My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher
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0:02 - 0:04So I grew up in East Los Angeles,
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0:04 - 0:06not even realizing I was poor.
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0:06 - 0:10My dad was a high-ranking gang member who ran the streets.
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0:10 - 0:12Everyone knew who I was,
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0:12 - 0:15so I thought I was a pretty big deal, and I was protected,
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0:15 - 0:18and even though my dad spent most of my life
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0:18 - 0:19in and out of jail,
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0:19 - 0:24I had an amazing mom who was just fiercely independent.
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0:24 - 0:25She worked at the local high school
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0:25 - 0:28as a secretary in the dean's office,
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0:28 - 0:30so she got to see all the kids that got thrown out of class,
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0:30 - 0:33for whatever reason, who were waiting to be disciplined.
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0:33 - 0:37Man, her office was packed.
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0:37 - 0:41So, see, kids like us, we have a lot of things to deal with
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0:41 - 0:42outside of school,
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0:42 - 0:45and sometimes we're just not ready to focus.
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0:45 - 0:48But that doesn't mean that we can't.
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0:48 - 0:50It just takes a little bit more.
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0:50 - 0:53Like, I remember one day I found my dad
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0:53 - 0:55convulsing, foaming at the mouth,
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0:55 - 0:57OD-ing on the bathroom floor.
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0:57 - 1:00Really, do you think that doing my homework that night
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1:00 - 1:02was at the top of my priority list?
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1:02 - 1:04Not so much.
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1:04 - 1:07But I really needed a support network,
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1:07 - 1:09a group of people who were going to help me
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1:09 - 1:12make sure that I wasn't going to be
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1:12 - 1:14a victim of my own circumstance,
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1:14 - 1:16that they were going to push me
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1:16 - 1:18beyond what I even thought I could do.
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1:18 - 1:22I needed teachers, in the classroom, every day,
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1:22 - 1:26who were going to say, "You can move beyond that."
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1:26 - 1:29And unfortunately, the local junior high
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1:29 - 1:31was not going to offer that.
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1:31 - 1:35It was gang-infested, huge teacher turnover rate.
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1:35 - 1:38So my mom said, "You're going on a bus
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1:38 - 1:43an hour and a half away from where we live every day."
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1:43 - 1:46So for the next two years, that's what I did.
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1:46 - 1:50I took a school bus to the fancy side of town.
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1:50 - 1:53And eventually, I ended up at a school
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1:53 - 1:55where there was a mixture.
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1:55 - 1:57There were some people who were really gang-affiliated,
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1:57 - 1:59and then there were those of us
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1:59 - 2:01really trying to make it to high school.
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2:01 - 2:04Well, trying to stay out of trouble was a little unavoidable.
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2:04 - 2:06You had to survive.
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2:06 - 2:09You just had to do things sometimes.
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2:09 - 2:11So there were a lot of teachers who were like,
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2:11 - 2:12"She's never going to make it.
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2:12 - 2:14She has an issue with authority.
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2:14 - 2:16She's not going to go anywhere."
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2:16 - 2:20Some teachers completely wrote me off as a lost cause.
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2:20 - 2:23But then, they were very surprised
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2:23 - 2:26when I graduated from high school.
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2:26 - 2:29I was accepted to Pepperdine University,
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2:29 - 2:32and I came back to the same school that I attended
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2:32 - 2:34to be a special ed assistant.
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2:34 - 2:38And then I told them, "I want to be a teacher."
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2:38 - 2:42And boy, they were like, "What? Why?
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2:42 - 2:43Why would you want to do that?"
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2:43 - 2:45So I began my teaching career
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2:45 - 2:49at the exact same middle school that I attended,
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2:49 - 2:52and I really wanted to try to save more kids
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2:52 - 2:55who were just like me.
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2:55 - 2:58And so every year, I share my background with my kids,
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2:58 - 3:01because they need to know that everyone has a story,
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3:01 - 3:03everyone has a struggle,
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3:03 - 3:07and everyone needs help along the way.
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3:07 - 3:11And I am going to be their help along the way.
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3:11 - 3:17So as a rookie teacher, I created opportunity.
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3:17 - 3:20I had a kid one day come into my class
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3:20 - 3:23having been stabbed the night before.
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3:23 - 3:25I was like, "You need to go to a hospital,
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3:25 - 3:29the school nurse, something."
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3:29 - 3:31He's like, "No, Miss, I'm not going.
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3:31 - 3:34I need to be in class because I need to graduate."
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3:34 - 3:37So he knew that I was not going to let him be a victim
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3:37 - 3:39of his circumstance,
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3:39 - 3:43but we were going to push forward and keep moving on.
