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Extension 3 0 6.
Hey, yo. What's up buddy? I'm here with my friend.
Can I call you my friend every morning?
Yeah. What rest do you find.
Out? Oh, aren't we?
We hung out. We hung out in real life.
We, we kicked it in real life. Yeah. Like there's some,
there's some really cool people. That's right. We did. Yeah. That's amazing.
And you,
you were subjected to watching me and Chris speak and that was like amazing to
have you there, . Um, so we were so starstruck. Actually, I'm,
we're kind of like, bro, bro, that's, that's Sarah Beth Rosenberg.
You're gassing me as a, what are we.
Doing? Doing? No, no. It's like, it's like true because I'm kind like, oh.
And she's sitting in front. So, um, folks,
we are here with my bestie, uh, Sarah Rosenberg, sir, how are you?
I'm doing great. It's Thursday, we got, it's almost been through a full week. I,
I think, is it the second or first or second? Full week of school, so, okay.
Nothing feels like that Thursday night when, you know, Friday's coming, you.
Know. No. Yeah. We, around here we call it, uh, Friday Junior. Yes. Um,
so it's not a full-grown Friday yet, but you, you can see the potential.
You can.
You can taste it. It you can taste it.
You can taste it. So many good tastes on a Friday also. Oh yeah. So much. Um,
is . So, um,
so I've been following Sarah on social media for a while now,
and it's just so excited and ex excited. You can tell it's been a long week.
It's so exciting, um, to have her here to kind of share some of her work.
Um, hopefully you also follow her work and, um,
at the end of this conversation, you'll,
you'll find out where to follow her if you don't know where to follow,
which I don't understand, like,
or even on the internet if you don't know how to follow her. Sarah Rosenberg.
Um, so you are in the big Apple?
Yes, I am. I'm here in New York City.
New York's city, New York City, my daughter. Fun. Not super relevant story.
My daughter always dreamt of going to college in New York City. Um,
but I don't know if this you're gonna find this hurtful or not,
but then she experienced Chicago.
And she's like, I'm already hurt. I'm already hurt. I wanna be.
Here. I wanna be here. So she is in school in Chicago. . Okay.
I don't wanna disrespect my Chicago friends, but Yeah. I'll just,
I'll just keep my mouth shut. I, I don't.
Know. You're like, I mean, New York picking Chicago over N y c I mean,
that's a choice. That's a choice. It's.
A choice. And she's an artist. Okay. Sorry. Chicago. I live in,
I'm a New Yorker, you know. Okay. She'll come no hate. She'll come here after,
after college.
I mean, maybe grad school, maybe she just wasn't ready for N Y C. Maybe.
She's like, yeah, you know, I need to gradually,
I need scaffolding to get to Yes.
N yc, like, Chicago's like a baby step city. Just kidding. Ha.
Hey, much love to the Chicagoans.
We love you. We love you. Um.
So the, it's, I'm just so interested to hear some of what you just,
what your path has been in this work, because in some ways,
the way that you show up for your profession and in your profession is
completely antithetical to what they tell you to do. , right? Yeah. Um,
and so we're gonna get there in just a little bit. But, um, Sarah, I,
and I know this is like problematic for a lot of my teacher friends out here
mm-hmm. , I actually do think that teachers are superheroes. Um,
superheroes are not perfect. Superheroes are fallible.
Superheroes are vulnerable to the wrong enemy.
And sometimes there's so many enemies that the superhero might experience a
defeat . Yeah.
But we know one thing is that every superhero has an origin story.
So Sarah, what's your origin story as.
A teacher? My, yeah. Okay.
So my origin story is that I always loved history class. Like,
and I was definitely, um, a nerd. And like I thought my p I was,
I was a cool nerd, but I loved school, of course, I was obsessed with my grades.
I, you know, I loved high school, enjoyed, you know, know, loved college.
