I need to know everything, who in the what in the where I need everything. Trust me, I hear what you're saying, but I like it's new. What you telling me, I'm Curious George, I happen to Porsche five and a horse. I'm ready for war. I'm coming for froze to turn to a ghost. I need to know everything.
I just want to say hello, thank you for joining us, and welcome to the counter narrative Show. Today is our first episode that we're having of the new year. I'm pretty, kind of excited. I feel like there's some like shift happening in the in this year, I'm hoping for some like new developments and new changes. Um, anywho our topic for today's discussion is the school to prison pipeline. We won't just discuss the school to prison pipeline, but that will be something that will kind of guide some of the conversation. And today I am joined by two people who I had the pleasure of interacting with on another platform, who shared content information and and I just, I just knew that they would be good people to have to be part of this conversation around the school to prison pipeline. So first, I want to introduce you to Dr brandy Gail. She is the founder of beacon of light. She serves as a parental education strategist, which began over 20 years ago at her kitchen table. She educates, she inspires and elevates parents to ensure the success of the whole student, which I think is very important. She She obtained her degree simultaneously while she was also still being a wife of 32 years a mother of four, a college student, an educator of 25 years and a researcher as if black women are not doing enough with themselves, the sister is doing like 1500 things at one time while getting her degree. She found in she found power in what others call learning disabilities and emotional disorders of two of their four children, who today are college graduates. And I'm really going to want to tack more into that story and kind of unpack that our other guests, we have, Elena Ross Jones, Elena, I'm going to give you an opportunity to tell, tell me a little bit of background of what where you are and how. What brings you to this topic, what brings you to this work?
So I'll tell you that basically, my purpose has always been my goal, and my purpose has always been to empower and educate my people, and the way that I do that now most strategically is by integrating social justice and mathematics into education. So right now, I am a master teacher, Master STEM teacher for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I am a TPT seller and a grant recipient for their social justice project, which is teachers based teachers and I also teach full time. I teach at City neighbors High School, which is a project based learning school, and I also happen to be a mother of four, so I really just center and ground my work into empowering black and brown people in the area of steam. So that's primarily what I do. I
love that. It's so interesting, how very similar to Dr Gayle, you're doing 500 things and also, also stop solving, you know, addressing a larger issue, and being a mother of four human beings. Um, I mean, I think that alone is huge, like that alone is enough, but on top of that, you're doing this, this work around STEM. So thank you both so much for being here and being in this space. I want to start with you, Dr Gill, and I want to ask you a little bit about I read over your bio and the organization that you founded. I want to hear from you what brought you to that work?
All right, what brought me to that work was friends saying my daughter's struggling, and reading, my son is having some difficulties with mathematics, and I don't know what to do. And I'm like, Well, what's going on? And I'm like, Oh, that's not a big deal. I could help. And they were like, are you serious? I'm like, Yeah, drop them off Saturday morning. And so it just kind of started that way. Then I would also have additional friends who might say, my my sister is having a difficult time. Her son is really struggling. She has a tutor, but he's not really making any progress. I think you might be able to help her. Can I give her your number? I'm like, absolutely sure, not a problem. So just over time, wanting my own children to academically succeed and just be the best they could be, holistically, and then having an intersection of other parents and people that I knew, some people I didn't know at all, but just willing to help, um. Um, in the early years of my teaching, I began, this is real old that we actually, at times, would bring students home. So like, I've had parents say I don't know what to do with him, and she was a single mom, and I said I could help. And she was like, don't play. I said, I'm not playing either. When you drop them off Friday at school, have a bag. And so back then I would actually bring students home, and they would, you know, I remember one young man in particular. His mom was a single mom, and she was struggling, and she was struggling with him and his academics, and I only have one son, so they like meshed, and it was awesome. And so it just kind of happened that way. I didn't plan it out, but once it got going, my heart was really like, this is where I should be. Then as time moved forward, it kind of transitioned more into my focus being students. Because within the job that I do, I work for the third largest school district in the nation, elementary ed and often, there's always a lot of conversations around students, but what has always been disheartening to me is how the parent is not included in that conversation, or we step over the parent, and we talk about what we need to do regarding academics, the academic gap, all this kind of familiar, trendy language, but the parent is not included. And then if that was something I brought up, I would often be reminded that we need to move in a way regarding the student. We can't not count on the parent, but the parent isn't here, the student is here. And so that was just kind of the onset, and then the ball just kind of kept rolling and picking up momentum. Oh
my gosh. There's so much that you said there one that whole piece of separating the child from the parent. And I feel like there's so much to I feel like Eurocentric models of education that is around assimilating and separating our students from their culture, from their family get this so that you can get out of this neighborhood. You know, all of these things that that we do to, just like, kind of put distance between between them, and when we're talking about success. However, when they're not successful, the problem lies must be something, something wrong with home, something wrong with mom, some, something like that. You already kind of spoke a little bit to this, but I want to unpack a little bit more. One of the things that come up in your work is that you are a parental education strategist. Can you talk a bit about what that is and why is it important to have a parental education strategist,
sure that came out of my lived experience. So two of our four children were identified in elementary as having challenges with their learning. So they were identified as being learning disabled, just their term, not mine. And so just over the years of being an advocate, and then me having the privilege of seeing it through two lenses. My children attended the district that I worked for, and my husband and I were intentional about that, about being in our community, our kids attending public school, and then me making that public school where my dollars are do what they need to do. So in that regard, I would often, from time to time, throughout the years, have some pushback from teachers, some pushback from administrators. I even had an administrator when our kids went elementary that said to me, you might want to consider taking your daughter out. I said, Oh, absolutely not. I said, as a matter of fact, all four of them will be here until they graduate. So, you know, we'll, we'll figure this balance thing out. Because I was demanding and expecting the teachers to do all that was necessary in alignment with my daughter's IEP, and that hadn't happened. And then two of our other children really soared academically. So when the data came back from the district, those two were always part of, oh my god, they did so. And I was like, the same zeal that you have for these two. I need you to have the same zeal for these two. And so over time, parents who did not know, saying, Well, how did you get that service? Because when I talked, they said, and I said, You know what? Refer back to the actual document, which is, which is a federal legal document. And then I learned through my own research how the laws are situated, and that there are certain things that my children were to receive, and I was adamant that all of my children would receive that. And then on the side of me being an educator, sometimes saying to parents, you might want to look into that a little deeper, or I would start a conversation, can I talk to you? Parent? To parent, sure, and then I would share with them my own experience. So I wouldn't say to them what they should do, what they shouldn't do. I would just speak through my own lived experience, and I found that to be so valued. Not because I counted it as So, but because parents said to me, then, Mrs. Gale, Mrs. Gail, thank you so much. Like I didn't know that, and now I have information, and now I can help my child. So that's really how that began.
Thank you so much for sharing that. I feel like so much of this, of the work that we end up doing starts internally. It starts in our from our lived experience, and that's why we're able to so easily bring in community and connect like how you went to the person and you say, a parent to parent. Thank you so much for sharing that. Miss Ross Jones, can you talk about the origin of the work that you do as it relates to this, this, that connection that you're making with the stem. And why stem? Why is that particular connection important?
