News: Interview
Carlos Santana
On Recruiting Minority Teachers

Scorching the musical landscape with his Grammy-winning sound, guitar legend Carlos Santana fires up people of color to teach.

Do you love music?" asks Carlos Santana in his new 30-second television spot for NEA. "Do you love art, books, science? We all love something. Whatever you love, think about teaching it."

Hotter than hot, Carlos Santana's quintuple-platinum CD "Supernatural" is a diverse blending of Latin-rock riffs, Afro-Cuban rhythms, world beat rap, and mainstream pop vocals. It's a musical lesson he hopes will play out in classrooms all across the country as his NEA public service announcement, now airing coast to coast, helps attract Hispanics, African-Americans, and other talented minorities to teach.

Days before embarking on his Tour 2000 through Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States, Santana spoke with NEA Today's Michelle Y. Green.

Q: Tell us what teachers have meant in your life.
One teacher in particular really made a difference in my young life and in what I ended up doing. Mr. Knudsen was special to me because he knew something I didn't know about myself.

I moved to the United States from Tijuana, Mexico when I was 13. For me it was like entering into Disneyland. Mr. Knudsen had taken the time to look at the grades I had prior to coming to the United States.They were pathetic. But he believed in me. He told me I had a great imagination and a "great eye" for art. He also told me that he had heard from the grapevine that I was a pretty good musician.

The next day our school went on a field trip to an art museum in San Francisco. That's when he told me that in the real world, there was no room for fifty-fifty, meaning I had to give 100 percent to become an artist or a musician, to follow my dreams. When he told me that, I started crying. I had never had anyone care about me as a person. He had passion for me an as individual. He wasn't painting everyone with the same brush.

Q: You're helping NEA recruit people of color to become teachers. Why is that important?
I have a personal passion about education. And I think a truly great teacher has to have a great heart--a capacity for passion and compassion.

All teachers need the ability to truly impact young people's minds to the point where they would never allow themselves to be placed in a situation where they feel they are a lesser person, or a loser, and that's where teachers of color, in particular, can make a difference.

They can reach the kids who are being told in life that they're not good enough because of the color of their skin, the clothes they can afford, or because they speak a different language. Often, teachers of color can be valuable role models and support systems for those kids because they've been there, they know what it feels like to be in their shoes. It's important that when that kid looks up from his or her desk, no matter what color, that kid sees someone who looks like them, someone who understands where they're coming from.

Q: How about what you do in your own work. Can music contribute to building a better society?
I believe it's important to do something you love. We all have a part to play in making this a better world, whether it's uniting people through music, which is what I try to do, being good parents, or working in our communities.

We also need to give back from whatever success we're blessed to have. Success isn't about being top on the charts or having a lot of money. It's about being good at whatever you do and finding a way to help other people along the way. That's a very important message to give to our kids, especially today.

Q: You're a "crossover" musician, uniting all different kinds of people. What lesson does that hold for teachers in a multicultural classroom?
It took a lot of things coming together for the "Supernatural" CD to become a hit. It started with a personal vision I had, but that vision grew and evolved as other people joined me and began to see the same thing.

The wonderful musicians I was blessed to work with came from everywhere. Our musical styles were all over the map. But it all came down to grace and synchronicity.

That's how it should be in the classroom, students and teachers of all different backgrounds learning how to change the planet for the better. And there's no better place to learn about harmony than in the classroom. There's so much to learn on each person alone.

Teachers can help change the world, like a wonderful teacher, Mr. Knudsen, changed mine. What you learn from a teacher can change your life.

Q: What programs does your Milagro Foundation support?
Milagro means miracle. My wife Deborah and I wanted a way to help children live healthy lives that are enriched in every way possible. And we especially wanted to strengthen arts education, to enhance the quality of young lives in the same way music and art have enhanced mine. Milagro, which we started in 1998, supports organizations that are doing wonderful things like creating band programs in the schools to providing musical instruments to low-income families and educational programs for at-risk kids.

Resources

• The Carlos Santana public service announcement is a joint effort of NEA and the California Teachers Association. To see the Carlos Santana/NEA public service announcement, just visit the NEA Web site at www.nea.org

• New from NEA: The National Directory of Successful Strategies for the Recruitment and Retention of Minority Teachers
  Individual orders are free of charge to NEA members. Contact mwilliams@nea.org, or call 202/822-7927.

• The Milagro Foundation supports educational efforts to help children and youth live healthy, literate, and culturally enriched lives. For more: write P.O. Box 9125, San Rafael, CA 94912 or visit www.santana.com/milagro/

• For more on Carlos Santana, visit www.santana.com