Speaker 1: The reason July and August were established as the break
Speaker 1: in the school year was not because of any academic test,
Speaker 1: not because it would improve the children's ability to learn. No,
Speaker 1: was so they could work on the farm. That's why
Speaker 1: John D. Rockefeller designed the school the year to make
Speaker 1: it possible for them to work on the farm without
Speaker 1: any major distraction in the school year. July and August
Speaker 1: work on that farm.
Speaker 2: John D.
Speaker 1: Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie had more to do with the
Speaker 1: curriculum that your kids and my kids take than any
Speaker 1: teacher you and I deal with today, the superintendent of
Speaker 1: our school district, the Department of Education, which I thought
Speaker 1: was decimated. Didn't they get rid of the Department of Education?
Speaker 1: Why does that still exist? I thought we were promised
Speaker 1: that that would go, and that would be a good
Speaker 1: thing to go, because because it'd be possible, sorry, be
Speaker 1: possible for you and I to imagine, the Department of
Speaker 1: Education has been there one hundred years, a great tradition,
Speaker 1: a lot of history. No, the Department of Education in
Speaker 1: the United States of America was created by Jimmy Carter
Speaker 1: as a way to bribe the Union, as a way
Speaker 1: to control the situation so that there would be funds available.
Speaker 1: There wasn't going to be the need for a strike
Speaker 1: was and whatever it was, it was a gift to
Speaker 1: the union, the teachers' union. He created the Department of Education.
Speaker 1: That's why it exists because up until then it was
Speaker 1: done almost the way it should be, which is by
Speaker 1: each school district, each community setting up the school systems
Speaker 1: the way they wanted. However, please consider the fact that
Speaker 1: the way the school was structured, the curriculum was the
Speaker 1: same when you were in school and I was in
Speaker 1: school as it is today. I am shocked appalled that
Speaker 1: when most parents walk into a classroom today they say
Speaker 1: the following, Oh, it's just like it was when we
Speaker 1: were here. It should be nothing like the way it
Speaker 1: was when we were here. It should be nothing, should
Speaker 1: bear no resemblance. Were iPhones in the phone? Were iPhones
Speaker 1: in the phone? Were iPhones in the classroom when you
Speaker 1: were a kid? No? In fact, do you know what
Speaker 1: the biggest problem is today? When they take away iPhones
Speaker 1: and they take away phones and they make the kids
Speaker 1: turn in their phones before they go into the classroom,
Speaker 1: you know what the biggest problem is? They don't know
Speaker 1: how to tell time. The only way they've ever known
Speaker 1: to tell time is the digital read out on their phone.
Speaker 1: They look up at an analog clock. They have no
Speaker 1: idea what that says. The dumbest thing I hear talk
Speaker 1: show hosts and hosts on the radio say, is well,
Speaker 1: it's at the bottom of the l at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour. They have no idea what you're talking
Speaker 1: about when we have younger listeners. You don't have younger
Speaker 1: listeners because you're not even talking to them. You keep
Speaker 1: saying the top of the hour, at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the hour. They have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Get it. When a school district takes away your kid's phone,
Speaker 1: they are stealing because that is not that kid's phone.
Speaker 1: They're under eighteen. You gave them the phone. They may
Speaker 1: carry it all day, they may say it's my phone,
Speaker 1: they may play roadblocks minecraft on it endlessly, but it's
Speaker 1: not their phone. You handed it to them, You gave
Speaker 1: it to them. It's in your name. The bill is
Speaker 1: in your name. You're paying the bill. You gave it
Speaker 1: to your child for whatever reason. They do not have
Speaker 1: the authority to take away your phone. That's what they've done.