So first of all, my apologies, Doctor Gayle, for those noises I was making before. I've got a full house. I was trying to manage the background. It was too much distractions while you were talking, and it ended up distracting anyway. But I want to bring out what you said, which is really important is that it came out, the work that you do came out of your experience, and you saw a need. And very similarly, I was actually, I was a math I am a math major. I have a Bachelors of Science in mathematics, not in education. I was in a pre doctoral program at the University of Maryland, and while I was there, I found out, by experience and by way of statistics that one half of 1% of PhDs in mathematics at that time went to Pan African people in general, so black folks, so black folks was getting one half of 1% of PhDs in mathematics. And so at that moment, that statistic, coupled with my experience, while they're kind of feeling out of place, not really feeling like I fit into the stem culture, I decided to become an educator and to change that statistic. And so I started off at William H lamel, which, if you're familiar with the wire, it's the film that it's the school that they filmed the wire in here in Baltimore City. And I just spent my whole life trying to get young black students, particularly young black urban students, really engaged with mathematics and give them the tools that it needs to to empower their life. I know that mathematics, and many of us know that mathematics is the game changer. STEM is the game changer, because if you can do math and science, you can write your ticket anywhere. And I'm example of that, because one of the four children that I had, I had while I was in college, he's 18 years old. Now, I had him my sophomore going into junior year of college, but because I was very proficient in math, there were a lot of allowances that were made for me along the way that allowed me to complete my education and have access to programming, even still with bringing him along for the journey. So I just I believe in it wholeheartedly. I seek to change the culture, and I also seek to help my people get access to some of these resources that are available in the STEM community.
Thank you for sharing that one of the questions I have that I'm curious, and either of you can answer this, I'm really curious, I guess, from both ends, what are some of the trends that you are seeing? Ross Jones, as it relates to stem and education right now. And I really also curious. Similarly, Dr Gill, what are some of the trends that you're seeing with the type of advocacy that parents are having to learn to do in this day and age right now? Well, well, I'll
say, as far as STEM and African American students, we are just now opening the door for social justice and culturally relevant pedagogy to be a part of STEM curriculum. And when I say just, I mean, in the last couple of years, I think that the social sciences are much more ahead of the game in terms of being inclusive and bringing equity into the classroom than the stem sciences are, and so we have so much to work to do in terms of changing the narrative around which problems are worthy of study, because that's the core of the issue in STEM it's not so much. Can Black and Brown students do higher order mathematics is does it appeal to them? Does it apply to their everyday life? Is it empowering them in the same way that it empowers other other members of the STEM community, particularly white males? So the trend that I'm seeing now is this new interest in bringing more equity to the table and but it but we have a long way to go. It's a trickle. We haven't even gotten the stream yet, so that's what I want to be a part of the stream.
I think it's so interesting that piece around it being something the culture. Also bringing cultural, culturally relevant pedagogy into the classroom, being something that's just now, really just tapping the surface of being explored, because the science backs it up. You know what I mean? Like we've known, we've known the impact of knowledge of self, of increasing of students, race esteem, increasing their gender esteem, and connecting some of the things that we're that they're learning with culture. The science is there. So it's so interesting to me that we would just now be at a at a stage where we're like, okay, maybe we might try to implement this sort of kind of, I'm really curious about that. Dr Gayle, can you tell us some what are some what are some of the strength trends you're seeing in terms of advocating or like, what, what parents are having to advocate for their children for right now? So for
right now, I concur that the stem is a hot topic, and so I teach elementary. And so the challenge I have found is so I started college as a biology pre med major, so I just kind of ended up with a science Middle School endorsement, just because, and so in that, I was then put into a science position. And a lot of my initial frustration was the district did not have a science standard that was aligned with elementary and so that was fine. As teachers, we're used to creating, making something and doing what we need to do. So moved forward doing that, but then having to have a lot of conversations with those in charge about what then, once they identified a standard they were going to use, I had to explain that that standard is written by those like myself with doctorate degrees in science, right in mathematics and engineering, and what it does not do is unpack it for an elementary level. So then you might come into a classroom, and then you're looking at a standard, and you're asking, Well, why? And so then I asked, What do you understand what that means, and then how do we unpack that for an understanding that I just that I in turn explain that to students so they can take it away. So the science of it was easy for me, because I'm a practical kind of person, and I learned on the front end of my teaching, that if students don't see any relevance dollars and cents, if they don't see how they can make money, then they're not interested. And so science is everywhere. And so mathematics. I always struggled in mathematics. And so I would even be in there with being honest with my students. I say, Look, I don't like math, however, it is necessary and needed, and I found that I didn't like it because I didn't understand it and I didn't have an educator or a teacher to unpack it and to help make it simple, not difficult, just easy, breezy, simple. And so I then started to have conversations with family, from emails to at parent conferences and progress report cards that they were enthused, and they saw their kids enthused, like they're identifying science everywhere, like in the air we breathe and in a plant, and when we're cooking, it's like science is all around and so I feel like that was a buy in, not just for students, but as well as for families and for community, that it's not something separate. I remember myself and middle school students having a really in depth conversation, because I said everything costs money. And they said, what the air is free? I said, No, no, let's look at EPA. Let's look at governmental policies. Let's look at ways in which industry are allowed to have this freedom, from a capitalistic standpoint, to make money, but it pollutes our air. So now we need to put things in place that costs money to make it better. And so just starting to give questions, right, which is what she was just talking about, that narrative of forming the question, what are we asking? So then it starts to unlock and move us forward, just not for students, but just for the entire all stakeholders, for everyone involved,
yeah, I mean, that's so interesting. And I feel like that it's not like kid like you don't have a desire to learn and know it's just like, make it real to me. Make it make it make sense. Make it plain, make it applicable. Why is this relevant? And sometimes we're not always able to tell them why, why it's relevant, you know, because it's just there. That's the way that it has been. Um, one of the things that you mentioned Miss Ross Jones, is that you do this for your people. Um, I'm really curious about, do you feel that black educators have a very specific role to play, or specific responsibility to play in the education system? And if so, what do you see that role as?
