TEDxGoldenGateED - Jeff Duncan-Andrade - Growing Roses in Concrete

Summary

Jeff Duncan-Andrade uses the analogy of 'growing roses in concrete' to describe the challenges faced by urban youth in impoverished communities. He emphasizes the necessity of recognizing both the harsh realities and the potential of these young people, using Tupac Shakur's symbolic poetry to highlight resilience. The talk explores how systemic issues create "concrete" that hinders the growth of these "roses," but also presents a transformative educational model that nurtures their growth beyond mere academic success. Through community-based education, providing emotional support, and emphasizing cultural connections, Duncan-Andrade presents a hopeful outlook where empowered youth return to enrich their communities, creating metaphorical rose gardens.

Highlights

• Jeff's mother's lesson on positivity and perspective sets the stage for the talk. 🌟
• Using Tupac Shakur's poetry, Jeff draws powerful parallels between urban youth and resilient roses. 🥀
• The stark realities of urban life, depicted through maps of homicides, highlight the need for change. 🗺️
• The discussion of PTSD and CPTSD in urban communities sheds light on the often-overlooked trauma faced by youth. ⚠️
• Maya Angelou's intervention in Tupac's life becomes a metaphor for impactful community engagement. 🌍
• Jeff's unique educational approach yields higher retention, GPAs, and college entries, showcasing its success. 📈
• The commitment of returning empowered youth to their communities forms the foundation of lasting change. 🔄

Key Takeaways

• Resilience overcomes adversity: Urban youth, likened to roses growing in concrete, demonstrate incredible resilience when given support. 🌹
• Education as intervention: Addressing emotional and material needs in schools can transform students' lives and their communities. 🎓
• Community support is key: Building strong community bonds ensures that success stories inspire sustainable change. 🏘️
• Emotional nurturing matters: Schools focusing on compassion and understanding foster environments where students thrive. 💖
• Legacy of impact: Empowered individuals who return to their roots contribute to broader societal changes. 🌱

Overview

Jeff Duncan-Andrade kicks off his talk with a lesson learned from his mother about seeing life as half-full rather than half-empty, setting a positive tone. He uses this to segue into his core message about the resilience and potential of urban youth growing up in challenging environments, likened to 'roses growing in concrete'. This metaphor underscores the idea that while these young individuals face immense challenges, they possess an inherent tenacity to thrive when given proper support.

The talk delves into the concrete realities facing urban communities, such as high homicide rates and prevalent PTSD, drawing stark comparisons with returning war veterans. Jeff argues that urban youth, often exposed to constant trauma, require more than just academic focus; they need schools to address their emotional and material conditions. His educational model, rooted in community engagement and emotional support, seeks to equip these young people to rise above their circumstances.