And then, but then out of college, I remember my, one of my advisors,
I asked her for career advice. I was a history major and I thought, oh,
I'd go to law school maybe. And she said,
you should go teach in the rural south. And I was like,
teaching was not even on my menu of things to do in after college.
And I said, okay, sure. Whatever.
And then I decided to go into book publishing because
I loved books. So I was like, okay, I like books.
I didn't think about the fact that you don't make much money. I mean, I,
this was the late nineties , right.
And late nineties book publishing was not the place to be able to like,
move out of your parents' house and afford rent Right. In New York City.
Or even publish a book. Even publish a book. I was like,
I love or even be able to buy books. I mean, I got them for free. Yeah. I mean,
I couldn't afford them. So I did that for about a year or so, and I loved it.
And I worked at Penguin Putnam. I mean, I was, I worked at the best of the best.
I got so many Penguin classic books and Viking and all that stuff.
But then this was like the late nineties, and this was the dawn of the web.
They now call the, the kids called Web 1.0. I just called it,
I worked in the internet for the internet on the internet. Like, I don't even,
I mean, the internet, when we were, when I was a senior in college,
I still didn't know how to get, there was no Google.
It was like a different name. Right.
And I remember the way I got on a website is I asked, I thought,
I need to ask an engineer. 'cause they know how like computers work.
And that's how I didn't even know how to use. None of us did. We're like,
what is this? You know, like, you get information.
But then within a couple years I was working at a company called, uh,
it doesn't exist anymore. It's called the Virtual Music Vault. Okay. Nevermind.
And not M T V. Not m t V, it was TV Envy. Okay.
So like, that was a mouthful. We'd have to be like the Virt, you know.
And we were basically creating a, a network of music websites,
artists websites to run ads on. And it was like ahead of its time.
It was ahead of its time. Now. It's something that people can monetize.
We were doing like streaming radio before anyone was, we were,
we had a website called music downloads.com. So enough about that,
I was doing That's cool. Let's just say it was like, I,
I didn't really have a specific career path at that point. Mm-hmm.
, my job title was like artist development manager.
And I was getting paid better than I would if I worked in the music industry,
but I was working with like, all the teen pop artists of the day.
But I was too cool for it. So now I think it's cool. But back then I was like,
you know, gen X, like these pop bands. So I was working with like, nsync,
Britney Spear, uh, not Britney Spear, Christine Aguilera, not directly,
but we were doing their website. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I,
I was like coordinating,
I was coordinating with the artist managers to see what ads we could run on
their sites. It was like Hanssen, matchbox 20. Good. Charlotte,
I remember we got that site. So all these bands and like,
I was going to NSYNC meet and greets and like Christina Aguilera looking back,
I'm like, that was so freaking cool. Yeah. But at the time I was like,
this is not cool music. Like, what am I doing? . And,
and it's funny 'cause now I work with people who like,
that's even music before they were born, like that's what we are. Oh, right.
Oh yeah. They're like, who's in sync? I was like, uh, you know, like,
our students don't even know who they're,
so I was doing that and then I kind of didn't quite know what my career path
was, because it was very kind of choose your own adventure.
I started trying to look into getting jobs in the music industry,
and I was going to have to take a 20,000 pay cut,
and I wasn't even making that much as it was. And I'm living in New York City,
and I was like, okay.
You're like, I make 20,000.
I was like, so now I'm making Exactly. I'm like, uhoh, I think I need to find,
so my dad said, why don't you go and get your, get master's in teaching?
I was like, I don't wanna be a teacher. , I'm being honest. Like,
if my students are listening, I was like teaching. I mean, I like history. Yeah.
And I like talking about history. And I guess as a Capricorn,
they tell me that I like security and I didn't have security. Wait, you're.
A Capricorn. Yeah. Are you a capor? I think. Do we establish this? Oh, we.
E established this.
That's why I, I think so. I'm a Capricorn too. That's why best sense.
My partner, my partner refers to us as Capricorns. Oh, what? And yeah.
No, that's not true. It's.
Typical Scorpio.
Oh, such a Scorpio. Yeah, no, Capricorn's like order. And I wasn't, you know,
I didn't really see, I didn't really know.
Capricorn's don't necessarily exist with order though, right? We don't,
but we like.
It. Exactly. We like it. But look at my, if you look at what's behind,
I don't know. You can't see.
Oh no. Every space that I use at work and at home is it,
it's like, it's like the, do you remember when Dr. Strange, when the multiverse.
Exploded? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. That's my life. That's what it looks like. Yeah.
Like even behind me right now, like there's a system, but it's like,
why are there knitting things and the selfie stick? And it makes sense to me.
Um, I also live in New York. So anyway, so back to back to my scattered career.
I, I mean, I loved working in the music space and it was definitely innovative.
But this was Web 1.0 and we're at up to one three, uh, web 3.0. So like,
it didn't remember there was that whole crash, so Oh, yeah. I, oh yeah.
I was like, what am I, what is my career? So, um, I,
I listened to my dad's advice and I applied to,
so I got my undergraduate degree at Columbia. At Columbia College.
Columbia University. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I'll just go back there,
go to Teacher's college. So I got, I got in, got, and I, um, got,
and it was a year. So I liked it. 'cause I was like, okay,
this is a year long program. I'm not, I'm not really gonna be a teacher.
This is just good to get a master's. Yeah.
I'm not gonna see some to fall back on, some to fall back on.
I'm gonna go back into my cool music career,
like going out every night and doing artists, working with artists. .
And so then when grad, when grad school was about to end,
a friend of mine said that she had gone to my,
my current school where I still work, by the way. Wow.
One school.
One school for 22 years.
Oh, that's.
Amazing. So I went from being like, Hmm, never gonna teach to here.
I am teaching longer than all. Never gonna leave. The never gonna leave.
I guess, I guess I'm retiring there, . So I remember I didn't back,
you know, in the entertainment world, you, you go to multiple interviews,
they screen you. It's a process. So my friend said,
she just got a job at this high school.
You might as well just show up before the end of the school year,
and maybe they'll hire you. And I was like, oh, well,
I don't really wanna work in teaching even though I went to teacher's college.
Yeah. But Sure, sure. And I went, and the principal at the time,
my principal now is would've done a much better job with the interview. No.
You know, she, she's a different kind of principal.
The principal at the time basically was sitting behind a desk.
She was a little scary. She said, uh, what are your favorite, favorite?
I think they asked me like, what are your favorite sub, you know,
what are your favorite subjects in social studies to teach? I said, US history,
time, period. World War ii, post World War ii. Favorite President, F D R.
I mean, I wasn't being that controversial. No.
Then they asked me if I would use technology in the classroom. And I said, yes.
They didn't ask me what technology . And then I was asked,
and what you would use it for, what I would use it for? I said, yes.
I don't know what that meant.
And then she asked me if I would dress professionally at work. Mind you,
I was wearing a suit to the interview.
So I don't quite know where that came from, but I said, yeah, of course. Like,
yes, I'm wearing a suit. I,
I don't know what people were dressing like at this school. .
And then I felt like the interview was like, five minutes.
And then they're like, okay, great. You're hired. Here's your paper.
You're hiring paper.
Walk across the street to this other school and hand it to this person.
And then you have a job, . And I said, wait, but's not amazing. I,
but I haven't, but I don't know if I, I almost said,
I don't know if I want this job, but it was like, I, I guess I'm a teacher now.
And it, it was like, just so that my origin story was like, I guess I thought.
I can just see you like with your like little, your briefcase and your like,
resume and this random piece of paper saying you're hired. Okay.
And because we're Gen X Yeah. We're like, okay,
I guess this is what I'm doing for next I 22 years.
Yeah. I didn't, I didn't really think. Right. I think it is, and it's so hard.
'cause I don't work in with Gen X are rare. Like, and we,
we can talk about that later, but, oh yeah. I don't,
I feel like when I'm around Gen X I'm like, okay, you get me.
And I feel like every, I know gen, like,
so some people say generations are really made up,
but I feel very Gen X and I feel like you understand that.
And someone who's a millennial or Gen Z doesn't, but didn't you think,
didn't you have a pro and con list? I'm like, no. I was like, well,
I don't have a job. And I don't quite know if I what? I, I don't know.
I mean, I guess I have a job and I'll, it's like.
Is this a job? Yes or no? No. Yes. It's a job. I suppose I have this.
Job. I guess I'm a teacher now. And then I remember telling people, I was like,
I'm a teacher. And they're like, weird. You're, no one really expected that.
'cause they knew me as this person who worked in entertainment book publishing
music. I was, you know, going to parties for on,
I was going all these startup company parties. Yeah. I was out every night.
And I didn't, I was already Gen X and I didn't come from like a,
I wasn't necessarily a,
I'm a rule follower because I like good grades and I like structure ish,
but I'm not like a rule follower. And suddenly I'm a teacher.
And that's all about, most teachers that I work with still love rules,
like getting to work on time. Just kidding. . But you know, like, like,
like before work starts like 20 minutes before work starts. Right, right.
Like when the bell rings, oh, right. I have shit. It's, the class is over.
You know, like I, I'm still not used to that.
'cause I think my origin story in that kind of artsy world and also being Gen X,
it never really properly prepared me for like, the structure of being a teacher,
even though I am a teacher. And I've been a teacher for 22 years.
And a really good teacher. Thank you.
As it turns out. Thanks. Thanks. Yeah. I guess I, I mean, the thing is,
I think that what makes me a good teacher is that I didn't really wanna be a
teacher, but I liked history.
There's something to that though, right?
There's something to that. Like, I didn't, I never played teacher. Like I,
you know, I played, when my bar, when I played with my Barbies,
they were like owned a store and like, were like movie stars.
Like they were not.
MOG Barbies. They were mogul Barbies.
They were, yeah, they were MOG Barbies.
They were mover and shaker barbies.
Yeah. Yeah. They weren't like, okay, now let's teach a lesson. No,
that wasn't me. So here I was with the paper and I'm a teacher now,
and I had a summer to just mold that over and show up on day one.
Prepped. Like, so, so I was like, all right, so what does that mean?
It means I need to, and I then I told,
they told me I was teaching five US classes. Great.
'cause that's really the only history I studied in high school,
in college and high school. And then I knew, okay, dress professionally,
whatever that meant. Like, I wasn't gonna wear a suit, but I get,
I had one suit probably. And then it also meant like something with technology.
And this was 2001, 2002. So like, what that.
And this was your, your induction, right? Yeah. This was your induction.
It's like, do these three things and now you're a teacher.
And now I'm a teacher. Right. That's amazing. I mean, I'd done, I had,
I was a student teacher at Stuyvesant, which did love Stuyvesant.
That also did not prepare me.
That's so if people don't know New York City Stuyvesant iss one of the
specialized high school and those kids ran the class, they'd be like, I see.
We're gonna talk about Booker t Washington and W e b Du Bois today.
I've been reading W E B Du Bois just on my own, because I find 'em interesting.
Mind if I step in halfway through the lesson and discuss my thoughts in Du Bois?
I mean, that was my teaching experience. That's amazing. Nope.
They didn't want anything written on the board. They would do the homework.
They were like, I wanna push back on what you like. They're challenging. Yeah.
Like, I have an opinion about this. Were like, they would like, they would like,
you'd give them a multiple choice test. And we'd go over the answers.
They'd be like, I think B and C should have been, they're the same answer.
It's like, just a matter of semantics. So I'm like, wow.
Teaching's like teaching lawyers. And then that was not real teaching, you know?
I was like, wow, this is, it's like a Socratic debate all day about.
Like,
I'm also really happy that I learned how Stuyvesant is pronounced because it's
one of those Yeah. It's one of those. And it turns out that it's phonetic. Yeah.
But for some reason different. It was one of those that I was overthinking.
I'm like, I don't think it's pronounced like it looks, but turns out it is.
Yeah.
There's a lot of letters in that name. Lot of, lot of letters.
And they stressed me out. Yeah. So, so what did you say?
I just liked it. Weirdly . I, I liked, you know, honestly,
I, well, first of all, I, no, in the beginning it was really hard.
And I probably cry. I probably cried a lot.
And I was stressed because it's really stressful. And then, um,
I, I think honestly, and this is corny, I really like the kids. Yeah.
That's not corny. Did I? That's what I mean. It's the truth. I mean,
I think that I realized that, like, I just really liked working with teenagers.
Yeah. And they made it fun. And their personalities always.
Even though I was teaching like the,
I was teaching the same subject five times a day in the beginning. Yeah. It,
it was just fun. And it was definitely hard.
But it was the, it also felt, I, I like structure. I learned.
Yeah. I liked the structure of it because, you know,
especially when you're coming out of that crazy world where you didn't know what
a day was gonna be in a startup and you were out every night, it,
it forced me to be like, oh yeah, no,
I can't go out really late because I have to get to work at a certain time.
Right. And it's not gonna just start when I start. So, see.
I didn't have that calculus, so I was like, I'll be fine. I'm 23. Oh,
I'll be fine.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was, that was an adjustment for me,
just like early mornings and the structure of it. But I kind of it, like,
I liked it. And I, and I also liked how, as one of the things about teach,
I mean, aside from the students, which this is my favorite part of it,
no matter what chaos is going on in your life, when you step into the classroom,
it just all goes away. You could be going through breakups and, I mean, not,
I have never had a divorce, just breakups. 'cause I've never been married,
but haven't had a divorce yet. Need to add that to the two. I hear.
Those are great. But, you know, put.
That on your resume.
Yeah. You can have Exactly. Looking for a marriage.
'cause I wanna experience divorce. Just kidding.
But I wanna know what it's like to get divorced while teaching.
Haven't done that yet.
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's definitely good for the.
Profession. Hear. Yeah. I'm sure. Yeah. But the point is, is that, you know,
suddenly the whole world, everything that seems really, you know,
that you're going through personally,
it just has to get cleared out because you're in the classroom. You just.
Have to be able to just.
It's a different space. Yeah. Just.
Set it aside and just like, move and show up. And I,
and sometimes I think that that's, that that can,
that can be harmful in some ways. Oh yeah. Yeah. But also,
so what I'm like learning is that sometimes you do just have to move through
things and you've gotta just be able to show up.
Especially when it comes to kids, you know? Um, so I,
I love what a great answer because I liked it. That's why I stayed. Yeah.
I just like that. And I love that you stayed in one place. Like, it's funny,
when I talk to people about my teaching career, I taught in two schools.
I I stayed seven years in one school and 16 years in the next one. And,
um, people are like, wow. Two schools. I'm like, yo,
I know somebody who's at the same school the whole time.
Whole time. 20 years. Amazing.
I've gone through like 1, 2, 3, 4 principals. Yep. And I,
and I see my students all around New York City now. That's cool.
And it's pretty cool. Like.
You and being able to see them, 'cause they get to this age,
once you've been teaching a while, they actually start doing things Yeah.
In life. . Yeah.
It's really cool. Like, working in government,
one of my students is getting her, her PhD and history at Yale.
Like That's amazing. Yeah. You know? Yeah.
I have a former student who is a literal neurologist. I'm like, what? Really?
That's.
Insane. Oh, that's all you, you did that.
Oh, yeah. Because, because I taught history . Yeah. So.
It got the neurology going. Definitely.
Me. Yeah. But one thing that's kind of cool is,
and part of my role now in central offices is I support
new teachers. There's, that's a ton of new teachers who are my students.
Wow. And it's wild.
That's cool. Like kids that I had when they were like 11 and.
Like, now that's so crazy. It's.
It's cool. And they.
Were 11. Wow.
