Charles Best Quotes
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I was a social studies teacher at a high school in the Bronx for five years.
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Public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org. Requests range from pencils for a poetry writing unit to violins for a school recital to microscope slides for a biology class.
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People on the front lines have the best ideas for how to improve things.
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We've heard people say that teachers have no business going rogue and trying to select their own books, technology, and classes - and citizens have no business deciding what is worthy. We believe in teachers. We believe in the wisdom of the crowd.
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One thing that gets missed a lot is that DonorsChoose is merely a place where teachers post wish lists. That doesn't do justice to the level of innovation that we see taking place on our site.
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Students can't dream big when classrooms lack books, microscopes, and robotics kits - or even paper, pencils, and paste.
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I think there are really are some public schools, incredibly successful public schools, that are inculcating a real educational ethic in their students.
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I created DonorsChoose by putting pencil to paper - literally - and sketching out each screen of the web site and how it would work. Then I paid a programmer from Poland $1,500 to turn my sketches and common-sense rules into a functioning website.
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DonorsChoose enables teachers not just to go public with learning needs in classrooms but also to unleash their imaginations about the best ideas to help students learn.
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We think there's nothing like sunlight to mobilize and energize citizens to demand change of their elected officials.
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No matter the circumstances, teachers show up each day ready to give their students every opportunity possible, and they never give up.
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I get my share of 'cold' requests via LinkedIn from people who are launching non-profit or for-profit ventures and who request a meeting to get my input or help. I wish I could say yes to all of them, but given limited bandwidth, I say yes to the subset who've written a compelling description of their work and who are underrepresented.
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DonorsChoose was conceived at a Bronx public high school where I taught social studies for five years. In the teachers' lunch room, my colleagues and I often lamented a problem that drained learning from students and creativity from teachers: a lack of funding for essential materials and for the activities that bring subject matter to life.
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I'm not tech savvy at all.
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An art project, a hands-on science experiment, or a special field trip can transcend textbooks and flash cards. No one knows this better than those teaching students with autism.
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We want to use our site to galvanize people to give but also to take important steps toward real change.
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Laptops are important, but before you spend a million dollars per school providing one laptop per child... won't you please spend $5,000 per school equipping every classroom with a document camera?
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America's best teachers are always looking for new ways to bring learning to life.
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My colleagues and I would spend a lot of our own money on copy paper and pencils, and often we couldn't get the resources that would excite our students about learning.
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I founded DonorsChoose.org because I care about learning, and I believe every student in our country deserves a great education.
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Arianna Huffington is one of the greatest champions of this idea - that anyone can make a difference.
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I'd love DonorsChoose.org to become a place where teachers can post innovative, out-of-the-box projects that they can't get funding for traditionally.
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People not only want to support public schools, but people warm to this idea of being a philanthropist, even if they might have only have $5 to spare.
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We aren't prescribing anything. We're not claiming to be the experts. We aren't advocating for or against any program. We are going to create a platform that says very explicitly what it is that teachers experience in their classrooms.