''S-S-S-S-t...
''S-S-St...
''S-S-to...
''S-S-Stower-ry.''
''Stower-ry.''
''Story.''
Idiot.
''S-tory.
''Put...the...
''...story in...
''...o...
''...o...''
Try it again.
I can't.
Oh, no.
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
Hey, bug.
It's time to wake up.
Mmm.
Let's go, we're LATE. Let's go.
-The new school doesn't care. -I care.
-One more bite. -I ate it.
That's why I bought you that 59.99 LeSportsac backpack...
...and I will take it away if we keep being LATE. Let's go.
Go, go, go, come on.
Look, what does that sign say? Go on, read that sign.
-It says ''stop.'' -Malia.
Okay, what sound does that first letter make?
''Stop...
''...aggravating me.''
Malia. Come on.
I got it, right?
Come on.
Come on. Go, go.
Here you go.
I love you.
I love you, I love you.
I love you, bug.
Sorry we're LATE.
Good morning. I just have one question.
At Malia's old school, her teacher used to stay late sometimes after school
to help her a little bit with her reading...
School's over at 3.
For real?
Yeah, for real.
Okay.
Yesterday we were learning about nouns.
Today we'll be looking at verbs.
It's how we express an action, that's what verbs are for.
So,
in the sentence:
''The penguin dives into the sea.''
Where's the verb? The action word?
Anyone?
How 'bout it, Tyler? Wanna take a swing at it?
I'm not doin' this for me.
All right, let's go back to anyone.
Wait till you see the deals I got today.
Beautiful Buick Rendezvous. This baby is loaded.
I'm pickin' her up today. We're gonna beg her old school to give us a break on tuition.
She cannot stay in that class.
No, Liz, that's exactly what I said to that crazy teacher.
Hold on.
Hank Hart Auto.
Sure, I'll transfer you.
Yeah, no, and the principal keeps blowing me off over and over again.
Oh, God. I'm sorry, I gotta go. I gotta go. I'll call you back. I gotta go.
Hank Hart Auto.
No, I'm sorry, ma'am, Mr. Hart is indisposed at the moment.
Excuse me, ma'am, would you please lower your voice?
Oh, my boss can't talk right now, so I'm a stupid cow?
You wanna talk to my supervisor?
Okay. Sure, no problem.
Oops, wrong button.
-Hey, Jamie. -Oh, Mr. Hart.
-Hey, Jamie, check this out. -Hey. Yes.
''We must be the change we wish to see.'' That's Gandhi.
And it's good for car sales, it's good for life.
Boy, that little guy really knew a thing or two, right?
Listen, I just wanted to talk to you because Jan mentioned to me...
...that you might wanna cut back on my hours a little bit.
I'm still behind here.
I completely understand. You're tryin' to run an effective business. I wanna help.
I can't stand her.
I can't. I can't.
We talked about this, Breena. It's a Deborah-free zone for our own sanity.
Mmm-hmm. Yeah.
You know, in a way, I almost admire her.
No ordinary deadbeat could pull off the highest salary
and the lowest job performance in school history seven years running.
Seriously, Breena.
Except you're not getting her subliterate kids that she passes on to me. Okay?
And I have to give them two years of teaching in one.
I know there's a lot of Adams washouts, but still.
The only thing that the district does right is protect what it does wrong.
Can't teach your way out of a paper bag?
Your students can't even spell ''paper bag''? No problem.
We'll just transfer them on to the next school, and the next.
And if all else fails, well, hey, there's Adams, where education goes to die.
Ahh!
It's my shrink's idea.
Every time I start obsessing about how bad it's getting, I just snap myself out of it.
How is that workin' for ya?
Calluses upon calluses.
Give me one of those things.
Uh-uh.
Oh. Really?
Good morning, Nona.
Office needs your attendance logs corrected.
Oh, Tim.
No use fightin' 'em on it.
Yeah. You have too many absents then they can't just pass them along.