Oh, absolutely. I think the first role is representation, right? Because even still, we still have 80% of the teaching process. Population is Caucasian and female. So the first role is just representation, because who stands in the front of the classroom represents the content, they represent the standard, they represent the bar, if you speak, particularly in the eyes of children, particularly in the eyes of young children. So I think number one, we have a responsibility to be in the room. That's number one. Number two, we have a responsibility. I consider myself having a responsibility in a city like Baltimore City, where I teach, where the spirit of Baltimore City is one of hopelessness. And I love Baltimore City. I love the arts side of it. I love the low cost of living, if I'll be frank, I understand that there's a spirit of hopelessness here, and so I stand in front of the classroom every day as a signal to students that there is hope beyond what they see. And I take a small thing very seriously, which is how I dress. I dress every day, heels every day, makeup every day, not because I'm shallow, but because I recognize how that professional and even artistic showing up is inspirational to students. It gives them something to aspire to, I think, then and then on beyond that, we have the we have the responsibility of advocacy, particularly in the areas of curriculum writing, because the curriculums are not are not written with our students in mind. And like you said, the science is out in terms of prior knowledge and how that affects both, and how that affects reading, and then reading affects word problems. So you talk about math and science, social and natural sciences. Now if these students, if these curriculums are not written with our students in mind, then they're not accessible. And then, when we talk about the school to prison pipeline, the first line of defense in terms of behavior management is a good curriculum is engaging material. And so if you don't have engaging material, now, you're inviting students, in some ways, to act out or to display inappropriate behaviors because they're bored and because they don't feel connected. In many ways, because they feel trapped. They feel trapped stuck doing something or being somewhere that they don't want to be in, doing things they don't want to do. And so that starts the whole chain of reaction in terms of disciplinary, disciplinary action against black and brown students. So we have a lot of work to do, and the truth of the matter is, nobody's going to do it, but us, in my personal opinion, the most well intentioned Caucasian women, don't necessarily have the background knowledge in terms of culture and experience to really help African American students be successful, particularly in terms of the duality and the intersection of how we live? And they certainly can't do it in isolation. They certainly can't do it without the input and the cost of consultation of African American success, professional African American people. They just, it's just, it just doesn't work like that. So we have a lot of responsibility, absolutely,
um, so many things that that, that you said, that that I found so valuable, that that piece about representation being one of the roles, that piece about advocacy being one of the roles, and even that piece that you said about the esthetic representation when I was working on my dissertation, it was focused on African American mothers of adolescent daughters, right? And one of the things that came up as like that, I did not think of, but after I processed it and listened to all of these mothers talk that made sense was the role that esthetics play in them, one transferring culture, enhancing their daughter's race, esteem and self esteem, and how that contributed to better grades, better attitude, better and this is esthetic like it wasn't just The vanity thing. Mothers talked about how they you know, whether or not they would wear their hair natural, what they would do, what they wouldn't do, how they would dress and all of that. What a person on the outset might see as vanity was really this esthetic, cultural transference and esteem building and modeling. So I think that, that, I think that we cannot underplay our physical presence in spaces enough, and our modeling of things in those spaces enough. And I really, I really appreciate that share. I'm Dr Gail, how do you see or do you see the role of black educators as an important role, a unique role, and if so, what do you feel like is unique or important about that role?
I feel both that it is unique, that it is essential to the future of mankind. Because we are part of the human race, and we have always had these humongous contributions that just are not isolated within our community, but they intersect into every aspect, into all parts of the world. And so when I show up for me, I'm always showing up, not for my administrator, not about the students. And I've even often said this to my admin, I mean no disrespect, but what I do is not about you. When I take my last breath and I have to stand before my Creator, I need to answer for the children that I carried and the students that I stand before every day. And so I take that very personal, and I often say to students that my classroom, this is my house, just like the house I'm sitting in now. So there were expectations, there were things that are non negotiable, and my students know that, just like our children knew that. And there was a consequence when that wasn't followed. And so for me, every time they say my name, and so I acquired and obtained my doctorate in 2019 I finished, and so I celebrated with all of my middle school students. We had a party, and the party wasn't about me. It was about them understanding the academic journey. It was about them understanding that the federal government statistics say not i that over a lifetime, the more education you have, the more money you make. And so the moment I start talking to them about money and showing them what I would make over time, everybody leaned in. So everyone's undivided attention. And so then it was to the point that some students would still say, Mrs. Gail, and then other students would correct, I no longer needed to do that. They say that's Dr Gayle. So every time they say my name, they're speaking hope, which is what you just spoke about, right? Hope. So every time they look at me, they see what, not only is something they can obtain from a professional standpoint, but I've also been privileged that my daughters were willing three years ago, when they maybe longer than that, maybe about four or five years ago, and I asked them if they'd be willing to talk to my middle school students, and they did. They were both in college at the time, so they spoke about their what has been identified as a disability, and how they were moving in a post secondary learning environment, and so my students kept looking back at me. I said, Why are you all looking at me? They were like these. I didn't know that you like because students often don't look at us as educators, as being people, right? So it's like you're a mom and you've got kids that like struggle with school, but you're a teacher, exactly, but I'm human. But you've heard through their shared experience that the expectation for them is no different than mine for you. So I said to all my kids in this house, apples and bananas, everybody needs to do what they need to do, and I'm going to be there to support you. So for me, it is about what I do. But I was privileged to grow up with my great grandparents on the paternal side, and both my maternal and paternal grandparents, so to sit around and hear stories about the brown bag era, right to hear stories from their lived experience about the great migration, I ultimately felt this intense responsibility to my people at large. So then in this space of education, it's like it just takes it to the 10th power.
Yeah, and I want to add to that, that I think that again, talking about that piece about the role of African American educators, it's invaluable when people so Nelson Mandela said, if you speak to a man in a lane in a language that he understands, you speak to his head. But when you speak to a man in his language, you speak to his heart. And language is so powerful, and language doesn't always have to do with you speak English, and I speak English. Language often has to do with I use the words that you use. So say, for example, one of the phrases that is is used here in Baltimore that is not used in Virginia, where I'm from. And the first time I had I heard it, I fell in love with it was built like that. So I had a couple students get into an altercation. And at this time, I had an all boys class, and they would break fights up with me because I was pregnant at the time. Was a lot of things going on, and when the boys pushed the boy, he said, man, just sit down, because you ain't even built like that. And I was like, Oh, what is this? You speak? I've never heard these things, but I think also too, like she said, treating students like your own and having that language of a black mother or a black father for that matter, because please, let's not discount the black male educators being able to speak to their heart just by the language that you use is very important. Important and I and it's very needed in the educational setting, students need to hear people speaking to their heart with the words that they use. And sometimes, many times, it can be a lot less effort involved when black and brown educators step up and do those things. And I've seen it even with Hispanic students that I may teach, just saying a few words to them in Spanish changes the nature of our relationship. And most children don't do my math work at this stage because they're interested in math. A lot of them do it just because they just like me. And this and this is something that's going to make me happy or make me smile. They're willing to do it on that, on on your note, as as people would say, on the strength of that, on the strength that I'm their teacher. And I think that that is important, particularly because I used to teach middle school too. I taught middle school for 10 years when they don't know who they are and they don't know what they want to be, but you still need to give them these tools. And so a lot of the times, giving them these tools is about more so about relationship than content. Relationship is so important, particularly in the adolescent years. So I just wanted to add that,
