WEBVTT - INTERVIEW: Chancellor David Banks On The Eagle Academy, Reading Programs In New York Public Schools + More 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:02.560 Wake that ass up in the morning. 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:03.680 Breakfast Club. 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.520 Morning, everybody, It's DJ Envy Charlamagne the guy. We are 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:10.920 the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building, 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:13.720 New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.200 Welcome, brother, I'm very happy to be here. Good morning 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:16.640 to you both. 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:17.880 Man, happy to have you here. Man. 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:19.840 If you don't know who David Banks is, he founded 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.840 one of the most successful and first public schools in 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.480 the country that serves exclusively young men of color, the 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:27.200 Eagle Academy. 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:28.880 Right, so we'll talk to us about the Eagle Academy. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:29.880 How did that come to light? 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:33.880 Well, listen, I was a member, been a longtime member 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:37.320 of the one Hundred Black Men Organization. It's a national, 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.040 international actual organization, but started in New York about sixty 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.000 years ago. And you know, we'd always worked to support 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.000 our kids in our schools and doing the right thing. 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.800 But when we started really looking at the data around 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:53.080 what was happening with young black men, we realized that 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.959 we needed to do so much more. And so many 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:57.720 of us had gone to the Million Mare in March 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.200 years ago, and coming out of that March, we came 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.440 away with a commitment that we had to go much deeper, 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:07.240 and that march is what really gave birth to the 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.080 creation of the Eagle Academy for young Men. It was 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.080 the first all boys public school in New York City 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:14.960 in almost thirty years. When we open, it's not a 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.399 charter school, it's not a private school. It's a regular 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.960 New York City public school that really had as its 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.800 mission to try to help to enlighten and transform the 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.440 lives of our young men. And since that time I 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.360 was the principal of the school in the Bronx. Since 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.440 that time, we've opened up an Eagle Academy in every 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.959 borough in New York. Wow, we've got one in Newark, 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.000 New Jersey. When Corey Booker was the mayor and Newark, 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.280 he hassens to come there. So we've got six schools, 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.480 over three thousand young men. We graduated over three thousand 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.759 young men and sent them to colleges and universities all 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:48.920 around the country. And it's essentially been a beacon and 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.520 a blueprint what you can do to transform the lives 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:52.000 of young men. 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:54.200 One in Queens Curious, Southeast Queens. 0:01:54.280 --> 0:02:01.800 Yeah, it's actually housing the facility that Allenami Church Rev. 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:02.559 Flake's Church. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:03.880 Uh, north side of Queens. 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.280 Then yeah, but it's it's but no, it's Southeast Queens. 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:11.520 It's it's it's basically Jamaica Queens. And they used to 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.000 have a school a few blocks from the church, and 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:17.320 we basically took that facility. 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:19.720 And that's where we are the same neighborhood basically that. 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:20.160 I grew up in. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:21.600 You grew uprom Queens from Queens. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:22.720 Yeah, I'm a Brooklyn Queen's kid. 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:24.480 I was born in Brooklyn and Crown Heights, lived in 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.280 Brooklyn ntil I was about twelve years old. My dad 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.480 was a New York City police officer and uh and 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.360 moved the family and I'm the oldest of three boys, 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:37.160 and we moved out to Southeast Queens Cambria Heights at 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:38.200 the Hillcrest High School. 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.480 And your story is the same. My dad is from Brooklyn, 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.920 New York City police officer, moved me to Queens Queens Village, 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.280 which is the city of the dixt town over. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:47.280 Same. 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.320 It was that same migration almost right in Brooklyn and 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.560 kind of making their way out to Queens. 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:55.360 And I went to school with Naila, which is Floyd 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:55.920 Flake's daughter. 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.440 Did you really where'd you go to high school? 0:02:58.560 --> 0:02:58.760 St? 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.440 Francis Zone school was Andrew Jackson and you aren't going there. 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:04.240 My parents would not let me go there. Same here. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.160 That was the first, the first public school with metal 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:09.480 detectives in the country with Andrew Jackson. 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.880 I lived about three or four blocks from Andrew Jackson. 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.720 That's why I should have gone to school Zone And 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.359 think about that envy, right, like the fact that there 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:19.760 was most of those kids who lived in the neighborhood. 