Second chances were invented for kids like Keith Glass. Third, fourth, and fifth chances too.

Glass started high school at South Atlanta with ambitions of being a rapper. He invested in a set of gold grills. As for college, “All I heard was that it was an option and you didn’t have to go,” he said.

If he showed up for class, he was more inclined to crack jokes and entertain his classmates than take notes. His grades were so bad he was assigned to summer school every year.

This weekend, Glass will graduate from Morehouse College. This summer, he expects to start work as a teacher, his transformation testimony to a young man’s ability to reinvent himself — and to the power of teachers to change lives.