00:05:58.540If you had, like I have, just precious American documents and books and everything else, do you go, oh, man, you saved my children and not the books?
00:06:33.080And it is, we lost someone to suicide.
00:06:38.140I have had two immediate family members deal with suicide in the last eight months.
00:06:48.600We had the police at my door in the middle of the night because of one attempted suicide in my immediate family in the last 12 months.
00:06:58.340And I just lost my brother-in-law last week to suicide.
00:07:02.540There is nothing, I mean, I honestly am having a harder and harder time sitting here every day doing this because the only thing I should be doing are things that are eternal in nature and support my family.
00:07:24.840I urge you to start thinking about this and your life in this way.
00:07:32.280If it doesn't have eternal consequences, if it's not eternal in its nature, why are you doing it?
00:07:43.840Now, let me explain why I'm talking to you about this.
00:44:07.020They also have, you know, a staff that can help you look at everything to make sure that it is exactly right.
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00:44:19.060You don't need somebody that is, you know, going to charge you a lot of money.
00:44:22.160They do it for free, and they're really, really good.
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00:44:45.720Shade shutters, interior shutters, even outdoor shades, rules and restrictions do apply.
00:47:11.820I went into Twitter jail because I was critical of the Black Lives Matter founder that bought a $1.4 million home in a neighborhood with 1.4% black population.
00:47:25.580And, you know, she's making her living and building her brand off of saying that white supremacy has total control over the destiny of black people and that all white people are basically have privilege and they're racist.
00:47:42.320And so it just seems odd to me that a woman with those beliefs would live in a community where there's only 1.4% black people.
00:51:55.900I've actually had the experience of a close family member, a family member that I helped raise, a cousin, that as a child came to Kansas City with some other cousins of mine to visit me, blah, blah, blah.
00:52:11.920I stood in the gap because he had no relationship with his dad.
00:52:15.180But in 2012, he was killed by police, sheriffs, two sheriff's officers in Indianapolis.
00:52:23.220My family has been through the stereotypical Black Lives Matter experience.
00:52:31.960And that's why I'm in disagreement with Black Lives Matter, because they've turned it into a hustle for money rather than seeking any type of solutions.
00:52:41.500Police brutality has actually, just across the board, has actually decreased in America over the last 30 or 40 years.
00:52:53.520If we have an issue with police brutality, and I will agree that we do, it's not a racial problem.
00:53:01.520Trust me, if you do the research, and because of what happened to my family member in 2012,
00:53:07.640I've been all the way down the police brutality rabbit hole, and you can find incredible incidences that involve white police officers assassinating white people.
00:53:21.560And I say that without a bit of exaggeration.
00:53:24.720I believe the young man's name is Robert Shaver.
00:53:26.420Well, you've already blown your, hang on, you've already blown your credibility with the wire thing.
00:53:30.220So now you're expecting, now you're expecting me to believe this isn't an overreach.
00:55:13.680But, but my number one point is if the media were being accurate, they would say Dante Wright shot and killed after resisting arrest because that the traffic stop had nothing to do with him being shot.
00:56:02.000He was told that he had to, you know, check in.
00:56:04.840He had to stay away from drugs and guns and everything else.
00:56:08.420Well, when they stopped him, he knew he was going to jail and it wasn't about a traffic stop.
00:56:15.080He was going to jail because he not only had to face trying to choke this woman, but also skipping out a bail and doing all of the things that he was told he had to, or not doing all the things he was told he had to do to be in compliance.
00:56:32.320What does this have to do with, this guy was just trying not to go to jail.
00:56:38.540There are media reports, Glenn, that, and this is just what drives me crazy because I honestly believe the truth will set you free.
00:56:47.240The truth is the anecdote for a lot of the chaos, but there are stories out there that, oh, he was pulled over for an air freshener and he was shot over a traffic violation.
00:56:58.820Again, he was pulled over for expired plates.
00:57:40.640And so I got pulled over a lot and I just killed the policeman with kindness.
00:57:47.740And you would be amazed how many tickets I've avoided and how much respect they've given me back because of the respect I give them.
00:57:56.660I've even, as a kid, when I was, uh, I think a junior or a senior in college, I'm home in Indianapolis visiting my stepmother and stepsister and stepbrother who live in the hood.
00:58:11.380And so at night I got pulled over for an expired license plate and I had a suspended driver's license for a unpaid traffic ticket.