Breakin' the law for the Man.
That gives you a special feeling, doesn't it?
What?
Just gets to you, you know?
Now 10 divided by 3
is 3.33
And straight on into infinity
Figure it out, don't listen to me
It's knowledge
To get to college
Come on, come on
Now 50% of 110
Cut it in half, do it again
Double or nothing it's 55
And what percentage of you will arrive in college
You're all going to college
Jazz hands! Jazz hands!
Hurry up! We gotta get to your old school before the principal leaves.
Come on! Come on, come on, come on.
You know we'd love to have Malia back, but we can't give you any more aid.
Okay, so, tuition's five hundred, I'll pay you six.
But I'll pay it in installments, like a 0% down, 3% financing kind of thing.
I know, you're trepidatious. But you're gonna make more money in the long run.
I'm sorry.
Sit down here for just one second, sweetie.
PIease, please. I'm begging you. I'm on my hands and knees.
She was doin' all right with you guys.
This new school can't do anything about the dyslexia.
And I know it's only been a short time.
I can feel it changing her. It's making her hard.
And the school's failing.
It is. They put it online now. You can read it. They got an F. An F.
There's the Rosa Parks Charter. They have a lottery coming up soon.
I know, but they got like 500 people going for three slots.
-Well, perhaps another school, then. -You're acting like I got a choice here.
It's not personal.
For you!
-Let's get outta here. -Okay.
Malia, don't worry. I just gotta get you into that other second grade class.
You Look nice, Mrs. AIberts.
Yeah. First black Stepford wife.
Oh, don't answer that. It's Charles. New boss, I'm late
Cody, come on. You remember, we worked on this. All right?
You take this number here and this number.
You can do it, come on. I know you can.
All right...
Just tell him I'm gonna be late
Good night, Cody.
AIberts residence.
CIay, Valerie, Nona.
-So nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
I ordered you the coq au vin since you were late.
Thank you.
So Charles tells us you teach in the Hill District.
Now, is that the Rosa Parks Charter that NPR is so gaga over?
I teach at Adams.
When we first moved here, Nona made it a point to find the school most in need.
That is so admirable.
Very idealistic, she was.
Well, I guess we both were. I still wanted to design then.
So we would stay up all night long planning the schools
that I would build for her to run.
We were so young.
Now the thought of all that just makes me wanna take a nap.
You're gonna rip it!
I don't care! Now give it!
-Let go! It's mine! Take your seats.
Everybody, sit down now.
Stop. You're gonna rip it!
All right, that's it.
Come on, sit down. Everybody sit down.
You both take your seats.
Oh, no.
All right. Just give me the backpack.
-She ruined it. -Everybody sit down.
Sit down.
-No. Stop laughing. Calm down.
Stop!
Give it to me.
She tore my backpack!
Give me the backpack and sit down.
Don't be such a drama queen, Malia. Lord.
That's not true, there's nothing you could do.
You could put her in the other class.
I can't do that! As I've told you in one of our Last six conversations...
Yeah?
...there are laws about the number of kids you can have in a class.
So switch her with another kid.
Or, so, get rid of this teacher.
The whole school knows she's got a track history of complaints against her.
Oh, no, yes, you can't! Right?
'Cause she's tenurized. Right?
Yes, along with a slew of other things spelled out in her 600 page contract.
Right.
Anyway, Look at what she's dealin' with. 30 kids who hate school.
Whose fault is that?
It's not all hers. Every kid can't rise to the top, I'm afraid.
You're afraid?
Have you heard about those mothers that lift one-ton trucks off their babies?
They're nothing compared to me.
No.
-Excuse me? -He's not going into a remedial classroom.
But he's been acting out, and he did test below the norm.
He tested borderline. He's been goin' through things at home.
I'll keep working with him.
If I may, I think that might contribute to the acting out.
Do you?
Nona, this is not a referendum on you.
Maybe we all just need to back off Cody a bit.
Test results are test results.
-Hold up for a second. -Can't.
Rosa Parks got a lottery. I'm gonna beg to get him in. PIay the teacher card.
First of all, a new school is not gonna stop him from acting out.
Why do you think he's acting out?
Honestly? Because you can't not be a teacher to him.
You don't think it's 'cause of what's happening at home?
You are all over him all the time.
And I know why.
But at some point, you have to let's go.
Nona.
Nona!
Hi.
This is where I'm going?
I hope so.
We need some luck.
Maybe I should practice my reading. They'll want me if my reading's good.
Let's go find someplace to sit.
Excuse me.
I'm trying to get my son in the lottery.
It's too late. I'm sorry.
PIease, I'm a teacher. Is there anyone I could talk to?
You can try the principal. He's right over there. Do you see him?
How's it going poaching my teachers?
Oh, please. We don't poach, we protect.
Now, that's a good line. You oughta use it more often. Oh, I forgot, you already do.
Oh, here we go, union bashing.
Here's a little secret: you can criticize and support unions.
Hey. How'd it go with your brother?
Oh, it was great. He won, 3 to 2.
AImost as good as you.
But you don't support us, you know? You shut us out.
Yeah, because my teachers want their freedom.
To be overworked? To be fired at any time for any reason?
No, freedom to put in extra time with their kids.
You know, freedom to stay after school if they want.
Good luck to you.
But do they want it, or are they too scared to say no?
You forget I was a teacher once.
No. I don't forget.
You were one of the greats.
Mr. Thompson. My name is Nona AIberts.
I'll have to talk to you afterwards.
Good evening, parents.
Here's your charm. Put it in your right hand.
In our country,
one child out of every four
grows up not knowing how to read properly.
Let me ask you
does that make you mad?
Yes!
Good, because I want you to be mad.
We have 40 spaces for you in our school.
So that means 400 of you are going to have to go out there
and fight for something better.
Just like I did 10 years ago.
I was a teacher, a parent of two.
I was sending my kids to school, but they weren't learning anything.
Now I don't know everything, but I knew I had to do something to try to fix it.
And now, Rosa Parks is third in the state.
But when I first tried to start it, you know what they said to me?
''Hold on. Wait. We're addressing the problem.
''Hold on, wait. They're makin' changes.''
That word ''wait'' means they're not going to do anything about it.
I said then and I'm saying it now.
We will not wait.
Are we going to wait while our kids are dropping out of school?
Are we going to wait while the school system is failing us?
We will not wait.
We will not wait!
This is it! This is our school.
We will not wait!
Okay, now, we're about to begin the draw.
CIose your eyes. CIose your eyes and wish for it.
First grade, three slots.
Okay?
Sarah Troy.
Yes! Yes!
Kenya Randall.
Is that the teacher in the other class?
Yeah.
Easton Hawks.
Yeah!
Three slots now for third grade.
Oh, no. Okay.
Go like this. It's better luck. Luck's a lady.
Luck is a foxy lady.
LeShonda Jackson.
Go, LeShonda!
Chris Amodio.
Yeah!
The Last slot for the third grade goes to
Robert Bryant.
We have three slots for fourth grade.
EIijah Jones.
Congratulations to all of you.
And to everyone else, we must fight on.
This is a new day and we are taking back our public schools.
Thank you.
Principal, your car's ready for you.
Listen, can I speak to Mr. Thompson?
-Excuse me. -Mr. Thompson?
Excuse me.
You teach second grade at Adams, right?
My daughter just started there.
-Are you here for yourself or for your kid? -That's none of your business.
-What do you want from me? -I want Malia in your class.
It's a criminality keeping her in the other class. You have no room?
-It's up to the principal! -The principal said no!
-Then there's nothing I can do about it! -That's what you all say!
Would you tell me right now what you can do?
I can ask him about it tomorrow.
You're not gonna do that, but thank you very much.