Yep. And I'm not sitting here like, taking credit. Some of them, I'm like, wow,
you become a teacher. That's amazing.
But it's cool to continue that relationship. So that's cool.
So that's.
Awesome. Yeah.
In a second. Uh, we gotta take a quick break. Okay. Um,
because Satara investors would love us to take a break. Um,
so when you started teaching Siri, was there ever a,
a consideration that you would build generational wealth as a new teacher?
No.
Exactly. No. The profession's not set up like that.
I, I wasn't, I wasn't. And honestly be, I I, you know,
some people there's a T d a, I don't even know what .
Oh, TD Ameritrade. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't.
We're not advertising them. Forget.
That. No, we're not. Oh, sorry. Just kidding.
No, that's okay. No. Say your.
Thing. It's okay. No, there's some, I don't even know what it is. I mean, like,
you could have put in, you can put in like 10% of your paycheck. Right.
Cover your paycheck. And I live alone. I'm single. I don't have kids.
I don't have, like, I, I'm just getting.
Well, there's a second income in your household.
There's no second income. Right. Because it's just me. Yeah.
And so I never did that. Now I'm gonna, like,
I'm sure and teachers freak out when I tell them, but I'm like, I am living, I,
you know, you're pretty much living in New York City. Oh yeah. You're not.
I mean, even if, even if I saved, it's like, you know,
if I only didn't drink a latte every day, then I could What have a have, have a,
have extra lattes on the weekend.
Then you could have, you could have a latte in retirement. Right.
Exactly. Right. So, yeah. Exactly.
So, nice. So what's cool is my friend Alex, uh, from Satera Investors, they,
they are our partners in this, um,
they've devised a way to allow for early service teachers to actually
start putting together some, some wealth. And so for him having grown up his,
his, his, uh, wife Tory, um, they do this business together. They've, uh,
they've done all this work to try to figure out how they can actually change
the structure of investing for folks that weren't born with generational wealth.
'cause as we know, and we'll talk about soon. Yeah. Yeah. Uh,
the best way to have generational wealth is to have it given to you.
. Right.
Right. Nice. And if it's not given to you, it's not gonna happen. Um, so anyway,
y'all, when you, um,
when you finish this episode and when you finish subscribing to everything that,
uh, Siri does online, um,
then you should head over to sat investors and see if they can help you start
planning for the future. Um,
we will be right back after this.
And we are back. What is up everybody? I am here with my bestie,
sir. Rosenberg teacher extraordinaire from the N Y C.
Um, I'm just so happy that you're enjoying. This is so much fun.
I feel like I could talk to you for like hours. 'cause this is all this stuff.
Let's do, let's do it. Let's do it. Um, I do have to pick,
I have to pick up my spouse in a little bit, so I can't talk.
All night. Not for hours.
Okay. Not for hours. Okay. So, but she also loses track of time,
so she won't know. Like.
Okay. She won't notice. Like.
You see. Bye friends. My friends are late. I'm at work still. Oh.
Which is amazing. Um, that's.
So cool.
It's so cool. I love at work. You know, we don't have cubicles here. Siri.
We have corrals. .
Oh, that sounds classy. Right.
It's like, okay. So we're just, we're like livestock. That's great. Yeah.
They're just, yeah. Just heard 'em in.
Um, yeah. People are like, oh, so where's your office? I'm like, I'm an office.
I am part of a corral. That's.
It's.
Better even as a manager. Um, yeah. So, um,
the thing that I think has drawn a lot of folks to your work
is the activism that you engage in and the stuff that you do.
And it's just like, it's, it's really powerful stuff.
It's funny, it's entertaining, but it's also like really deep.
So how did you make that move?
So first you were a reluctant teacher and then you were like, Hey, this is cool.
I kinda like this. Yeah.
How did you move from being this teacher that is enjoying kind of the work that
you're doing into taking a more activist stance, um,
from your position as a teacher?
Yeah. So I mean, basically it's exactly what you're told not to do. Right?
