Words of Chocolate Inspiration!

Chocolate Inspiration 2009

Welcome again and thank you again to the Ambassador of Switzerland and Mrs. Ronit Zisweiler and to everyone who made tonight possible.  

We have a passionate and committed crowd with us tonight, not unlike the crowds that gathered on the Mall just over a month ago for the inauguration of President Obama. During that historic weekend, we heard these words about change, quoted from another president, Thomas Jefferson:

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.

That’s what Jefferson said 200 years ago. The schools our children attend today are based in a model designed at the turn of the last century after the industrial revolution, with the goal of teaching children the skills they need to become good assembly line workers. There is no American institution more in need of change than our nation’s schools. And there is no better place to begin than our nation’s capital.

Center for Inspired Teaching invests in teachers as agents of change in schools. And that change means making schools into places where young people learn to read and write and achieve at high levels without having to surrender their intellectual curiosity and passion for learning.

If you believe that every child has the potential not only to learn to read and write and add and subtract but also to think creatively and develop 21st Century skills, I am asking you tonight to become a part of Center for Inspired Teaching.

Everyone in this room can name at least one excellent teacher—someone who made a difference in your life. Today we start a campaign to bring about a day when every child has an Inspired Teacher every year.   

Over the past 13 years, through our work with thousands of educators, Center for Inspired Teaching has learned what it takes to be a great teacher. You’ve heard about our courses for teachers. You know about our transformative school partnerships. Now we’re taking what we do best and applying it in two exciting new endeavors.

Starting this fall, more than 500 children throughout DC will begin the school year with a brand new Inspired Teacher. Maybe some of you will be those teachers. We have worked closely with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education here in DC to help design legislation that now allows nonprofits like ours to certify and license new teachers.

If you’ve ever thought about becoming a teacher – NOW IS YOUR TIME. If you want to become a teacher and a changemaker, we want you!

Starting tomorrow Inspired Teaching’s website (inspiredteaching.org) will include full information about our teacher certification program. You can also learn about this opportunity on the back cover of tonight’s program.

But that’s not all.

Close your eyes for a moment and picture this: You’re walking through the front doors of a school and the minute you step in you feel…welcome. The hallways are filled with student work and every classroom you pass is filled with excited voices and the boisterous energy of learning in full throttle. Kids are solving problems, hard at work on projects—building, writing, creating, imagining.

You can ask any one of them what they’re learning and they will talk your ears off as they explain the practical applications of the quadratic formula, the role of foreshadowing in the Odyssey, or how photosynthesis works in the community garden they’re planting out back.

You also see master teachers instructing new teachers about the rich and complex art of teaching.

Open your eyes.

I’ve just taken you on a tour of the first Inspired Teaching School that will open in Washington DC within the next few years. It will be a school for children and for teachers because we plan to relocate our teacher training programs there. But most importantly it will provide a replicable model of a 21st century school where children and adults are working and learning at their full potential.

There’s never been a better time to become a part of Center for Inspired Teaching. Here are 3 ways to get involved:

Number ONE: Become an Inspired Teacher – our Teacher Certification program seeks applicants of every description from recent college grads to career changers to recent retirees. If you are already a certified teacher, sign up for one of our courses, or bring us to your school.

Number TWO: Help raise the school - The Amish do something called a Barn raising where the whole community gets together to raise a barn when someone needs one built. Everyone brings his or her skill to the table and the building goes up in days when it would have taken months for an individual family, or even a construction team. Well, we need to do a school raising and if you’ve got a skill to bring to the table – we want it. Help us find a building, design our business plan, provide legal counsel, advise our hiring program, develop our media campaign. There is much work to be done and we need good people to help us make it happen.

Number THREE: Support Inspired Teaching – Your voice, your financial contribution, your presence at events like this one – all communicate your commitment to bringing Inspired Teaching to every child. The need for your support has never been greater.

Tonight we feast on delicious desserts and convivial company. Tomorrow we return to jobs threatened by the economy and news of problematic wars, and our city’s children return to schools that aren’t preparing them to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Einstein once said, “today’s problems cannot be solved with the same thinking that we used when we created them.” And history shows us that this is true.

Inspired Teaching is committed to a different approach, one that recognizes the potential in teachers and builds on that potential for the benefit of students. It is time to take what we have learned to scale and tonight we are thrilled to invite you to join us in the journey.