A resume is a fine way to document professional accomplishments, from academic degrees to job titles. A resume falls short, though, when it comes to issues of challenge, perseverance and accountability, the curve balls that life can throw at us. A resume can summarize a career, but it cannot tell much about a person’s character.
John B. King, Jr., the Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), has an extraordinary resume. A Harvard graduate who earned the James Madison Memorial Fellowship, King also holds a Masters and Doctorate in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a JD from Yale Law School. He co-founded the Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Boston, served as managing director of Uncommon Schools, and later as Commissioner of Education for the State of New York. King was Secretary of Education under President Obama, and then CEO and President of the Education Trust, all before leading SUNY in 2022.
What makes Chancellor King’s story truly impressive are not the titles, but his journey to nationally known educational leader. He has written a fascinating memoir, Teacher By Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives that tells his story. It highlights what King sees as the turning points in his life and the people who helped him make good decisions. Without that guidance, especially by his teachers, King believes that he could have wound up dead or incarcerated. As much as Teacher By Teacher is autobiographical, King is consistently focused on those that helped him. That makes for a powerful message, one that has to resonate with anyone involved with or interested in education. Moreover, that message has driven the primary goal of King’s life: “to create more spaces and places where educators could save students’ lives the way my teachers had saved mine.”
King had more than a fair share of hardships as a child. Stated plainly, tremendous trauma marked his early years. His mother died when he was eight years old. He begged to go to school the day that she passed away, for school was a place of sanctuary for him and his mother. King’s father, who was older than his mother and had significant health issues, was a distant parent. He died when King was twelve. King’s childhood and adolescence were far from stable. With Black and Puerto Rican heritage, King experienced both the benefits and dangers of growing up in Brooklyn and securing an authentic identity. His teachers were absolutely essential to his growth and health. Fourth grade teacher Mr. Osterweil saw him, and his fellow students, as young people with agency, ideas and important things to say and do. This is a recurring theme in King’s history. For him, school was mostly a site of structure, fairness, mutual respect and opportunity. School was his safe space.
However, not all of King’s time in schools was positive. He wrestled with indifference from teachers and administrators, stereotyping, racism and many other challenges as he bounced from school to school to college. Phillips Andover did not at all turn out well for King, who was expelled his junior year. Even institutions with the best reputation are not the best for all students.
We meet King’s friends, his extended family, and learn of the many ways that he had to navigate through tricky terrain and choices. Teacher by Teacher is particularly strong on all the important things that accompany formal education, all of the lessons that take place along side or outside of a syllabus. He understands how meaningful interactions can happen in academic environments and how the people who inhabit those environments can make meaning. One of the remarkable things about King’s journey is that consistently, when he had the time and interest, his academic performance was outstanding. King must have been a truly memorable student. He simply worked and worked some more. The results were invariably exceptional.
King’s most difficult job? He is unequivocal: his first year of teaching. As a student teacher at Beacon High School in New York City, King struggled to connect with students, to find an authentic way to teach while understanding what his students wanted to do. King was mentored and he took notes very well.
Inspirational and encouraging, Teacher By Teacher is powerful reminder of the innumerable hurdles that so many students face, from pre-K all the way through higher education. The system, and society, is not necessarily kind or fair. It is a well-written, accessible book. You do not need to be a teacher or educator to appreciate King’s story.
Importantly, though, if one reflects on the power that schools can have on lives, as King does in Teacher By Teacher, the consequences can be profound. More than a job or career, being an educator can be a calling that transforms lives. King’s book and life teach us, intentionally and by example, that becoming an educator is a moral action. Teacher By Teacher is a written reminder of the tremendous responsibilities and opportunities that make education so essential for students and so gratifying for educators.
David Potash