In an event that commingled star power and the power of the federal government, President Obama’s Education Secretary and soul singer John Legend visited Howard University Wednesday as part of a national teacher recruitment campaign aimed at making America’s teaching ranks as diverse as the nation’s students.
“There’s a growing imbalance between what our teachers look like and our students,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at the TEACH campaign event, a national effort that features speaking tours and a website—TEACH.gov—meant to attract more students to the field of education.
While the discussion focused largely on raising the esteem of the teaching profession, it also heavily touted the need to get more individuals from minority groups, particularly men, to become teachers, especially in areas of education where such groups are typically underrepresented. The Education Department says, while African-American and Latinos represent 17 and 21 percent of the student population, respectively, they each represent only 7 percent of the nation’s teachers.
“Our young boys, young boys of color, need great role models,” Duncan said. “Not just at the high school level but the elementary level.”
Wednesday’s event drew about 300 or so students and faculty to the auditorium in the Howard University School of Business. Many came to just catch a glimpse of singer John Legend.
The chart-topping artist didn’t use his smooth and silky voice to hit any notes but rather to amplify the Education Department’s message about the role that teachers from diverse backgrounds can play in boosting student achievement.
” If you choose to become a teacher, I know we will be much closer to the ideal society that we should be living in,” Legend said in a brief talk in which he decried inequalities that he said were being “perpetuated and institutionalized” in America’s classrooms.
