When I opened Mott Hall Bridges Academy in 2010, my goal was simple: open a school to close a prison.
在2010年我开办了莫特馆桥学院，我的目标很简单：创办一所学校，以关闭一所监狱。
Now to some, this was an audacious goal, because our school is located in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn
一些人可能会认为，这是个大胆的目标，原因在于我们的学校位于布鲁克林的布朗斯维尔地区
one of the most underserved and violent neighborhoods in all of New York City.
在纽约市所有城市中暴力频发缺少治理最严重的城区之一。
Like many urban schools with high poverty rates, we face numerous challenges,
和许多高贫困率的城区学校一样，我们面临着众多挑战，
like finding teachers who can empathize with the complexities of a disadvantaged community,
比如寻找那些能对弱势群体的复杂情况感同身受的老师，
lack of funding for technology, low parental involvement and neighborhood gangs that recruit children as early as fourth grade.
缺乏技术资金支持，还缺少家长参与度，甚至周边的帮派不时会招募年仅四年级的孩子。
So here I was, the founding principal of a middle school that was a district public school, and I only had 45 kids to start.
所以我在这里创办了一所地区公立中学，创立之初只有45个孩子。
Thirty percent of them had special needs. Eighty-six percent of them were below grade level in English and in math.
其中三成有特殊需求。86%的孩子在英语和数学方面落后平均水平。
And 100 percent were living below the poverty level.
并且他们的生活水平全都处于贫困线之下。
If our children are not in our classrooms, how will they learn?
如果我们的孩子不在我们的课堂，他们如何学习？
And if they're not learning, where would they end up?
如果他们不学习，他们将何去何从？
