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“The education system isn’t broken. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do.” – Lauren Farrow
Lauren Farrow spent years inside the public school system before she realized something difficult but undeniable: meaningful change for students and teachers wasn’t going to happen from within the classroom walls alone.
Today she joins Wilk for a candid, nonpartisan deep dive into the real mechanics of American education — where the money actually goes, why teachers are leaving in droves, and what it will take from ordinary citizens to turn the tide.
This is not a left vs. right conversation.
Lauren’s work through Schooling America intentionally bridges the ideological divide by anchoring everything to a shared belief:
Every child deserves a bright future with the freedom to build, create, and become a capable, independent adult.
If we can agree on that — and Lauren believes we can — then we have a place to begin.
• How Lauren’s experience as a post-pandemic classroom teacher reshaped her understanding of systemic failure — and why she ultimately left
• Why the education system isn’t “broken” — it’s functioning exactly as designed, and why that distinction matters
• The historical roots of modern schooling, from Rockefeller’s industrial-era blueprint to today's bell-to-bell compliance model
• The bureaucratic chain — from classroom teacher to superintendent to state DOE — that strips educators of autonomy
• Why many teachers are buying their own students’ school supplies out of pocket
• Title I schools and zip-code funding — why the communities needing the most support often receive the least
• Where teacher union dues and education tax dollars actually go, and why more educators are questioning the system
• How school choice and voucher programs (like Florida’s ~$8,000 per-student allocation) shift funding power back to parents
• Why Lauren doesn't advocate abandoning public schools — and what meaningful support actually looks like
• The role of courageous citizenship, humility, and civic responsibility in fixing education
• Why meaningful reform will come from the outside in — and why every American citizen has a role
✔ Today's children are tomorrow’s leaders — everyone has skin in the game, whether they have kids or not
✔ The education system isn’t broken — it’s doing what it was designed to do
✔ Fixing it requires redesigning the system, not patching it
✔ Teachers often have the most insight into student needs yet sit at the bottom of decision-making structures
✔ A significant portion of education funding never reaches the classroom, absorbed instead by administrative layers and political structures
✔ School choice can restore agency to families when implemented thoughtfully
✔ Real reform starts with courageous citizenship — proactive engagement instead of reactive outrage
✔ You don’t have to agree on everything to agree that children deserve a bright future
Lauren Farrow is a homeschool consultant, educator, and education reform advocate.
As the founder of Schooling America, she works at the intersection of:
• alternative education
• homeschooling
• systemic education reform
Her mission is to help families take lasting ownership of their children’s education through practical frameworks, rigorous research, and public advocacy.
Lauren’s approach centers on:
• intellectual rigor
• critical thinking
• character development
Her platform intentionally welcomes all perspectives, because she believes the children-first mission transcends politics.
🌐 Website schoolingamerica.org
📺 YouTube youtube.com/@schoolingamerica
The world is a better place if we are better people. That begins with each of us as individuals. Be kind to one another. Be grateful for all you’ve got. Make every day the day that you want it to be!
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The Derate The Hate podcast is proudly produced in collaboration with Braver Angels — America’s largest grassroots, cross-partisan organization working toward civic renewal and bridging partisan divides. Learn more: BraverAngels.org
Welcome to the Derate The Hate Podcast!
*The views expressed by Wilk, his guest hosts &/or guests on the Derate The Hate podcast are their own and should not be attributed to any organization they may otherwise be affiliated with.