You're not supposed to be quote unquote political.
Yeah, a hundred percent. You're, it's even in some like, union contracts.
Oh. Oh.
Yeah. Here's how you can and cannot address controversial issues.
I know It might be in mine, so don't, I mean, no, I think I'm okay. . No,
I'm in New York.
No, you're an A F T.
I'm an a f T member. You're an aft. I'm protected. Thank you. Randy Weingarten,
shout out to Yeah.
Randy. Randy, come on the podcast. Anyway.
Anyway. Yeah, I'll talk to her. We'll get her on. Um,
she's someone who protects me a lot. and the U f T as well,
which is the New York, um, yeah, yeah. A f t chapter. But, so I,
you know, I, as much as I,
as much as I'm saying a rule breaker, I,
I pretty much have follow the rules through life. You know,
I went to high school and college and I, I'm pretty structured with my days,
but, you know, but I definitely, uh,
up until, I would say up until the Trump election, 20 15, 20 16,
I pretty much followed those rules as well. If kids would say,
what'd you think of Reagan? Or, I mean,
I think they could tell I was excited when Obama was elected,
which that was hard to hold back. We were excited that day.
But for the most part,
I prided myself up until Trump came onto the scene and ran as a Republican
in being coy in my political preferences. .
And it was because I was, you know, I was trained to, well,
I was told not to smile before Christmas, but I smiled on the first day. Yeah.
But I felt like that. You're.
Like, wow, this is fun.
Yeah, this is cool. The kids are funny, but, and.
They're like, Ms. Rosenberg smiles.
Yeah. Wait, wait. Why is she smiling? I mean, it,
they it definitely made them have too much questions.
Well, 'cause they know the rules. Like they.
Know the rules. Yeah. They're like, why is this teacher smiling? Yeah.
The first before.
Christmas, I'm just, by the way, I'm just like cracking up at,
'cause there are many words I would use to describe you. Coy is not one of them.
Coy.
Yeah. I know Well, I was the, I I I was, you were kind of told like,
no political references in the classroom ever. Well.
And what do they tell us is Gen Z we or Gen Z? Gen X. Yeah. Gen X. Yeah.
It's like they tell us over and over again. Keep your head down. Yeah.
Keep your collar up. Keep your eyes down, keep it.
Moving. Mind your business. Yep. Just, you, you might not agree with the rules,
just go along with them because like.
Get through the day. Eventually you can do whatever you want. But that is,
that day is not today.
Yeah. Don't question your boss. Just do it. It might be stupid.
Just talk about it with your friends later, . And you know, like,
this was so dumb. It's like, just watch any.
And get addicted to lots of things that can distract you. How about.
That? That's exactly it. I mean,
just if anyone doesn't understand these references,
just watch any movies from the eighties and you'll get it for real reality
bites, slacker, all those things. My God, those are the best. Yes.
But in terms of like, when I became political, uh, Trump and,
and it became a thing where, okay,
so it started off because I viscerally could not hide how I'd been crying
all night and all morning. Yeah. Uh,
we came to school the next morning and my principal at the time was APAC
was a, is a, she is, and a Pakistani Muslim.
And she was the principal at the time.
She intentionally read the Pledge of Allegiance over the loudspeaker,
and she was crying and all my students were crying. And I was like, wait,
who? Wait. Why is the teacher crying? Oh, shoot, I'm the teacher who's crying.
Like, I was just floating above myself. Yeah.
And kids were just grappling with what this meant for them personally,
because my school is extremely diverse. And, but to, but not actually,
it's become more diverse. But at the time when people say diverse,
let's be honest, they're saying, oh, it's not just all white kids, you know?
Yeah. It's, it's brown and black kids, but like, it wasn't diverse.
It was brown and black kids, like Muslim kids, like the same people, like,
like not diverse.
Means not like us.
Not like us. So I hate saying that. Like,
now the school's diverse where it's really, there's white kids or black kids.