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3:43 - 3:47And this idea of creating a safe haven for our kids
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3:47 - 3:51and getting to know exactly what they're going through,
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3:51 - 3:54getting to know their families -- I wanted that,
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3:54 - 4:00but I couldn't do it in a school with 1,600 kids,
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4:00 - 4:03and teachers turning over year after year after year.
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4:03 - 4:07How do you get to build those relationships?
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4:07 - 4:11So we created a new school.
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4:11 - 4:12And we created
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4:12 - 4:16the San Fernando Institute for Applied Media.
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4:16 - 4:19And we made sure that we were still attached
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4:19 - 4:23to our school district for funding, for support.
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4:23 - 4:26But with that, we were going to gain freedom:
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4:26 - 4:29freedom to hire the teachers
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4:29 - 4:32that we knew were going to be effective;
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4:32 - 4:35freedom to control the curriculum
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4:35 - 4:40so that we're not doing lesson 1.2 on page five, no;
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4:40 - 4:43and freedom to control a budget,
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4:43 - 4:46to spend money where it matters,
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4:46 - 4:50not how a district or a state says you have to do it.
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4:50 - 4:52We wanted those freedoms.
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4:52 - 4:55But now, shifting an entire paradigm,
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4:55 - 4:59it hasn't been an easy journey, nor is it even complete.
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4:59 - 5:01But we had to do it.
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5:01 - 5:05Our community deserved a new way of doing things.
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5:05 - 5:09And as the very first pilot middle school
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5:09 - 5:12in all of Los Angeles Unified School District,
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5:12 - 5:15you better believe there was some opposition.
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5:15 - 5:17And it was out of fear --
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5:17 - 5:20fear of, well, what if they get it wrong?
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5:20 - 5:23Yeah, what if we get it wrong?
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5:23 - 5:25But what if we get it right?
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5:25 - 5:27And we did.
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5:27 - 5:30So even though teachers were against it
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5:30 - 5:32because we employ one-year contracts --
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5:32 - 5:36you can't teach, or you don't want to teach,
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5:36 - 5:39you don't get to be at my school with my kids.
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5:39 - 5:46(Applause)
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5:46 - 5:50So in our third year, how did we do it?
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5:50 - 5:53Well, we're making school worth coming to every day.
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5:53 - 5:56We make our kids feel like they matter to us.
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5:56 - 6:00We make our curriculum rigorous and relevant to them,
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6:00 - 6:02and they use all the technology that they're used to.
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6:02 - 6:05Laptops, computers, tablets -- you name it, they have it.
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6:05 - 6:09Animation, software, moviemaking software, they have it all.
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6:09 - 6:13And because we connect it to what they're doing —
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6:13 - 6:16For example, they made public service announcements
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6:16 - 6:18for the Cancer Society.
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6:18 - 6:21These were played in the local trolley system.
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6:21 - 6:23Teaching elements of persuasion,
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6:23 - 6:26it doesn't get any more real than that.
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6:26 - 6:28Our state test scores have gone up
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6:28 - 6:31more than 80 points since we've become our own school.
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6:31 - 6:34But it's taken all stakeholders, working together --
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6:34 - 6:37teachers and principals on one-year contracts,
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6:37 - 6:41working over and above and beyond their contract hours
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6:41 - 6:44without compensation.
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6:44 - 6:46And it takes a school board member
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6:46 - 6:48who is going to lobby for you and say,
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6:48 - 6:50"Know, the district is trying to impose this,
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6:50 - 6:54but you have the freedom to do otherwise."
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6:54 - 6:56And it takes an active parent center
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6:56 - 7:00who is not only there, showing a presence every day,
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7:00 - 7:03but who is part of our governance,
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7:03 - 7:08making decisions for their kids, our kids.
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7:08 - 7:11Because why should our students have to go
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7:11 - 7:14so far away from where they live?
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7:14 - 7:17They deserve a quality school in their neighborhood,
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7:17 - 7:21a school that they can be proud to say they attend,
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7:21 - 7:24and a school that the community can be proud of as well,
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7:24 - 7:28and they need teachers to fight for them every day
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7:28 - 7:34and empower them to move beyond their circumstances.
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7:34 - 7:36Because it's time that kids like me
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7:36 - 7:41stop being the exception, and we become the norm.
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7:41 - 7:42Thank you.
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7:42 - 7:47(Applause)
- Title:
- My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher
- Speaker:
- Pearl Arredondo
- Description:
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Pearl Arredondo grew up in East Los Angeles, the daughter of a high-ranking gang member who was in-and-out of jail. Many teachers wrote her off as having a problem with authority. Now a teacher herself, she’s creating a different kind of school and telling students her story so that they know its okay if sometimes homework isn’t the first thing on their mind.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 08:03
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher |