Research has shown that students benefit from being taught by those with similar life experiences. As part of his Young Men’s Initiative, Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced NYC Men Teach, a program designed to increase the number of male teachers of color in the city’s public school system. According to the NYC website, the YMI was founded in 2011 “to address the increasing economic and social disparities faced by black and Latino young men.” It is estimated that by 2020 a majority of U.S. children will be youth of color. NYC Men Teach hopes to address this changing diversity in its city’s classrooms by adding an additional 1,000 men…