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SALT LAKE CITY — A longtime advocate for improving education for ethnic minority students offered parents some simple advice Saturday for helping their children succeed.
Read, read, read. Write, write, write.
"Notice I didn't say anything about mathematics," said Manuel Escamilla. "If you learn to read and write, math is going to come, science is going to come."
Escamilla, director of the Bueno Equity Assistance Center in Colorado, was the keynote speaker at the Equity in Action Conference at the University of Utah. The center is funded by the U.S. Department of Education to help public schools promote equal education opportunities for minorities.
Notice I didn't say anything about mathematics. If you learn to read and write, math is going to come, science is going to come.
–Manuel Escamilla
The event brought together parents, teachers, administrators and community activists to discuss educational achievement gaps. Topics included how the education can meet the needs of a growing minority population and how to prepare students for college and careers.
Speaking on the topic "Parents: Changing the State of Utah and United States," Escamilla addressed the important role families play in a child's education. He delivered the speech alternating seemlessly between Spanish and English.
"Nobody should tell you you are not a good parent … Being a father was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life," said the father of two.
Escamilla told parents to be involved in the children's education, even to the point of being busybodies. He admonished them to track six points — knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation and creativity.
Doing one's best, he said, doesn't necessarily meaning getting A's in school. "They're best is that they're going to learn and they're going to learn because they're capable of that."
Working hard, even in impoverished circumstances, will lead to success, he said.
"Poverty does not take our intellect. Poverty does not take our work ethic," he said. "This is why a lot people are identified as hard workers because their work ethic is important to all of us."
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