Read Bruce Chizen's speech from Pioneers & Purpose 2008

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Thank you  .

Thank you very much.

This is truly a great honor. I am very humbled by it. And I am glad that my wife Gail can be here this evening, to share the experience with me.
Getting this award means a great deal to me, but what has even greater meaning, is the commitment that all of you are making to public education.
The educators who join us this evening have been doing their jobs, often against tremendous odds. They toil for the satisfaction of teaching, the joy they get when they see a student’s eyes light up.

The parents who join us this evening are here because they’re working to make our schools better.

And the business leaders who join us this evening – they’re here because they understand that without a thriving public education system, they won’t be able to recruit, hire and retain the best and the brightest.

And without all of you, our community cannot succeed, because we won’t have the next generation of leaders.

However, being here tonight and supporting the work of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation isn’t enough. All of us have to do more.

We must be willing to be even more involved.

As teachers, we must be open to exploring innovative ways of teaching – especially in the math and science subjects, so vital to Silicon Valley. And be open to measurement so that parents and administrators can reward excellence in the classroom.

As administrators, we must be open to new ideas, parental scrutiny and the understanding that we are all in this battle together.

As parents, we must become more involved in our children’s education, meeting with teachers, and teaching our kids that they learn more by being curious and asking questions.
As employers, we must open our doors to the schools and create programs where employees can become teachers for a day, to impart their knowledge and their experiences on our youth. And we must continue to contribute financially to make up for a poorly funded system.
And as taxpayers, we must eliminate the knee jerk negative reaction to tax proposals that would improve school curricula, infrastructure or raise teacher salaries.

By being more involved, we can make a difference!

You’ve heard this before and I’m going to tell you again, that our public education system is the foundation of the strength and success of Silicon Valley. And, cracks in that foundation, whether caused by classroom under performance,   crumbling infrastructure or ongoing budget issues, endanger that strength and success. Because – and this puts it very simply – with an education, anything is possible. 

I needn’t look far for an example to prove this.

I am a product of public education. I was fortunate to have teachers who understood that teaching is a passion, not a profession. I went to public schools in Brooklyn, NY. And my higher education was at Brooklyn College, part of the City University system.  I strongly believe in public schools. And for that reason Gail and I chose to send our kids to public schools.

My parents were first generation Americans and had my grandfather lived longer, his son – my father would have gone to college. And so, my grandfather’s dream became my father’s dream – that I would go to college.

Unlike many other CEOs here in Silicon Valley, I didn’t go to Stanford, MIT or Harvard. I don’t have an MBA, I don’t have a PhD.  I was the product of a city college system that was like an Ivy League unto itself; where the children of immigrants who barely spoke English could learn, get a degree and go on to lead some of this nation’s leading companies, some of its largest employers.

Working summers in my father’s small TV and appliance store, I never thought that one day I would go on to be the CEO of a large, successful, public company; that would change the way we communicate and do business throughout the world.

I did it with a strong education in public schools and a strong education at home – learning values from my parents about right and wrong, and understanding the value of hard work.
As the Franklin McKinley Education Foundation, has grown into the San Jose Education Foundation, and now as the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, we have an opportunity to extend the innovative approaches to learning it pioneered.

There is an old saying, “knowledge is power.” It is always amazing for me to see how a little knowledge can spark the fire in a child that begins a lifetime of learning. I’ve seen it in our schools and I’ve seen it in museums, where one small exhibit can cause a child’s eyes to light up and kick start that child’s imagination and the desire to learn more.

The United Negro College Fund has a great tagline. I know you’ve heard it, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” So, let’s not waste any of our children’s minds. As the philosopher Peter Block wrote, “We must act as if our schools are ours to create, our learning is ours to define, and the leadership we seek, is ours to become.”

So, I view this evening and this award as a beginning – for me and for all of us – to roll up our sleeves, get to work and make our public schools the envy of the world. It won’t be easy and it won’t be cheap, but with all of us working together, we can make it happen.
Thank you.