First Person Singular: Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education
This work for me is very, very personal. It goes back to my mother's work in a church basement starting in 1961, trying to make a huge difference, through education, in the lives of kids that had a very, very tough time. Her after-school program was literally a mile and a half from where we lived -- but it was a different world.
I grew up in Hyde Park, this middle-class, diverse community around the University of Chicago. There was a 47th Street border; no one else crossed over, but we were this crazy family that did. Growing up in a different community, a different world, is life-transforming; it shaped us. And I couldn't begin to do what I'm doing today had I not had that opportunity every day for years.
Literally, from the time we were born, we grew up with children who happened to be African American,