I believe the someday something good
will come to me and I believe there one
day life will undo what it’s done to me
cuz I believe yes I believe so strongly
that it’s true someday the world will
treat me just like you I wrote those
lyrics when I was 17
try to imagine the 17 year old who
writes a song about hope and healing do
you see her leather jacket and black
nail polish her miniskirt and knee-high
boots maybe you pictured her hanging out
with friends people like this guy
this is Nathan one of the few people
from high school I’m still in touch with
I met him sophomore year health class
school number 12 the teacher had just
told us that people who attempt suicide
don’t really want to die I didn’t tell
her I needed to believe that family and
friends who’d killed themselves were
better off because I didn’t know then
that’s why I believed it but I did tell
her I know a girl he swallowed two
bottles of pills and when she woke up
the next morning she was just pissed it
didn’t work maybe the teacher knew I was
talking about myself maybe she thought I
was just being dramatic
but Nathan passed me a note that said I
know the girl who didn’t want to wake up
we became funds because like me Nathan
knew hope was a dirty word we’re still
friends because we survived anyway when
I think back to the 17-year who wrote
that song I see her cradling her infant
daughter a dollar store wedding ring
peeking from under the blanket that’s
the girl the principal called into the
office two months before graduation to
say she had two too many unexcused
absences to finish with her class
shouldn’t she be at home with your
little girl anyway he asked I had a
three point eight three GPA a perfect a
CT score and three scholarship buffers
but I also had a baby had spent time in
a temporary home while the courts tried
to figure out what to do with me and had
gotten married to solve that problem I
did have a little bit of self-respect
and I did what any self-respecting poor
kid would do I gave the principal the
bird and dropped out I left school
knowing three things with certainty you
can’t buy precooked food with food
stamps a welfare check will never be
enough to cover the whole rent but a
penny too much in wages will cost
whatever food you can buy and the world
measures poverty not potential
according to the National Council on
state legislators 60% of teen moms drop
out of high school and fewer than 2%
finished college an Institute for
educational statistics report shows
students in poverty are 5 times more
likely to drop out than their peers add
in that rumberger and other educational
researchers have shown that school
mobility increases the risk of dropping
out and it’s clear I was statistically
destined to fail the women’s standing in
front of you today was never supposed to
exist I am a wife of 20 years mother to
three college students a homeowner a
published writer a high school teacher
and a doctoral candidate three years ago
I didn’t know what a doctoral candidate
was when people hear my story they often
say things that make me uncomfortable
they say I must be very strong or very
brave or the worst I am proof that
anyone can do anything they put their
mind to as if I did it all without help
through sheer force of will I’ve heard
my intelligence must be responsible for
my success but I’m a teacher and I
voluntarily go back to high school every
day saying that success comes from
someone’s personal characteristics
creates two problems first if I believe
that success comes from some innate
quality I have no responsibility to help
others because nothing I do will matter
it gives me a way to sort out who should
get help and who shouldn’t and it
implies that there’s some group of
people who should never be expected to
succeed
second if I believe that success comes
from someone’s extreme intelligence or
strength or talent or whatever I have no
responsibility to help myself because
nothing I do will matter at that point
I’m saving my self-respect and sanity by
becoming very very comfortable with a
lack of success and this is the root of
what some people call the poverty
culture I’m convinced that I’ve been
able to achieve what I have because
there were people who believed enough in
me to make me believe enough in myself
to make the sacrifices necessary to
create a better life small sacrifices
like never learning to read and write
music big sacrifices like missing my
kids activities because I was doing
homework after coming home from work I
created a framework to help explain the
kinds of actions people took that were
most helpful to me and I call them
future seeds
these are selfless equalising deliberate
actions that show an expectation for
future success
let me explain when we think about how
to help people in poverty we often think
about acts of charity now acts of
charity mate a right now need they’re
not equalizing they’re someone doing
something for someone else there’s no
expectation that that imbalance will
change often we perform these kinds of
acts impulsively we donate a little food
or money in the same way that we might
add a candy bar to our groceries while
we stand in line in a contrast future
seeds show that other person that we