00:58:26.000And in Indianapolis at that time, this is 1989, 1990, sometime around there, that was an automatic arrest.
01:00:00.340But only because I didn't think of it until just now.
01:00:02.580But in the end, I had to choose between eating my own shoe leather or trying one of the Bilt Bars that my wife was always saying, oh, these are protein bars.
01:02:07.140Glenn, I got to say that, you know, when I came here to Dallas in like November around Thanksgiving time in 2020,
01:02:16.360and when you gave me the tour of your historical facility next to the studios, it sparked just a deeper understanding of American history.
01:02:28.520And, you know, I've been interested in history, but when you showed me Thomas Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, it sparked something in me.
01:02:40.120And so I've been, since then, I've been down a rabbit hole of American history and just trying to understand.
01:02:47.760And it's strengthened my belief that if you really understand what made America great, it wasn't us.
01:04:42.520And it will cut the time of your lawn mowing in half.
01:04:46.800So if you have a not so industrial sized lawn, don't worry about it.
01:04:51.380Check out, check out whatever the people say is the best mower.
01:04:55.080And then, after that, go to HustlerTurf.com and find a Hustler dealer and test drive that one and see if you don't see the Hustler difference.
01:30:29.600But for the most part, the authority for curriculum decisions lies with individual school districts.
01:30:36.000And that's actually where parents and community members have a lot of power to enact change and advocate for something better for their students.
01:30:45.720So I saw something today that I know you can talk about and take me through this.
01:30:50.420I saw a pathway to equitable math instruction.
01:30:54.000First, can you, can you please help other people understand the difference between equity, equity and equality?
01:31:01.280They're, they're being used as they're interchangeable and they are not.
01:31:06.340And maybe I'm wrong, but I think whenever I see we're looking for equity, I think that's a first sign of real trouble.
01:31:13.260Um, Glenn, I'm really glad you brought that up and probably the most straightforward way to understand the difference between equality and equity is that equality, which is foundational to our country, equal opportunity for all means that everybody has equal access to everything.
01:31:32.780And that's the way it should be equitable doesn't mean equal access, it means equal outcomes, which actually flies in the face of everything that we as teachers know about best educational practices, which is to grow every student to his or her individual potential.
01:31:51.780Um, what's interesting is that I looked up the national education association code of conduct.
01:31:59.280That's the largest teacher union in the country for public school teachers and in their code of conduct, it tells teachers to believe in the belief and worth and dignity.
01:32:09.780Of every individual human being that to me speaks to equality, equal access, not equity, identical outcome.
01:32:20.940Which is impossible, by the way, uh, unless your standard is so incredibly low.
01:32:26.520Um, all right, so let me get back to a pathway to equitable math instruction.
01:32:31.460The Gates foundation has funded this math resource training that equates white supremacy culture, uh, with mathematics and the way of teaching math, mathematics of getting on the right answer and showing your work, et cetera, et cetera.
01:32:49.540This sounds like common core gone really, really bad.
01:32:55.780I am so I am super glad you brought this up because our focus as an organization started with ethnic studies, which brought in critical race theory into the curriculum.
01:33:09.700And we know because our priority is the safety and well-being of our students, how damaging critical race theory can be in the, in the context of an ethnic studies course or a history course.
01:33:20.880What's shocking is that critical race theory is now making its way into other academic areas, including math.
01:33:27.920And that's what we're seeing in the pathway to equitable math resource that, as you said, labels, quote, focus on the right answer and showing your work in only one way as white supremacy culture.
01:33:40.440What's most disappointing about this document, and there are many disappointing things about this document, is that there are actually really good math practices recommended for teachers.
01:33:52.440But this kind of characterization is discriminatory, it's racist, and it alienates teachers so that they won't even get to the good math practices that are recommended in this document.
01:34:04.840Well, I mean, I'm sorry, it's just, again, common sense, if we can't say you've got to get the right answer, and, you know, just show me how you got to an answer, and, you know, you were right in many ways, bridges will collapse, airplanes will fall out of the sky, spaceships, you know, rockets will blow up on the launch pad.
01:34:29.420You, there is nothing but the right answer in mathematics, you have to have the right answer, and to teach that math is somehow racist when you're focusing on the right answer is literally deadly down the line.
01:35:20.820We teachers look forward to this document, this framework coming out, so that we can become informed about best practices in math teaching, and so that we have a plethora of resources that we can use to enrich our math students.
