Spike Lee Urges More Black Men to Become Teachers

[Angela]

ATLANTA (AP) -- Filmmaker Spike Lee joined Education Secretary Arne Duncan in issuing a call Monday for more black men to become teachers, making their plea at the country's only all-male historically black college.

The two took part in a town hall meeting at Atlanta's private Morehouse College just a week after President Barack Obama urged more people nationwide to become teachers.

Duncan told an audience that more than 1 million educators are expected to retire in the coming decade and that federal officials are hoping to harness that opportunity to create a more diverse teaching work force, noting that less than 2 percent of the nation's 3 million teachers are black men.

"Everybody can't be a business major," Lee told the auditorium packed with male high school and college students. "We have to educate ourselves. We have to educate our young black men."

Lee, a Morehouse graduate, said he was influenced most -- outside of his own family -- by two of his Morehouse professors. Both educators attended Monday's gathering and were asked to stand up to be honored.

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