expect as much from them as we do from
ourselves and vice versa
decades of research on rooms expectancy
theory show that our expectations matter
a lot a simplified explanation is if I
believe that the outcome of my efforts
will be positive I’ll put more effort
into the work that I do but if I believe
that the outcomes of my efforts will be
negative or neutral as in having food
today doesn’t stop me from being hungry
tomorrow I’m not motivated to do my best
the theory was introduced in the 60s to
help explain workplace behavior but it
can also explain life behavior when we
add it to the concept of stereotype
threat stereotype threat is another very
well researched idea that shows people
perform less effectively on a task if
their first reminded that they belong to
some group race gender in my case
socioeconomic status that doesn’t
usually perform well on that task like
say graduating high school the power of
positive expectations for my success
helped me overcome stereotype threat
that started in the 6th grade when the
teacher told us we were going to help
students less fortunate than ourselves
by packing boxes of school supplies and
school clothes for a big giveaway that
was coming up I already knew about the
giveaway because I was really looking
forward to getting a pair of pants that
weren’t high waters and in that moment I
realized that I was never expected to be
in an honors class but I was there
because in 4th grade a teacher
interpreted my not enos it was a little
bit as boredom rather than a
disciplinary issue
she had me evaluated and placed in the
talented and gifted program like many
poor kids I moved a lot and that
talented and gifted label followed me
from school to school to school
making sure that educators always saw my
potential before they saw my poverty
usually I move too quickly for them to
find anything else the principle that I
mentioned earlier was from school number
15 this was a school where the first
thing anyone learned about me was that I
was 16 poor and pregnant but Mr
Woodworth was also at that school he saw
all the same things that everyone else
did he just didn’t treat me any
differently the last assignment that I
completed for mr. Woodworth was to read
analyze and present my analysis of
Aristotle’s Poetics
to the class in three to four minutes
for the first part of the assignment I
was in a temporary home and in and out
of court for the second part of the
assignment I was on what passes for a 17
year olds honeymoon so my presentation
came out something like this
[Applause]
Aristotle says the beginning is the
beginning and the end is the end I have
no idea why anyone would read this or
why it matters
[Applause]
mr. Woodworth responds a note next to
the F on the turned end portion of the
assignment that said you can do so much
more and I expect you to mr. Woodworth
took the time to let me know he didn’t
believe that my current circumstances
could interfere with me reaching my
potential a couple days later I dropped
out and that was the last thing mr.
Woodworth heard from me for twenty years
but his words you can do so much more
and I expect you to that came back to me
a couple years later when I left my
first husband and remembered that I
believed in a better world someone I
admired thought I was capable and I
wanted to prove him right so I went to
an alternative school for the last two
credits of my high school diploma
instead of getting a GED only the
English teacher at that alternative
school for fewer than four months I
don’t remember her name but I can
picture her clearly because of her
future scene after grading my incoming
assessment she asked me what college I
was going to and I said people like me
don’t go to college she didn’t say
anything right then but a couple weeks
later she passed back an essay I’d
written pointed at the a on top and told
me she had asked a community college
professor to grade it people like you
have a responsibility to go to college
she said how this act was selfless on
the part of both that alternative school
teacher and the anonymous Community
College professor we teachers this will
surprise you we do not run around going
please please someone give me more work
to grade
it was equalizing it showed me that I
was equal to any other student on that
college campus it was deliberate and
planned even though she had no way of
knowing whether or not it would work and
it showed an expectation for my future
success
she didn’t say of course you can go to
college she didn’t even say you should
go to college she said you have a
responsibility to go to college people
planted dozens of future seeds for me
throughout my life and this is important
because just like the effects of poverty
are cumulative the effects of future
seeds stack on each other over time even
today I deal with poverty related issues
some followed me from that old life like
stereotype threat that had me bawling
like a baby during every statistics quiz
in a class I passed with a 98.2%
some are new problems like realizing the
parts and people from my past don’t fit
neatly with the parts and people in my
future even so future seeds have become
the foundation for the kind of teacher