You're not the only one bein' put off. I said I'll ask.
-I've heard that before. -Not from me.
This is for her.
I understand. I'll do it.
Thank you!
Can we talk now?
I was thinking about my mother's funeral.
How word got out and all those old students showed up.
So many that they had to wait outside.
And it was galing.
You remember that?
Yeah.
But they didn't care.
They had to say something, remember her, what she'd done for them.
Nona.
They wouldn't go away.
They just
had to speak.
Needed to...
Over and over, they just kept saying the same thing.
Her passion, her passion, that passion.
Nona. Listen to me.
Can you please just not leave so many empty hangers?
How you doing with that teacher?
Malia?
She hates you so she hates me.
We're gonna get you out of there.
Whatever.
Hey, how you doing?
Hi! Well, it's casual Friday, so I feel great. Can I help you?
I hope so. My daughter's getting crushed at Adams
so I gotta talk to your superintendent guy.
He doesn't do walk-ins. I'm sorry.
Which I figured. I work reception, too, at Hank Hart.
And I know every once in a while, there's an opening.
I just figured I would take a chance because my daughter is getting crushed.
Wait, did you say Hank Hart, the car guy?
The guy who has his ads all over the benches?
Wow.
Can I buy you a coffee?
-And I understand that but it's, like awful! -I understand.
And Rosa Parks was my Last chance. And now I'm like 110 on the wait list.
And that guy acted like he just
extemporaneously went out and made it happen.
It's not like you can just go and start a school!
Actually, it doesn't stop the parents from trying.
And that was even before they passed the law.
What law?
The one where you can turn schools around.
What, the parents can?
Yeah. With the teachers, if the school's failing. It's called the Fail-Safe Law.
But you know what? It never happens.
'Cause the guys here, I swear, they moonlight at the Rivers Poker Room.
They just drag everything out until the parents just fold. It's terrible.
But if they kept at it, you think a parent could turn a school around?
No, the parents always give up.
It's this whole big thing.
Thank you, Collette.
You have to find someone that has the same idea as you do
about the kind of school that you want.
-Like who? A teacher? -Yeah, like a teacher, or...
The teachers and the parents, they have to sign off on it,
and then you have to write a proposal,
then you gotta jump through hoops to deal with the school board.
They make it near impossible.
Parents need to just bang their heads against a brick wall.
It'd be a whole lot faster and easier, let's me tell you.
-I'm sorry. -No, no.
-Thanks for the coffee. -Yeah.
Sorry, I gotta get back to work.
Hey.
They told me you'd be in here.
Hi.
-Hi, I'm Nona, by the way. -I'm Jamie.
-Sorry about Last night. -Yeah. No. It was a bad night for all of us.
I asked about Malia switching and...
Yeah.
-And he said no? -Yeah.
Okay, that's...
I'm sorry. You're, like, the only person
who actually does what she says she's gonna do around here.
I'm sorry.
You want to start a school with me?
What?
'Cause I'm sick of this.
I can't take this anymore
and somebody told me that if you find a teacher and you stick with it long enough
you can turn a school around.
'Cause I'm just so tired of getting shafted here.
Thing that keeps me up at night is why do I got to let's her down on this?
So you want to start a school with me?
Listen, I know what you're saying, more than you might think.
But I'm not who you're looking for. I wish I could say I was.
I work in sales, where success rate is based on need. And you got need.
I saw it Last night. You don't want to get left behind, and neither do I.
So,
I'm gonna go to District tomorrow at 9 a.m., figure out how to do this.
Could you take a sick day and meet me there?
PIease?
Oh, God.
Oh, jeez.
Oh, man.
I'm just here for the information.
I'm not saying I'm gonna do anything. I'm just gonna hear them out.
That's all I'm asking.
Okay!
Once you finish your proposal...
That's this 400-page document?
Once that's filled out,
then you need to request an appointment to schedule a hearing
in front of the school board.
