For immediate release

San Antonio, Texas - January 8, 2011

Remarks of Michael Soto, Member of the State Board of Education in District 3, after he was administered the Oath of Office by Justice Rose Vela, Thirteenth Court of Appeals.

I stand here entirely humbled by the kind presence of so many and such varied and distinguished guests—devoted educators, active and engaged parents, past and present and future elected officials, community leaders all—and by the generosity of your support throughout the campaign season. I am glad to leave that season behind and to embrace the important work of supporting Texas students and Texas schools. It’s time to move beyond politics.

For that reason I am extraordinarily grateful to Justice Rose Vela for officiating today’s ceremony. You see, in Spanish she is my prima política—my cousin-in-law. She may be a Republican and I may be a Democrat, but she’s family. In fact, I’ve known her husband, Filemón Jr. and his mom Blanca Sánchez Vela for almost as long as I can remember. There are just some things that transcend mere party labels—family and friendships are two such things.

It is my pleasure to introduce my family. [Introductions]

I hope you agree with me that this is a very special place, and I am grateful to Ms. Pollock, the Hawthorne Academy principal, and Mr. Schmidt, the vice principal, for their kind hospitality—not just today, but often. I have the great privilege of setting foot on this campus many times each week as I drop off Alejo, join him for lunch in the cafeteria, or stop by this library to check out a book or, in the past, sit in on chess club meetings. I cannot imagine a more potent or lasting source of inspiration than seeing the faces of excited students and committed faculty and staff members. Hawthorne Academy will make reaching decisions on the State Board easy for me: All I have to do is ask some very simple questions: How is this decision going to support the teachers and other staff here? More important, how is this going to help kids succeed in school, get them ready to take on the challenges of college and a lifelong career? How will this decision inspire a love of learning?

Speaking of learning: Alejo tells me that his second grade class is studying the mythology of ancient Greece, which fills me with delight. Nathanial Hawthorne, this school’s namesake, provided a modern rendering of ancient Greek myths in his children’s book, Tanglewood Tales (1853). Asked how he might overcome the violence lurking in stories about Circe, who transfigured her victims into animals, or about the dreaded Minotaur, half-man and half-bull, asked how he might make these grim subjects suitable for children, Hawthorne responded that the culture of ancient Greece imparted a magical innocence to the otherwise forbidding tales. And Hawthorne has this to say about the boys and girls for whom his book is written: “Children are now the only representatives of the men and women of that happy era; and therefore it is that we must raise the intellect and fancy to the level of childhood, in order to recreate the original myths.”

We think of Nathanial Hawthorne as preoccupied with the uncanny and dark depths of the human imagination, with the ghoulish side of belief. But these words about boys and girls reveal a lighter side, one touched by a powerful faith. Not faith in the religious sense, not faith in absolutes, but a faith in uncertainty, a willingness to reconcile intellect and fancy and to locate in the space between evidence of infinite possibility.

What a radical idea: That our best days lie ahead of us if we are willing to learn from children. That we owe it to ourselves to provide our children with the best education possible and to give them opportunities that we can scarcely fathom. A radical and quintessentially American idea.

I ask you to embrace that idea with me and to work hard by doing whatever is necessary to make this possible for Hawthorne Academy and the 8,500 other Texas public school campuses. Let’s show our faith in the kids with us here and in the five million other kids enrolled in Texas public schools.

Thank you for standing with me today. I am humbled by the opportunity to walk with you in the days to come.

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