01:35:34.680When this resource is included in that document, it means that California would then be blessing white supremacist culture, labeling math practices as white supremacist culture, and blessing that ideology for California, and we all know that where California goes in curriculum, the rest of the country follows.
01:35:58.680So, this is the number one focus of our advocacy efforts right now is to get this resource pulled from the California math framework.
01:36:07.420So, help people understand, you know, let me take a quick break, and then when we come back, help people understand how this is not about California.
01:36:17.860You know, you just said, as California goes, so goes the rest of the country, that is really important because that's an understanding of, you know, the capitalist system.
01:36:27.940If California and Texas both sign on, all of our textbooks are going to be written for those huge states, and everybody else just gets, you know, the leftovers.
01:36:38.720They have to go kind of on that path, otherwise it's going to cost you a lot of money to develop something else differently.
01:36:47.100But that's not what we're even talking about.
01:37:30.520But these companies are working against us now.
01:37:34.760And they're working against fundamental principles.
01:37:39.380And I just don't want any of my money going to them.
01:37:42.820For instance, if you are right now doing business with Verizon, they are taking some of the money that they get from you, which is their right.
01:38:16.940You'd be able to say, Verizon, do you hear us now?
01:38:22.160We have got to go into business with people, not just because, look, if it sucked, I wouldn't be advertising it.
01:38:29.580If it wasn't up to par, if it was substandard, I would at least tell you that in every commercial, but I don't think I'd even do the commercial if it was subpar.
01:38:42.140Right now, Patriot Mobile is going to give you the same great service, better customer service, in my opinion, a lower price, and you're standing with a company that is spending some of their money on defending the First Amendment and the Second Amendment.
01:38:58.880They believe in the same things that you believe in.
01:40:15.560And what I'm for is for what's best for our students.
01:40:20.680That is the code of conduct that all teachers need to track to.
01:40:24.960So, regardless of whether something is characterized as liberal, conservative, progressive, reactionary, we just advocate for what's best for our students and our teachers in the classroom.
01:40:39.100I've never seen anything like, I'm sorry, but, I mean, that's how everybody is cast now, that they dismiss you because, oh, that's just a conservative, you know, Coke Foundation kind of stuff.
01:40:54.240Explain to the average American that has heard about this, has kids in school, maybe they're not back yet, and think that this isn't going to affect them.
01:41:05.120It's really a California problem, and they can trust their school district.
01:41:08.940I've never seen anything spread this fast and so deep.
01:41:19.040So, that's actually the key point right there, is it's all about parents.
01:41:26.140So, I have many examples about how this is playing out in every state across the country, even in states where you wouldn't necessarily expect this ideology to pop up.
01:41:37.440But we are already seeing success at the school district level because regardless of what's happening in each state, and, in fact, to your point earlier about California and Texas, there has been a bill introduced into the Texas legislature that would ban critical race theory from K-12 schools.
01:41:56.460So, that's a step in the right direction.
01:41:57.920But regardless of what happens at the state level, local school districts and school boards have the authority to institute their own graduation requirements and to approve or develop their own curricula.
01:42:10.040So, parents and community members actually have a lot of power to make sure that this doesn't infiltrate their students' classroom.
01:42:17.300However, I talk to a lot of people and they say, you know, I go talk about it and the school or the teachers or the board of education, they're hostile sometimes at best, but they ridicule, they won't give an answer, they roll their eyes, they do all of the stuff that petulant teenagers do.
01:42:39.040So, I mean, is it something that you can even get an answer on and trust that answer if you go to your trusted teacher?
01:42:53.720I just had a call yesterday with a group of parents from Southern California who, at the beginning of the school year, were in their Zoom back-to-school night.
01:43:04.120And to their surprise, saw a slide from their new district diversity and inclusion coordinator saying that it's time to, quote, burst the bubble on racism in their district.
01:43:17.200This was a district that's very diverse where, as far as they knew, there had been no incidence of racism.
01:43:23.260And this group of parents, with help, advocated starting at the bottom of the food chain all the way up to the top.
01:43:32.440The call this week was that the program has been shut down, the DEI coordinator has been dismissed, and this has been extracted from their school curriculum.
01:43:42.240So, it takes persistence, it takes building allies.
01:43:46.080But the most important thing that we believe is that when parents know what critical race theory ideology is and the harms that it does to their children, they do not want this for their students.