Speaker 1: You've asked this small person to carry it around for
Speaker 1: you all day. That's what you've done. And you may
Speaker 1: have safety reasons for it, social reasons for it. But
Speaker 1: in many cases, special needs kids, special challenge kids need
Speaker 1: that phone to stay calm. They needed to deal with
Speaker 1: anxiety attacks, ADHD, a variety of issues that that phone
Speaker 1: solves for them. Knowing they can be in touch with
Speaker 1: mom or dad at any given time, they need that phone. Wow,
Speaker 1: you know it's a big distraction. No, you know it's
Speaker 1: a big distraction. The big distraction is that in most schools,
Speaker 1: in most classrooms, they're dealing with a curriculum that was
Speaker 1: created one hundred and twenty five years ago to create automatons,
Speaker 1: to create people who would obey, who would be obedient,
Speaker 1: come into the school the nasty bell rings. Stand in
Speaker 1: a straight line. Don't speak. If you speak, you're going
Speaker 1: to go to the office later. That would be called
Speaker 1: the warden's office. Stand in a straight line. You go
Speaker 1: to eat lunch at an assigned time, You eat lunch
Speaker 1: in an assigned place. You eat from a prescribed menu
Speaker 1: in the cafeteria unless you bring your own. Never ideal,
Speaker 1: but there it is. It's the same as a prison,
Speaker 1: and it is a prison. Worse than that, it's a
Speaker 1: prison of ideas. Part of the public school curriculum created
Speaker 1: by John D. Rockefeller, part of the public school curriculum
Speaker 1: created by Andrew Carnegie, says, do not question, memorize. Our
Speaker 1: whole system is set up on memorization, not on intellectual pursuit,
Speaker 1: not on challenge the question, not on how do we
Speaker 1: get to that conclusion? How does this thinking take place?
Speaker 1: We don't teach kids to think, We teach them to memorize. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a good factory worker. That's a good factory worker.
Speaker 1: Show up, they obey. Often, they wear a uniform, don't
Speaker 1: wear anything that isn't okay. You can't wear what you
Speaker 1: want to public school. You can't wear what you want
Speaker 1: to the factory. It's all in doctrination to working task
Speaker 1: wrote jobs, assembly line, wrote jobs, workers, not thinkers. Workers.
Speaker 1: Private schools usually don't do that. Private schools are very different.
Speaker 1: They teach kids how to think for themselves, challenge authority,
Speaker 1: challenge the idea, test the assumptions. The socratic method of
Speaker 1: teaching is what happens in the private schools, but not
Speaker 1: in the public schools. The worst thing I did, I'll
Speaker 1: admit it to you. The worst thing I did is
Speaker 1: I have an autistic kid. I have a kid with
Speaker 1: a praxia, and we thought that in her public school
Speaker 1: that her special needs were being met, had an Individual
Speaker 1: Education Plan and IEP. We had an IEP in place.
Speaker 1: We reviewed it several times a year, We met with
Speaker 1: her teachers, reviewed it several times a year, when over
Speaker 1: the curriculum, saw what extra support she was being given,
Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera, and we assumed good intention. Boy
Speaker 1: was iron idiot? Boy was I an idiot? The first
Speaker 1: thing to know about an IEP is you can challenge everything.
Speaker 1: And when they say that's the most we can do
Speaker 1: for your kid, that is not actually the legal answer.
Speaker 1: When they say this is the support we can offer,
Speaker 1: this is all we can offer. No, No, that's not
Speaker 1: the legal answer. In an IEP. The correct answer is
Speaker 1: this is what the kid needs, and you parent can
Speaker 1: expect that it be met. Whether they think they have
Speaker 1: the well, we can't do that. We don't have the
Speaker 1: ability to teach. That doesn't matter. By law, they have
Speaker 1: to teach it. By law. They have to make those accommodations.
Speaker 1: Those accommodations aren't based on their resources. Those accommodations are
Speaker 1: based on the needs of the child, and it is
Speaker 1: the law that the that the school system has to
Speaker 1: provide it, and if they can't provide it, they have
Speaker 1: to fund it. That's right. They have to provide the
Speaker 1: money to get the education that that child needs. That's
Speaker 1: the law. It's not based on what options they have
Speaker 1: to install in the car. And you must not be
Speaker 1: reasonable because that child. You're the only advocate that that
Speaker 1: kid gets and the only chance that you and I
Speaker 1: have to get that kid the education she deserves. Where
Speaker 1: it eight hundred eight four eight nine two two two
Speaker 1: eight hundred eighty four eight nine two two two. I
Speaker 1: assume good and tens on the part of any school
Speaker 1: district I've worked with. I assume good intentions. What I
Speaker 1: have found is that rather than making accommodations, rather than
Speaker 1: saying we can't do this, and therefore, here's how we're
Speaker 1: going to accommodate them, what I have found is they
Speaker 1: say we can't do this, and it stops there. Most
Speaker 1: parents accept it. Oh, they can't do anything about that.
