welcome to a new season of our world with black enterprise. i'm your host mark lamont hill. we start our season with john legend, what he's fighting for now. then we'll discuss the disparities behind education in the black community. and finally, we'll finish with a woman's single handedly saving lives in her chicago neighborhood. that's what's going on in our world starting now. he's one of america's favorite singer/songwriters.

john legend is still taking the music world by storm. now he's trying to wake up the world with his new album, an awareness of our ailing school systems. >> i was thinking about the first time i actually saw you perform, it was about 12 years ago, in a small club in philadelphia called the black lilies. i was thinking about the journey from going from a city like that to being "time" magazine's most influential. >> i wanted to be a singer since i was a kid. i wanted to be a role model since i was a kid. i met kanye in 2001, and he was very instrumental, obviously in watching, before he even signed me, he was involved in the work

i was doing. he was involved with alicia keys, jayzee, all these tracks. he would bring me in to sing and play piano. he helped put me out there, so a lot more people in the music community knew who i was, and so through getting out our dreams, his label, i signed to columbia in may of 2004. and that came after, you know, years of knocking on doors, years of performing live shows in new york, philly, all up and down the eastern seaboard, and trying to build a buzz and some energy. meeting some great people along the way, collaborating with people along the way and getting told no. and, you know, we just had to keep persisting and believing in the artistic vision and eventually we found a home at columbia and my first album came out in december of '04. >> talk do me a little bit about this new album. it's a very soulful album, but

it's an album that makes you dig into the crates. i hear something that could be from your grandma's basement. what's the process? >> my most soulful, my most organic, and most dirty raw and gritty. ♪ >> when i originally came to quest love, one of his missions was to make sure we didn't do the super standard, everybody knows these songs, everybody's heard these songs, and all they're going to think of is the original when you do that. we didn't want to do that. we wanted to do something different. we wanted to really uncover for a lot of people, rediscover for some people, some songs that may have been overlooked. again, i think we uncovered a lot of classics and rediscovered them for a new generation. and i think this idea of bringing generations together is

powerful. it really speaks to the political moment. you were very active in the obama campaign. you were active in the '08 election in general. what motivates you to do that? some people will do one public service announcement, you're really out there. what makes you so engaged in policy? >> maybe i'm really naive, but i believe these things matter, these things affect people's lives, the decisions that are made in washington, in the political arenas, and so i feel like i'm not going to waste my position, i'm not going to waste this opportunity i have with influence and resources, i'm not going to waste it by not speaking out, by not saying something. >> since you're no stranger to speaking out, let's think about these last two years. how would you gauge the last year. >> there are a lot of people that are upset and frustrated, because, you know, things haven't gotten better yet. they've gotten a little bit better, but not dramatically

better, and i think a lot of that is blamed on obama because of expecting too much from the power of the president to make change quickly. >> yeah. >> and if you look at his legislative record, he's gotten a lot done that most presidents would envy. if you told them in their first 18 months they would have passed health care, a serious financial reform bill, serious education reform would begin. $800 billion stimulus plan to put more people back to work, which i think saved a lot of jobs, but that just means it would have been much worse if they didn't do it. all these things happened in 18 months, which i think is remarkable, but it's still not enough to make it turn around in 18 months. i joked the other day that maybe people really believe that whole barack the magic negro thing. he was going to come in and wave his wand and it was all going to change right away. it just takes time. >> everyone agrees the problem is the education piece.

you were front and center on this conversation about education. >> yes, when we look at these education debates, there's a lot going on in the conversation, but i think the -- what is clear is there are some mottos out there that are working really well, and they're working in place where's people didn't believe they could work before. i think people -- they may not have said it, but they had a sense that a poor black kid was not going to do well, period. and we may as well give up. >> year from springfield, a work class neighborhood, mixed neighborhood. >> my father was a factory worker, i went to some public school, two years of private school and i was home schooled two years as well. i come from the city where between 40 and 50% of our kids drop out of high school. we're considered the dropout factory, my high school. i did well in, and went to an ivy league school. i was the exception not the rule. there's so many kids around the country that are in that

environment. black, white, hispanic, all over the country who are in schools that aren't getting the full potential out of them. and we need to do more to make sure every kid has a quality education. and too often i think we end up blaming the students themselves and we blame their parents. when the parents were in the same system 20 years ago, and we're expecting different results, we're not changing the system. >> what you're proposing is powerful and insightful. it's in the middle of a debate. some people on the left and right won't like it. >> yes. >> as an artist, how do you navigate that. >> my point is let's argue about what's best for these students. a lot of times you care more about what's happening with the adults than it the students. i think that's one of the powers of the film i'm a part of "waiting for superman." i wrote the title for the film, it's called "shine."

