(dramatic orchestra music) - Bro, why'd they make this
like Hans Zimmer (beeps)? - Hey Hassan, we know you're
going to react to this video, so we wanna invite you to be in an episode of "Middle Ground." Maybe a one-on-one discussion
with someone like Ben Shapiro. So it'll be great if you can announce your participation here first and we can get Ben's attention. For now, enjoy the video. (mellow synth music) (air whooshing loudly) - It sounds like what you're saying is you wanna be able to
introduce all ways of life. - Yes.
- So would it be okay to include a book with a
man having a relationship with a 12 year old in that book? I know it's extreme.
- See, that's no- - [Shaun] Hold on, but just hear me out.
- No, 'cause now you're- - Hear me out.
- Equivocating gay people- - There's laws, dude.
- To pedophiles. - No, no, this is why I'm bringing it up is who establishes the boundary? - The law. (dramatic orchestra music) (mellow piano music) - [Ragini] Teachers have
their own political agendas. Step forward if you agree. (footfalls thud loudly) - I think it's important to recognize that individuals will
have political agendas. - Yeah.
- It's a natural thing and people should understand
the political views. I think where we need to differentiate it is whether a teacher should have a political
agenda in a classroom. - But is your idea of a political agenda like these teachers telling students this is who you should vote for. If you vote for these people it's wrong. If you vote for-
- Yes, or ridiculing- - These people it's right. - The beliefs that they may have for political or religious reasons and using their position of authority to mold the minds of everyone else. - When it comes to diversity
or these new sort of terms, I am not for certain types
of what, so-called diversity when it comes to these new
kind of topics and stuff. - Can you expand upon that? Like what do you think shouldn't be included?
- Like critical race theory or some of the gender ideologies. It's not diverse if you are the teacher, the person of authority in the classroom, and you are saying this is
how something should be. - Yeah, so I come from an
elementary perspective. I'm a first grade teacher. So the conversations we're having in class isn't about the socioeconomic
nature of the world. But you know, we do talk about just what it looks like
for different people in different communities. So when I talk about a political agenda, the agenda that I have in the classroom is to create an environment where folks are able to, you know, better understand from
wherever someone's coming from. - The problem with that, and
I understand the sentiment, as a teacher, if a child is sitting there and they happen to be
Black and you're saying, well, Black people such and such and such, I mean you are really, that's not okay.
- Yeah, I do have to stop you there 'cause that's not really said. It's not said Black people do this. - Well, it's just an example.
- It's not said Mexicans do this. Again, it's trying to understand
from multiple perspectives. That's not saying that every group aligns on the same thought. That's not saying every
group is a monolith. What it's saying is, even if
you disagree with somebody, or you come from a different tradition, or a different cultural background, those people's opinions
can still be valid. - [Ragini] Can the
disagreers step forward? - I'm gonna be honest, as a teacher, especially after COVID and all of that, I don't have time for political agenda. I'm here trying to catch
up with curriculum, pick up my readers that are, you know, two, three grade levels behind. I do not have time for that. I teach social emotional
skills and all of that, but I'm not here to kind of, you need to believe this,
this, this and that. No, if you're a good person, we're good. We're gravy, all good. You know what I mean? - But your definition, and sometimes this can happen
and it becomes political, is what is your definition
of a good person? Would you think that I'm a good person because I'm raising my kids to be with Judeo-Christian values and they live in a heterosexual
heteronormative home, where we talk about how divorce
is wrong, cheating is wrong? We have friends of the LBGT community, but we teach our children that
from a biblical perspective, that's not okay. Your definition of whether
or not they are good could be very different than my definition of whether or not they are good. - To kind of clarify in my classroom, if they're kind and they're
not bashing anybody, judging anybody, kind
of throwing out names, anything like that, they're good. It's not to say that topics like that don't come up in class. And I do open it up to discussion. I just keep it clear that
this is a safe space. We don't judge each other. We're not gonna bash each other. Understand you have your own experiences, but we're not gonna come in
with an agenda, you can say. And I feel like this idea of
parents and their teachers of their political biases and all of this is just all of this fear that is clouding their judgment clouding. - Except we have numerous, not just- - We have experiences. - Yeah, not just-
- Yeah, my own child, first week of school, what
pronouns you wanted to go by. I mean not what's your favorite subject, how can I help you succeed academically? - Who's to say that wasn't a part of the questions too, yo know? And understand that
question could stand out. - But why?
- So maybe you don't understand that you're teaching politics.
- But why? - Because-
- But that's not politics, that's just like basic respect. - I think that's beautiful.
- That's what you think. - True.
- But not to me. - That's beautiful.
- Not to me. - So I think your idea, that
that's basic respective, what is the framework of that? Because I think that many teachers are going through these trainings, and the trainings are
saying this is the framework of how we operate in the classroom. But where did that idea come from is what we're getting to?
