Do the myths and medias negative attention on urban schools/education affect the superintendents?
No, we don’t worry about that. We believe there are ways to change the conditions. We know more than we ever have about how to do that. We call on our students to develop a ‘theory of action’ about how they’re going to make those changes. People will tell you that urban schools are failures. My students don’t believe it and won’t accept it. They keep working on a theory, taking into account, but not accepting as excuse, the conditions in which the students and the schools come to you. We spend a lot of time talking about the fact that these myths exist, but we don’t spend a lot of time trying to defend schools against them. We are results oriented. When the conditions of the schools change, then people’s perceptions will change. We also spend a lot of time on how to deal with the media. A consultant coaches students on how to speak, present, condense arguments, and create arguments. We spend a lot of time talking about telling the truth and how you tell the truth. You don’t defend a my