Highlighting the importance of community-oriented education, Jeff shares the success of his looping system, where teachers stay with students across multiple years. This approach has not only boosted academic metrics but also fostered deep personal growth. By focusing on compassion and love, his students return as empowered adults who contribute positively to their communities, thus transforming the 'concrete' into flourishing 'rose gardens'.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction and Personal Anecdote The chapter 'Introduction and Personal Anecdote' begins with the author reflecting on their experience as the youngest child in a large family. They share an incident from their youth where they were prone to complaining, and their mother intervened with a lesson on perspective using a glass of water. The mother presented the glass, filled halfway, and posed the classic analogy of whether it was half full or half empty, prompting the author to think deeper about their outlook.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Analogy of Roses in Concrete and Urban Poverty The chapter discusses an analogy about how one perceives life, likening it to seeing a cup as either half full or half empty. The speaker's mother advises that recognizing the positives in life, similar to noticing a blooming rose in concrete, can lead to abundance and the ability to share with others, despite urban poverty. The underlying message encourages positive perception and gratitude as a transformative approach to life challenges.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Understanding the "Concrete" and Its Effects The chapter draws on Tupac Shakur's metaphor of roses growing from concrete to discuss young people growing up in urban poverty. The metaphor highlights the resilience and tenacity of these young individuals, as they strive to overcome challenging environments symbolized by 'concrete.' The author agrees with Tupac's acknowledgment that the harsh conditions ('concrete') are real and impact the growth ('damaged petals') of these individuals.
• 05:00 - 06:30: Homicide and Trauma in East Oakland The chapter titled 'Homicide and Trauma in East Oakland' discusses the metaphor of 'growing roses in concrete.' It emphasizes the unnatural and constructed environment in which urban youth grow, as highlighted in the PBS film series 'Unnatural Causes.' The chapter suggests that because these conditions are artificially created, they can be changed. It touches on the complexities and multiple layers of challenges faced by youth in these environments.
• 06:30 - 09:30: Impact of PTSD on Urban Youth This chapter highlights the profound impact of PTSD on urban youth, focusing on the community of East Oakland where the author resides and teaches. It begins by discussing the San Francisco Chronicle's mapping of homicides in the area starting in 2002 due to high concern over violence. The use of the term 'plague' by the Chronicle is notable as it underscores the severity and pervasive nature of the violence, likening it to a widespread and devastating epidemic. This context sets the stage for understanding the profound psychological impact and trauma experienced by the youth in this urban setting.
• 09:30 - 12:30: Educational Interventions and Success Stories This chapter discusses various educational interventions and shares success stories of students who have benefited from them. It highlights the importance of non-discriminatory practices and inclusive education that caters to students of all backgrounds and abilities. The narrative includes specific examples of interventions, such as tutoring programs, special education services, and community support initiatives that have positively impacted students' academic performances and personal growth. Key themes include equity, accessibility, and the transformative power of education to change lives.
• 12:30 - 16:00: Institutionalizing Support Systems The chapter 'Institutionalizing Support Systems' begins by describing a neighborhood located between the 580 and 880 Freeways, commonly referred to as the 'flat lands' or 'lower bottoms'. This area is noted for its high rate of homicides, with 555 recorded over a span of five years. The Oakland Tribune took to mapping these incidents, creating a graphic 'homicide map' that highlights the severity of violence in this community, particularly emphasizing the alarming numbers seen in the year 2007.
• 16:00 - 18:00: Maya Angelou's Influence on Tupac Shakur The chapter discusses the persistent issue of homicide rates in certain communities, with a specific focus on the unique challenges faced by young people who are exposed to this violence from an early age. It touches upon the experience of a middle school student who, by the 8th grade, has already been exposed to a significant amount of violence in their neighborhood.
• 18:00 - 20:10: Conclusion: Creating Rose Gardens The chapter delves into the critical issue of PTSD, emphasizing that while soldiers are often associated with this condition, there is insufficient discussion about the trauma experienced by young individuals in communities plagued by violence. It highlights a poignant example involving the speaker's students who had to grapple with the murder of a peer, a 15-year-old stabbed in the face with a screwdriver. Despite such traumatic experiences, the education system remains focused on test scores, failing to address the emotional and psychological needs of these students. The chapter calls for a shift in conversation towards better supporting these young individuals and providing them with the necessary care and understanding in the aftermath of such tragedies.

