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or get in trouble. And don't even think about dropping out."

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If I had ever gone home and told those immigrant people

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that, "You know, I'm tired of school and I'm dropping out,"

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they'd said, "We're dropping you out. We'll get another kid."

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(Laughter)

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They had expectations for all of the cousins

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and the extended family of immigrants that lived in the South Bronx,

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but they had more than just expectations for us.

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They stuck into our hearts like a dagger

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a sense of shame: "Don't you shame this family."

248
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Sometimes I would get in trouble,

249
00:12:00,875 --> 00:12:02,718
and my parents were coming home,

250
00:12:02,718 --> 00:12:06,199
and I was in my room waiting for what's going to happen,

251
00:12:06,199 --> 00:12:08,410
and I would sit there saying to myself, "Okay, look,

252
00:12:08,410 --> 00:12:13,185
take the belt and hit me, but, God, don't give me that 'shame the family' bit again."

253
00:12:13,185 --> 00:12:15,942
It devastated me when my mother did that to me.

254
00:12:15,942 --> 00:12:18,106
And I also had this extended network.

255
00:12:18,106 --> 00:12:21,094
Children need a network. Children need to be part of a tribe,

256
00:12:21,094 --> 00:12:22,975
a family, a community.

257
00:12:22,975 --> 00:12:27,199
In my case it was aunts who lived in all of these tenement buildings.

258
00:12:27,199 --> 00:12:29,055
I don't know how many of you are New Yorkers,

259
00:12:29,055 --> 00:12:30,976
but there were these tenement buildings,

260
00:12:30,976 --> 00:12:34,189
and these women were always hanging out one of the windows,

261
00:12:34,189 --> 00:12:35,811
leaning on a pillow.

262
00:12:35,811 --> 00:12:38,570
They never left. (Laughter)

263
00:12:38,570 --> 00:12:41,604
I, so help me God, I grew up walking those streets,

264
00:12:41,604 --> 00:12:43,086
and they were always there.

265
00:12:43,086 --> 00:12:45,960
They never went to the bathroom. They never cooked. (Laughter)

266
00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:48,506
They never did anything.

267
00:12:48,506 --> 00:12:51,219
But what they did was keep us in play.

268
00:12:51,219 --> 00:12:53,505
They kept us in play.

269
00:12:53,505 --> 00:12:55,763
And they didn't care

270
00:12:55,763 --> 00:13:00,510
whether you became a doctor or a lawyer or a general,

271
00:13:00,510 --> 00:13:03,603
and they never expected any generals in the family,

272
00:13:03,603 --> 00:13:07,463
as long as you got an education and then you got a job.

273
00:13:07,463 --> 00:13:09,454
"Don't give us any of that self-actualization stuff.

274
00:13:09,454 --> 00:13:12,269
You get a job and get out of the house.

275
00:13:12,269 --> 00:13:14,747
We don't have time to waste for that.

276
00:13:14,747 --> 00:13:18,322
And then you can support us. That's the role of you guys."

277
00:13:18,322 --> 00:13:23,844
And so, it's so essential that we kind of put this culture

278
00:13:23,844 --> 00:13:28,126
back into our families, all families.

279
00:13:28,126 --> 00:13:31,461
And it is so important that all of you here today

280
00:13:31,461 --> 00:13:34,137
who are successful people,

281
00:13:34,137 --> 00:13:38,692
and I'm sure have wonderful families and children and grandchildren,

282
00:13:38,692 --> 00:13:40,430
it's not enough. You've got to reach out and back

283
00:13:40,430 --> 00:13:43,081
and find kids like Mr. Cruz

284
00:13:43,081 --> 00:13:46,451
who can make it if you give them the structure,

285
00:13:46,451 --> 00:13:48,438
if you reach back and help, if you mentor,

286
00:13:48,438 --> 00:13:50,812
if you invest in boys and girls clubs,

287
00:13:50,812 --> 00:13:52,703
if you work with your school system,

288
00:13:52,703 --> 00:13:53,977
make sure it's the best school system,

289
00:13:53,977 --> 00:13:58,800
and not just your kid's school, but the school uptown in Harlem,

290
00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:01,622
not just downtown Montessori on the West Side.

291
00:14:01,622 --> 00:14:05,775
All of us have to have a commitment to do that.

292
00:14:05,775 --> 00:14:08,425
And we're not just investing in the kids.

293
00:14:08,425 --> 00:14:10,478
We're investing in our future.

294
00:14:10,478 --> 00:14:13,299
We're going to be a minority-majority country

295
00:14:13,299 --> 00:14:15,292
in one more generation.

296
00:14:15,292 --> 00:14:18,661
Those that we call minorities now are going to be the majority.

297
00:14:18,661 --> 00:14:21,241
And we have to make sure that they are ready to be the majority.

298
00:14:21,241 --> 00:14:23,472
We have to make sure they're ready to be the leaders

299
00:14:23,472 --> 00:14:26,424
of this great country of ours,

300
00:14:26,424 --> 00:14:29,900
a country that is like no other,

301
00:14:29,900 --> 00:14:31,585
a country that amazes me every single day,

302
00:14:31,585 --> 00:14:34,205
a country that's fractious. We're always arguing with each other.