01:43:59.040They will speak up and they will advocate.
01:44:01.500And on top of that, school districts do not want what happened in California around the model curriculum, which is hundreds of thousands of public comment, lots of wasted time and money,
01:44:13.220and massive embarrassment in the media.
01:46:28.720She's put together this group to help people inside and outside of the educational system.
01:46:37.080I mean, we're all kind of in it if you have a child there.
01:46:39.860And parents to be able to work together to stop the madness and start to teach things like, you know, merit matters, facts matter, and stop saying I just I'm so blown away by what I read this morning on Santa Clara County denouncing the United States.
01:47:08.720This is now in their curriculum that the United States is a parasitic system based on the invasion of white male settlers.
01:47:18.860Teachers were instructed to, and I'm quoting, cash in on kids' inherent empathy in order to train students to, still quoting, become activist intellectuals.
01:47:29.780And it will start in Santa Clara as early as the first grade.
01:47:34.660By the time your kids are in fifth grade, you've lost them.
01:48:30.600Help the people like me, whose house is on fire already.
01:48:36.620And I just, I don't have time to be the leader of a group or anything else.
01:48:44.340Help us get out of that position and into the beginning, at least, of being really involved and making a difference.
01:48:52.780Absolutely, and I love your metaphor of the house is on fire, because no one's going to put out a house on fire by themselves, but you can do it with a group.
01:49:05.680One of the most important ways for parents and community members and teachers and school board members to start advocacy on this is to talk about it.
01:49:14.920We've found that so many parents know that something's wrong, but can't necessarily articulate it.
01:49:22.780With what their students are learning, but once they start talking about it, they realize they're not alone.
01:49:30.060Many parents are unaware, but once they become aware of what this ideology is and what their students are learning, they want to take action, and it's better to do it with allies than it is to do it by yourself.
01:49:41.640So, number one is get informed and talk about it, build alliances, and then start talking to teachers, principals, school board members.
01:49:52.740The key is transparency, both on the school board level and in the classroom, and I'm happy to give specific examples for each.
01:50:03.640Okay, so on the school board adoption level, school boards have the authority to institute their own graduation requirements and to adopt curriculum.
01:50:12.040So, transparency on the school board curriculum adoption process is absolutely key, and this means curriculum, textbooks, resources.
01:50:22.000In an example that just happened in California last month, the school board, and this sounds like an outstanding school board, was given the curriculum, the textbooks, and the resources ahead of time, did their diligence, found a resource that said, and I'm quoting,
01:50:38.620white children, white children are racist before they walk, but they identified this, were able to then send it back to the curriculum developers to have this removed.
01:50:50.480So, transparency was key in that process, and it's highly likely that the curriculum developers weren't even aware that this resource was saying these discriminatory and racist things, but then they were able to have it removed.
01:51:02.860So, one key to advocate for, one key to advocate for, is transparency on the school board adoption level.
01:51:09.000The next place to advocate for transparency is in the classroom.
01:51:13.020Teachers have the flexibility, and they should have the flexibility, to bring in resources that bring the learning to life, that engage students, that get students excited about learning.
01:51:23.140But teachers must be transparent about the resources they're learning.
01:51:27.260Just down the road from me, and I'm in Santa Clara County, which you've been talking about, seven- and eight-year-old third graders were made to identify their dominant attributes, to highlight them, and then were told at the same time that these dominant attributes have them oppressing other groups.
01:51:49.920Now, parents became aware, they advocated for this to get out of the classroom, and it was pulled from the school.
01:51:58.200So, transparency is key across the board, and that's what parents should be advocating for.
01:52:23.720This comes from that Santa Clara County School Board.
01:52:29.980They had a panel that was working with the teachers, and they said, teachers have to be careful.
01:52:36.800Panelists suggested that the local educators hide this way of teaching from administrators and families.
01:52:44.020Quote, district guidelines and expectations are barriers, said one panelist, quoting, we have to be extra careful about what is being said, since we can't just say something controversial now that we're in people's homes because of remote learning.
01:53:00.180Teachers must acknowledge that they, too, can become oppressors in the classroom.
01:53:04.560Inherently, it is the oppressor who sets the rules.
01:53:08.060So, teachers must recognize their own privilege and their own bias in order to fully align themselves with the oppressed and work towards dismantling all of those systems of oppression.