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.320 These were like smart, hard work and committed kids. Most 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:25.880 of us did not go to the neighborhood school because 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.640 the reputation was so bad violent. And that's one of 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:30.160 the things that I'm trying to do is and now 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.200 that I'm in this seat as Chancellor, is to say 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:37.120 that that it's ridiculous. We've got to transform all of 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.520 our schools. So much of the conversation has been about 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.480 specialized schools and you know, an individual school here or there. 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.920 I truly believe that you can transform the entire school system. 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:52.360 Every neighborhood school should be a good, solid school and 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.160 the things that we can do to make that happen. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:55.440 And that's that's the reason why I'm here. 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:56.840 Do you think they should take out the I'm sorry, 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:58.760 do you think they should take out the quote unquote 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.240 zone school, right? Because you know, when I was a 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.240 kid growing up in Queens, you know, usually the resources 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.720 were in the quote unquote towns with more money, right, right, 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.400 So that's where everybody tried to go, whether they tried 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:12.360 to get a fake address or you know, they wanted 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:13.640 to do to the Catholic school. And I know my 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.360 parents wanted me to go to Edison or even Van 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:18.440 Buren because those schools were better than my zone school. 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:19.600 So do you think they should get rid of the 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.800 quote unquote zone school where they make you go to 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:23.440 depending on your zip code. 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.160 Well, first of all, right, now we have a lot 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.680 more choice of movement, particularly at the high school level. 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.520 Most kids do not have to simply go to their 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.520 zone school. There's a lot more movement where you don't 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:37.520 have to change your address, you don't have to do 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.640 all the other stuff to kind of sneak around the system. 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.600 We offer kids lots of other opportunities, but the reality 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.120 is that what we have to do is to ensure 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.279 that every school is a high quality school, so you 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.760 don't even need to do all of that sneaking around 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.719 In the first place, and that's where the real work 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:56.039 comes in. 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.200 I'm very interested in knowing when you say you of 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.160 exclusively young men of color, what is different about the 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.840 Eagle Academy than other schools, other public schools around the country. 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.760 So when I was heading up the Eagle Academy, you know, 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:13.000 you recognize, first of all, you have to start with 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:14.120 disaggregating the data. 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:14.280 Right. 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.919 Columbia University did a report that said that this was 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.600 years ago, seventy five percent of the inmates from the 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.839 entire state of New York came from seven neighborhoods in 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:26.159 New York City. 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:27.520 Just think about that. 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.640 Fine, you talked about Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Aubany, the whole 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.839 entire state of New York. Seventy five percent of the 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.800 prison population for the whole state was not just from 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:39.960 New York City. That's a big enough deal of its own, 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.080 seven very specific zip codes within. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:44.480 New York City. 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.440 I'm just curious you were talking about and somebody says, Shane, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:50.440 since the time of this report came out, but you 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.719 were talking about the Center Bronx. You're talking about it 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:55.599 was South Bronx. You're talking about Central Home, you talked 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.400 about Southeast Queens. It was the Lower East Side, you know, 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:01.840 at the time, it was Ocean Hill, Brown, it was 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.479 the neighborhoods where our folks are with the greatest concentration 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:05.280 of our folks are. 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.159 That's where you are for the whole. 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:12.200 State, right, And the problem was that what you had 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.680 where people were were doing all kinds of analysis about it, 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.279 and people were having conferences and panel discussions, and I 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.039 went to so many panel discussions where people just try 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.600 to play to the crowd and get everybody cheering, but 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.080 nobody was really offering up any real solutions. We were 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.719 just talking about how bad the problems were, and it 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:32.240 seemed like the most you could hope for was good 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.320 after school program for maybe twenty five boys. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.080 That's about as good as it got. 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:38.920 That was the reason why we leaned into creating the 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.640 Eagle Academy. And what Eagle really represented was a culture 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.520 where young men got to see that we cared deeply 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:47.520 about them. 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:49.880 Right. We had a larger. 