- Because it's based off, its called a thing called data. - Did you do that in 2010?
- No, no, hold on. A lot of schools have
research and development and so the state also does, so in the state of
California, we do research. So at the end of the day, my job is not just to make
your kid to feel comfortable. I got 55 students, I gotta make 55 students feel comfortable. And so when your kid
comes home and tells you, well, mom, the teacher
said, "What's my pronouns?" Yeah, I did say, what's your pronoun, I also said, what's your favorite TV show, and what's your favorite food. I am a college professor now. I was previously a third,
fourth grade teacher. Teaching third and fourth
grade was horrible. Dealing with parents who
thought their child was special and should be treated a certain
way, it just wasn't doable. The constant complaining, the accusing people of doing things that are not going on in our classes, not being enough for their
child, it was just too much. When parents don't have the knowledge of what goes on inside of a school, I think it's important for those parents to go to the school, and we as educators, like
our parents to be involved. You know, again, I have too
many students to push an agenda. I just, I do my job,
what they pay me to do. (object thwacks softly) - [Ragini] Discussion about sexuality doesn't belong in schools. (footfalls thud loudly) - I had a sex ed class
when I was in third grade and it was quite simple. Boys go in this room,
girls go in this room, they play a little video
in a black and white TV. You know, you see the the
genitalia and you're like, oh, I got one of those. Cool, now we're figuring out what I am. The fear is these schools
have no boundaries. If they do the classroom thing where they wanna split kids up, how many genders are we gonna do this? We're gonna put boys, them and then girls. And then how many rooms do we
need to create for equality or are we really chasing equity? And I think parents now
are beginning to realize, we've gotta stop this and create
framework about sexuality. Especially in a hypersexualized culture. My kids don't need to know at six, seven and eight years old about different types of sexual acts. That's not appropriate. - People think that this
is just kind of happening. It's a one off. - It is in so many schools. where I live in Florida, there was a poster going around where kids could text anonymous strangers to get information about sex. And on this poster in
school, wanna get laid. - Wow.
- I mean this is, it's beyond and there is a push
for pleasure based sex. Pleasure for who? - My oldest is nine years
old, she's in third grade and she's been exposed to things and we do have conversations about it. But that's a conversation
that I should be having with my nine year old daughter. If a sixth grader or a fourth grader is gonna be prompted by a teacher, hey, what are your pronouns, as a parent, I should
have a heads up about that because they're not even
gonna understand the question. And so I think that the idea
that those conversations are started in the classroom, instead of in the home is a big problem. Yeah, I have a family member who first day of sixth grade was asked for her pronouns and she stood up and said
that as a person of faith she believed that God didn't make a mistake making her a girl. And so, therefore, she
identified as a she, her and she was sent to the principal's office and punished for that decision. Thankfully, we haven't
seen that broadly yet, but I think it's really damaging to take a shy, innocent, 11-year-old child and make them stand in
front of a classroom and determine something that they maybe haven't even put that much thought into. (object thwacks softly) - I like what you say Shaun,
about how you were emphasizing, you know, how a lot of parents today felt a goodness of the
way that sexual education was conducted in the past. So there is an agreement that sexuality should be talked about in schools. The disagreement is
whether it should just be purely heteronormative or if we include all aspects of sexuality. I don't think that we're
doing demonstrations to encourage children how to have sex, but this is something
that we are trying to, again, educate and make them aware that this kind of things happen. And while you grow up, you're
gonna have to experience somebody who's of this orientation. - Kids are naturally curious and I think that what
I'm hearing from you, is I understand where you're
maybe potentially coming from, but then where's the line
between that sex education and introducing them to porn? Because porn can be educational. I was a virgin when I got married and for years I was made fun of and heard, well, how are you
gonna know if you don't try it. We hear that a lot too. If you haven't tried to kiss a girl to see if you like it or not, then how do you really know
that you're not a lesbian? How do you really know
that you're not gay, if you've never slept with a guy? How do you really know that you wanna be in a monogamous relationship
if you don't sleep around? And when you start to introduce
those questions to children, specifically pre-pubescent ones, they're going to naturally be curious. And their emotional and
hormonal maturity is not there to be making those types of decisions that have lifelong impact. - Well you're right. And a lot of them are learning at home 'cause just like you guys are saying, they come home to tell you things. Well, guess what? Those same kids come to school and talk about what you're
telling them at home. You'll be surprised what
I hear from students when I do a what do you think. Well, let me tell you what
my mama and daddy did. And look, I don't have time. Your kid is not that important to me, not to be rude, I gotta like 300 students. Your kid is no more
important than the other 299. So I don't have time to sit up here and let me get you to think like me, I can't get my own 23
year old to think like me. At the end of the day
what needs to happen, and this is just my own personal take, parents need to start being parents, 'cause a lot of times the
teachers are the parents, they're parenting your kids
because absentee parenting. - I think that this conversation
is really interesting and I think we need to
step back and look at why we automatically assume that if we're telling our
children about lesbians, gay people, queer people, why do we immediately equivocate that to telling 'em about what sex is? - Yeah.