Transcript is AI generated and may contain errors
[00:00:00:00] Wilk Wilkinson: Here's a question we all need to ask ourselves. In a country is divided as ours. Can we actually agree on what our kids need? My guest today walked out of a public school classroom, not out of frustration alone, but because she saw something that most people miss. Stay with me. Welcome back, my friends, for the Derate the Hate podcast. I'm your host, Wilk Wilkinson, your blue collar sage calming outrage and helping to navigate a world divided by fog and those who would spread that fear, outrage and grievance. The Derate the Hate podcast is proudly produced in collaboration with Braver Angels, America's largest grassroots cross. partisan organization working towards civic renewal. This podcast amplifies the mission that we share to foster a more respectful and united America where civic friendship thrives even when we disagree. Each week, through the power of story, conversation, and connection with incredible guests, we work to build bridges instead of barriers, not to change minds on the issues, but to change how we see one another when we differ. Because friends, it really is about bettering the world one attitude at a time. We did not create the hate, but together we can Derate the Hate. So be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Share it with a friend and visit BraverAngels.org to learn how you can get involved in the movement to bridge the partisan divide. Friends, I am so incredibly grateful that you have joined me for another powerful Derate the Hate episode. So let's get to it. Today's conversation is one that I've been looking forward to since I first met our guest months ago. Lauren Farrow's journey begins inside the public school system as a classroom teacher, not just observing it from the outside, but living it from the inside. And what she saw wasn't a broken system. That's an important distinction. What she saw was a system that's working exactly the way that it was designed. And that design has some serious problems at its root. So Lauren did something about it. She left the classroom, founded school in america.org, and became a homeschooling consultant. And education reform advocate who doesn't play politics with any of this? She's not on a side. She's on the side of all the kids. And through school in America, she's building bridges between parents, educators and community members on both sides of the aisle, around a single belief that children in this country deserve a bright future. Full stop. Today, we're going deep on the real problems behind the headlines bureaucracy, funding, teacher autonomy, school choice, and what courageous citizenship actually looks like when it comes to fixing what ails our education system. This is a big one, folks. Let's get into it with my friend Lauren Farrow. Here we go. Lauren Farrow. Welcome to the Derate the Hate podcast. It is great to see you again today.
[00:03:43:10] Lauren Farrow: Good to see you Wilk.
[00:03:45:03] Wilk Wilkinson: Yes, I've been looking forward to our conversation since our last conversation. And the topic today is, is one that hits right at home for so many parents, and, and should quite honestly hit it home for every American citizen, in my opinion, because it's the children. Not to be cliche, but the children are our future, right? They are absolutely. Our future. Today's children, today's students are tomorrow's leaders. And, we all have a we all have skin in the game, whether we have kids or not. So, Lauren Farrow, thank you so much for for joining me for this conversation today. And I want to get started, just, just with a little bit of your back story, Lauren. And how you got into to being an educator and then how you started being this kind of homeschool consultant. And tell us a little bit about what that is.
[00:04:43:02] Lauren Farrow: Yeah. So I was a public school teacher for a number of years. I've been studying education for, around six years. At this point. And when I was teaching in public schools, I noticed that while our nation is so divided and our children are at the brunt of all of it, I taught within, you know, a suburban community. So more of a, connected, you know, I would say parents were more involved at the school I was at, but it still felt void of of true involvement of, of initiative. And I witnessed so many children struggling with behavior issues with academic issues. Of course, I was teaching post-pandemic. So we, you know, we saw lacking scores like test scores and social skills. But I realized that it's beyond my experience that millions of other teachers are also experiencing what I had experienced, which was just, chaos within the public schools, within the classrooms. And I, I learned that the education system system isn't broken. It's it's functioning exactly how it was designed. Right. And it's failing because the design is so, it's it's damaged at the root. And so I, I found that in order to support students the way that they truly need to be supported and to give teachers the voice that they need, you know, to be heard and to be, to make the change that they need to make. I could not do that within the classroom, within the school system. So I did leave teaching, and now I do, you know, education consulting, homeschool consulting with Schooling America. And so I support families who want to take an alternative education route. I support, you know, parents who want to get more involved, who want to get more connected to their children. And I, you know, create these conversations around kind of what's working in the education system, what's not how can we make it better, how can we support teachers in the way that they truly need to be supported? And, creating the platform to bring this conversation together? Schooling America's not political. I welcome everyone from either side of the spectrum, because we share the common, common belief that children deserve a bright future with equal opportunity, without being pulled in any direction. Right. So we're talking about how, like, can we as a divided nation, agree on what children need? And I think the only thing we can disagree on many, many things and we see it. Yeah. But the one thing I think we can all come together on, what we can truly agree is that children deserve a bright future with with, freedom, with freedom to speech, freedom to to build what they want to build. Create what they want to create. And, you know, become independent, productive, capable adults.