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:53.080 Percentage of our staff who were men of color, which 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.440 is important because so many of these young brothers are 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.080 growing up with our fathers at home and when they're 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.040 little guys and the lovable, huggable and cute. That's one thing, 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.280 and they're right up under mammy. But as they start 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.520 to get older and the streets start to have a 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:11.320 greater influence, they need to see strong male role models 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.480 in their lives. If they do not have that, they 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:18.480 are so much more susceptible to the negativity that they 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.640 will see in the streets. Black boys, Latino boys are 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.720 no different than anybody else. They want all the same things, 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.560 they need the same things. So a lot of it 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:28.239 had to do with the way that we trained our teachers. 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:30.120 They had to understand first of. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:31.160 All, about boys. 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.520 Boys bring a different kind of energy into a classroom. 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.560 You know, boys love to compete, but they don't like 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:39.840 to compete one on one. They like to compete my 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.760 group against your group. There are ways for you to 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.480 affect that in the classroom in a way that's positive, 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.680 as opposed to seeing some behavior and writing it off 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.720 as negative. Therefore, kids wound up getting suspended, they wind 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.440 up getting in trouble, and then the boys themselves start 0:07:55.480 --> 0:08:00.120 to give up on themselves. So that's a huge part 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.760 of what it is that we focus on is the 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.119 culture that young men need to know. They are people 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.280 who deeply believe in them. They have to see the 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.320 power of possibility for themselves as well. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:10.680 So all the folks. 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.000 That we would bring in on a regular basis that 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.320 would speak into their consciousness. It's not enough to tell 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:19.640 kids about what you could do, and particularly boys, you. 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:21.240 Have to show them. 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:22.440 You know. 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.920 One of the young men said, it's hard to dream 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.400 of being an investment banker if you've never met one, right, 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:30.040 And so that's what we spend a lot of our 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:32.199 time doing. We didn't just talk to them about going 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.679 to college. Every young man that went to Eagle Academy 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.360 probably visited twenty to twenty five colleges while they were there. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.400 We had them on the role going to colleges on 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.800 a regular basis because they you have to plant those 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.000 seeds in their mind. They have to walk that campus. 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.280 They got to see the fraternity and Sororita come out 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:48.520 and do a little step. They got to go into 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:50.800 a classroom and see some folks who look like them. 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.440 That's what makes it real. If you don't do that, 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:57.640 it's just an amorphous notion that adults like to talk 0:08:57.679 --> 0:08:59.839 about amongst themselves. But you have to help make it 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:02.640 play for young men to understand the possibilities for them 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.040 to one of my problems with a. 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:05.960 Lot of the schools, and since you were a school chancellor, 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:07.959 maybe you can give us some insight on it. I 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:09.920 feel like a lot of the curriculums are old, right, 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.079 And the reason I'm saying that is a lot of 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.920 you know, when we were kids and our parents were kids, 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.600 people made money differently, right, But now a lot of 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.040 these kids are becoming millionaire wealthy, you know, Damn they're 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:23.600 billionaires off of things that I don't know if school teaches, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.160 whether it's the social media bust and how to do 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.840 things on social media, whether it's little things as like 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.680 you know, these car wrapping companies that wrap the cars, 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.120 and like people are making millions off of that, or 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.120 if it's real estate, or if it's whatever it may be. 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.840 You know, I don't see a lot of schools jumping 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.360 in to those curriculums. It seems like those curriculums are 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.720 outdated and ancient, and a lot of these students bought 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.319 is boring to them because what they're seeing online or 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:50.319 what they want to do is like I don't want 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:51.760 to do this in school. I want to do what 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.120 I enjoy doing. And I see a lot of times 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:56.360 that you're not seeing that in those schools. Absolutely, brothers, 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.520 So I couldn't agree with you more. It's part of 0:09:58.559 --> 0:09:59.479 the reason why. 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:01.360 One of the ma things I focused on was the 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:06.360 reimagining of the school experience for kids. You can't do 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.440 school like we did it one hundred years ago, correct, 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.800 even fifty years ago, I mean twenty five years ago, right, Like, 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:14.120 the world. 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:17.280 Has changed and it is changing rapidly before our eyes. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.760 And it is a major challenge for a bureaucracy as 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.120 large as a New York City school system, which is 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.720 the largest school system in the nation, right and by 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.720 far it's the largest. It doesn't it the most complicated too, 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:34.520 It is absolutely the most popular, complicated the work that 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.360 we do. But it can change, and but it needs vision, 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.079 It needs leadership that is courageous and bold, and that's 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.400 what we are trying to do. So you know, one 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:44.920 of the things that we are leaning into now is 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:50.720 we call bold futures, creating career connected learning for kids. 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.360 That idea that you just raised that school is boring. 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:56.080 That's the major reason why kids give up on themselves. 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.880 This is not I'm just doing school. There's a difference 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.880 between schooling and edge educating really connects to relevance. Why 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.120 are we doing this? Kids ask that all the time. 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.320 Even when we were in school, we always said why 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:08.920 are we doing this? 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:09.320 Lesson? 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.559 And oftentimes you did not get good answers to those questions. 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:16.600 We're helping to provide much better answers. I created a 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.679 couple of programs that we're leaning into right now, our 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:24.040 modern youth apprenticeship programs and our future Ready programs. What 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.599 those are our career connected programs to some degree that 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.360 what we all remembered as CTE programs, right except that 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:36.240 the old CTE programs were about or automotive shop, building cars, 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:40.440 doing wood shop. The career connected learning today is not 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:44.080 your grandfather's CTE stuff. Kids are coming out now with 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.719 the opportunity to step into. 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.560 Real jobs even if they didn't go to college. 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.440 They can make six figure, six figure salaries coming right 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.960 out of high school. So we're building a range of 0:11:55.120 --> 0:12:01.520 partnerships with the aviation industry, the biotech industry, financial industry. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.840 JP Morgan Chase is paying kids up to twenty five 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:07.719 dollars an hour while they're still in high school. Where 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.160 they go to school, a certain number of days and 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.679 then they're actually working in the industry for at least 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.920 two to three days, where we're merging school and the 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:19.520 real world at the same time. Then kids understand why 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:21.920 you need to be focused in this science class. It 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.199 connects to something that's real and meaningful. So we got 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.400 thousands of kids that are doing that. I would invite 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.120 you to come and join us, you know, come and 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.640 visit what we're doing at some of these schools. But 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.480 my goal is to scale this work to very significant 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:39.439 levels so that kids get real world experiences. Kids have 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:41.800 an opportunity to get not only exposed, but to get 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.679 paid while they're in high school, and so it prepares them. 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.960 They get all the credentials that they need when they graduate. 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:51.240 So when they graduate, they get a diploma. You can't 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.439 have it being an empty diploma that doesn't mean anything. 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:55.000 I want them to be able to go to college 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:56.720 if they want to go to college, but I also 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.440 want them to have the credentials to step right into 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.760 the world of work. We're doing that right now for 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:04.040 all the reasons that you just laid up. 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.880 Let me ask question, what's your thoughts on kids taking 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:08.920 maybe a year or two off right and this is 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.040 the reason why I say it. In high school, No, no, 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.240 when they graduated at a house. I'm just curious. We'll 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.439 be talking education the reason. Oh yeah, maybe after high school, 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:18.120 before you go to college. I'm explained why. So I 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.400 went to Hampton University. But when I went to Hampton University, 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:23.480 I went for a different reason. 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:23.760 Right. 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.280 I went because I had to. My parents wanted me 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.719 to go, and I was just did a graduate. Right 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.440 after I graduated and I spent some time in a 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.000 real world, I realized there's so many things that I 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.439 should have took serious in school, so many classes that 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.440 I should have taken that I didn't take. And I 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.080 feel like that's because I didn't know myself. I didn't 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:43.880 know what I wanted to do. They make you pick 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:45.839 a major, they make they make you do it now, 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:47.520 do it now, do now. But if you don't experience 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:49.160 the world, you don't know what you're gonna want to do. 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:53.120 So I feel like sometimes what you're saying where you're saying, Okay, well, 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:54.720 I can take these classes, but I can work at 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:56.480 JP Morgan and Chase to see if I like it. 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.800 You know, I can work at an automotive company to 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.040 see if that's what fits me, and I feel like 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:03.920 that is better because I get a little time to 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:05.599 see what I want to do and be like, you 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:07.560 know what, I'm going to focus on this opposed to 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.600 focus on classes that don't make sense to me. So 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:11.800 what's your thought on that? 