yeah, thank you for sharing that. One of the things too, that I feel like it's so important that you brought up. And before I do that, I want to say, for folks who just tuned in, you are watching the counter narrative show. We are discussing the school to prison pipeline, but all things related within that context, and I am joined by three fabulous panelists we've already heard from Dr Gayle and Dr Ross Jones. Now Rahim Shabazz has joined us before I introduce you. Rahim Shabazz, one of the things that I want to invite people to do is, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to type them in the chat. I see that precious wrote a comment in the chat, and precious comment is, am I going to be able to pull it up now? It doesn't look like it. If you have any questions or comments, please put them in the chat, and I'll make sure that I get around to them. One question that I want to ask everyone who is listening right now. You can write your responses right now in the chat, and I'll also give the panelists opportunity to respond to this question as Miss Ross Jones brought up the presence of men in education system, and then boom, Mr. Shabazz showed up. Is What grade were you in the first time? So listeners write this, write the answer to this in the chat. What grade were you in the first time that you had an African American man as a teacher that did not teach you gym or music? What grade were you in the first time that you had an African American man that was a teacher that did not teach gym or music, and that's not a dig on either one of those, but it is absolutely something to think about. And I'll circle back to that. I'm going to go ahead and move to brother Shabazz. Brother Shabazz is the owner of the Rasha Entertainment Inc, and is an award winning journalist and filmmaking the gifted writers byline has been spotted on the pages, the pages of the source, XXL magazine, Vibe magazine, rolling out urban enterprise magazine, all hip hop.com just to name a few. Shabazz has appeared on BT stars in black and MTV News. He has interviewed an array of celebrities, including the media maven, Maven Tyler Perry, hip hop legend 50 said, I mean on and on Magic Johnson, he's a documentary filmmaker. One of the things that really stood out for me about this brother is a documentary film that he made called elementary genocide. Elementary genocide is a documentary series which exposes the socially engineered mechanism created by our government and utilized utilizing the public school system to label elementary age African American males as work for higher targets within the US penal system. Thank you so much for joining us. Brother Shabazz, can you talk a little bit about that work and what brought you to doing that particular a documentary film on that particular topic, elementary genocide. Okay,
first, let me thank the family for allowing me to appear. Please excuse my lateness. I just got in. I was traveling. I just got in from out of town. Yes, I am a documentary filmmaker of the award winning a. A three part series, elementary genocide, school to prison pipeline. That's the first one. Elementary genocide to the board of education versus the Board of incarceration. And elementary genocide three, academic Holocaust, to answer your question, what? What got me involved in? It was actually term paper that I submitted when I was in college, and I went to college in one of the lowest institutions of learning, and that was in the prison system. So we had to write a paper and come up with a proposal for a non profit organization that we would start when we get released. And my subject matter was the school to prison pipeline, and this was back in 2000 and when I came home, I was doing filmmaking, and I was working with a lot of I was working in the Hollywood sector, but I wanted to do something on my own that will impact our people. And I wanted to do a subject matter that was near and dear to my heart, and that was because I was a product of that so during my research and my studies, gathering information, working on this project, I quickly discovered that if you're not reading on grade level by the time you're in the third or fourth grade, that there's a 50% chance that you there's a 75% chance, I'm sorry, that you will end up in the prison system. And then, you know, once I did that, that documentary took off. We had a lot of good thought leaders scholars in that documentary, but due to time constraint, I wasn't able to really explore that subject matter the way I wanted to, because it was only an hour and 20 minutes. So in the second documentary, we went back to the landmark ruling of Brown versus Board of Education, and we asked a proverbial question, Has it done more harm than good? And we know it done more harm than good, because at that time, they integrated the students and not the teachers, so you had 80,000 black teachers that lost their jobs. So that is a result of the previous question you asked when you was asking individuals, how many black teachers have they had, you know, and what grade level it was, right? So that was the second documentary. And then the third one. We wanted to kind of tie it up, and we wanted to show that the assassination of your mind, the assassination of your critical thinking, is no different than assassination of the black bodies that we see in the streets and the uprise of the Black Lives Matter movement, not the organization we talking about, the movement. And that was a very successful documentary, and that was called Academic Holocaust, and it all begins with assassination, your critical thinking and your mind. And I consider myself one of the thought leaders and Frontline warriors that is fighting against this school to prison pipeline.
Thank you for sharing that. So I'm going to go back over to this chat. So some folks have responded around the question was, when was the first time you had an African American man that was a teacher that didn't teach sports or music? One person said College. Another person said eighth grade. Another person said, sixth grade he was a social studies teacher. Another person said, I don't think I've ever had one, and I think that that speaks to this whole this whole structure, this whole system and and also the importance of representation. Earlier I asked the question I'm going to put it to you, Mr. Shabazz, slightly different. And that question is, do you feel that black men have an important role to play in the education system? And if so, what role do you see that black men have to pay play in the education system?
I think the black man has a very, very important role to play, because it changes the narrative that you know they're not black men that in academia that can teach us as a race of people, and not only that, when you look at studies, it shows that those that have teachers that look like that they selves achieve a certain level of academic success more than those that don't have that. And it, like I said, it changes the narrative of who we are as as a people, especially for for Black. Uh, young youth, they need to see a figurehead that resonates with them, and that would be the black man, because we know in public school systems, um, the teachers are, um, predominantly female and predominantly white. And what a lot of people don't know is that 75% of the teachers are females, and out of that 75% more than 50% of them are white, white teachers that are married to law enforcement officers. So here you have, you have the male law enforcement officer that locks you up and sends you to prison, and then you have the white female teacher that teaches you mis education. So the indoctrination goes hand in hand. I
want to add to what my brother's saying too, because I also want to talk about Earlier I spoke about how the role of the black educator, there are various roles that we need to take on, and we have a lot of work to do. But also, I want to speak on how black male educators role have to go beyond disciplinarian too, because a lot of times we wear brothers out when they come into a school setting, and their primary role, regardless of the content that they teach, regardless of the expertise that they bring is to be a disciplinarian. Yeah, and what it does is, number one, it reinforces the stereotype that black men are aggressive. Number one. Number two, it lowers the standards for our black male students, because it teaches them that that's their role in society, to be an overseer, and not necessarily a scientist or any of or or author or poet or anything like that, that their primary role in life, no matter how far they go, is going to be a disciplinary and so or to be an overseer or to be controlled or to be contained, And that even their professional aspirations are going to revolve around this idea that black men need to be controlled and contained, and so there is a lot of work that everyone else has to do in terms of how we see black men and black male educators. They are not there to be disciplinarians only. I think that their roles as disciplinarians are important, but it should not be the primary role. It certainly shouldn't be the sole role, and this is why, at this moment, we lose a lot of black male educators. They get burnt out, they get tired. They're human, just like everyone else. And also too, it speaks to that phrase that I hate, which is black girl magic. There's nothing magical about who we are as human beings, that you can give us more because it happens to black women as well, that you can give us the worst students with the most difficult circumstances and expect us to make magic. No, that's unrealistic. It's unfair. It's a recipe for burnout, and this is why we lose a lot of African American educators. They get an unfair load, and they're tired. And then even further, I'm just gonna say one more thing, most successful African American, and I'm not saying this to slight any anyone else, but I am saying they do have other options. So a lot of Caucasian women that may enter into the field of education, that's all they ever thought about being. That's their only career option. That's been what they have almost been trained to become. Whereas a lot of African American educators, they get into it for a particular purpose, for a particular reason, they want to educate, and that's it. And if they don't have an opportunity to educate and make a full impact, then they'll do other things. It's just that simple. And so that's where we lose a lot of great African American educators. In my experience, they just get burned out, and they just get tired of the unfair conditions, even in educational environment. And so they do something else.