TEDxGoldenGateED - Jeff Duncan-Andrade - Growing Roses in Concrete Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 as the youngest of seven children I often felt like it was my Birthright to complain and I was on one of my adolescent rants one time and my mother sat me down at the kitchen table and filled a glass halfway she came back and set the glass down between us and she said half full or half empty and I got stuck on dumb for a second because of
• 00:30 - 01:00 course it's a trick question and my mother proceeded to say that son how you choose to answer that question is how you will live your life because your life will always be both half full and half empty and if you choose to see your life as half empty if you choose to see your life for the things that you don't have then you will never fill your cup but if you can see your life as half full if you can recognize the things that you do have in your life then your cup will fill up and it will overflow and you can share that with
• 01:00 - 01:30 others this is kind of how I think about Tupac Shakur's poem where he describes young people growing up in urban poverty as the roses that grow from concrete and Pac says when you see a rose growing in the concrete you don't question its damaged pedals of course it has damaged pedals it's growing in the concrete instead you celebrate its tenacity and its will to reach the sun now I think Pac is right to acknowledge that the concrete is real and that there are young people attempting to grow in
• 01:30 - 02:00 this concrete and so it's important when we're trying to grow roses in the concrete that we actually understand it better there's very few things out there that describe the concrete as effectively as this film series which PBS recently released called unnatural causes and I think the title is appropriate because the concrete is not natural the conditions in which urban youth are growing are not natural they're created which means that they can be changed now the thing about this concrete is that there's multiple layers
• 02:00 - 02:30 to it and I don't have time to go into all the layers today so I'm going to focus on one that's particularly profound in the community where I live and teach I live in a 3,400 block of East Oakland and in 2002 the San Francisco Chronicle became so concerned with the level of homicide in our community they started mapping it and so between 2002 they drew out this map now the interesting thing about their word choice is they said that we have the plague now the interesting thing about that word choice is that the plague is the ultimate
• 02:30 - 03:00 non-discriminatory between the two
• 03:00 - 03:30 freeways between the 580 Freeway and the 880 Freeway which in our community we call that the flat lands or the lower bottoms and that's where I live and that's where I've taught for the last 18 years now over the five years that the chronicle mapped the plague there were 555 homicides in our community in 2007 the Oakland Tribune began to map uh the homicides they call it the homicide map and every year they put put the homicide map on the front page of the Tribune and what you can see is that between 2007 in
• 03:30 - 04:00 2010 very little has changed in the homicide rate in our community so I've decided to update the homicide map and I'm going to do that for 13 years because that's how many years young people are in public schools in our community so I'm up to eight now now you tell me where a young person can live in my community where they don't personally witness homicide and this young person is only in middle school this is only 8th grade they haven't even made it to my high school class yet and of course course we know that
• 04:00 - 04:30 exposure to this kind of traumatic stress can result in PTSD but much of the conversation about PTSD is about this guy which is right because soldiers are particularly susceptible to PTSD but there's too little conversation about these brothers here these are my students burying one of their Partners 15 years old who was stabbed multiple times in the face with a screwdriver not far from my house and the next day these young Brothers showed up to school and what are we giving them in school what's the convers ation about test scores
• 04:30 - 05:00 attendance quantifi thing we can things we can measure very little attention to the material conditions of their lives very little attention to their humanity and yet at the same time we tell them that schools care about them at the same time we tell them schools are their best chance out of the concrete it's little wonder why young people like these are not willing to engage in that promise now fortunately there's a growing body of research that is studying traumatic stress in young
• 05:00 - 05:30 people like the work of this guy Bruce Perry and as a result of this new work what we found is that one in three Urban Youth display the symptoms of mild to severe PTSD and when you compare that data to the military data what you find is urban youth are actually twice as likely as soldiers returning from Iraq to get PTSD in fact we become so concerned with PTSD and urban communities we found that PTSD isn't even an accurate diagnosis
• 05:30 - 06:00 so the medical field and the field of psychology have begun to work a new uh diagnosis that they're calling cptsd or complex PTSD which captures the complexity of young people living in urban poverty who return to the violence and rather than thinking about it as post-traumatic which is accurate for a soldier because the soldier leaves the battlefield thinking about the complexity of continually reoccurring that prolonged traumatic stress now if we do nothing about this
• 06:00 - 06:30 concrete what we know is is that some roses will still find their way through the concrete but what we've done is we've begun to use the classroom as a space of intervention and for the last 18 plus years what we've attempted to do is to address the material conditions of kids in our community in the classroom to add some additional resources down into the concrete through the cracks more water more light more soil and as a result we've been able to grow more roses than most
