The Gift You Can Give Your Children Today

Those expecting my promised entry on hosting your book signing, come back tomorrow.

I promise you won't be disappointed

Today, let's take one more shot at education and why I have battled long and hard to level the playing field for those who have been shut out from the American dream.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.

If Plato's words strike a chord with educators, why is it that education has so terribly failed to support the American dream?

The late Ann Richards, once governor of Texas, had these words about the former President George "Daddy" Bush. the elder.

You recall how she brought down the house at the Democratic Convention.

Poor George he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

or

Poor George. He woke up sitting on third base and thought he had hit a triple.

Now, the Bush family takes heat in America for representing the privileged class, but they are hardly alone.

Take one Donald Trump for instance.

You ask the average American if Donald Trump knows how to make money and what percentage will answer yes.

I would venture close to 100%. Agree?

Would you be surprised to hear that there is no way to determine if Trump is a real money maker?

How could that be you would counter?

Isn't he worth billions?

True.

But what did he start out with?

What was his first stake in the poker game known as American entrepreneurism?

How many people know that Trump's father, a very successful home builder, provided Donald with millions in assets and even more millions in credit to "acquire" a greater fortune?

Makes his accomplishments seem a little less impressive. Don't you think?

.................

In September 1972. I first ventured into the South Bronx to take a first hand look at the failure of American education.

What has changed nearly forty years later?

What are the chances that the little boy or little girl who walks into the very same classroom I walked into, will go on to attend college and break the cycle of poverty in her family.

The answer to that question is evidenced by the fact that the South Bronx is still an eyesore and an embarrassment to a country with the riches and resources of America.

So what can we do about it?

Complain? Shake our fists and scream at the heavens above? Bury our head in the sand?

I think that last one is exactly what we are doing.

Where is the improvement?

Where is the change?

Which brings me to the real question.

Do I believe I have a formula to help American students succeed?

Those who have been in my classroom or have heard my speeches, presentations or one man shows, know the answer to that question.

My simple mental imagery formula can change the futures of children.

But let's put that on the back burner for now.

Why am I so sure there can be change?

Because I look at a man like Bill Clinton.

He wasn't born on third base.

Finding himself in a home with an alcoholic father, he made his was to Georgetown University in Washington, DC, a good school, but hardly the pinnacle of American education.

Clinton's studies caught the attention of Yale, the playground of the Bush clan for generations. Yale admitted Clinton into their school of Law where he would meet and marry the current Secretary of State.

But Clinton's education was far from over.

Next, he would accept a Rhodes scholarship and study at Oxford.

The boy from Hope, Arkansas had come a long way.

Now that's the American dream I want for every American child.

Think that's a fluke?

Take the case of a boy who went to school in Hawaii.

Raised by his grandma while his mom worked and studied often away from home, this young man might have considered himself fortunate to even be accepted in college.

When he enrolled on the campus of little known Occidental College, there was no sense of greatness in his future.

However, he applied himself to his studies, discovered success in the classroom and earned his way into Columbia University and Harvard Law.

You know by now that this is the man who is the current President of the United States of America.

And one last student.

Because her story might be the greatest reason why the South Bronx can change its look, but only if we as Americans want it to change.

When I was teaching middle school in the South Bronx, this girl was in high school, a mile or so away.

I might have passed her several days a week on my way to work.

Like Clinton and Obama, she applied herself in the classroom and made it to an Ivy League University (Princeton) and then Yale University to study the law.

In the middle of chaos, within the poorest and hardscrabble streets of America, next to boys and girls who would only extend the poverty and failure of its denizens for generation after generation, this high school girl set out to make a difference.

She was going to rise above the chaos.

Today, Sonia Sotomayor is on the Supreme Court.

Do I think that the American dream is still possible in America?

Clinton, Obama and Sotomayor say yes.

Millions more say no.

I have the formula needed to help kids thrive and make their American dream possible.

It begins with GIFT TO MY DAD.

But there is so much more to that story.

Will you help me to finish the story?.......................

You can do two things to help me.

Order GIFT TO MY DAD from Amazon,com beginning May 1.

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