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.120 First of all, that is a big part of what 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:16.640 we're trying to do with these programs. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:18.960 The more the earlier you can. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.800 Provide that kind of level of exposure for kids, the 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:22.560 better it is. 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:24.000 Because nobody should. 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:26.920 You know, you shouldn't necessarily know what you want to 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:28.360 do for the rest of your life when you're fourteen 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:29.240 years old, right. 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:29.920 So you can. 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:32.400 Kids change every year about what they want to be, 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.200 and a lot of it is based upon what they 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.560 see and what they experience. And what we want to 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.800 do is create more opportunities for them to see different 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:43.120 things and to experience different things. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:44.800 You know, the model of the one hundred Black Men 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:46.120 is they will be what they see. 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.800 Well, if what you see is very limited, then even 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.280 your imagination can be limited. But when you have an 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:54.520 opportunity to see more and to see what it means. 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:56.480 You know, when I was in high school, you know, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.320 I did an internship at the York College Computer Division. 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.160 This was back when they were doing computer languages of Cobalton, 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.480 you know, yeah, exactly right. And this was way before 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.840 the personal computer. But but it was an eye opener 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.200 for me because I had a chance to see in 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.720 real time what the career could potentially look like. And 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.440 I said, I don't really think I want to do that. 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.640 I was an engineering major when I went off to college, 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.440 and and I did not have enough exposure to that 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.480 because I stayed as an engineering major for two years 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.520 before I switched to political science. I said, boy, i've 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.360 I had I had more exposure to this, I probably 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.200 wouldn't have chosen engineer. I was a good math and 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.640 science student, but I didn't really want badly enough to 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.040 be an engineer. You know, I try to provide as 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.120 much exposure for my own kids. I raised four kids, 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:46.720 and you know, my daughter graduated from Hampton as well. 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.240 All my kids went to HBCUs. I have two sons 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:51.280 of my daughter went to Hampton. She's teaching in the 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.280 Bronx now. My oldest son, Jamal, is an assistant principal. 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.240 He's also in education in Washington, d C. With the 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.440 Virginia State and then my other two sons, Ali and 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.520 Malcolm are both graduates and more house. So while I 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:07.360 didn't go to an HBC, you all my money went 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.640 to HBCUs. And the reality for me is that I 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:13.960 tried to help provide as much exposure for them to 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:18.680 see what was possible correct. And I often tell folks, 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:20.400 you know, we never see the genius of a Tiger 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.200 Woods if his father didn't put that golf club in 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:24.400 his hands and put them out there on the greens, right. 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.400 And so the more we expose kids, so I want 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.440 to expose them before college. I want to expose them 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.680 while they're in high school so that they can get 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:36.120 to their AHA moment, which then when they're in college 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.920 is more instructive around what they actually want a major, 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:41.680 because they then they know why they want to focus 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:42.200 in that area. 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:42.680 That's right. 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.440 As a chancellor, you know in New York City, like 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.960 we said earlier, you know the largest, most complicated public 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:48.960 school system in America. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.479 Was there any pressure stepping into that position. 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.600 Well, stepping into the position, that's a great question. 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:57.880 There's always a lot of pressure. 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.880 I would tell you that the biggest pressure o' charlemagne 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.880 was the pressure that I put on myself because I 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:07.840 hold myself to a very high standard and a standard 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.080 of excellence. I didn't come in here and take this 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:15.040 job just to play at it. You know, I've known 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.160 Mayor Eric Adams for over thirty years. He didn't even 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.160 interview anybody else to be Chancellor. He said, you're my guy. 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.480 If I become mayor, you're my guy, and so I 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.160 didn't go through an interview process. He tells the story 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.479 that he was interviewing me over ten years, but that 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.000 interview was him watching the work that I was doing 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.640 over all of those years. The pressure that I feel 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:41.119