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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Arne Duncan on Monday: We need more black men in classrooms | Get Schooled

Arne Duncan on Monday: We need more black men in classrooms | Get Schooled

Arne Duncan on Monday: We need more black men in classrooms

Arne Duncan will be here Monday to talk to Morehouse students about teaching.

Arne Duncan will be here Monday to talk to Morehouse students about teaching.

Less than 2 percent of the nation’s teachers are black males.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, film director Spike Lee and Congressman John Lewis will try to change that Monday when they appeal to the men of Morehouse College to consider teaching as a career.

In a phone interview Friday, Duncan said the nation’s teacher workforce does not reflect the diversity of its student when only one in 50 teachers is a black male. “This is a national problem,” he said, “and one in which most schools of education have not shown leadership or foresight.”

So, Duncan has been traveling the nation to appeal to students of color “to consider coming back to the community and making a difference.”

Wouldn’t those students or any students, I asked Duncan, be more interested in coming to New