That needs to be made on the first Tuesday of the month
except January and April, when it needs to come on the second Monday.
So it's not the actual date we're scheduling?
Oh, no, ma'am. You're scheduling an appointment to schedule the date.
You're kidding, right?
No. No, no, no.
It's no joke. It's a process.
First, we gotta get 50% of the parents, 50% of the teachers
to sign a petition in support of us.
That's 400 parents, 18 teachers.
Then we gotta do the proposal
and submit it on the first Groundhog's Day of the Chinese lunar leap year.
There's nothing in the rules about leap years.
And then, finally, we get that school board hearing.
But the school board term ends in two months,
which means we've gotta do this fast.
We gotta book that hearing, and we can get this going for next fall.
Something funny?
Start to finish, this process is three to five years, minimum.
It's just the way these people talk. You can't go quitting now.
Actually, I think this is the best time.
-It's exactly what they want us to do. -They've done a bang-up job.
I can not ask 18 of my friends to give up tenure and pension
for a school where they're not even guaranteed a job.
-I will. I'll do that. -Listen to me, all right?
When I first started, I would get so mad at those teachers.
So mad at the checked-out zombies. The Dawn of the Deborahs.
-Yes! -And they said just wait.
Wait until you went through eight different principals
and parents who could care less and mountains of district paperwork
years of students showing up hungry, showing up tired, or not showing up at all.
I can't have this not happen. I need a teacher.
You think you know what you're doing. You have no idea.
-Where are you going? -To figure out what to do with my class.
We don't have that option. 'Cause Malia ended up across the hall. How's that fair?
It's not.
Listen, I'll call you when I get my first 100 parents. Or when I get my first 50!
This is not over!
It's not over!
I'm trying to explain to you why your kid's tanking!
No, honey, I'm not saying your kid in particular is an idiot.
Good morning. Here. Give this to your mama.
Here, will you take one? Just take one. Take it.
Oh, I know you!
-Your daughter is in Malia's class! -Sorry.
Morning!
-Hey, Daddy Drop-off. -Hi.
My name is Jamie, my daughter Malia's in the second grade here.
Could I talk to you for just one second?
-I'm running late. -It's cool, I'll walk with you.
I just wanted to ask you if you'd eat in a restaurant
that had an F hanging in the window.
You wouldn't, right?
'Cause there'd be rattails and stuff in the food, and people's hair.
So now, just envisualize something for me.
Envisualize an F hanging on the door of your kid's school.
Because it is, it's there.
It's been hanging there for 19 years, and nobody's done anything about it.
Rat tails, you know what I mean?
Take a Look at that, and sign that for me.
-And I'll find you at pick-up. -Yeah, I'll Look it over.
Now you I know!
You're gonna sign this. Okay?
Excuse me!
Why are we changing all the desks around?
'Cause we're gonna try something new.
How we do things.
We're all gonna work a little harder. Me included.
Hey!
Hi. Come on in.
Thanks.
Just give me a second here.
-Can't leave the Man in BIack hangin'. -Oh, yeah.
He's badass.
What?
Your sign. It's badass.
Oh, yes.
Yours isn't so bad either.
Oh, no.
Sorry.
No, I'm sorry.
Hi, how can I help you?
I saw you teach.
You're really good at it.
Thank you.
You think a whole school could be like that, like how you do it?
I don't know. A whole school.
I guess so. It'd be pretty weird.
Are you that lady leading the charge outside?
Yeah! Are people talking about me already?
Yeah, they are.
So do you want to do that? You want to start that school?
Ahh...
Do I want to start a school? No, I don't. I just want to teach.
So, what are you doing here?
I chose to be here. Right out of Teach For America.
All right, Teacher For America.
Meet me here
at 8:00
and I'll talk you into it.
All right, we'll see.
Hey! Oh, good!
Good, you got my message.
Look at those nails. Wow.
Cheaper than therapy.
53 parents?