- That can just be something as simple as here is a book in this book, there are two dads, this book character has two dads. And kids, they can be inquisitive
and that's good, right. But also like they're gonna be
like, cool, there's two dads. - All these kids know that
there's a dad and a dad, and a mom and a mom, and the culture is teaching all of that. So what we've noticed is that
the curriculum in eighth grade and up is a lot deeper than that. It's more like-
- Interesting. - Here is how you can have sex
so you do not get pregnant. - Yeah.
- Illustration of anal sex. That is the stuff that we
are now reacting against. And that, sadly, is the
trust that's being broken between teachers and parents. - Yeah and I think we're
moving into a conversation about comprehensive sex ed. What I am talking about is
when I go into this classroom and I'm teaching kids, I'm not going to just teach kids material that is heteronormative. - Out of curiosity. It sounds like what you're saying is you want be able to
introduce all ways of life, like these are the people-
- Yeah. - That you will encounter
with with throughout life. - [Kayla] That is what I'm arguing, yes. - So would it be okay to include a book with a man having a
relationship with a 12 year old in that book? I know it's extreme.
- See that's, no. - [Shaun] Hold on but just hear me out-
- No, 'cause now you're equivocating-
- Hear me out. - Gay people-
- There's laws, dude. - To pedophiles.
- No, no, no I'm not. And no, that's okay. - That is not, not- - You're drawing a line
that I'm not drawing and the reason-
- And you're definitely crossing the line that should never be crossed.
- I agree, I agree it isn't, I agree and this is why I'm bringing it up is who establishes the boundary- - The law. - But what-
- Period. - The law.
- That's it. - The law is con-
- The law. - But the law that's been signed in in some-
- No. - No, no, no.
- Blue states- - I'm sorry, no, there's laws against, between adults having sex with children. Now if a student had two parents who happen to be of the same sex, I'm not gonna sit there and discount who they are in my class. I cannot do that. I signed a contract. - I would never ask anybody to
uplift or suppress any child. I want there to be
equality in the classrooms. What I am saying is that
there are factual instances where this is being taught in classrooms. Well, I pulled my children
out of public school because there are so many
instances of this happening. I am a parent, I'm looking
in the book bag every day. I'm checking in with homework. I am talking to the teachers and the principals, and I'm involved. But we didn't know that, you know, during class there were images
shown of literal sex acts or describing certain situations that were inappropriate
for young children. - We have a belief system at home and the children wanna
break the boundaries of that belief system naturally
because we're human beings. That's just what we do. And we are trying to confine
them to a set of beliefs to say this is what is right in our home. And we're seeing the schools get funding from a Planned Parenthood. They tried to pass a bill
to put medical facilities to offer abortions in high
schools here in California. And it all, it's gradual, right? It starts with, this is
a book that has two dads. This is a book with two moms. This is, and it's just a gradual curiosity that could leverage and
break away that child from the the root in the home. My education growing up
was fully public education. College is where I started
getting a curiosity for truth and education. And I think I'm so passionate about the education system today, because it is obviously broken. But how do we fix it? Many of these progressive
ideas in fixing it is just more empathy,
empathy, sympathy, safety. But in reality, I see
the public school system isn't actually accomplishing
the goal of what education is, which is teaching critical thinking, how to understand, how
to ask good questions, and then comprehend how to problem solve. (object thwacks softly) - [Ragini] Affirmative action
is racial discrimination. (footfalls thud loudly) - There was a high school down the street from where I live in Los Angeles that encouraged all the kids of color to apply for their school play. And only once all the kids of color received whatever positions they wanted, then the White kids could apply. That in my opinion is an
example of discrimination. The fact that we now have Harvard
has Black only kids dorms. That to me is segregation. - With affirmative action, we've seen with Harvard
lawsuits and other things, how it's backfiring, and
it's picking and choosing of which minorities can
and cannot have success. It was done to try to create or make up for the wrongs of our past. But I think it's really backfired. - Yeah, it's really, I mean, excluding those
excelling students in other races to fix the problems of
the past, like you said. But I think the past, there
were a lot of minorities that were excelling in doing really well. - Despite the foot of the government.
- Exactly. - Exactly.
- And like kudos to them. - Yes, yes.
