News Stories
From Child to Educator
Jesse Nathaniel Miller is 28 years old. Twenty-two years ago, he posed for a photograph that has graced the covers of several Committee for Children brochures over the ensuing years. This past fall, Jesse started his first teaching position, at Taos Charter School in New Mexico, working with seventh and eighth graders.
At the beginning of the school year, he was told that in addition to teaching humanities and social studies, he'd also be teaching SECOND STEP lessons. The school's SECOND STEP coordinator asked him if he'd ever heard of Committee for Children, since he was from Seattle. Jesse's reply was, "See that kid on the brochure? That's me."
Coincidentally, we chose that same week to call Jesse to see what the boy from the photograph was up to twenty-some years later, and to hear his thoughts on social and emotional learning, then and now.
Jesse's response: "If you had asked me at age 4 or 12 or 17, I'd have said those skills were ridiculous. All I was thinking about was myself. But looking back, I see that my whole life has been a response to the world, and my response has been fueled by and is based on a foundation of those communication skills I learned long before I knew what they were, in programs like 'SECOND STEP'."
"I think that having started learning these skills really young, long before puberty, before violence was anything more than calling someone a name in the sandbox, I was able to learn a skill set before I needed it…And I think kids who don't learn these skills early on are at a serious disadvantage."
"Not only do I now teach the Second Step curriculum in my class, but I'm a firm believer in nonviolent communication. I believe that if I can instill life skills in my students, these are skills that are going to serve them throughout their lives."
"I believe that my role is to be a gardener. As an educator, my goal is to grow good humans. To grow moral people, honest people, people who don't just say good things but who do good things, who respond to injustice…who won't stand idly by."
We at Committee for Children recall the mischievous little boy whose photograph we took beside a picket fence those many years ago. We could not be more inspired by the man he has become.