Yep.
It is crazy how bad they want it.
-So, what are you drinking? -Fresca.
Okay. Better pace yourself.
So I'm thinking we get the parents to sell it to the teachers.
Which we can totally do. We do, like, an event.
Because we can do this in two months.
We do an event, like at the dealership.
Like an all-out blowout sale. Something really big.
And I got you some help.
I don't want anyone knowing about this.
-I didn't say you were doing it. -I'm not in it.
He's gonna help. Trust me.
-He thinks this is a date. -No.
Yeah. Maybe.
Hey.
-I told you I worked here, right? -No.
Hi. Hey, Nona.
-How's it going? -Good.
So, what are you drinking?
-JD, straight up. -All right.
So I wanted you to come because Nona's doing the school thing...
Nona's not doing the school thing.
...and we need some help getting other teachers on board.
And I've been asking around about you. Everyone who knows you likes you.
And everybody who doesn't calls you Sexy Texy.
Well, like I told you, I'm just interested in teaching so...
Yeah, but you got free whiskey. So sit for a minute and listen to the lady.
Okay.
Go, Nona.
Well, if I did it...
And I'm not saying that I am.
We would have to see how our school with the same kids could do even better.
Now, staff participation in the classroom, articulated course curriculum,
that would mean changing the whole culture of the school.
Basically, we would have to be the teachers who made us teachers,
but even better.
Would the teachers still be union?
Can't be. Our contract has too many restrictions.
Because that matters a lot.
Okay, so in two days, I got 53 parents and two teachers.
-I didn't... -I'm not getting...
I see your lips moving, but I can't hear you.
You want a refill?
Thank you.
Things are really coming to a head here.
The protestors are defiant.
They're throwing bricks and poles and trash cans.
Good night, Daniel.
So this is good.
Throwing bricks?
How's that good?
Because it's... You know, they're letting' themselves be heard.
It's a waste of time. It doesn't do anything.
Doesn't do anything? Really?
-You don't believe that. -I don't know.
Like civil rights.
The Selma to Montgomery marches. All that's a waste of time?
It sends a message.
I mean, that's what you're doing, isn't it?
No, I just want a better school for my kid.
Sending a message is what people who don't work two jobs have got time to do.
-Can you turn those lights out for me? -Yeah.
You know what? I really do appreciate what you're doing to change the place.
Course. She's my kid.
And her father, does he help out at all?
Nope.
I'm sorry. When I drink, I ask nosy questions.
When I drink, I marry losers.
Yeah, I'd say he's definitely a loser now.
-I think so. -Yeah.
And Malia is a winner, 'cause she's got you.
You need to work on your lines.
That wasn't a line. No, no, no, it wasn't a line. I'm sorry.
I've been around kids a lot more than women lately.
That's not a line?
It's not a line. It's true.
Kids, you know, kids just say what's what. Women don't do that so much.
Except for you.
That's true. Foot in the horse's mouth, that's me.
Yeah.
That's why I like you.
That was a line. I admit it.
No.
Cody. You got this, I know you do.
Yeah, is this retard-proof?
-Stop saying that. -Whole school knows it.
Are they giving you a hard time?
Can't I just go to the school near Uncle Roy while Dad's living with him?
Pow!
-Hi. -Hi.
Come on in, Malia.
-Nice. Yeesh! -Oh, no.
Cody.
-Ooh la la. -Cody.
Why don't you show Malia around till your dad comes, okay?
Oh, no, no, he doesn't have to. She's got her DVD player, she's good.
-Can I watch? Yeah, sure.
He's not allowed to watch TV during the day.
Do you guys want a Snickers?
Come on.
-Come on in. -Yeah, go ahead.
I know you're trepidatious about this whole school thing
and I don't wanna take up your whole Saturday.
But just to start off the bat,
here is a flier that I made
for the rally.
Get it? Parentrooper, paratrooper?
Yeah.
That one came to me from the dead of sleep.