- Yes. - Incredible strong human beings and we shouldn't have that discrimination in any way anymore. But unfortunately, it has
become a discrimination against other groups. - Yeah, it's racism, it is racism. If you are taking a group of people and judging them on their race and setting them aside, giving
them a special treatment, if you are uplifting a person or you are trying to suppress a person because of their race, that is racism. So we are supposed to believe that someone like Barack Obama's children are like struggling because they're Black? Like that's ridiculous. So I pulled my oldest daughter out of public school in Florida. We were having debates
about pulling down statues and changing names, and some
of the school board members, and some of the activist groups were saying that Black
children could not learn because of names on buildings. And that is completely asinine to me. It basically says that because we have a higher level of melanin, somehow our brains don't work. Saying every other kid
could walk into the building and get the education that they needed, but somehow not for you Black children. And I found that to be just disgusting and I did not want my children
to have any type of idea coming from authority figures who believed in such things like that. (object thwacks softly) - First of all, I would like to say that a affirmative action programs, the biggest beneficiary,
according to the data, and this has been government data, has been White women first and foremost. Second of all, I would never use Barack Obama's kids as
a barometer for anything 'cause they do have privilege, as well as Will Smith's kids. But if we talk about Laquan just down, Laquan Smith down the
street that nobody knows, there will be some
impediments based on his race. Yeah.
- Why? How do you know that? - Because people do tend
to look and see race. What you were talking
about is just racism. But when it's institutional
and structural, it does something totally different. And when the Black wealth gap is 100 years behind the White wealth gap in America, it'll take 100 years to catch up. - Why do you think that's
because of racism though? You take one thing and
say that is the cause for every person of color- That that-
- The data bears out. - What data? What data is saying that Black- - Science is-
- Black people are behind? Because there are many Black
people that aren't behind, that are doing much better
than other people, so. - No, you're absolutely right. And there are outliers in
every single community. There are very strong, you know, members of the Black community
that are very affluent. There are also a majority
that live in poverty. And if we see bunch of cities that are majority person of color, and we're trying to recognize
why have these places stayed at a very stable poverty line, that there are systemic reasons to why these communities are like that. How would you say that? - I would say probably because of policies that are in those cities. - That's racist policies. - No, no, hold on. We gotta define terms.
- But why- - When would you say
that Watts and Compton became the way that it is? Was it like that the '40s and '50s? - No, it's a growth because of the policies-
- No, no, no I'm asking you when-
- From redlining policies that were enabled from- - In California? - Yeah.
- Yeah, absolutely. California put in racist policies. I would never deny that. - All of these supposed
solutions are actually hurting. Wouldn't a better solution
be to teach our kids that we're all born in the image of God, we should all treat one another equally. And if you are or if you don't, God- - Okay, then all men
should be created equal with certain-
- And we're all- - Thank you, that part.
- And we're all equal, right. If you come from a poor neighborhood, whether you're Black, or Hispanic, or an immigrant from anywhere, obviously, you don't
have the same privileges- - By the way-
- That somebody who comes from a wealthy community, but that has nothing
to do with your color. I don't think that if you're
an impoverished Black kid or you're an impoverished White kid, one should receive a resource
and the other shouldn't. - I think it'd-
- Would you say that - Be ridiculous to say
- It's economic then, is the reason that
causes these disparities? - Economic, but I don't
think it's related to color. - But would you say if there's a majority of a particular group that lies underneath the poverty line in economic, that has race has
anything to do with that, is what you're saying?
- It could, it could. But it's just not blanket. You don't know. Why don't we look at the
families, the Black families, who have done those amazing
things in this country and study what they did to succeed instead of just focusing on, oh, well, Black people are behind and we don't even know what to do. Why don't we just go and look? Since you are a professor, wouldn't that be you go and
look at what has worked- - Well, I would never just go
to you and just look at you. I, again, and I'm sorry. It's just the reality of the data. And so what I show- - Data can be broken umpteen different ways.
- Then you are choosing your data.