I really like the point that you both brought up about that balance between education and the those who maintain or are to serve and protect right. And I've been fortunate in my lived experience that my husband is now a retired police officer to Chicago Police Department, and so we took it personal, right? And I would often say to my students, no, that's a non negotiable, and here's why, because if, if you can't think and unpack something beyond just someone telling you to do it, but why are they telling me? Is that really beneficial to me, if you don't learn how to critically think and start to analyze and unpack stuff, the old folks will say you, you'll fall for anything. And I don't want that on my watch, and I don't want those that work with my husband to have you in a situation because you were unable to think. Think for yourself, not just follow what others are doing or what they're talking about. So we, we both are like this collective force right of educating. And I think what is also key, and I so thank the gentleman for speaking to that of the importance that we all have right, that teaching starts at home. All of us on this panel, and everybody listening has someone who taught you something before you ever reach the schoolhouse building. So it for me, and it may speak more to my age, I don't know of my lived experience, that it's crucial that we understand the power we have as parents, and that every sector, whether your life and the way that you gain your income, is as an educator, or if it's that as a scientist, if it's that as a doctor, if it's that as a police officer, that you owe your community, because we see other races do that, they're intentional in doing that. It's not a misstep. It's planned out, and I like how you spoke about all of your documentaries. There's something that I often say, and I teach this to my students, there's a difference between schooling and education, insured,
though I did not know that connection, and someone just wrote this in the chat that you brought up brother Shabazz. Amani Coker. Amani Coker Warren said, Wow, I never thought about that, but my best friend is a teacher, and she's married to an officer. I never knew that there was such a strong correlation between teachers and being married to police officers, I never even
heard if you I don't know if many of y'all remember, but you can Google this right in New York City when school Started back, and this was after the uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement. I want to say it was around Tamir Rice, Freddie, gray. It just been so many, it's hard to disconcern which one it was right. But school started back and the teachers, it was like 2425 maybe 30, Caucasian, white teachers all wore shirts on the first day of school that said Blue Lives Matter, and the police of the police union backed at them. The Teachers Union released a statement said it probably wasn't the best thing to do, but they are in their right to express their political beliefs. And I don't know warfare,
you go into a black school Absolutely,
and you wear predominantly black, 99.9% black, and you wear blue lives matter t shirt, so and you know, see this happened, you know, like I said around there, my my documentary, the first one, I was doing research on it in 2010 I put it out in 2014 and then the second one, I get the years mixed up. But this was before this even happened, and I was talking about the correlation so, so a lot of people, you know they, they got, they got to study this. And before I yield the floor to anybody else, right, I want to say this, right? Um, Hillary Clinton, she, she wrote a book, and it's called, it will take a village, right? How ironic is of that is that she stole the African proverb to title her book. It takes a village right now, in this book, this is this is that quote, and I'm going to read it to you. It says, I believe the primary role of the state is to teach, train and raise children. Parents have a secondary role. Have a secondary role when the parent is the first teacher of the child, you know, so and she received real big praises for this book. And this book, I want to say, mighta, came out in 2016 I'm not sure. But this is the same lady that called our children and our babies super predators. You know, this is the same one that a lot of the black Congressional Caucus and the Democrats wanted to be the President of the United States. So we have to watch these people. We have to vet them. And this, look, a lot of people don't know about this. Quote, I used to have the page number because I always like to cite the page number so people could look it up. Unfortunately, I don't remember what the page number is, but read that book. It's in there, you know. And that's that's all I want to say. And
I gotta say this too, because we've been talking about the role of African American educators, but we also need to talk about the role of the African American. Community in supporting African American educators, because a part of that, that correlation between particularly the Caucasian community, between police officers marrying teachers, is because of the emphasis and the value around public service in those communities, and how they see it, particularly in the working class or in the middle class as something to be esteemed. You know, I'm a cop, I'm a teacher, I'm a public servant. It's a source of pride, whereas, quite honestly, my experience is that my own people don't value me as much as a teacher. They kind of look at it like and it's hard. I don't want to make generalizations, but I will say that as I was obtaining my education, I was strongly discouraged against becoming a teacher, because you ain't going to make no money. If you become a teacher, you ain't going to make no money. And in our community, because of, you know, systematic oppression and where we are financially, we put an emphasis on making money and getting out and all these things, and then, so that makes teaching a less appealing position. And then even further, I just have to be honest and say, in certain communities, I was outright disrespected because, because people had such a poor relationship with schools, and they had such poor experiences with schools that it didn't matter if he was black or white, if he was a teacher. They had a they had they had this resentment there, and they didn't mind unloading that resentment on you and pointing fingers and all these kinds of things. So as an African American community, we have got to support and esteem educators in the same way they would be if you travel to Ghana or Nigeria or any country in Africa. Students still to this day stand up when the teacher enters the room. They have such reverence for teachers and educators, and that's what we come from, and so we have to get back to if we value education, then we also need to value educators. It's just that simple, and that's the role that all of us play in in schools and helping to esteem the education community. Yeah.
Dr Gayle, you wanted to say something.
Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. That has always been my heart's passion is that I owe you something. You look like me. When I look in the mirror, the students that I stand before, they look like me. I remember my undergrad, and it was a special ed class. And Dr Riley, I will never forget this. He asked a show of hands when you're done, if you plan on working in under service communities, right? Meaning black and brown. I raised my hand. I was the only one who raised my hand. And so he and I had like this back and forth dialog for five years. And basically he was saying what you just said, You're not going to be paid well in that arena, you should move on. And I said, Absolutely not. I had great teachers who were intentional and staying in the community. They lived in the community I live in the community they teach in the community I teach in the community, making those intentional steps. Because if we don't, who will, and we have all the data that shows that there were a few years back in Arizona that the high school curriculum was representing the students, so it was of Latin and of Mexican descent, and they show, over time, how this educational gap began to shrink, right? Because students could see themselves reflected in other people, and they had a better understanding of who they were, because the the whole books and all of the curriculum was intentional and reflecting who they were. So then it took away this hopelessness and replaced it with hope, where, over time, there was legislation that was put in place in Arizona to dismantle that. And so we've seen the same things with with the project. Now I'm having a brain freeze, I think 1619 Thank you. And so now there's some states that are trying to put legislation in place that you will not receive federal funding if you teach this. Are you kidding me? Wow, we have to really be aware. We have to be aware of what's going on, not only in our communities and our school, but from a legislative standpoint. Right? The laws make a difference, and so we cannot disconnect ourselves from that. It is, it is all inclusive. We all have a responsibility to be aware. We have a responsibility to support those who are standing in front of our children and educating them. We have a role and a responsibility to understand that because something is good for you doesn't mean it feel good. So what do I mean by that? There are times in conversations I've had with parents why I don't like always, at least four times a year, every year I. Taught for 25 years, my kids say when they ask you a question, you don't never answer them, because here's our proverb, if I give you a fish, you eat today, but if I teach you to fish, you're gonna eat for a lifetime, and that's my goal. So when a question is asked, I pose a question to help the student unlock their prior knowledge or what I've already taught them that's in the back to bring it to the forefront. That's my job is to critically teach you how to live and how to think. So, even coming up to black history, I'm a proponent of us, right? All things us. So my sweatshirts, but I wear to work, all of that, and one of them says that it's important not to just take things whatever said right. So a well behaved woman is not someone that adheres to the loss, but one who says, Wait a minute, that may be a law, but that don't make it right. So then what am I going to do about it? So again, we have a tremendous responsibility. Everybody, especially those of us who stand in a professional arena, to educate our kids.