I like it. Except there's a typo, unless you're gonna have the rally in 2101.
Oh, no.
Yeah, I'm terrible with numbers.
I also have some ideas for the school.
About how to make the school more effectual.
Okay.
So drawing outside the box,
I don't know why, but I started to think about those dumb self-help books
because there's always, like, a little bit of truth in them.
Like, for example, the whole Secret-ing thing is so lame. I know.
But I'm still envisualizing that check in my mailbox.
And I started thinking,
you know, maybe the kids could Secret things,
like, you know, I don't know, like...
Like going to college.
And they could picture themselves
going there and walking on the campus and actually graduating.
And I think that that would be good for them to see themselves that way.
You think that's dumb.
I think it's a knockout.
Really?
Yeah.
Really?
-Oh, can you excuse me for a sec? -Yeah, sure.
Cody, your dad's here!
Why is Cody talking about going to school near you?
'Cause it's a great school, and we can't afford anywhere else.
Except that he's not gonna live with you and your brother.
So you, of all people, you'd stop him
-from getting the right schooling? -Not gonna happen.
And I should trust your judgment, given what happened?
Once things settle down, he'll stop acting out. That's all this is.
Come on, Nona. All-white school, remedial classroom. It's killing him.
Oh, hey.
Nona, please listen to me. He needs his mother.
How long have you guys been split up?
Not very.
Yeah.
Where were we?
We were talking about ideas for the school.
Ideas, yeah. I got boxes of ideas.
You know, it comes down to expecting more.
From yourself, the teachers, the kids, especially the kids.
-What? -My mom used to always say,
''What are you gonna do with your one and only life?''
You are gonna be so good at this.
-Hey. -Hey.
Nona, are you planning to take over Adams?
'Cause that's what we heard.
What'd you hear?
Someone from District told Holland that you were looking into it, but...
I just went to ask.
What? And you didn't tell us? You didn't tell me?
Maybe you don't want us teaching at your school.
Breena, now, come on...
You know, I expect my kids to be naive.
Sneaking behind our backs, non-union school.
You're messing with our jobs.
Coulda talked to me.
Thought that we were friends.
-Hi. Hi.
-Thank you so much for coming. -No, don't thank me.
-My neighbor's such a flake. -No, it's all right. I'm glad you called.
Yeah.
Malia, get up and say hey. Don't be a brat.
You remember Michael.
I'm not gonna be out late. There's Swansons in the freezer.
'Kay. What's up?
I'm just gonna write down my number for you.
Okay.
Hey, I'm gonna teach you a song from an ancient time.
Wanna hear it?
Cool.
There was a young girl named Malia
The coolest kid you ever saw-lia
But then she met me And soon she would see
She was gonna have a ball-ia
Here you go. Malia.
I love you.
Call if you guys need me.
Okay.
What do you think?
Sweet. I'm still workin' on it.
Nice place.
You wanna try?
Yeah, you wanna try.
Just put your finger right there.
-Right here? -Right there.
And now hit all the strings.
There it is.
There was a young girl named Malia
All right, nice!
You're a good listener.
She has a cool
She had cool hair and big smelly feet-ia
-Hey. -Hey.
Sucks about those teachers.
Sucks even more knowing they're right.
Yeah, well, I brought you something to cheer you up.
I'm giving you these because I like you. But I don't want to.
This is my bobblehead collection.
Now, I counted out 18.
We're gonna put one in the Tupperware each time a teacher signs on
and you are the first black-and-gold medal winner.
Sid The Kid or Hines Ward?
Take a guess.
Careful!
You just wait and see how quick this thing fills up.
Now, we are locking these up. Let's go get those parents.
Who is it?
Nona AIberts, I teach at Adams.
-Hey. -This that parent takeover thing?
It's really not a takeover, it's...
Hey, Rhonda, it's Jamie.
Yeah. Sorry, Jamie. I'm giving my kid a bath.