♪ let 'em shine on >> in this film, they follow the kids and their parents, and you get to know them. and you realize these kids -- a lot of times we blame their families, the kids and say, they don't want a better life. that's absurd to begin with. and once you humanize these young people, i think a lot of times our kids are dehumanized. they're not seen as people with potential and with optimism and possibility. but when you see them in this film, they're so humanized that you can't help but say, these are our kids, we need to do what we can to fix this for our kids. it's an emotional film, it makes you cry, empathize with their families. and hopefully it makes you leave there a little angry that our system has allowed this to happen. and hopefully we'll hold our politicians, our leaders, our schools accountable for make real change on behalf of these

kids. up next, our on the record discussion tackles education. >> quickest way to get on everyone's not so nice list is to criticize teachers or parents, and i'm about to do both now.

welcome back to our world black enterprise. on average, only 50% of black students graduate from high school in four years, compared

to 75% of their white counterparts. who's to blame? and can these numbers be improved? here to discuss are david banks, kelly goff and dr. arla rulawitz from the city college of new york. thank you all so much for joining me. you all have seen the numbers, graduation rates are low. literacy rates are low. what can you see as the roof of this issue, why are we falling on the education side? >> like most problems it's not just one issue at fault, i think there's no question that every study has shown that the teacher that the child has particularly when they're young can make the difference whether they fail or succe succeed. i think the new york times magazine examined a dozen studies that showed when you focus on a dozen things the school can control, the one thing that made the biggest difference in the long term was a teacher that the child had. i think we have to focus on

better training for teachers. i was reading about doug lamotte's book which is teach like a champion. there a lot of teachers who aren't succeeding in the classroom. we also have to get rid of tenure, it's harder to get rid of a bad teacher than it is to get rid of a bad doctor. which is hard to believe, because is there some drunk doctors out there that still have their medical licenses. >> talk about that, the idea that we need to get rid of teacher's unions or tenure is at the top of the public conversation right now. what do you say to people that say, teachers are too protected? >> it's a shiny issue. when we dig into how we're determining if teachers are effective, when we go back and look at how teachers were related, it's -- it's unreliable. until we have a system that accurately rates teachers, we can't put all the weight on teachers. >> i'm going to disagree a little bit. i think teachers in urban communities are facing the image problem that police officers in

urban communities are. which is there's a built-in innate evidence with the job. we're going to hold you to a higher accountability. people get hurt, so for me, listening to teacher's unions, leaderships say that the issue is not about teacher, when a kid fails, it's sort of like hearing a police commissioner say, it's not the cop's fault because someone got beat. i'm sorry, but you made the choice to go into this profession, and we're going to hold you to a higher level of accountability. it's not the only problem, but to say they're not part of the problem is disingenuous. >> david, you've managed to run a successful school, your graduation rates are through the roof. how have you managed to do that and focus on the teaching issue? >> i was a teacher for a number of years in a tough neighborhood. and i will tell you that the problem you have -- it's multipronged, of course we have bad teachers, the big reality is most of our teachers are smart,

they're well intentioned, but many of them are ineffective, and that's where the biggest part of the problem is. not horrible teachers, but the teachers who do try -- we're not properly training our teachers for the reality of the classroom we face today. >> this is an issue that faces everyone. everyone has a child in school or has gone to school. we went out into the community and got some questions from them. >> my name is marie, today we're seeing a lot of black children raising babies. how does that affect the value of education in our community? >> how do you all deal with the fact that the parents are younger and younger, many are going to school and having children in school, 15, 16 years after they got out of school. >> i think what we really have to think about is education is cumulative. if i'm a young parent and i had a negative experience, when i put my children in school, my perception of school is going to