- No, no it couldn't. - Yes it can. - No, actually, I just give the data. - You're a professor
and you're saying that- - That's why I give data-
- Data cannot be manipulated? - I give, I don't manipulate data. - This is why my kids do not
go to public school anymore. - I don't and I'm glad they don't. - I just think it's interesting. I'm thinking of like an
anecdotal story I have. Last year the school that I
taught at, deep East Oakland. I serve majority Black and Brown students. Over 70% of our families
under the poverty line. These are some of the
hardest working people I have ever seen in my life. They get up, they have two or three jobs, three or four children. - Because of, I would argue- - Because of their economic status, right? - No because of liberal policies, that is the government telling them that they can and cannot succeed. Because of how higher
property taxes are here. Because we do not have school choice where they can take their
dollars somewhere else. If you put those same families in redder districts in the country, like places in Florida,
and Texas, or Virginia where they have better
options for their family, you would definitely see them be able to succeed in different-
- And where Black and Brown children are still
underperforming in schools? - But coming from Florida,
the school that I was at, it's graded from like A to like D, F. When I started there, it was a C school. Very poor performing. And technically, sure,
they have school choice. They don't have state tests anymore, but they're still so badly performing. The community of it, Black, Brown, very little White students
in that community. But not to say that student of
color can't be more affluent, but I think it's ridiculous to kind of say that color doesn't play a part into disparities and just disadvantages. So in Florida a lot of
people that I had encountered weren't kind to others and sometimes I would have
coworkers call students, and using racist slurs
and things like that. And from my standpoint,
hearing something like that, it disgusted me. My coworkers very quickly were able to kind of distinguish me from the rest. Like if I was gonna come
to the teacher's lounge, more hush conversation. People wouldn't share
as much as they used to, just 'cause I would call
out behavior like that. (object thwacks softly) - [Ragini] Teachers with
guns make schools safer. (footfalls thud loudly) - [Shaun] You know what,
I'm gonna disagree. (Kenyon laughs loudly) - So I was really in between, I didn't really know how I
felt about this issue at first. But then I started looking at places that had armed their teachers. So I believe that model is good. It has to be voluntary. - Yes.
- So the teachers have to want to do it themselves. They have to be well trained. - Yes.
- They have to have background checks periodically. That has been successful. - If we're trusting teachers, which, in some cases, we
do, in some cases, we don't. But my mindset is that if
we're gonna trust teachers to mold our children's
minds and educate them, they're there for eight hours a day, we should also trust
and kind of enable them to protect themselves
and our kids physically. - I think by no means should we ever force a teacher to carry a gun. But if a teacher is willing
to take on the responsibility of learning how to
handle a weapon properly, I think that we should allow
them to do that for us. And it, frankly, would be
an incredible service to us. (object thwacks softly) - All right, so just to break it open, this conversation is so much more nuanced than to arm or not to arm. And if you want to save a school, you need to get parental engagement. Let's look at the mindset
of the individuals that are going into these
homes with firearms. Those individuals are not mentally okay, there's something wrong happening whether it's at school, in the house, whether it's, who knows, maybe it's something
they're consuming online. And I think that's the parents'
job to continue to engage to make sure that child is healthy. A lot of these kids as well
that are going into schools that are not mentally healthy, they're coming from
single parent households, they're coming, they're living
with their grandparents. There's something intrinsically with their identity that's broken. And I think that whether you
arm a school, or you don't, it's not gonna change
it if you don't address. - It's like a harsh- - I agree with you, the
people that are, you know, perpetrating these crimes and
these like mass casualties are messed up individuals. I would absolutely agree. Mass shootings are a
uniquely American problem. So if we try to understand
what's the root, why does America solely have that problem, I would say it's a gun culture problem. So if the idea is, you know, should we try to remove
aspects of gun culture that really pervade in our
society, should we do that? Or should we just increase
the amount of firearms we can have in every single space just so that way we're properly ready for a gun fight whenever it comes up? - I wanna clarify gun culture. Are you saying that there's like the shoot 'em up, bang
'em up, video games, are you saying the individuals- - No, I wouldn't say it's video games. I'd say institutions like the NRA that heavily impose, you know, you need to own, not just firearms, but as many firearms as you can. (air whooshing loudly) I personally would not like to be armed. I do not want to take lethal
action in the classroom and I want to make it a
safe, inclusive environment. Arming teachers is a response
measure to particular violence that goes on in our
schools here in America. And personally, I think
we should focus more towards solutions to prevent these occurrences from happening, rather than just implementing responses, implying that these actions will occur. - And I'm just gonna be honest with you, you don't want me to have a gun, because I had to go back to
therapy in the last few months. And so I agree with a lot of
what you guys were saying, what your plan was. But I would also say mental health. We gotta understand some of
these school shootings are done because people have snapped. - People have natural
biases and things like that and people could act on those biases, then they could be guns drawn and not a clear mind, you know. As a parent, how would you feel knowing that you don't know
which teachers have a gun and you've had bad experiences
with prior teachers? What if that teacher that
absolutely, you know, blown up-
- So my answer. - Kinda thing.