Yeah, Can I chime in for one minute? The legislature is talking about that was passed by Donald Trump, and he was saying that that 1619, Project, which had the whole world talking, and you know how it is those that are non melanated, was like, Oh my God, I didn't know about this. You know about it. You just ain't care about it. But a lot of schools was teaching that, and they curriculum, and, yeah, they said that if you teach that, that you're not going to receive no federal funding, and it was a big backlash about that, so that that's one thing. And then recently, they had a situation with a sister. I forget where it was at right, but this is the guess of what happened. She wore a pin that said something to the effect, matter of fact, I don't even think it was a pen, but what she was doing was crazy. Oh, this is what she did. You know, everybody was wearing chucks and girls, all right? And that was in support of Kamala Harris for being vice president. Right? Her and a few teachers did that, and they told them that either they take it off or they go home, you take it off or you go home. And the reason why they said that you can't make a political statement while being a teacher, but that's not a she what she was telling a political statement. She said this has nothing to nothing to do with statement. This has something to do with a woman made it to the Vice President. And there never has been a woman that was vice president, black woman and let alone that. So, um, you know, and what it is is man people have to fight back, you know, like we always being told that we have to vote, we have to vote. But you know, another thing we have to do, we have to attend those PTA meetings. We have to start sitting on these school boards so that when they make these, these legislation and these rules, we can combat it. You know, if you ask, you know, I'm a little older, but if you ask the average, maybe, say, mid 20s and early 30s, when the next Beyonce, a Jay Z concert, is? They gonna tell you, they'll tell you all about that. But you ask them, when's the next PTA? When the last time you you went to a PTA meeting? So I do go a lot against the establishment, but at the same time, we got to hold ourselves accountable, because we the holders and keepers of ourself and predicament. And this is the last thing I will say, right, when this pandemic happened, the first thing I was saying, I was looking at was what good can come out of this. All the kids, they got to stay home. So I said, You know what? This is going to give a lot of parents the opportunity to see the genius that lies within they children and how smart they are, because now you have to sit there and you have to, you know, navigate on the computer and help them, and I thought it would be a great opportunity. And not only that, I'm a big proponent of homeschooling. So we all the universe got a way of making us do things. So now the universe is making these parents home school their kids and different things like that. For the most part, it was working, and this is what we want. We don't want to have those that you know, who we view as our open enemy, teaching our kids. We don't only raise the people that do that. That's what Mark met taught us, but there was a large segment of our society right. I that was really upset that they had to homeschool and help them kids out. A lot of it was because, you know, Common Core was wasn't too common to them, and it was a little frustrating and that they had to deal, they had to sit there and deal with what a lot of y'all teachers have to deal with every day, all day, and you know, but that's neither here nor there, because they're gonna have to get used to it. Because if you don't get used to it, then when school opens back up, they're gonna be falling behind. They're not gonna know they true history. And this, I think, was a primary opportunity for you to teach us your children the right way, teach them from an Afrocentric perspective, so that they look at the world through their eyes and their lens and their few. That's it. Thank
you for that. If you are listening right now, you are listening to the counter narrative show we are discussing really all things black in education. But one of the things that I want us to hone in on as we get to as we are at the bottom of the hour, or the top of the hour, is the school to prison pipeline. And what I really want to do is I want to read this piece of this article that I wrote, You know what? Before I even read this piece of the article, for people who are not as familiar. Um, who would like to take a stab at just explain it? What is the school to prison pipeline? What does that mean? What is that phrase? I'll do it. Go for it.
Um, I don't know who actually coined this phrase, right? I know that in 2010 I wrote it in my I wrote it in I discovered during the research, and when I was incarcerated, I came across, you know how? How I came across it because I looked in New York State right at that time, 85,000 prisoners was in New York State, and out of these 85,000 prisoners, no, it was 67,000 prisoners, right in New York State, and they all predominantly over 85% of them came from seven particular neighborhoods. And then I began to look at those neighborhoods, and I began to look at how they was economically disadvantaged to poor education and different things like that. Then I discovered the correlation between poor education and going to jail. But to answer your question, the school to prison pipeline, and this is in the generic term, is essentially taking kids from the school yard to the prison yard, and this is being done by the zero tolerance audience that they have and the rules that they have in school anything from willful defiance, and that can be described as you, as a teacher telling me to sit down, and I said, why? I gotta sit down. I have a right to stand up and speak. I didn't harm nobody. I didn't do nothing. I just stood my ground. That's willful defiance. Taking too long is willful defiance, and a lot of instances like this. Someone may come to school with a nail clipper and it has a sharp end, sharp point on it, and that's considered a weapon. And we've seen time and time again that heavy handed tactics was being used against people that look like you and I, and they was going straight from the school yard to the prison yard, and it's a systematic plan that you know, like I said earlier, if you're not reading on grade level by the time you in the third grade, this is where they're able to track it at. But it begins the first day of black male or female students step foot in a kindergarten class. It's just at the third grade, they're able to say, You know what they're not reading on grade level, 75% of them are going to go to jail. And what they do is they sell these jail spaces on the stock market. There's a company they change. They keep changing their names because they stocks go down every time, right when new president come in, when Obama came in and stopped federal government from doing business with private prisons, they stopped. Went down anytime. There's a big scandal about these private prisons. They changed their name, but on the website Geo, which is a private prison. They have the the stock market ticker going across their website, and their motto is, if we build it, they will come. Can you believe that if we build it, they will come? That's crazy. These are what our open enemies are doing. This is how they think and they and remember what I. Day, 75% of them, if they're not reading on grade level, will go to jail, right? And they use this statistics to know how many jails they need in the next 10 to 15 years. So they thinking 10 to 15 years in advance. You know, we thinking what we gonna wear to the club on Friday night.