303
00:14:34,205 --> 00:14:37,177
That's how the system's supposed to work.

304
00:14:37,177 --> 00:14:40,756
It's a country of such contrasts, but it's a nation of nations.

305
00:14:40,756 --> 00:14:44,752
We touch every nation. Every nation touches us.

306
00:14:44,752 --> 00:14:46,437
We are a nation of immigrants.

307
00:14:46,437 --> 00:14:49,581
That's why we need sound immigration policy.

308
00:14:49,581 --> 00:14:52,816
It's ridiculous not to have a sound immigration policy

309
00:14:52,816 --> 00:14:55,899
to welcome those who want to come here and be part of this great nation,

310
00:14:55,899 --> 00:14:58,052
or we can send back home with an education

311
00:14:58,052 --> 00:15:01,433
to help their people rise up out of poverty.

312
00:15:01,433 --> 00:15:05,276
One of the great stories I love to tell is about my love

313
00:15:05,276 --> 00:15:06,673
of going to my hometown of New York

314
00:15:06,673 --> 00:15:08,467
and walking up Park Avenue on a beautiful day

315
00:15:08,467 --> 00:15:10,948
and admiring everything and seeing all the people go by

316
00:15:10,948 --> 00:15:12,402
from all over the world.

317
00:15:12,402 --> 00:15:16,040
But what I always have to do is stop at one of the corners

318
00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,426
and get a hot dog from the immigrant pushcart peddler.

319
00:15:19,426 --> 00:15:22,577
Gotta have a dirty water dog. (Laughter)

320
00:15:22,577 --> 00:15:25,557
And no matter where I am or what I'm doing,

321
00:15:25,557 --> 00:15:26,832
I've got to do that.

322
00:15:26,832 --> 00:15:29,497
I even did it when I was Secretary of State.

323
00:15:29,497 --> 00:15:32,398
I'd come out of my suite at the Waldorf Astoria

324
00:15:32,398 --> 00:15:35,478
— (Laughter) —

325
00:15:35,478 --> 00:15:38,789
be walking up the street, and I would hit around 55th Street

326
00:15:38,789 --> 00:15:41,100
looking for the immigrant pushcart peddler.

327
00:15:41,100 --> 00:15:43,299
In those days, I had five bodyguards around me

328
00:15:43,299 --> 00:15:46,193
and three New York City police cars would roll alongside

329
00:15:46,193 --> 00:15:51,013
to make sure nobody whacked me while I was going up Park Avenue. (Laughter)

330
00:15:51,013 --> 00:15:52,681
And I would order the hot dog from the guy,

331
00:15:52,681 --> 00:15:55,127
and he'd start to fix it, and then he'd look around

332
00:15:55,127 --> 00:15:56,804
at the bodyguards and the police cars --

333
00:15:56,804 --> 00:15:58,886
"I've got a green card! I've got a green card!" (Laughter)

334
00:15:58,886 --> 00:16:03,222
"It's okay, it's okay."

335
00:16:03,222 --> 00:16:05,670
But now I'm alone. I'm alone.

336
00:16:05,670 --> 00:16:08,461
I've got no bodyguards, I've got no police cars. I've got nothing.

337
00:16:08,461 --> 00:16:11,123
But I gotta have my hot dog.

338
00:16:11,123 --> 00:16:14,887
I did it just last week. It was on a Tuesday evening

339
00:16:14,887 --> 00:16:17,187
down by Columbus Circle.

340
00:16:17,187 --> 00:16:20,042
And the scene repeats itself so often.

341
00:16:20,042 --> 00:16:23,396
I'll go up and ask for my hot dog,

342
00:16:23,396 --> 00:16:25,758
and the guy will fix it, and as he's finishing,

343
00:16:25,758 --> 00:16:28,460
he'll say, "I know you. I see you on television.

344
00:16:28,460 --> 00:16:30,354
You're, well, you're General Powell."

345
00:16:30,354 --> 00:16:33,044
"Yes, yes.""Oh ... "

346
00:16:33,044 --> 00:16:34,195
I hand him the money.

347
00:16:34,195 --> 00:16:39,120
"No, General. You can't pay me. I've been paid.

348
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:42,883
America has paid me. I never forget where I came from.

349
00:16:42,883 --> 00:16:46,073
But now I'm an American. Sir, thank you."

350
00:16:46,073 --> 00:16:48,341
I accept the generosity, continue up the street,

351
00:16:48,341 --> 00:16:50,570
and it washes over me, my God,

352
00:16:50,570 --> 00:16:54,588
it's the same country that greeted my parents this way 90 years ago.

353
00:16:54,588 --> 00:16:56,775
So we are still that magnificent country,

354
00:16:56,775 --> 00:16:59,550
but we are fueled by young people coming up

355
00:16:59,550 --> 00:17:02,554
from every land in the world,

356
00:17:02,554 --> 00:17:06,081
and it is our obligation as contributing citizens

357
00:17:06,081 --> 00:17:07,867
to this wonderful country of ours

358
00:17:07,867 --> 00:17:11,014
to make sure that no child gets left behind.

359
00:17:11,014 --> 00:17:13,092
Thank you very much.

360
00:17:13,092 --> 00:17:25,199
(Applause)