When I say I believe all children can learn, people sometimes misunderstand.
Because I have been working with poor, minority children in Harlem for the last 25 years, some
people think I am talking about good kids in bad environments — that if you give a bright kid
from a poor family a good educational support system, he or she can succeed.
That's absolutely true, but that's not what I mean.
You see, I truly believe that all kids can learn. I believe it; I've seen it; I've even tasted it.
Back in 1975, when I was coming out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education,
I worked in a summer camp in Ossipee, N.H., for kids with the absolute toughest problems:
emotionally disturbed kids, autistic kids, oppositional ADHD kids,
kids that everyone — even their parents — had given up on.
One of the things that I and the staff would do is cook with the kids.