Pearl Arredondo: My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher

67,756 views ・ 2013-05-08

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast
0
0
7000
00:13
So I grew up in East Los Angeles,
1
13615
2500
00:16
not even realizing I was poor.
2
16115
2171
00:18
My dad was a high-ranking gang member who ran the streets.
3
18286
4117
00:22
Everyone knew who I was,
4
22403
1299
00:23
so I thought I was a pretty big deal, and I was protected,
5
23702
3450
00:27
and even though my dad spent most of my life
6
27152
2569
00:29
in and out of jail,
7
29721
1349
00:31
I had an amazing mom who was just fiercely independent.
8
31070
4501
00:35
She worked at the local high school
9
35571
1509
00:37
as a secretary in the dean's office,
10
37080
2555
00:39
so she got to see all the kids that got thrown out of class,
11
39635
2690
00:42
for whatever reason, who were waiting to be disciplined.
12
42325
2838
00:45
Man, her office was packed.
13
45163
3791
00:48
So, see, kids like us, we have a lot of things to deal with
14
48954
3797
00:52
outside of school,
15
52751
1558
00:54
and sometimes we're just not ready to focus.
16
54309
2917
00:57
But that doesn't mean that we can't.
17
57226
2330
00:59
It just takes a little bit more.
18
59556
2187
01:01
Like, I remember one day I found my dad
19
61743
3105
01:04
convulsing, foaming at the mouth,
20
64848
2344
01:07
OD-ing on the bathroom floor.
21
67192
2214
01:09
Really, do you think that doing my homework that night
22
69406
2473
01:11
was at the top of my priority list?
23
71879
2512
01:14
Not so much.
24
74391
1467
01:15
But I really needed a support network,
25
75858
3133
01:18
a group of people who were going to help me
26
78991
2325
01:21
make sure that I wasn't going to be
27
81316
2220
01:23
a victim of my own circumstance,
28
83536
2655
01:26
that they were going to push me
29
86191
1614
01:27
beyond what I even thought I could do.
30
87805
2565
01:30
I needed teachers, in the classroom, every day,
31
90370
3469
01:33
who were going to say, "You can move beyond that."
32
93839
3745
01:37
And unfortunately, the local junior high
33
97584
3278
01:40
was not going to offer that.
34
100862
2109
01:42
It was gang-infested, huge teacher turnover rate.
35
102971
3834
01:46
So my mom said, "You're going on a bus
36
106805
3173
01:49
an hour and a half away from where we live every day."
37
109978
5213
01:55
So for the next two years, that's what I did.
38
115191
2362
01:57
I took a school bus to the fancy side of town.
39
117553
4487
02:02
And eventually, I ended up at a school
40
122040
2925
02:04
where there was a mixture.
41
124965
1564
02:06
There were some people who were really gang-affiliated,
42
126529
2678
02:09
and then there were those of us
43
129207
1465
02:10
really trying to make it to high school.
44
130672
1994
02:12
Well, trying to stay out of trouble was a little unavoidable.
45
132666
3503
02:16
You had to survive.
46
136169
1714
02:17
You just had to do things sometimes.
47
137883
2653
02:20
So there were a lot of teachers who were like,
48
140536
2353
02:22
"She's never going to make it.
49
142889
1426
02:24
She has an issue with authority.
50
144315
1591
02:25
She's not going to go anywhere."
51
145906
1643
02:27
Some teachers completely wrote me off as a lost cause.
52
147549
4093
02:31
But then, they were very surprised
53
151642
3167
02:34
when I graduated from high school.
54
154809
3191
02:38
I was accepted to Pepperdine University,
55
158000
2862
02:40
and I came back to the same school that I attended
56
160862
3123
02:43
to be a special ed assistant.
57
163985
1911
02:45
And then I told them, "I want to be a teacher."
58
165896
4553
02:50
And boy, they were like, "What? Why?
59
170449
3224
02:53
Why would you want to do that?"
60
173673
1520
02:55
So I began my teaching career
61
175193
2286
02:57
at the exact same middle school that I attended,
62
177479
3528
03:01
and I really wanted to try to save more kids
63
181007
3431
03:04
who were just like me.
64
184438
2077
03:06
And so every year, I share my background with my kids,
65
186515
3200
03:09
because they need to know that everyone has a story,
66
189715
3057
03:12
everyone has a struggle,
67
192772
2367
03:15
and everyone needs help along the way.
68
195139
3754
03:18
And I am going to be their help along the way.
69
198893
4128
03:23
So as a rookie teacher, I created opportunity.
70
203021
6068
03:29
I had a kid one day come into my class
71
209089
2646
03:31
having been stabbed the night before.
72
211735
3208
03:34
I was like, "You need to go to a hospital,
73
214943
2496
03:37
the school nurse, something."
74
217439
3275
03:40
He's like, "No, Miss, I'm not going.
75
220714
2161
03:42
I need to be in class because I need to graduate."
