The Worcester Education Collaborative has been working with the Education Trust to support efforts to expand excellence and equity in education and to increase political and public will to act on equity issues. On October 29, 2019, WEC was honored to host John B. King Jr., former U.S. Secretary of Education and President and current CEO of the Trust, to deliver the Bassett Lecture and to receive our Apple of a Different Color award, at our tenth annual meeting. The award is given occasionally to a visionary in the field of K-12 education.
King’s remarks blended his personal history with the importance of education and education equity. The synthesis of his personal and professional experiences over the years has allowed King to see several intersecting themes in his work. Punctuating his words with data specific to our city, he stressed that for young people to be successful in the classroom and beyond, that they must have access to rigorous coursework that provides them with “windows to see beyond the parameters of their own lives as well as mirrors where they can see themselves, their cultures, and their experiences reflected.” As the first Secretary of the US Department of Education to have been dismissed from school, King also spoke persuasively about the need to move past defining young people solely by the worst thing that they ever did, or the worst thing that happened to them, but rather by considering their strengths and gifts.
The event drew nearly two hundred guests from Worcester’s K-12, higher education, business, youth development, and philanthropic sectors each of whom left with a renewed commitment meet the needs of our young people for their good and the good of our community now and into the future.