That's why that parent piece is so important, absolutely, of getting back to who we are and speaking life over our own kids, teaching them at the house, which is what you're talking about, not giving that power away. And like you said, you'll know about a concert, but you won't know when the next local school council meets. Parents have more power than any teacher that 100 teachers standing on a picket line. That's right? Parents have more power because a parent is the one. Our public school system is set in relation to your your taxes, right? So when, when you buy that house and you're paying those taxes, some of that money goes to your public school. So then you as a homeowner, you as a person owning property, you get to march your lovely self into that meeting and say, where are these federal what's the budget? How much of that money is going to programs to help struggling readers? How much of that money is going to stem how much of that money is going to go to our students who have been identified with special needs, and then hold that administration in that district to that line to ensure that they do what needs to be done. That was always what, what I was intentional about doing when my kids went Elementary in high school every LLC, I'm there now my husband is there, and he's helping, and we, you know, with the music and with things regarding the arts, I'm upstairs because I want to know where, where does money going? How, how we spending this money? Where is it going? Because if we don't pay attention from school to school, you'll look up, and then some things have happened because we weren't intentional about asking questions. And to your point, sir, being present, being there. Let
me just say this. I want to expand on the definition of the school to prison pipeline a little bit, because in my I teach high school now I teach a high school probability statistics class, and I wrote a year long curriculum that exams the question, did slavery and or evolve? And we do it by looking at different data. That is public data, census data, FBI data, transatlantic slave trade data, we look at different numbers. And so the school to prison pipeline is the systematic training and indoctrination of black and brown children, particularly black males, and even more so black and even more so now black females, it is actually the preparation, training and indoctrination of these children into a lifestyle that prepares them for prison, and it goes much beyond just how we discipline children, also how we educate them, the curriculums that we use, the esthetics of the buildings that they sit in, the dynamics of the classroom, the power dynamics between teachers and students, as you talked a little bit what defiance means, but also at any point when we're not using education to empower Our students to have choice and make healthy decisions about how they're going to custom tailor their life. We are preparing them for prison. Because the reality is, if I'm a young black woman or man and I don't have a plan for my life, I am more likely to go to jail. I don't have the same level of generational wealth that my Caucasian peers have, I also don't have the connections and the relationships that my middle class Caucasian peers have, and I have to make a way for my life, and I have to eat and so what's going to happen is I'm likely going to get entangled in the legal system while I'm trying to survive. That is the way it is. And so back to the role of black and brown educators. We have got to teach the next generation how to navigate the legal system, the economic system and the political systems that are designed to oppress us because they were not designed with us in mind. That is the role that is a big part of our role in education. That is the purpose behind code switching. That is why we use culturally relevant pedagogy, is to empower students to navigate these systems so that they can live healthy and productive lives, and without particular specific education in these areas, they're going to be entangled. That's just the way it is, absolutely,
absolutely for sharing that. Um, if you're watching right now, you're watching the counter narrative shows we discuss topics around the school to prison pipeline, um. We have special guest brother Rahim Shabazz, Doctor brandy Gail and Miss Elena Ross Jones, and, of course, myself as your host. I'm going to go to the comments. Um, some people wrote some comments. Uh, Lakeisha Jordan wrote, Shabazz is deep umani Omani Coco Warren wrote, that's crazy, I think she I'm not sure what she was referring to when she said that's crazy, but she had wrote it about 20 minutes ago, 21 minutes ago, another person said, powerful dynamic. I think they were talking about the relationship between the teachers and the police, yeah, situation. Um, you really said a lot with that Ms rush Jones, in terms of that socialization and mental conditioning that takes place in schools, preparing them, and in concert with what Brother Shabazz said around, if we build it, they were come like they they are preparing for that. They're willing to set up things and prepare for that. And I know I, I mean, this conversation is so good, I feel like we need to have a part two, because I didn't get through half of the questions. Um, at all, and it's been great. Um, one of the things that I want to out, some of the things I want to outline, specifically for folks who are watching in connection with the school to prison pipeline are how crime led schools, or what they're called, crime led schools adopting zero tolerance policies, how that contributes to this issue, schools outsourcing discipline to the juvenile courts and to officers being present in the school perpetuates that black students are being more likely to be disciplined for some of the things that brother Shabazz brought up. And I experienced that with my own son. He he would, he goes to, I don't know if y'all, I live in Baltimore, and he goes to poly, and they have to wear a they have to wear a uniform, and has the uniform has an emblem. Now it's cold outside, and he comes in and he has on he has on his uniform, but he also have additional clothing on because it's cold. And he catches the bus and he walks and he comes in and he has his jacket on, and he couldn't get it off fast enough, and because he couldn't get his jacket off fast enough, you know, he go, he, he sent to the office for that, and they call me. I don't know if they thought that I was a friend, but I was like, You calling me for what? Now, when you could have waited for this young man to take off his jacket, and you would have seen that he was dressed as don't get me started. But anyway, but, and he has a he has a different experience than my daughter has or has, because he's out of school now. He had a different experience than my daughter has right now. And
we can even in Baltimore talk about the difference between poly and city right demographics and in culture as a result. But go ahead, my sister,
absolutely, that's a whole another we're gonna have a whole another show for that one. Even when schools aren't deliberately sending children into the juvenile justice system, the way in which they're disciplining disciplining them is making it more likely that they will end up there. That's also part of that conditioning. The education department is also pushing schools to change their discipline disciplining policies to more align closely to how we have the justice system deals with discipline. Some school districts are taking a matter into their own hands in terms of how to discipline. So all of these things contribute to this school to prison pipeline that is, is outlined in a very systematic way, this, whether, whether, whether, whether your youth has to go through a metal detector when they get to school, the policing of the uniform, the I mean, it's just, it's just so many layers to it, and it's so frustrating. And I really appreciate one of the things you said, Miss restaurants that one of the first lines of our defense around that is the curriculum. So before we close out, I want to ask, what are some solutions? What are some things that people can do, to undo, to work on, to resist against, to advocate around this whole school to prison pipeline thing is the first question. The second one is, if people are interested in learning more about you, what you're up to, what are you going to be doing next? Where can they follow you? Email you whatever you feel comfortable sharing. I'm going to start with Brother Shabazz. What are one of the things that you feel like we can start to undo, to help fight against this whole school to prison pipeline situation, I
would say every parent that take your kids outside, out of the public education system, but I know that's not a reality, but homeschool school doesn't start, and. Eight o'clock on the bell ring, and it doesn't end at 3pm even if you have to send them to school when they come home, you have to educate them. What you have to do is you have to give them the, I don't want to say the secondary education, but you have to give them the real education when they come home. And if you're not doing that, then they going to be misguided, and they going to be miseducated, because to go back to what you said earlier, um, when you look at the school system, you know, if you go and you ask the average teacher, what school does their children go to, nine times out of 10, it's a private school, right? So they can't tell you that all education is equal. Why would you pay hundreds of 1000s of dollars to send your kids to a private school when you are public school teachers? So you know, that's not the best education, you know. So our people, we have to look at things for what they are and not what they present they self to be. So that's the answer to that, as to answer your second question, um, anybody that wants to follow me? Um, it's at Raheem Shabazz, and that's across all social, uh, media platforms. And if you're interested in getting the documentary, you can go to Amazon. I prefer that you go to the actual website and get it, um, and it's elementary genocide.com, and if you put a forward slash combo, you can get all three of them for a discount, and they ship within 24 hours. One more thing I want to add, too, right? You know, because a lot of things I say, right, um, I don't want y'all to take on face value. I can come up here and say some real good things, right? And some of the stuff you'd be like, Man, these people can't be doing that. But you know what, Google? Let Google be your best friend. I want y'all to look up the New York State Teachers Retirement Fund, right, and see that they take hundreds of millions of dollars of these retired, of the funds from when teachers retire, and see where they invested at they invest hundreds of millions into stock for private prisons. So that's another correlation that should be illegal for them to be able to do that, but it's being done
right before I go to the next person. Mister Greg Brown asked a question in the chat. Anyone could take this? His question is, hello. I'm sorry if this question has already been asked, but where does parental responsibility fall when it comes to the school to prison pipeline? Anyone want to take that? I think you kind of hit on it a bit Shabazz in terms of, like you were suggesting, like one it doesn't start at the school. You're educating them at home, and even to one extent, taking them out of that school system. So I think, yeah, yeah,
the parents, they bear some responsibility too. You know, you're the first line of defense, when it, when it, when it comes to the education of your child. So there should be, you know, you got to teach them at home, um, you got to teach them discipline. You got to teach them respect. You got to teach them be honorable. So, yeah, the parents does, uh, take some responsibility. But, you know, in defense of a lot of parents, I want to just play devil's advocate. A lot of parents don't have the time because they work in two and three jobs, right? And kids are spending more time in these schools than they spending our home. You know, a lot of times when they home, they sleep in eight hours. You know, when they come home, by the time the parents get home. So the dynamics is really a sad situation because of the time that we living in. But parents have a lot of responsibility, you know, and like I said, we have to is the parents for it's not the students for that. When you go to the PTA meetings. They're not present. You know, a lot of imma give you an instance, a lot of sisters call me and ask me questions about what they should do when their kids get in trouble. And I try to advise them. One sister I accompany to a disciplinary hearing, and the first thing that they said was, Oh, is he the father? I didn't know that there was a man the father was president in the home. Why would you say that? Why would you assume so, you know, I really let them have it there, right? So, you know, this is the mindset of the people that we dealing with. But like the other sister said, the PTA meeting. We can take that over, and we can control that. See the PTA. When the PTA decides who is going to be the the superintendent for that district, right? The superintendent decides who's going to be the principal for that district. The principal decides who's going to be the teachers in the school. True, and you start with the PTA, and you work yourself up to the higher our key, and you take control of the system. It might take some time, but this can be done within, within, within a year's time, if it's done right and by the community and what has to happen. You know, I know where I live. I live in an all black community, and it's being done. And what's being done on the other side is homeschooling. Did this. Atlanta is the capital of homeschooling. Nobody wants to send their children to the open enemy to teach, because when you have a school named Robert E Lee who is a Confederate soldier, you know, that was against the abolishing of slavery, you know, and kids find out that how you think they're going to feel when you when they find out that you, you know, you, um, if they talking in a little slang, and, you know, they get penalized for it, because you want them to speak the Queen's language, and they find out the Queen of England is the one that sanctions slavery. So we got to be real with the kids. You know, they have internet now. They're not stupid. And kids don't really, um, they really, they want to know that you care about them before they even interested in learning from you,
right? That's so true, especially with teenagers. Dr Gayle, what? What are some of the solutions that you see in terms of like, how do we combat the school to prison pipeline? And also, where can people find and connect with you?