76
222875
2768
03:45
So he knew that I was not going to let him be a victim
77
225643
3392
03:49
of his circumstance,
78
229035
1777
03:50
but we were going to push forward and keep moving on.
79
230812
4038
03:54
And this idea of creating a safe haven for our kids
80
234850
3890
03:58
and getting to know exactly what they're going through,
81
238740
4116
04:02
getting to know their families -- I wanted that,
82
242856
3256
04:06
but I couldn't do it in a school with 1,600 kids,
83
246112
5480
04:11
and teachers turning over year after year after year.
84
251592
3474
04:15
How do you get to build those relationships?
85
255066
4052
04:19
So we created a new school.
86
259118
3587
04:22
And we created
87
262705
1479
04:24
the San Fernando Institute for Applied Media.
88
264184
3538
04:27
And we made sure that we were still attached
89
267722
3472
04:31
to our school district for funding, for support.
90
271194
4038
04:35
But with that, we were going to gain freedom:
91
275232
3117
04:38
freedom to hire the teachers
92
278349
2253
04:40
that we knew were going to be effective;
93
280602
3322
04:43
freedom to control the curriculum
94
283924
2740
04:46
so that we're not doing lesson 1.2 on page five, no;
95
286664
5638
04:52
and freedom to control a budget,
96
292302
2720
04:55
to spend money where it matters,
97
295022
2584
04:57
not how a district or a state says you have to do it.
98
297606
4241
05:01
We wanted those freedoms.
99
301847
2303
05:04
But now, shifting an entire paradigm,
100
304150
2576
05:06
it hasn't been an easy journey, nor is it even complete.
101
306726
4145
05:10
But we had to do it.
102
310871
2350
05:13
Our community deserved a new way of doing things.
103
313221
4121
05:17
And as the very first pilot middle school
104
317342
3526
05:20
in all of Los Angeles Unified School District,
105
320868
3225
05:24
you better believe there was some opposition.
106
324093
2976
05:27
And it was out of fear --
107
327069
2123
05:29
fear of, well, what if they get it wrong?
108
329192
3223
05:32
Yeah, what if we get it wrong?
109
332415
2185
05:34
But what if we get it right?
110
334600
2254
05:36
And we did.
111
336854
2075
05:38
So even though teachers were against it
112
338929
2611
05:41
because we employ one-year contracts --
113
341540
2581
05:44
you can't teach, or you don't want to teach,
114
344121
4069
05:48
you don't get to be at my school with my kids.
115
348190
3060
05:51
(Applause)
116
351250
6764
05:58
So in our third year, how did we do it?
117
358014
3672
06:01
Well, we're making school worth coming to every day.
118
361686
3431
06:05
We make our kids feel like they matter to us.
119
365117
2761
06:07
We make our curriculum rigorous and relevant to them,
120
367878
3888
06:11
and they use all the technology that they're used to.
121
371766
2585
06:14
Laptops, computers, tablets -- you name it, they have it.
122
374351
2927
06:17
Animation, software, moviemaking software, they have it all.
123
377278
3918
06:21
And because we connect it to what they're doing —
124
381196
3813
06:25
For example, they made public service announcements
125
385009
3202
06:28
for the Cancer Society.
126
388211
1626
06:29
These were played in the local trolley system.
127
389837
2824
06:32
Teaching elements of persuasion,
128
392661
2007
06:34
it doesn't get any more real than that.
129
394668
2920
06:37
Our state test scores have gone up
130
397588
2161
06:39
more than 80 points since we've become our own school.
131
399749
2989
06:42
But it's taken all stakeholders, working together --
132
402738
3095
06:45
teachers and principals on one-year contracts,
133
405833
3183
06:49
working over and above and beyond their contract hours
134
409017
3824
06:52
without compensation.
135
412841
3036
06:55
And it takes a school board member
136
415877
2219
06:58
who is going to lobby for you and say,
137
418096
1952
07:00
"Know, the district is trying to impose this,
138
420048
2428
07:02
but you have the freedom to do otherwise."
139
422476
3033
07:05
And it takes an active parent center
140
425509
2564
07:08
who is not only there, showing a presence every day,
141
428073
4080
07:12
but who is part of our governance,
142
432153
2867
07:15
making decisions for their kids, our kids.
143
435020
5004
07:20
Because why should our students have to go
144
440024
2605
07:22
so far away from where they live?
145
442629
2979
07:25
They deserve a quality school in their neighborhood,
146
445608
3724
07:29
a school that they can be proud to say they attend,
147
449332
3173
07:32
and a school that the community can be proud of as well,
148
452505
3668
07:36
and they need teachers to fight for them every day
149
456173
4198
07:40
and empower them to move beyond their circumstances.
150
460371
5333
07:45
Because it's time that kids like me
151
465704
2716
07:48
stop being the exception, and we become the norm.
152
468420
4722
07:53
Thank you.
153
473142
1309
07:54
(Applause)
154
474451
4339
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7