[00:07:39:02] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. And I absolutely love that, Lauren. I mean, we we as a nation, no matter how divided we are. I mean, you would think or I would at least hope that we could come together on, you know, but far too often, people are completely focused on all those things that divide us. And and what you're saying, Lauren, I think is so important because we should be we should at least be able to come together for a a point of agreement and saying that we want our children, we want the children of America to have a well, we want the children of the world. In my opinion. But but specifically America, let's, you know, kind of start where we are to have a bright future to to be able to live up to, up to their potential. So I definitely want to get into the fix and how we can make things better. But before we do, Lauren, I want to talk a little bit about what you said there and and how the system is doing what it's designed to do. And it's rotten at the root, because I think that's a little bit controversial, but I, I definitely have have a lot of agreement with you in that statement. And I want to hear what you mean by that and, and kind of expand upon it. And then we'll kind of work into what you see as the, as the, the remedy for, for what ails the system.
[00:09:12:19] Lauren Farrow: Right? So there are so many places where I can start, but I can think of a couple of ways when, you know, decades ago when we introduced standardized testing and Common Core curriculums and when politics really became a war over ideologies and, and a war where like a proxy war, where where politicians would, would, you know, send out their, you know, lobbyists, they would lobby certain ideas and certain, you know, get people in fear for what, you know, what they're trying to push on a larger scale and that trickles down into the classrooms and into the school system. So when we're thinking about, you know, bring it, bringing it way back, how, you know, Rockefeller, he he was a pioneer for the education system. So he expanded education, expanded libraries, expanded so many opportunities for schools. But at the same time, the classroom was transformed in a way where it benefited him. He although he wasn't a politician directly, he was a widely influential figure in shaping today's classrooms. And so what we see now is a a still a replica of what he created, which is bell to bell schedules. It mimics the the industrial warehouse. Right. We're producing compliant workers, compliant students who listen and follow directions. Which of course is necessary when you're in a classroom, you're trying to learn, of course you want, you know, students listening. We want them to, you know, be on course. But what we're finding is on a larger scale, this is harmful. And so when we're looking at that's just one example, when we're looking at the modern classroom and we're looking at the teachers, teachers are are stripped of their autonomy, they're stripped of their freedom. We think of teachers as the leaders of the classroom, but really it's the admin of the school which is also controlled by the superintendent. Right. The district office, who is then controlled by the state, the state Department of Education. And this bureaucracy is necessary, however, when we're thinking about what the child in the classroom actually needs, the teacher is the most important and the most informed for that, right? We spend 180 days out of the entire year with the children, with these children, with, you know, eight hours a day, sometimes children are at school for ten hours a day, counting before school programs and afterschool programs. You know, getting parents involved and getting teachers and parents on the same team is essential. It's part of what I advocate. And, and although I provide homeschool consulting and I promote homeschool as an alternative education option, I don't think we should abandon public schools and public school teachers. We still need to give them the love and attention that they need. Although school choice is a huge topic of conversation right now, we we truly do need to. We can't just leave public education to figure it out. It out on its own. I mean, like, what are we going to do about the title one schools? It's true. And when it's such a systemic issue, we have to consider what funding on a level like when I say the system is, is run at the root, it's in so many different ways. We can pick apart where and what places it's it's corrupted. And we can look at title one schools. Funding is based for title one schools around the the neighborhoods and the zip codes. And so title one schools need so much more funding than they actually get. And they're like title one schools. Just to clarify for that, for the audience who may not know, is, over half of the student population, their families are below the poverty line. Okay. So they're struggling, financially, with their home life. You know, there's a lot of, you know, struggles that these children come to schools with. And so school is a safe place for them. Right? But if we're not giving teachers resources, we're we're not giving the students what they need. When we need more interventionists or behavior counselors for that school and positions are being cut and resources are being cut. It can be a scary thing. But, there are so many ways that that I could mention and go into how how it's kind of a kind of a spider web of a mess.