and person that I strive to be a couple
months ago I got a message from a former
student at a community college where I
taught say mrs. Warnock I just wanted to
say thank you
a long time ago you literally took me by
the hand and walked me to see far you
knew I’d be too nervous to go so you
took it upon yourself to take me since
that day I’ve been on track slowly and
surely to earn a degree last week
wrapped up the winter term with it being
my last term I was extremely nervous
about checking my grades
today I checked them and well I passed
I’m set to finally graduate Community
College when I walked a Seuss to that
support center I wasn’t thinking about
how to get him through my class I knew I
could do that I was thinking about how
to equalize his opportunity for success
in all of his classes and show him I
expected him to finish no matter what it
took and who he had to ask for help
sometimes planting future seeds works
sometimes it’s really hard because we
don’t always know the outcome remember
it was 20 years before mr. Woodworth
heard about my success and that
alternative school teacher never heard
recently a student I’ve been working
closely with lost their way I came home
crying racking my brain for that one
more thing that I could do to help get
them back on track and my husband said
the hard words that he’s had to say to
me before honey you’ve done everything
you could you can’t save them all
and he’s right I can’t but if we all
look past the poverty to see the
potential if we take the extra time to
walk or drive that person to the support
center if we look up a phone number and
a name and sit with them while they make
that really hard call if we help them
identify their strengths and then show
them where to put it on a job
application or a scholarship application
we can save them all
I know because future seeds helped me
write an end to that old song in a way
that my seventeen year old self could
only have imagined
I believe someday we’ll all expect the
best of us and I believe that one day we
will work together to heal what’s left
of us in this I find the strength to
carry on and no amount of laughs can
kill hope so who’s strong
[Applause]
will come to me and I believe there one
day life will undo what it’s done to me
cuz I believe yes I believe so strongly
that it’s true someday the world will
treat me just like you I wrote those
lyrics when I was 17
try to imagine the 17 year old who
writes a song about hope and healing do
you see her leather jacket and black
nail polish her miniskirt and knee-high
boots maybe you pictured her hanging out
with friends people like this guy
this is Nathan one of the few people
from high school I’m still in touch with
I met him sophomore year health class
school number 12 the teacher had just
told us that people who attempt suicide
don’t really want to die I didn’t tell
her I needed to believe that family and
friends who’d killed themselves were
better off because I didn’t know then
that’s why I believed it but I did tell
her I know a girl he swallowed two
bottles of pills and when she woke up
the next morning she was just pissed it
didn’t work maybe the teacher knew I was
talking about myself maybe she thought I
was just being dramatic
but Nathan passed me a note that said I
know the girl who didn’t want to wake up
we became funds because like me Nathan
knew hope was a dirty word we’re still
friends because we survived anyway when
I think back to the 17-year who wrote
that song I see her cradling her infant
daughter a dollar store wedding ring
peeking from under the blanket that’s
the girl the principal called into the
office two months before graduation to
say she had two too many unexcused
absences to finish with her class
shouldn’t she be at home with your
little girl anyway he asked I had a
three point eight three GPA a perfect a
CT score and three scholarship buffers
but I also had a baby had spent time in
a temporary home while the courts tried
to figure out what to do with me and had
gotten married to solve that problem I
did have a little bit of self-respect
and I did what any self-respecting poor
kid would do I gave the principal the
bird and dropped out I left school
knowing three things with certainty you
can’t buy precooked food with food
stamps a welfare check will never be
enough to cover the whole rent but a
penny too much in wages will cost
whatever food you can buy and the world
measures poverty not potential
according to the National Council on
state legislators 60% of teen moms drop
out of high school and fewer than 2%
finished college an Institute for
educational statistics report shows
students in poverty are 5 times more
likely to drop out than their peers add
in that rumberger and other educational
researchers have shown that school
mobility increases the risk of dropping
out and it’s clear I was statistically
destined to fail the women’s standing in
front of you today was never supposed to
exist I am a wife of 20 years mother to
three college students a homeowner a
published writer a high school teacher
and a doctoral candidate three years ago
I didn’t know what a doctoral candidate
was when people hear my story they often