Can I just leave you with a petition?
Hi, Ms. Bennett. I'm Nona AIberts. I teach at Adams
and I was hoping that we could talk to you about this district...
Firing good teachers to put in a school
where I gotta work 20 hours on top of my full-time.
Go sell it to some other jerk.
Those jerks, they're called concerned parents!
Who's telling her that?
-Is this what it's gonna be like all night? -Who's next?
Wanda Williams.
Who is it? -This is Nona AIberts from Adams.
I heard about you. I'm not interested.
This is Nona AIberts and Jamie Fitzpatrick. We need to talk to you about Adams.
I got the letter. I'm not interested.
Yeah, I got the letter already.
Well, I don't wanna hear about it.
Who is it?
Miss Maraval?
This is Jamie Fitzpatrick. I sold you a Buick Regal sedan a few months ago.
I gave you a great deal. Would you please give me 10 seconds?
Come on in.
Could they possibly squeeze one more lie into this thing? Who wrote this?
Teachers Association of Pennsylvania, maybe.
It's their job to worry about the Adams teachers.
This is one school.
I appreciate my union, but TAP can get kinda hardcore about it.
We'll get around this. -So take me through this one more time.
A lot of these kids can barely add, and you wanna be teaching them geometry?
Well, the problem is is that no one expects them to do well, so they don't.
Come on. Look around. I'm a cop. There's drugs, there's gangs...
Change the school, you change the neighborhood.
Okay.
I'll work on my neighbors.
You really think you could turn this around?
-Well, I can't say for certain, but... -100%, yes.
Did you sign the petition?
-No? -No.
-You didn't sign the petition? -No.
Do it. Sign the petition. It's gonna change everything.
Give me the T-shirt. Take one.
Hey. Make sure you get a T-shirt.
-Hey. How you doin'? -Good.
Hug. One of my favorite students.
-You okay? -I've got my ruler.
-Hey. -Hi.
You all right?
Don't be a drag. Go get in there.
-Did you guys sign? -I did.
Let me give you a ruler.
We want it to be a school where even at 3:00,
if the students have any issues or any problems,
then it's up to the teacher to stay.
Which we can't do now because of teachers union rules.
Thank you so much for coming. Here, have a cookie.
Have a cookie. Have one. Take it.
Have a cookie. I've got a great photo op coming up.
And don't go burying us after Doppler Weekend Forecast.
Don't! I know your game, okay?
I'm Jamie, by the way. All right.
Hey. Oh!
All right. Yeah, we're goin' to school!
Yeah!
It's crazy! You see how bad they want it?
Go get 'em, Jamie!
I'm gonna keep this short, 'cause I get trepidatious about group speaking.
Adams is failing.
This school is failing.
And I can't afford to move, and I can't afford to put my daughter somewhere else,
so I'm screwed.
And you know, I... Can I just say, there's a time limit.
There's a window with these kids, and then after that it's too late.
You know what I'm sayin'?
And so we gotta do something right now. We gotta do something to fix it.
Which is also why I don't appreciate some scumbag from TAP writing a letter
with a bunch of lies about what we're trying to do!
Point here, the thing I do wanna say,
is we need to fix Adams, and we need to fix it yesterday.
Yeah!
Now, I haven't counted 'em all yet,
but I know we have enough parent petitions to start this thing!
And, like that guy Gandhi used to say:
We gotta be the change we wanna see!
Your turn.
All right, I've been doing a lot of research
and I read that there are people out there designing and building prisons.
And those people are looking at our schools
and they're figuring out what kids are gonna drop out
so they know how many prison cells to build.
In the Last 19 years, seven out of ten kids who leave Adams can barely read.
And we wonder why Adams kids end up in Penn State Prison
instead of the University of Pittsburgh.
And you know what I want to say to those prison folk?
I wanna say...
I wanna say, hands off my kid.
Yeah!
Absolutely! Hands off our kids!