01:53:19.000So, they're saying here that you need to hide this from parents.
01:53:35.980And this is exactly, and this is exactly why transparency is key, and the parent group that's advocating against this teacher training, and what's going on in Santa Clara County is this teacher training.
01:53:53.140If this is a program that's being mandated or offered and paid for by our county office of education, there needs to be transparency around it.
01:54:03.300We want to know what our teachers are being told to teach.
01:54:07.280We want to know, and we deserve to know, what kind of curriculum is going on in the classroom.
01:54:11.660It's very hard for a school district or a county board of education to say, we disagree with transparency.
01:54:19.140As my husband likes to say, people who have nothing to hide, hide nothing.
01:54:23.940And it's very hard for a district to come out and say that we disagree with transparency because the impression they give is that they're hiding something.
01:54:31.880And that's what we're advocating for in Santa Clara County.
01:55:04.380Um, sometimes advocacy is easier than others.
01:55:07.540And sometimes all it takes is bringing awareness of this to the administration.
01:55:12.500Um, in another, in another meeting I had with, uh, a local school board member, um, the school board member insisted that there was no critical race theory happening in her district.
01:55:24.640Um, yet we were able to show that this curriculum had critical race theory and this lesson had critical race theory and she was unaware.
01:55:33.500Um, but once she became aware, she pulled it from the school.
01:55:36.520So how do we find that if you're an average person, how do you find that?
01:55:42.060Because this is what my school is saying.
01:55:44.160Oh, no, no, we don't get involved in any of that, but I am fairly confident, um, because I know the teachers, et cetera, et cetera.
01:55:53.980But I'm, I'm not positive, I'm not positive and I, and not that they would be hiding it from me, but they may not know.
01:56:27.760Um, in one, uh, very disturbing example in Illinois, um, a book called Not My Idea was introduced into a kindergarten classroom.
01:56:39.500Um, the one, uh, particularly disturbing page in the book has an image of a devil with a contract that white people would sign in order to maintain their privilege.
01:56:55.560In another page in the book, see, in another page in this book, the only words on the page are, quote, whiteness is a bad idea.
01:57:07.920Now, the reason that we know about this is that parents were aware of what was happening in the classroom and were able to bring it to the school's attention and get some, uh, and, and get more, uh, awareness around it.
01:57:21.600And again, the key is awareness school districts do not want to be embarrassed school districts do not want to spend the time and money on lawsuits, which are now starting to pop up around critical race theory in school.
01:57:36.940The first federal lawsuit around critical race theory, uh, in, in education was filed in Nevada last, last December, um, when a biracial high school senior was made to deconstruct his privilege in his, uh, class.
01:57:55.740And I'm quoting his parent here to reveal his oppressive nature.
01:58:00.080And that's now in federal court school districts do not want that parents need to stay aware and bring this to their attention.
01:58:07.940Lori, I so appreciate everything that you do.
01:58:10.820Um, your website is educators for Q E.com.
01:58:16.160The number four educators for Q E.com.
01:58:20.580You can also follow, uh, Lori on Twitter at teacher Myers, M E Y E R S.
01:58:27.600Um, I would love to have you back and, and, and, and Lori, maybe we can get our producers to talk to you.
01:58:33.580Maybe we do a, an online zoom, uh, uh, kind of a council for parents where you can help us assemble some of the real people that really know each of these things and try to help people who are starting at ground zero.
01:59:03.420And, um, I just want to let parents know that not only are they not alone, but there are many resources out there for parents who want to begin the advocacy process.
01:59:13.060A couple of key resources are fair for all.org.
01:59:17.660That is the website for the foundation against intolerance and racism, which has resources for parents, for advocacy in their school districts.
01:59:31.020Can I get you on tomorrow with just a list of those things?
01:59:34.660I'm doing a special tonight on this and people are going to watch and go, okay, what do I do about it?
01:59:39.720Can you come on tomorrow with a list of those, those things?
01:59:42.720And then we can maybe talk some more about having a, you know, having a, an online course or an online evening, uh, to be able to help people.
02:00:27.400Uh, it can actually, if take it too far, can replace your actual identity.
02:00:32.920You become about pain and, and the things that you've lost in life.
02:00:37.200You don't want to be that you can get your life back and may, I know you've probably tried everything, but would you please just try relief factor?
02:00:46.720I want you to call, um, and, and get some relief factor.