[00:13:28:10] Wilk Wilkinson: Sure, sure. Well, and, you know, I, I will I'm going to say a few things here, and then I want to get into a little bit more, deeply into, the bureaucracy of the whole thing. Like, you know, I heard you say that the bureaucracy is necessary to a certain extent. So I want to get into that. And, and I, you know, the listeners, Lauren, know that I talk a lot about root cause problem solving, and, and I was in, in business operations for a long time, and, and root cause problem solving is a big part of operations. And, and, we don't see a lot of root cause problem solving in anything having to do with government, in my opinion. That's my opinion. And, and, maybe you share it, but what I do want to talk about, you know, when we talk about rotten at the root or, you know, to use your words, rotten at the root and then, you know, the bureaucracy that's, that's involved with it. I absolutely agree that that, that teachers and parents need to be on the same page. And there's, there's a lot there that, that, that is, that we could pack. But when we start to think about that, that the, the teachers being hamstrung, because of the, whether it be the school board or the, the superintendent or, the state Department of Education and things like that. You know, we have so many levels of bureaucracy involved with our children's education now. So when we start to think about the lack of resources and the lack of funding, you know, the reality that maybe you can help me with because I'm of the opinion that not nearly enough money that we spend on education ends up at the classroom level, and the vast majority of it ends up within the bureaucracy levels up above the classroom. And I think that's a big problem. That's the root cause of a lot of our problems. And I don't think many people fully understand that because, I mean, and I'm just going to play devil's advocate here because, you know, we hear about the teachers and the teachers unions and they're striking. They're saying the teachers don't get enough money. The taxpayers need to contribute more money. And the reality is, is if the money that the taxpayers were contributing was actually going to the classrooms, there would be plenty of it. I don't know. You know, this isn't something that I've studied deeply, but I will tell you that, like, I did not want my daughter in a public school classroom for one of those very reasons. And, you know, thankfully, we've got her in a, in a, in a charter school and, and we were able to do that and feel very fortunate for that. But I agree that the public school system cannot just be completely discarded. But there's got to be some work that we could do with the levels of bureaucracy so that the funding that they are getting, whether they be title one schools or any other school, that the money that's being contributed to the system is actually going to the classroom, and the teachers and the teachers are working in direct contact with the parents. Dive into that a little bit for money.
[00:17:00:21] Lauren Farrow: Yeah, that is a huge reason why that teachers are starting to resent their local unions and state and federal unions. You know, the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, because they're waking up and realizing my union dues, the taxes that are taken out of my paychecks, the all the money that we assume is going towards the public schools and supporting our classrooms, a lot of it, I mean, a huge majority of it is being funded. It's funding. Politics is is lobbying. Politics is funding, you know, politician backed unions and politician backed organizations. And it's it's very frustrating to know that teachers are making in my state, when I started out, I was making $45,000. And that's before like taxes were taken out. So a lot of our income as teachers goes to buying school supplies for students. Sometimes, you know, buying them shoes, buying them the backpack, buying them notebooks and pencils, you know, depending on what they need in order to show up to school and to not be hungry, to be able to learn and not just, you know, eat Cheetos and Takis. You know, we want to give them snacks that will help them learn. That's a lot of money that we invest that that isn't, isn't necessarily on the surface level that you would think that teachers, you know, contribute to their classrooms and their students. And so when we think about all the resources and the money that's supposed to be going to these teachers and supposed to be going to these schools, it's really disheartening. And that's part of what's demoralizing teachers. We have no power to speak out about these types of things. We see admin inflation, which is when, you know, the teacher to admin pipeline, whether you become, let's say, the school secretary, a principal, assistant principal, you know, one of the leadership positions inside of a school, there's a been a huge