say things that make me uncomfortable
they say I must be very strong or very
brave or the worst I am proof that
anyone can do anything they put their
mind to as if I did it all without help
through sheer force of will I’ve heard
my intelligence must be responsible for
my success but I’m a teacher and I
voluntarily go back to high school every
day saying that success comes from
someone’s personal characteristics
creates two problems first if I believe
that success comes from some innate
quality I have no responsibility to help
others because nothing I do will matter
it gives me a way to sort out who should
get help and who shouldn’t and it
implies that there’s some group of
people who should never be expected to
succeed
second if I believe that success comes
from someone’s extreme intelligence or
strength or talent or whatever I have no
responsibility to help myself because
nothing I do will matter at that point
I’m saving my self-respect and sanity by
becoming very very comfortable with a
lack of success and this is the root of
what some people call the poverty
culture I’m convinced that I’ve been
able to achieve what I have because
there were people who believed enough in
me to make me believe enough in myself
to make the sacrifices necessary to
create a better life small sacrifices
like never learning to read and write
music big sacrifices like missing my
kids activities because I was doing
homework after coming home from work I
created a framework to help explain the
kinds of actions people took that were
most helpful to me and I call them
future seeds
these are selfless equalising deliberate
actions that show an expectation for
future success
let me explain when we think about how
to help people in poverty we often think
about acts of charity now acts of
charity mate a right now need they’re
not equalizing they’re someone doing
something for someone else there’s no
expectation that that imbalance will
change often we perform these kinds of
acts impulsively we donate a little food
or money in the same way that we might
add a candy bar to our groceries while
we stand in line in a contrast future
seeds show that other person that we
expect as much from them as we do from
ourselves and vice versa
decades of research on rooms expectancy
theory show that our expectations matter
a lot a simplified explanation is if I
believe that the outcome of my efforts
will be positive I’ll put more effort
into the work that I do but if I believe
that the outcomes of my efforts will be
negative or neutral as in having food
today doesn’t stop me from being hungry
tomorrow I’m not motivated to do my best
the theory was introduced in the 60s to
help explain workplace behavior but it
can also explain life behavior when we
add it to the concept of stereotype
threat stereotype threat is another very
well researched idea that shows people
perform less effectively on a task if
their first reminded that they belong to
some group race gender in my case
socioeconomic status that doesn’t
usually perform well on that task like
say graduating high school the power of
positive expectations for my success
helped me overcome stereotype threat
that started in the 6th grade when the
teacher told us we were going to help
students less fortunate than ourselves
by packing boxes of school supplies and
school clothes for a big giveaway that
was coming up I already knew about the
giveaway because I was really looking
forward to getting a pair of pants that
weren’t high waters and in that moment I
realized that I was never expected to be
in an honors class but I was there
because in 4th grade a teacher
interpreted my not enos it was a little
bit as boredom rather than a
disciplinary issue
she had me evaluated and placed in the
talented and gifted program like many
poor kids I moved a lot and that
talented and gifted label followed me
from school to school to school
making sure that educators always saw my
potential before they saw my poverty
usually I move too quickly for them to
find anything else the principle that I
mentioned earlier was from school number
15 this was a school where the first
thing anyone learned about me was that I
was 16 poor and pregnant but Mr
Woodworth was also at that school he saw
all the same things that everyone else
did he just didn’t treat me any
differently the last assignment that I
completed for mr. Woodworth was to read
analyze and present my analysis of
Aristotle’s Poetics
to the class in three to four minutes
for the first part of the assignment I
was in a temporary home and in and out
of court for the second part of the
assignment I was on what passes for a 17
year olds honeymoon so my presentation
came out something like this
[Applause]
Aristotle says the beginning is the
beginning and the end is the end I have
no idea why anyone would read this or
why it matters
[Applause]
mr. Woodworth responds a note next to
the F on the turned end portion of the
assignment that said you can do so much
more and I expect you to mr. Woodworth
took the time to let me know he didn’t
believe that my current circumstances
could interfere with me reaching my
potential a couple days later I dropped
out and that was the last thing mr.
