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Mayor Menino Addresses J-Term Class

Menino Former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino spoke candidly to students in Lecturer Richard Weissbourd’s January-term class this week about education, his 20-year tenure as mayor, and his passion for children.

“Education is the most important thing we do but we are not doing it the right way,” Menino said.

During the discussion in Weissbourd’s Developing Effective School and Community Interventions for At-Risk Children course, Menino shared his opinion that the biggest challenge facing education is changing the focus from teachers or schools needing money to what’s going on at home with students and their families.

“Where are the support systems,” he said, noting that there was far too much emphasis being placed on “numbers” and not “people.” “We’ve got to start thinking about it [the issue] as a person and how do we help that person succeed.”

The longest serving mayor for the city of Boston, Menino was invited by Weissbourd to share his wisdom. "I wanted my students to see school reform and interventions for kids from the vantage point of the mayor – what levers he can pull, what roadblocks get in his way, the political considerations he faces,” Weissbourd said. “The mayor cares deeply about Boston's kids."

“I learned more about what was happening in the city though the schools and those kids,” Menino said. “You won’t believe what they will tell you.”

His lengthy tenure as mayor was not one without regrets though. He admitted to unfinished business, particularly his wish to have done more with afterschool programs, preschool programming, and changing school hours throughout the city.

Following the question and answer session, Menino, along with Cambridge Superintendent Jeff Young, listened to student’s present their final projects for the course, which included designing interventions for literacy and engaging immigrant parents in schools to name a few.

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