inflation of admin, and then they get paid double, I mean, significantly more than teachers get paid. And they're not necessarily in the classrooms. They're running the school, which of course, has its own responsibilities. Rightfully so. But we we think about how there's bread crumbs left for teachers and, and they don't they can't even speak out about it or else, you know, they're labeled or they're, they're, asking for too much or, you know, they get like, it's it's really sad. Like when you're in in the system, it's some sort of it's a mistreatment from admin to the teachers. Because if you do make too much noise, if you do create too much fuss, they have to deal with it. And they're already burnt out to they're burnt out just as much as teachers are because they're running around supporting, you know, like putting out fires and doing crisis interventions and all sorts of things. And so when we look at school choice now, so the school choice and the school voucher program is incredible because in some states, like in Florida, if you are a parent and you choose to homeschool your child, you will get the money that would technically follow the student to the school. The school loses that funding and actually it goes right back into the parents pocket. So in in Florida, I believe it's around $8,000. You get $8,000 as a parent and you get to choose what you want to do with that homeschool budget, buy curriculum, sign them up for extracurriculars, piano or sports. You get to decide with that money, with that funding, you get the power back into your hands. But and when you look at classrooms, let's think about it. I'm not sure of the exact number, but let's say it's $8,000 per student, per classroom. That's delegated from the state Department of Education to the schools. That and let's say there's 20 students in one class, $8,000 per student. We can do the math. That's a lot of money, a huge amount of money. And, you know, you can you can think about, okay, keeping the lights on in the school that costs money, air conditioning, which goes out in a lot of classrooms. Yeah.
[00:21:18:13] Wilk Wilkinson: Definitely important thing in Florida to have, air conditioning in the classroom.
[00:21:22:16] Lauren Farrow: I know, especially in those late spring months. Man, it gets hot. You know, so, yeah, you know, textbook contracts. That's a lot of money. And unfortunately, a lot of these major textbook companies are also under scrutiny and have, you know, lawsuits over racking up their prices. There was a lawsuit in Florida recently over a major textbook publishing company because they changed their prices for different schools or districts that they were selling to, which is unethical. And so when we look at the education system, it's so vulnerable. And our students are just being like, they're they're facing the consequences of greedy people, of people who want to use money for their, for their own agenda, their own objectives. And I'm not saying everyone is evil. I want to give the benefit of the doubt. I want to say that I'm not just assuming Mal intent on, you know, all, all ends. But there have been I think the trust is broken and teachers need that, that the resources period.
[00:22:25:23] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. Well the trust is broken and we are at a time Lauren, when, when our country is seeing the, the degradation of trust across all institutions, not just education. Education's obviously a big one but I want to talk about how we then bridge these divides because because the reality is, is, is, again, going back to that cliche thing that the children are our future, we should be able to again, be able to agree on, no matter where you fall along the political spectrum, or no matter whether you have children or not, we should all be able to agree that every child should have the opportunity for a bright future. Have the opportunity to live up to their potential, have the opportunity for a good education. There are so many points of commonality we should have, but a lot of times we don't and we end up fighting over the semantics of it. And instead of actually looking at where we can find common ground and what we can accomplish. So I want to talk, you know, with the last, you know, portion of our conversation here, I want to start talking about how we how we can bridge the divide, how you know, what are ways that that parents can become more involved with the teachers? What are ways what are ways that the teachers can become more connected with the parents? And what are some of your solutions for the bureaucracy? What are your thoughts on how we can get more funding to the title one schools that need the additional funding, when they really aren't getting the resources that they need? So let's talk as we round out our time. You know, over the next 8 or 9 minutes or so, what are some of the solutions to bridge these divides?