Speaker 1: They don't have that special needs teacher, they don't have
Speaker 1: that classroom. No, no, no, Here's what I learned my
Speaker 1: kid has a praxia severe speech delay, but it also
Speaker 1: involves her hearing, and sounds come into her head much faster, harder,
Speaker 1: and louder than they come into yours and mine. That's
Speaker 1: what I learned about her. And sure enough, she wears
Speaker 1: earphones all the time. When she walked through the school,
Speaker 1: the hallways of the school, the earphones helped a lot. Okay,
Speaker 1: then she was in music class playing the clarinet. This
Speaker 1: was the dumbest idea ever in history. She can't play
Speaker 1: the clarinet because she can't process those sounds. Those are random, scary,
Speaker 1: super loud, super soft sounds. Imagine being in a small
Speaker 1: room with fifth graders learning to play the clarinet. Fifteen
Speaker 1: fifth graders in a small room learning to play the clarinet.
Speaker 1: Let's just see that. Let's just see that in our minds.
Speaker 1: You right now, at this age, with your good hearing.
Speaker 1: Now you're in a classroom with fifteen fifth graders learning
Speaker 1: to play the clarinet. And you could get up and leave.
Speaker 1: But the kid can't get up and leave. The kids
Speaker 1: stuck in that room. When we realized that the reason
Speaker 1: that she was avoiding school was to avoid that room,
Speaker 1: I sat her down one day and said, why don't
Speaker 1: you want to go to school? Because it was day
Speaker 1: after day she didn't want to go to school. Why
Speaker 1: don't you want to go to school? And finally I
Speaker 1: learned it was because of music room. It hurt her ears.
Speaker 1: It was physically assaulting her. And I grabbed the assistant principle.
Speaker 1: I said, you got to get her out of the
Speaker 1: music class. She cannot be in that music class. Let's
Speaker 1: get her extra reading. She reads like she's in kindergarten.
Speaker 1: Let's get her reading extra reading.
Speaker 2: Oh, one person can't decide to take her out of music.
Speaker 2: That can't be Well, that's a team decision. What that's
Speaker 2: a team decision.
Speaker 1: Music's optional, it's not mandatory by the state. You're not
Speaker 1: required to give music classes. That's the easiest thing to
Speaker 1: take her out of.
Speaker 2: Well, we have no more slots for more reading.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's when I should have said, but that's
Speaker 1: what we expect you to do, and by law, you
Speaker 1: have to accommodate that, and you must give her more reading.
Speaker 1: That's what I needed to say. And I didn't know
Speaker 1: I could say that. I didn't know I could say that.
Speaker 1: That's where an advocate would come in handy, right, an
Speaker 1: IEP advocate. There's a whole world of IEP Individual Educational
Speaker 1: Plan advocates. There are a whole slew of them that
Speaker 1: you and I can engage in for free or for hire,
Speaker 1: depending what you want to do. But that's what should
Speaker 1: have happened. It took me months to get her out
Speaker 1: of music class. Isn't that tragic? It took me months
Speaker 1: to get her out of music class. And what I
Speaker 1: finally had to do was go there twice a week.
Speaker 1: She had music class twice a week, and I would
Speaker 1: go there twice a week and pick her up from
Speaker 1: that school and take her to a diner and we'd
Speaker 1: have lunch in a nice chat. And that's the only
Speaker 1: way I could protect my kid from the horrors of
Speaker 1: fifth grade music class. That's our public school education today.
Speaker 1: Now here's what we've done. First, we had a mediation
Speaker 1: and we got her out of that school. We got
Speaker 1: her into a special ed school, an autistic school, and
Speaker 1: the school system agreed to pay for it for one semester,
Speaker 1: but not the second semester of the same year. Second
Speaker 1: semester they weren't going to pay for