• 06:30 - 07:00 the way that we've been able to do this is that we use a looping system so we take cohorts of young people and and we stay with them over multiple years and so three years later with our last cohort what you see is is that retention is up college going is up gpas are up all the all the measurables that we want in schools we're able to get and when you compare that with the broader District data you see that we have a level of uncommon success now this picture that you see right here is actually a picture of the last cohort
• 07:00 - 07:30 the day that they graduated and they're on our porch at our house and the little bubbles you see next to each of their names are the four-year colleges and universities that they went off to now we have now we have people from all over the world come to our program to see how is it that we're able to reach this level of uncommon success and often feel like when they come in that they think
• 07:30 - 08:00 that they're going to see us blow some pixie dust on K right and that we just magically create it no pixie dust in fact I was quoted once in the Oakland Tribune as saying it's not rocket science that we don't have pixie dust and we don't have a magic wand and we sure as hell don't do rocket science I'm a social scientist so couldn't even fool with it what we do do is we go back to a basic needs framework we go back to 1943 in maso's hierarchy of needs because maslo was right maslo made it clear that
• 08:00 - 08:30 if you don't address the lower levels of the hierarchy of needs you can't find stability in the upper echelons of the hierarchy of needs and the particularly interesting thing to me about maso's hierarchy of needs is the Pinnacle because the Pinnacle is self-actualization and what we know from the research and education is that self-actualization is actually the precondition to long-term academic success and yet when you look at this list of things that lead to self-actualization not a public school teacher in this country is evaluated on
• 08:30 - 09:00 their ability to do those things even though the educational research is clear that these are the things that you have to do in order to get the things that teachers are actually evaluated on Which is higher test scores higher GPA more engagement etc etc but what we know after almost 20 years of this work is that it's not enough and so we beun to think about what would it mean to take these these principles that we've developed in our
• 09:00 - 09:30 microecosystem and begin to think about them as a meta ecosystem what would it mean to take these principles and institutionalize them and then surround that institution thinking about school as the center of our community thinking about school and young people as the center of Health in our community and then wrap these Services all around young people all the services that any healthy Community should have and deserves now some of you might have heard of these kinds of models for example the Harlem Children Zone or other similar model mod but we're
• 09:30 - 10:00 thinking it a little bit differently because the problem with those kinds of models is is that they do grow roses but then those Roses leave the concrete and so the process has to start all over again so that we've been Shifting the conversation to start thinking about what would it mean to have a model of growing roses that's connected to the idea of sustainability and security for communities like mine in East Oakland now perhaps nobody models this better than this woman Maya Angelo who in the early 1990s was on a film set
• 10:00 - 10:30 called Poetic Justice and she walks out of her trailer to do her her scene and she walks out she sees two young Brothers at each other's throats she doesn't know either one of these brothers but she intervenes between them and the one brother she's trying to stop he starts coming back he's like he's not even trying to hear her and she's holding him up May's a grandmother right she doesn't know these two brothers at all and she's intervening he's coming back she's like know and she looks him in the eyes and she says do you understand how important you are do you understand that our people lay
• 10:30 - 11:00 spoon fashioned in the filthy hatches of slave ships in each other's excrement and menstrual flow so that you could live do you understand how important you are to me to us to our community and to this world and this brother started to cry and she didn't have any tissue so she slid up her sleeve and dried his tears later that day she found out that that brother
• 11:00 - 11:30 was Tupac Shakur and Tupac's mother wrote Maya a letter many days later saying thank you for intervening in my son's life because you saved his life that day now because Maya was able to see Pac not for his damaged pedals but for his tenacity and his will to reach the sun because Maya was able to see Pac as a rose growing in the concrete and because mayia created the opportunity for Pac to come back to the concrete Pac came back to the concrete year after year and he teaches student after student all over the globe
• 11:30 - 12:00 and as a result of Maya's intervention in pac's life in 2010 my homie all the way across the world in catm do snap this photo which is a photo of three young Brothers at one of the largest Buddhist shrines in the world and what you see in this photo is is that the oldest brother is consoling the middle brother who's deeply saddened and the youngest brother is watching learning empathy now what you might not not catch about this picture is that it's an image
• 12:00 - 12:30 of one of Tupac's albums this album was released long after mayia intervened in his life now the problem with the educational system that we have in this country today is that it's based on a model of rugged individualism but our program doesn't ascribe to that instead we tell young people that we need you and you need each other the two things that we regularly tell our young people is one
• 12:30 - 13:00 we're going to be in your lives forever they don't always like that one and two is we love you and as a result of those kind of conversations with young people as a result of a pedagogy in a classroom that's built on those ideas compassion and love so many of our young people over the last 18 years have returned to the community as doctors as lawyers as teachers as veterinarians and what we know from our work in East Oakland is that when roses come back to the
• 13:00 - 13:30 concrete they create rose gardens thank [Applause] you