[00:24:24:13] Lauren Farrow: There are so many things that I could say. So I'll start off by asking everyone to look at our ancestors and how we evolved over time. The root of humanity, who we are even today in a very disconnected, divided world, the root of our existence. The way that we got so far was because we cooperated, because we came together, because we, you know, decided to have trust in a stranger. Right? You want to cooperate, work together, have, you know, assume you know, assume trust, assume goodwill. And we we built over time, we built we came together. We exchange value in a way where we genuinely want to help each other. You know, you know, I'll make you a blanket. You make me food, or, you know, we trade this trade that we. There's always been an exchange of value that stems from just genuine connection. And so I think we need to go back to who we are in a way where, you know, even though we're so kind of individualized with all of our smartphones and social media and AI algorithms and customizations and all of that, as much as that kind of brings us all further apart, we need to, now more than ever, connect with people like talk to people, have conversations beyond your phone. You know, engage in these hard conversations, you know, like children are growing up mimicking their parents, right? They see how their families, how their teachers treat other people, they, you know, they're mimic they're mimic machines. They mimic, they see like monkey see, monkey do. And so I, I ask parents, I ask families, stand up, you know, stand up for what's right. Have these important conversations. Model this good behavior. You know, when you're out of the grocery store smiling at people, you know, having having children go back to, you know, assuming the world is a is a good place that the world is. You know, people aren't scary, harmful, aggressive people that we can change the way we interact with each other on like a larger scale. I think it's it's difficult for children now because politics have become so enmeshed in identity. And we we see it like like, this is how a lot of people view it. Your politics determine your identity, which means you are at the hand of politicians, their agendas, you know, they determine your identity. They determine who you are. And that's on both sides of the spectrum.
[00:27:12:09] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it really is.
[00:27:14:16] Lauren Farrow: Yeah. Like if you're too committed to this idea and you worship, you know, this president or this politician, that leaves you susceptible to so many, so many, to groupthink and to these echo chambers and to this just like, toxic mentality where you have no control, you have no power, you're not taking control of your identity. And that's very scary. And so what we need to do is put identity first. Our identity should then determine our politics, to then determine who we are and how we want to hold ourselves. And, you know, Jonathan Haidt talks about, our moral foundations theory and how a lot of our politics are determined by who we are and our characteristics. You know, whether that's, how much you value care or loyalty, authority, sanctity and, like, sense of fairness. A lot of the time we don't realize that. Of course, those things are developed at home when you're being raised by your family, your family, your parents, you know, they a lot of your politics are determined by your your culture, your childhood. But when we think about our identities, we should think about how we show up instead of looking at, the conversation as it's, the Democratic Party versus the Republican Republican Party, we need to be thinking of, you know, values first our identities like more conservative versus liberal so that we're not so attached to these, ideas that box you in, that make you feel like you have to act a certain way. You can't say a certain thing. You can't, treat someone, you know, it's very it's hivemind. It's groupthink is toxic, and it cages people in. And I think that we naturally, looked for politics to identify our, politics, to determine our identity, because we're looking to belong. A lot of us are isolated in my generation and younger. We're seeking some sort of community. And that extends beyond, of course, my generation. A lot of people just are seeking connection in a in an age where we're so, you know, isolated. And it makes sense. But I think having these conversations and humanizing the individual behind the screen, bringing in the humanity is more important now than ever. And I agree, and yeah.
[00:29:31:15] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. When we want to tie this thing, you know, being involved, the, you know, as you said, showing up, to this the concept of of, you know, taking an active role in your child's education and, and how this now I I'm, I'm one that that believes that, you know, the the the teachers politics should be kept out of the classroom. The teachers should be back to the, reading, writing, arithmetic.
[00:30:02:16] Lauren Farrow: Absolutely.
[00:30:03:08] Wilk Wilkinson: Kind of a kind of thing. But we know just in in human interaction, these things are going to creep in a little bit. I think the answer to that and you can tell me how you feel about this, but I think the answer to that is really to have that again, back to what you said earlier, that that parent and teacher connection. I would I would appreciate it more. You know, like I said, that the the teachers keep their politics out of the classroom. The parents can, can kind of guide their children in the ways that, you know, just out of out of peer example and how they treat people, you know, that that kind of that kind of moral clarity that comes along with or should come along with, with parenting should come in most ways from the family, from the parents.
[00:30:55:18] Lauren Farrow: Absolutely. And it it ties in to what Braver Angels is promoting with courageous citizenship. It's having the courage and being involved and, you know, showing up to the board meetings, you know, putting your voice out there. I think reform, the only true reform we'll see in the education system is from the outside in. Like I said, it's very damaged on the inside. There's been movers and shakers. There's been people who've tried. There's so many teacher influencers on TikTok speaking out, but nothing's going to happen until the outside rallies up. We join together and we figure out a way to peacefully mend what's been broken and courageous. Citizenship is is truly the solution because you have to have courage. And one important thing to mention here is that you have to have the irony is you have to have a little bit of, of, you know, humility within your courageous your, your, your courage. You have.
