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Preface

This revised and combined edition of Poor Students, Rich Teaching and Poor Students, Richer Teaching represents an updated, best-of look at the seven high-impact mindsets necessary to reach students from poverty and help them succeed. How do I qualify to write a book about mindsets and poverty? I did my dissertation on poverty. I have worked successfully with over two hundred Title I schools in the United States. But there is something else you should know about me. This journey actually began in my early childhood. That’s when I learned firsthand about adversity and mindsets.

You see, my mother walked out on my two sisters and me when I was two. My dad struggled to raise three children. He worked during the day, went to night school, and had busy weekends with the National Guard. My first stepmother (of three total) entered my life when I was six. She was violent, alcoholic, and abusive. She made my home life a living nightmare for nine years (from ages six through fifteen). She threatened me daily, and I became a survivor who focused on dodging continual abuse through hiding, staying away from the house, living with relatives, and eating dog food for snacks.

No adult in my early life taught me or role-modeled healthy social or emotional skills. I was terrible as a student, both behaviorally and academically. Moving around was the norm, not the exception; I went to three elementary schools, four middle schools, and two high schools. At one count, I had 153 teachers. And this is the G-rated version. The viewpoint I learned from my father was, “Stop complaining, and focus on what’s important.” For me, that meant survival.

I am telling you this because I know what it’s like to grow up in a toxic environment. I have had a loaded, cocked gun held to my head and heard, “Do what I tell you, or I will shoot.” I acted out in class and got in trouble often. My K–12 grades were poor, and I finished high school with a C+ average. The odds of me succeeding in life at that stage were not good.

So how did I find a way to succeed? First, I was born with white privilege. I did not experience daily additional stressors from racism, gender inequality, or classism. Second, I was lucky. At age thirty, I started meeting amazing adult role models and, for years, I made them a part of my life. I started to learn what success in life was really about.

This book is personal for me, and I am hoping to make it personal for you. You must make a choice to understand the mindsets of those who grow up with adversity and, more important, make a choice to learn the new mindsets to help your students succeed.

Ultimately, that’s what this book is about: choice. Everyone gets knocked down; for some, it is more often and more traumatic than others. The next time you have a student in your class who acts out, who is frustrated by how your class is going, remember: I was one of those students, and I took it personally when a teacher did not help me succeed. When my teachers did not help me, I just stopped putting in the effort. On the flip side, when teachers cared about and helped me, I worked hard and had a good attitude. Although my own K–12 experience was not good overall, a few good teachers were different, and slowly, I began to get glimpses of hope. Their mindsets were different. I felt the impact of relationships and good teaching.

Many of your students are in school mostly because it’s the law and their friends are there. It was that way for me. But my teachers chose to teach. They chose to be at my school. They chose the subject and grade levels. On top of that, they were being paid to help me graduate. The choices you make do matter. These choices come from a teaching mindset focused on student success, and that’s what this book is about. I know you are likely to be underpaid, underappreciated, and undersupported, but you still have to make choices every day of your life. Your students need you. So, will you help them graduate?

The easy way out is to say, “No, I don’t have a choice. You wouldn’t believe my monthly expenses and how small my paycheck is. You don’t know how hard it is just to get by.” Yes, I do know hard it is to get by. I’ve lived on oatmeal and potatoes in a rented laundry room for two years, just to get by. I have been a caretaker and a hotel maid, and I went bankrupt. But I never complained or took a handout or an unemployment check. You always have a choice. You can choose to get better at your daily work practices, you can make smart decisions, and you can build your skill sets and help students graduate.

If you don’t know how to do your job well, it can be painfully hard. But in this book, I’ll introduce new mindsets and show you how to teach differently. You’ll start loving your job again. By the way, I’m not telling you the path of changing mindsets is easy; I’m telling you that it can be done, it’s worth doing, and you can do it. I promise this resource will be part of your success. Let’s get started!