Woodworth heard from me for twenty years
but his words you can do so much more
and I expect you to that came back to me
a couple years later when I left my
first husband and remembered that I
believed in a better world someone I
admired thought I was capable and I
wanted to prove him right so I went to
an alternative school for the last two
credits of my high school diploma
instead of getting a GED only the
English teacher at that alternative
school for fewer than four months I
don’t remember her name but I can
picture her clearly because of her
future scene after grading my incoming
assessment she asked me what college I
was going to and I said people like me
don’t go to college she didn’t say
anything right then but a couple weeks
later she passed back an essay I’d
written pointed at the a on top and told
me she had asked a community college
professor to grade it people like you
have a responsibility to go to college
she said how this act was selfless on
the part of both that alternative school
teacher and the anonymous Community
College professor we teachers this will
surprise you we do not run around going
please please someone give me more work
to grade
it was equalizing it showed me that I
was equal to any other student on that
college campus it was deliberate and
planned even though she had no way of
knowing whether or not it would work and
it showed an expectation for my future
success
she didn’t say of course you can go to
college she didn’t even say you should
go to college she said you have a
responsibility to go to college people
planted dozens of future seeds for me
throughout my life and this is important
because just like the effects of poverty
are cumulative the effects of future
seeds stack on each other over time even
today I deal with poverty related issues
some followed me from that old life like
stereotype threat that had me bawling
like a baby during every statistics quiz
in a class I passed with a 98.2%
some are new problems like realizing the
parts and people from my past don’t fit
neatly with the parts and people in my
future even so future seeds have become
the foundation for the kind of teacher
and person that I strive to be a couple
months ago I got a message from a former
student at a community college where I
taught say mrs. Warnock I just wanted to
say thank you
a long time ago you literally took me by
the hand and walked me to see far you
knew I’d be too nervous to go so you
took it upon yourself to take me since
that day I’ve been on track slowly and
surely to earn a degree last week
wrapped up the winter term with it being
my last term I was extremely nervous
about checking my grades
today I checked them and well I passed
I’m set to finally graduate Community
College when I walked a Seuss to that
support center I wasn’t thinking about
how to get him through my class I knew I
could do that I was thinking about how
to equalize his opportunity for success
in all of his classes and show him I
expected him to finish no matter what it
took and who he had to ask for help
sometimes planting future seeds works
sometimes it’s really hard because we
don’t always know the outcome remember
it was 20 years before mr. Woodworth
heard about my success and that
alternative school teacher never heard
recently a student I’ve been working
closely with lost their way I came home
crying racking my brain for that one
more thing that I could do to help get
them back on track and my husband said
the hard words that he’s had to say to
me before honey you’ve done everything
you could you can’t save them all
and he’s right I can’t but if we all
look past the poverty to see the
potential if we take the extra time to
walk or drive that person to the support
center if we look up a phone number and
a name and sit with them while they make
that really hard call if we help them
identify their strengths and then show
them where to put it on a job
application or a scholarship application
we can save them all
I know because future seeds helped me
write an end to that old song in a way
that my seventeen year old self could
only have imagined
I believe someday we’ll all expect the
best of us and I believe that one day we
will work together to heal what’s left
of us in this I find the strength to
carry on and no amount of laughs can
kill hope so who’s strong
[Applause]
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