- My answer, my answer to your question
is I feel the same way about the guard in front
of my kid's school. I don't really know the guard, but he's gone through training and I presume that he
knows what he's doing. And frankly, I feel the same
way about a police officer. I don't know the police officer, but they've gone through training and they were willing to
take on that responsibility. And so I would apply the same logic. It's so interesting that you bring that up because it really ties back to why I feel like we need to be careful about how much responsibility
we're saddling teachers with teaching our kids values, right. On the one hand, the system is saying, trust our teachers, they
know better than you parents. We should be able to teach them what they need to know about sexuality. On the other hand, you guys are admitting that many teachers are not
really checked for mental issues. We don't really know what is
happening in these classrooms. We don't know-
- I'm not saying that teachers are not checked. We very frequently have like
professional development days where we got self care. So I wouldn't say many, by any means. And when I'm coming into the workplace, I'm not bringing in all my baggage, as to say, you know,
you go into your work, you're not like, oh, I'm so depressed, my kid's this, this, that. - So why, if there is a teacher who is willing to step forward and will go through the training, and will go through the screening, why not empower them to save our kids? I mean in Uvalde, if there was a teacher who could actually save those children, then maybe we would not
have seen so much death. - When we place teachers with
a firearm in the classroom, it takes the instance
of a violent occurrence from a possibility in the
minds of these children to an inevitability in the minds of these children.
- But the children don't know. It is a concealed and carry weapon that has gone through the process of the local sheriff's department, background check, training, checkups. - [Quisha] Yeah, no one knows. - Everything.
- But the teacher- - No one knows.
- And the police department. - I have a logistical question. - Yeah.
- Does this teacher have the gun on them? - Yes.
- You wouldn't know. - It is holstered on them? - At all times. - [Marissa] It's a concealed carry. - It should never be-
- So just to break down- - In a place of a child.
- What a concealed carry is. It's illegal to brandish-
- No, I know what a concealed carry is but- - I just wanna clarify. - My thing and why this
question sort of enrages me. Why are we asking teachers to carry guns? When did this become
an occupational hazard? When did we walk into
school and people were like, by the way, you could be shot today, so maybe you wanna have
your Glock strapped on you because who knows, this might
be your last day on Earth. That is ridiculous. If you 50 years ago were
to look at a teacher and be like, hey, do you
wanna hold this gun with you, you know, like you might need it. They're gonna scratch their
heads and look at you funny. This is opening up a
bigger conversation, right. But I think that even though
it is voluntary, right, we still need to have this conversation. Like it still needs to happen of why, even if a teacher was willing
to carry a gun to school, they are even having to be asked to do that in the first place. (object thwacks softly) - [Ragini] Teachers are not paid enough. (footfalls thud loudly) - Every day I wake up
and I hand to you guys the most precious thing in
my entire life, my children. I think that it's
important that our society will reflect how much we value you guys. I think that you should receive bonuses if you do a great job. If you're able to represent
all of us as Americans, both conservatives and liberals, and you're able to speak on our behalf and take care of our children, we should reward you for that. And you should feel rewarded for that. And so, I don't know
exactly what you make, but I think it is really important that we invest in you
and we pour into you. And when I see the entire budget that the state of California, for example, spends on education and I realize that a sliver fraction of it only goes to you guys, it breaks my heart and frankly, makes me so angry. I don't need more bureaucrats,
I need more good teachers. - I left the K though 12 and went to the community college and I do pretty well. So I'm gonna be clear with that. But also I have a master's. - So you're not oppressed, thank God. - So I have a master, but I had to work really
hard to get where I'm at. - Of course. - But I'm also in a doctoral program and you're right, I'm
paying you outta pocket too. Again, I had a student
the other day saying, I can't pay my electric bill. How much is your electric bill? I'll pay your electric bill. And so I put up students in hotels because they have nowhere to live. I have a student who
doesn't have a family. You know, he told me the other
day, I want, I need a dad. I said, I'll be your father, because it just broke my
heart that a 19-year-old is in this world alone,
doesn't have family. - Yeah, I would be
scared to like calculate how much I spent for my classroom. - Yes.
- Right? like all the materials, all
the things that I'm purchasing, all the things that I'm doing. And it's just interesting to think that we are always told
like teachers are heroes. They're teaching the youth of America. But also we're not gonna
give you enough money to survive comfortably. Like you're gonna struggle every day. There have been days when I go to work and I'm like, I'm not gonna
have money to put gas in my car. I guess we're gonna find out, right. And I know so many other teachers who are struggling to keep afloat. I can't even imagine having a, I can't even think about
having a family as a teacher. I think that growing up I was
not the strongest student. I didn't necessarily see the
point in what we were doing. And I think that, ultimately,
that felt like it was because education was something
that I had to get through, not necessarily something
that I was obtaining. But I think what really
pushed me to go into teaching was wanting to give kids a space where they didn't feel
the way I feel growing up. Where they felt like they had power to make choice in their education. And that their education could be powerful in aiding them to do
what they wanted to do. (object thwacks softly) (footfalls thud softly) (person speaking away from mic) - So I'm not a teacher, I dunno how much you guys make. And I'm not gonna use you as the example, I'm gonna use a friend of mine. She's been at a school
for a number of years, I wanna say it's six, seven, eight years. And she's become tenured. And through her tenureship, she's accumulated so much wealth, I'm appalled at how much she's making 'cause she teaches
Spanish to sixth graders and she's making over $150,000 a year. - Can I ask you a question? What kinda school does she work at? - Public school. - Interesting.