be different. even if you had a negative experience we want you to understand, this is a space where you can work with your child and develop stronger connections. we often assume young parents aren't good parents. when we need to be providing greater skills for communicating. >> hundreds of parents come out and are actively involved in new york city. i think where it starts is at the very top, the leadership in the school. the same way -- others who are like me, who really deeply care. we say that our young people -- we have the highest expectations for you. you have to have the same level of expectation for the parents. when parents know that you're serious about this being a real partnership, and you will hold them accountable for that, it's amazing how parents will respond. they have to feel the wow from you, they have to feel a level of passion and excitement from

you as the leader in the school, and the environment that you create. you create a winning environment, parents will get involved. >> i think i've learned in the last couple weeks, the pieces i read. the way to get on everyone's not so nice list is to criticize parents or teachers. i'm about to do both right now. i find it fascinating that we will say to a kid, you can't drive a car until you're educated and have a license to do so, but we treat it as though everyone should become a parent. i'm not just talking about a class level. not everyone's meant to be a parent. and we have too start having conversations in our community about what it takes to be a great parent and preparing to do so before you become a parent. those two things, preparing teachers and parents is going to come a long way in helping -- >> most of us are not prepared to become parents. i know i was not. i don't know what course i could have taken that would have better prepared me. >> i'm not financially ready to

buck a patient. i have all the degrees, i'm not financially stable enough to take care of a child in the way a child deserves to be taken care of. >> the numbers -- >> we don't talk about that. >> most of us are not in a position to take care of kids. but we have to figure out how to create an environment that is nurturing for our children. >> when you have children, prepared or not, we still have to teach, and we have to stop creating excuses for patients and kids. they come from this neighborhood, that kind of socioeconomic background. at the end of the day, we have to teach them. >> that's the challenge in front of all of us. david banks, kelly goff, leroux lewis, thanks so much. it's been a pleasure having you on the show. up next an after-school program that helps innercity kids stay alive.

drugs, guns and gang related violence are plaguing many communities across the country. one woman on chicago's south side is fighting to keep kids off the block. she's our slice of life. >> in one of the most dangerous cities in the country, kids off the block is a safe haven for young people. it's a little known after school program geared to help youth escape gang violence. here they have access to computers, tutors and mentors, help cleanup the community, plus

provide a place to talk out their problems. in 2003, diane lattiker started kids off the block in her own neighborhood. >> right now we are on the far south side of chicago. we are in what people call the wild 100. >> that's because chicago averages 1,800 shootings per year. last year, chicago had the second highest number of murders, with 458. behind new york city with 471. >> a 13-year-old named robert freemen was shot 22 times two fwlokz here. we heard part of the shots coming out of the center. ten seconds, police, ambulance rolling down the block. everybody running, what's going on? >> the shooting had a

devastating impact on the kids in the community. >> it concerned me when i saw your faces. he was shot 22 times, and you all looked really concerned. >> that scared me. i'm not going to say i loved it, it scared me. >> i'm concerned for my nephew. >> that boy was 13, i got a nephew that's 12. >> in 2007, near the center, diane erected a shrine to memorialize the kids that died too soon. >> i was at home depot one day and i saw these stones for the yard. it looked like little head stones, i said i want to do something really like -- make the community go what? what's that? i'll shock the community, if you will. >> she purchased 30 stones that day, and began personalizes each one of them with names and ages. >> i started hearing about more young people being murdered, went to buy more stones, rebuilt it, made it bigger. and then families started

coming, my son was killed, my nephew was killed my daughter was killed. kept rebuilding and rebuilding. i rebuilt it six times. >> today the memorial has 175 stones, but she recently discovered she needs 166 more for victims who didn't make the newspapers. >> i don't know what we can do to stop it. it's out of control. it's out of control. >> unfortunately, diane knows kids off the block can't save everyone. >> i will say this. i wouldn't do anything different with my life. this is the most rewarding thing i've done in my life. we'll be right back.

woman: so here are the keys. congratulations! it's officially yours. i'm sure you'll have many happy years here. except for you. because you'll be gone three years from now. struck down by the same disease that got your father. so you won't be around for them. and sadly, it could have been detected early with a simple test. but you didn't have it. ok! who wan to check out the back yard? announcer: for a list of tests every man should have, go to ahrq.gov.

that wraps it up for us here at our world with black enterprise. to watch my full interview with john legend go to our world with black enterprise.com. don't forget to follow me on facebook and twitter. thanks for watching our world with black enterprise.