Samuel D. Rocha

In the fall of 2010, Stephen Webb challenged me to a footrace at Wabash College. I accepted. We lined up on a sidewalk crack. Before the signal came, Webb bolted off. As I ran to pass him, he pushed me into the road. He tried to grab my shirt to stop me from passing him again. He laughed with . . . . Continue Reading »

At the time of my high school graduation, I embodied minority educational empowerment. I was a poor, Mexican-American boy, a first-generation college student; itinerant and bright, raised in the Catholic Church, full of pious ideas and wet dreams and, thanks to the philanthropy of Bill and Melinda Gates, enrolled at a devout Catholic college to study the great books, philosophy, and all that jazz. I was even invited to pray at a LULAC banquet, as an exemplar to the Latin@ community… . Continue Reading »

What if your child died at the age of 8 or 10? What would her eulogy be about? Perfect school attendance? What wonderful grades she got? How well-behaved she was in school? No. It would be about her smile, her love, the way she laughed. Sadly, many children who are simply prepared for adulthood”just as adults who merely prepare for retirement”find the time and space of their lives monopolized by what is not most important… . Continue Reading »

Thursday night was my first chance to watch the Republican National Convention. I won’t offer another tired commentary about it”with this one exception: a reaction to, and reflection on, Jeb Bush’s speech on schooling and school choice. By definition, authentic choice cannot exist within a compulsory system… . Continue Reading »