- Yeah. - And so for me- - I mean, how much experience
goes on with that too? - It must, I'm assuming. - Yeah.
- Because you've invested into your career, which
think everybody should. But for me I look at it as you're making $150,000 in nine months. - The prompt very clearly
was are teachers paid enough? - [Shaun] Yes. - And I mean we're not, I've had to work second
jobs doing DoorDash just 'cause I wasn't making enough. If you look at these
shoes, they are ripped. They are broken. From a teacher wishlist. I could not even buy these shoes myself. You know what I'm saying? - Sure.
- I don't make enough money. - So I wanted to clarify. This isn't an absolute, I'm not saying that every
teacher is paid enough. I have no idea what your salary is. I have no idea any of those details. I'm just recognizing that if a
teacher's getting nine months and their salary's in nine
months, they get a summer off. Most of society isn't given three months to just go on vacation.
- That's assuming they have three months. I'm an 11 month employee
for one whole month out of the year, I'm not paid anything. - Same.
- Nothing. I have to figure out my funds, save money that I don't have to try to supply for a
month, month and a half. I don't get supplementary income. Like that doesn't happen. (object thwacks softly) - [Ragini] Critical race
theory is anti-American. (footfalls thud softly) - Well, I'll go first. My daughter, same teacher, actually, who was asking about her pronouns, she said that she was gonna be introducing some race themed books. My daughter recorded this
conversation in class. So what proceeded to happen
is she started to talk to the children in their,
I guess, identity groups. Oh, as an African American child, how are you discriminated against, as an Asian child, she
went through all of, except White people. It became total chaos in the classroom. Like there was no education going on here. They were just literally
going at each other talking about how who was more oppressed. It's not a matter of if
something was racist, it's a matter of when something was racist or how the racist thing happened. So they automatically assume,
critical race theorists, that racism is embedded
into every single thing. How do you look a child, specifically a Black child, in the eye and tell them, I'm sorry for you, because
of your skin color, there's no hope for you
in the greatest country, literally for them,
because Black Americans are the most successful Black
people in the entire world. And then turn around and
look at a White child and say, sorry, you're responsible for the atrocities of 200 years ago. - All I have to add to
that is that in our home and with our faith, I teach my children that it is awful to make
someone feel hopeless or pitied. You're damning them to
a future of failure. - Yes.
- If you are telling them, oh, I pity you and I'm going
to do these things for you, instead of coming alongside
them and supporting them in doing something for themselves that pulls them out of that hopelessness. And I think that those are
two of the worst things that we can do as a broader society. - You know what I love about America? My mother immigrated from Morocco. She's a Jewish person. Everywhere around the world,
we're known as the Jew. In America, we're known as American. And I think there's something so powerful about empowering any
community to be American and to succeed based on your own merit. We don't look back into why we can't. We look into why we can. And so when my family taught
me, since I was a little girl, I can, I can, I can. I learned that I could. And that's why I think this country has empowered me so much. I wanna see the same thing
for kids of all colors in the United States. But if we're taught, if we're teaching them that
there is no hope for them and that people will always
look at them in a different way, then how are they gonna
hear the message of I can? My question for liberal teachers is do they think that it's
the right place for them to impose liberal ideas in classrooms knowing that they have many students who come from conservative families? And I find that many of the schools have become battle grounds
for those kinds of ideas. And when teachers are
bringing those issues to the classrooms, it's forcing families and conservative kids to
have to address these issues. And we believe that
they're simply too young to deal with those kinds of
complex matters at that age. (object thwacks softly) - Okay, so first of all, I think we need to define
what critical race theory is. Critical race theory is a theory that Derek Bell and Kimberle Crenshaw and a bunch of former Harvard
law students came up with where they theorize that
within certain American laws, racism is just embedded. And so I'm sorry for your experience 'cause you shouldn't
have to go through that. Nobody should have to go through that. I don't tell my son you can't do anything. I have told my son, you
have to work twice as hard. I have to tell my son, you're
a Black man in America, there's certain things
you need to do to survive. - I mean, first, I think the idea that we are teaching
children critical race theory in schools is ridiculous. As he pointed out, this is a high level like university level framework. You are not gonna walk into like Isabel's elementary
school fifth grade classroom and see Isabel telling these people about the legal structures. In my opinion, how I define
myself as an American, right, I define myself as someone
who is proud of my country. Someone who can look at the mistakes that my country has made in the past, and the things that are
keeping other people oppressed, and recognize that these
are still existing, and that we need to work
