Latino teachers needed for classroom role models

08-15-2011

By Joy Resmovitz/Huffington Post

One day during his first week teaching fourth grade in San Antonio’s largely Hispanic Bonham Academy, David Nungaray -- a Teach for America teacher whose parents emigrated from Mexico -- posed a question: "How many of you think you may want to go to college?" Nungaray asked. Within seconds, almost every student had his or her hand in the air. Except one. "I’m going to go to jail," the student said. When Nungaray probed further, the student responded that his father had gone to jail. Why wouldn’t he? From that point on, Nungaray emphasized college attainment to all of his students, but paid extra attention to the one who said he was jail-bound. He explained, "I told him every day, 'Good morning. You’re smart, you’re creative, you’re intelligent. You can do this.' A few weeks later, after a day spent wearing Nungaray’s Chapman University fraternity paraphernalia, the student had updated his goal sheet, saying he wanted to attend Chapman like Nungaray, who was a first-generation college student himself. (more...)

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