[00:31:55:20] Wilk Wilkinson: It is important. Yes.
[00:31:56:22] Lauren Farrow: Yeah. You can't if you, you know, you have to be able to acknowledge limitations, you know, admit your mistakes, finding balance and encourage courage. Without humility, that becomes arrogance. You become pedestal ized. You look down on people and and you see, it becomes like a martyrdom. And you don't want to. We don't want to do that. We want to have genuine courage, be vulnerable. Talk about solutions. If a solution doesn't work, move forward with another one. And it's ironic that the change has to happen from the outside in. But on an internal, on a personal level, the change has to happen inside first. Yeah, we have to make that decision inside of our hearts. You know, look at what we can do on a personal level and then work outward and it's it's like a drop in the ocean. You know, every single drop of water makes up the entire body of ocean, and every single drop matters. And so we have to have some hope, you know, create some, you know, courageous citizens and, and find ways where we can move forward and really be, you know, productive.
[00:33:03:15] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. One thing I love about being in the courageous citizenship business here with Braver Angels is, is, like you said, it starts with us. It starts internally as we reclaim our own agency. I mean, a lot of, a lot of what we see in the, in the education debate. Lauren, as many people can attest to is just there's so much outrage, whether it be the educated, the education thing, or many other things that are affected by politics. And far too many things these days are affected by politics. But courageous citizenship is really our ability to reclaim our agency, you know, act instead of react. And then and then act locally, like you said, get involved with your school board, get involved. And and maybe it's just getting involved in building that relationship with the teacher. But as we reclaim our personal agency and understand that we can affect change, like you said, it's so important. It's not going to come from the inside. The education system, the reform is going to come from outside. So we act locally and then watch as that that thing starts to build out. In using the the ocean analogy, you know, as, as we, we throw that one drop or one pebble in a, in a pond, that one ripple will will grow and grow and grow. So no, this is this is fantastic. And people just need to understand that it's really about being involved. That's what courageous citizenship is. It's about being involved, acting instead of reacting. Once we become outraged and then we react instead of acting proactively, things start to go sideways. So this education system, can be fixed. Those divides that we feel, can be bridged, because the reality is we have a lot of points of commonality. I mean, like I said, every everybody wants to see a bright future for our children if we have nothing else but that. As a starting point, that can be the cornerstone. We want our children to have a bright future. There's no reason we cannot start to work together. Lauren, this has been a great conversation. You're doing great work with school in America. And, I'm glad to know that, you're now involved with this. A Braver Angels, down there in the state of Florida. And I look forward to, many continued conversations in the future.
[00:35:30:13] Lauren Farrow: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. Wilk, this was a really great conversation. If anyone watching wants more resources, I recommend you visit my website, SchoolingAmerica.org. Sign up for my newsletter. Check out our resources. I would love to connect with you further. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to email me on my contact form on my website. I would love to connect. Appreciate you Wilk!
[00:35:50:00] Wilk Wilkinson: Thank you so much, Lauren. That information will be in the show notes and we will talk again.
[00:35:55:09] Lauren Farrow: Bye bye.
[00:35:56:03] Wilk Wilkinson: Friends, I want to thank you so much for tuning in. And if there's anything in this episode that provided exceptional value to you, please make sure to hit that share button. If you haven't done so already, please be sure to subscribe to get the Derate the Hate podcast sent to your email inbox every week. We really are better together, so please take a moment to visit BraverAngels.org and consider joining the movement towards civic renewal and bridging our political divides. This is Wilk wrapping up for the week saying get out there. Be kind to one another. Be grateful for everything you've got. And remember, it's up to you to make every day the day that you want it to be. With that, my friends, I'm going to back on out of here and we will catch you next week. Take care.
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