AASA President-Elect LaTonya Goffney was born into a hopeless situation, she shared with the crowd gathered Saturday for the National Conference on Education’s 3rd General Session at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn. She lived in a single-wide trailer, had no indoor plumbing and suffered abuse.
Despite all the challenges she faced as a young girl, however, she found plenty of hope at school. That’s where her teachers told her she was smart and capable. “And I believed it,” she said during her remarks from the stage prior to the final keynote address of the conference.
Goffney added: “It’s public education where I went from hopelessness to hopefulness.”
She now is in her 18th year as a school superintendent, having served in rural, mid-size and urban districts. She’s currently superintendent of the Aldine Independent School District in Houston, Texas.
Today’s schools and communities are facing plenty of challenges, she said. She charged the crowd gathered Saturday to leave the conference inspired and ready to take back hope to their districts, champion public education and continue creating choices and opportunities for their students.
“We’ve all been called to be merchants of hope, and we’re going to take that hope back to our districts,” Goffney said. “We’re going to make this world and public education a better place.”
Above her, on a giant screen, she shared a photo of her infant grandson, future Class of 2043.
“The world my grandson is going to have is going to be because of the work that you and I are doing today,” she said. “So we’ve got to be architects of that future so that we can create experiences for them, so they can be prepared for their future.”
(Sarah Lindenfeld Hall is a senior editor on Conference Daily Online and a freelance education writer in Raleigh, N.C.)