towards changing that. So I don't see how critical race theory could be anti-American, 'cause that's how I define American. And I think it's very nuanced because people define American in many different ways, right. - I actually don't completely disagree with your definition of it. I think that maybe you think it's systemic and I think it's the individual. But I think that even in nuanced ways, like the example that she gave, I've heard examples where my nieces have been segregated in the classroom at fourth and fifth grade. And like, well, did this happen to you? Do you have a two-parent home? Are your grandparents raising you? And like there's this line of victimhood and as a woman that has dealt with sexism, I do definitely teach my daughters, like as a girl in this country, it is going to be a different experience than your father had. But I don't think it's beneficial at all to kind of institute that victimhood in their long-term mentality. Because then you actually start
to see kids that are like, oh, well they're different than me, so therefore their life could
be better or worse than mine. And instead of engaging with
those people, they step away. - I don't believe that
there's a victimhood to it. I think it's just kind of amplifying that, hey, this is the truth,
this is what happened, and let's move forward with that. Having that knowledge to
be able to kind of navigate through life is better than just, oh, well I assume I'm the same as, you know, my White counterpart. Oh, why is she able to do this? Why does she have this
opportunity that I don't have? - But they're the same. - [Marissa] But she has that opportunity. - They are the same is what we're saying. - I think what the difference is, we're stating normative statements and you guys are claiming that we're presenting prescriptive claims. So the normative statement
that we're presenting is these events happened
in American history, these are the outcomes that
have led from those events. What you guys are saying is we're then adding prescriptive statements, which is, that's why you
should never really try because you'll never
make it in this country. - That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that if you negatively press a child with these thoughts,
that will be the outcome. Because that's how human beings work. This is a psychological fact. (object thwacks softly) - [Ragini] The quality of education is the government's job. - I believe it is the government's job. Look, our funding comes
through government. I mean, our schools are
government entities. So it is-
- Policies. - Policies are government,
everything's gov. I mean, if you're in public education, you're in government. That's, we're bureaucrats. That's literally what our job. So it is government's job. So yeah, I believe it is the job of the government because
schools are government. That's literally what they are. They're government institutions. - Yes, I completely agree. Government provides a
certain quality to education. Obviously, they haven't
provided those funds, they haven't provided those policies that are pro-teacher
or anything like that. So it really shows in our
education, in kids, in all around, we're just not at the quality
that other countries are at. - Yeah.
(object thwacks softly) (footfalls thud loudly) - I was going back and forth
because what a government is, you know, oftentimes is characterized as like this entity of like
a group of people up there deciding what goes on, where, no, like government is
just collective organization. Does a government have a role
in education, absolutely. I think that parents have
to play a role as well and you know, not only being involved with what their kid is learning in school, but also, you know, reinforcing
strong educational skills. And that doesn't happen unless
there is parent involvement. I know the kids that are
being worked on at home versus the kids that aren't. And it plays out in test scores. It plays out in their engagement in class. And it plays out in their behavior. - You have to remember that we're a representative government, that it's based on the people, right. And so these public school systems are waiting for the
parents to come in and say, this curriculum is not
what I wanna teach my kids. We, the taxpayers, control the curriculum. But the problem is we haven't
been engaging in that system because we've been so distracted and pulled away from the
education from our kids. - No, I would agree,
communities need to absolutely be more involved in their school boards and what's going on in education. And unfortunately, we don't have that. And oftentimes, a lot of
politicians, albeit Republicans, that are trying to cut
a lot of social programs and a lot of social investment, as well as corporate democrats who want to cut a lot
of social investment, both of those, you know,
we see areas of corruption within our education system. - Well, and let's be clear on what we're talking about government is. So when we talk about on a
local level, it is government. That's literally what government is. When your kid goes into the school, they're going into a
government institution. So I think when we are talking, we're not talking about
parents not being involved. I want you involved. Heck, please be involved. So I think our issue, when we
were talking about government, we're not talking about excluding parents. We're talking about it is government's job to make this entity, which is
public education, function. It has to. If government's not
involved, you have no money. - So you guys teach in government
schools, public schools, essentially you're teaching
a diverse student body. You have conservatives, you have liberals. How can you better represent
us, half of this country? It's sadly causing us to
lose faith in you guys. We wanna support you guys, we wanna send our kids to your
schools and your classrooms. - And I think that when we talk
about all these differences, you know, how do we sort of represent both of these sides, right? How do we bring these people together? I think it's also really
important to remember that, historically, this
curriculum is one sided in favor of conservative views, in favor of supporting White students, not students of color, right. And so I think that we
really, as a country, need to take a look at
our education system. I think we can all agree that there needs to be a lot of
change in the system, right. And look at how we can build a system that represents, reflects, validates the experiences and
identities of everybody. - Wonderful.
- Beautiful. (all clapping loudly) That was good, girl. (mellow serene music)