Think the first line of defense is taking our power back. I've seen over time, just from my beginning teaching to where I sit now, when I first started, students aid at home. Now, breakfast is in the classroom. Lunches in the classroom. Get your eyes checked at school. Dental, it's at school. And I'm not saying that those things are not necessary, but I think the the unfortunate in that is there's been a loss of balance, right? So we those are power things, right? Because those are viable things that are needed for kids to be successful, and so making sure that if they are receiving those services, that's absolutely fine, but being present to ensure that the other monies that are being spent right, that for us here in Chicago, that's your LLC, your local school council, being present, being on that committee that talks about the funds and how they're going to roll out for that academic year. And you have a voice as a parent any public school your taxes pay there. I was intentional that I wasn't writing a check already. Write a check. I write a check for this mortgage. So these tax dollars in this city, I'm gonna need you to do what other people who don't look like me demand that you do. So here in Chicago, many when you when you look at the schools across the nation and top tier schools, many of those fall right here in Illinois. Many of those are right here in Chicago, and they're public schools. They're not private. So we have folks that don't look like us that demand, right? You're going to be everything I need you to be. And how do I know that? Because I'm gonna tell you what you're gonna be. So those parents, they have taken their power because it's their right, it's our right as parents. And so I always like to encourage parents. And again, that's back to my work right as being a parental education strategist. Their education is chess. It's not checkered. And so we have to strategically think about how we're going to do that, and we have the power to do that. And folks can find me through Facebook, beacon of light, ESS, you can find me bol underscore, Dr Gayle, and so I have a newsletter and some other things that I'm working on and platforms like this. And I'm an email away at Gale one@gmail.com I am intent on helping parents take back your power, because, listen, you are superheroes, right? We take our kids to see Marvel, and they admire the big screen. You are that Marvel individual. You are the superhero, and you have the power.
Thank you for sharing that. Dr Kevin Daniel said, great focus. Um, same question, of course, for you Miss Ross Jones, in terms of like, how can we disrupt this school to prison pipeline so far, I you know, we've, we've heard things around educating your your youth at home, join the PTA meetings, get involved in in other particular ways. I know earlier you mentioned how that how the control of the curriculum has a very important role. You really gave me something to think about. Dr Gayle, when you talked about that, is that is a loss of some some you. Guidance and control, like if they are getting fed at school, they get their eye appointments at school, they get all of these things. And then it made me think of what Brother Shabazz said about how parents are secondary. Their responsibility is secondary. And I feel like a lot of times people interact with parents like that. I remember when my daughter was in elementary she's in middle school now, I felt like they felt like they had more say over what she did and didn't do and what she went than I did. And I really had to just kind of like, you have to really push back, because it's like, oh no. You really think that this is your child halfway, now all the way halfway, just enough to tell, tell me what to do. Anyway, y'all get me riled up again. All right. Miss Ross Jones, share that with us, and then let everybody know how they can reach out to you, contact with you, connect and follow you.
So I want to open it up, because I'm a big person on community, right? And I have to disclose that I consider myself, first of all, to be a woman of God, and being a woman of God is what guides my life and my decision making. And there's a book in the Bible, a book of Nehemiah, where the walls of Israel were turned torn down and they had to rebuild. And Nehemiah basically said of it like this. He said, Every man, get a hammer and a sword and take up your position, build and be prepared to fight. And so I would say for all of us, because we've talked about the role of parents, we've talked about the role of educators, I tried to expand it so much to the role of the community. Take up your position and do what you can do, because I do understand it's very real that every parent can go to the PTA, but you can buy school supplies, and I've had Teacher Appreciation gifts. There are all sorts of things you can do, so take some time to think about where your values lie and how you can express that. And I think that every individual needs to consider that every need, every individual needs to contemplate, what am I currently doing, and what could I be doing more? Could I be donating supplies to a school? Could I be volunteering my time? Could I be helping monitor the cafeteria while students are eating so that teachers can take a break? Now, this is pre COVID. With COVID, there's a lot of regulation on who can enter the building, but asking yourself, What can I do? Can I donate masks? There are still schools that are going to open up with black and brown children that won't have enough PPE, and that's just a fact. So every man take up his position, get a hammer and a sword. Be prepared to put your hand to the plow and do the practical work that you can do, but also be prepared to advocate, to fight and to make your voice known, and whatever space you have the influence to do that, with that being said. And I know that sounded really lofty, but I tried to give some practical examples along the way. As far as me, you can reach me on all things social media. Melania Ross Jones on Facebook, I am six Millie teachers. That's like M, I, L, L, Y. Teacher on Instagram, six mil. Teacher, if you happen to be on clubhouse and one teach to another, one teach another. On Twitter, I will give you my email. I don't mind getting my email, but I am not exaggerating when I tell you I give 1000s of emails a week is not the most efficient way to reach me, but you can reach me at Eros dot Jones at Sydney neighbors high school.org. Thank you. And you can also check on my store if you're interested in products, mathematics and STEM curriculum that's geared towards African American students. You can check out my work soon this summer at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. And you can also check out my products on Teachers Pay teacher that store is one teacher to another. Too.
Awesome. Thank you all so much for coming to this space and taking out time of your Saturday to come and sit and talk with me and and the folks who enjoy this show, thank you also for the people who watching. You could be doing anything with your Saturday and you decided to spend some of it with us. I do not take that lightly. I don't take any time energy and effort that people put into sharing space with me lightly. So I want to thank you all for that. This has been the counter narrative show where we have discussed the school to prison pipeline join us next week, where the topic is the bell curve and it's B, E, L, black educators and leadership, I'm hoping to have all three of y'all back honestly. Oh, just be ready for another email where I'm going to be asking you to come back again. So thank you everyone for watching, and you have a good night.
I need to know everything, who in the what in the where? I need everything. Trust me, I hear what you're saying, but allegiance. Know what you're telling me. I'm curious. George. I hop in the Porsche five and a horse. I'm ready for war. I'm coming for throws to turn it with ghosts. I need to know everything. I.