Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.
- Plato
Our goal is to get students mad enough to want more and smart enough to get it in a whole different way.
- Tony Simmons
This is my preparation to my destination
And I'm a stay committed even through the complications
I'm a stay strong an' keep my head up
I've a give it my all until I've had enough
'Cause if I dream big I know that I can make it
This is the real me welcome to my inspiration.
- Lil C
You must know failure before success
So this is the failure I must confess
I was hanging on the street trying to deal with this
Playing the games almost got dismissed...
From the top to the bottom, the bottom to the top
Success is where I'm headed, there ain't no doubt
Success is something we all want
But the truth is what you need to reach that point.
- David "TC" Ellis
Urban school reform rhetoric has missed the mark. It has presumed that urban schools are broken. Urban schools are not broken; they are doing exactly what they are designed to do. This argument is not meant to excuse the academic failure in many urban schools. Instead, it is meant to shake up and radicalize the business-as-usual approach to improving urban schools by shifting the blame from the victims of any unjust system onto the fiscal, political, and ideological policies that deliberately undercut and demean urban schools.
- Jeffrey M. R. Duncan-Andrade and Ernest Morrell