There's all different kids. But at the time, it was like,
I was often the only white person in the room. Yeah. Aside from maybe one kid,
one Polish kid. Yeah. . Um, so it's true. Like that's how the school was.
The the school has gotten far more diverse,
and I think that's better for everyone. Sure. But at the time,
I'm standing there and I'm a white woman. I mean, I'm Jewish,
but I'm white appearing, right? Sure. Sure.
I'm white for all intents and purposes. Yeah. And I had two thoughts.
I was like, well, first of all,
most of these kids know that I was excited to get Hillary elected. Yeah. Yeah.
And number two, um,
if they didn't know that I'm a white woman standing in front of them,
and they're gonna think that if I'm coy with them about this one,
then I'm a Trump supporter. And Trump was a direct threat to the,
to probably the every single kid in that room,
whether they supported him or not. Right. His policies would be,
and I know that people felt like, some people were like, ah,
how bad could it be? And they thought I was being hyperbolic and dramatic right.
That day. And then it ended up being worse than we imagined.
But I remember what got me and got me speaking out was not me though.
It was the fact that one of my students who wears hijab looked at me
scared, like real viscerally scared. And she said, miss,
they'll call you Miss in New York, miss mm-hmm. . Right.
I'm scared to take the subway now in my hijab,
and I'm scared for my family to be on the subway now. And I said, okay.
She's like, what do I do if someone like at Attack, you know, comes after us?
And I, and part of me even then was like, that's not, it's New York.
That's not gonna happen. Sure, sure.
But then there was a part of me that was like, she knows more than me.
And I said, well just act like, I was like,
just get up and move into the next Subway car. Just get up and walk. Like,
don't just like walk away or just act, you act like you don't understand,
like walk away. And that Monday she came in,
or the next day after the weekend and she said, miss some guy spit on us.
Wow.
So that was it. I mean, I was already speaking out, but that was it. And I said,
you know what? Like if I get fired for this, which I won't,
or if I get reprimanded, I don't care.
Because a lot of these students don't have,
don't feel safe speaking out, or they don't have a platform to speak out.
They're minors.
And I'm just going to speak out because this is,
this sounds dramatic, but it's true. And we're living in that time now too,
which is, I'm a student of history, a scholar of history. Yeah.
And you study the past and you say, what would I have done? I mean, I'm Jewish.
I would've been, we don't wanna talk about what would've happened,
but what happens if I was in a time period where there was someone who was a
leader, who was a threat to others, and I could have done something to stop it.
Would I have done that back then, like during the civil rights movement?
Would I have joined the sit-ins? Would I have done those things?
And I like to think I would have. Yeah.
And then I had a moment where I said to myself, oh,
that's this moment and just one step, you know, one foot in front of the other.
And I just continued to speak out and it just got louder and louder. Yeah.
Uh, to your point though, I mean, we, I think one of the,
one of the things that I think is interesting is that when you look at the
history and may, and maybe maybe your heritage does play a part in this,
where it's kind of like,
it wasn't just that Jewish people did not resist and just
kind of were were passive in this whole thing. Yeah. There were uprisings. Yeah.
There were gorilla movements. There were those kinds of things.
And I kind of see that. Yeah. You know, I, it's interesting because, um,
December, 2016 is when two dope teachers and a mic launched.
Wow.
That was when we launched. That's awesome.
And it was one of these things where Kevin and I were becoming more and
more aware that we were isolated as male teachers of color. Yeah. Um,
yeah. Before he came and started working with me,
I had been working for 14 years as the only teacher of color in any staff that I
was a part of. Wow.
And what happened to me in those times is I thought I could kind of switch on
and off my identity. And that was, that was hard.
And I didn't realize what was happening until I met another person of color.
Um, wow. And so I think that kind of, that call is,
is pretty amazing. And what, you know, I, when,
when I try to describe your, your social media presence, and that's,
that's where I want to kind of go next with this Yeah.
Is I kind of view you as a 21st century John Brown. Right. Like, to me,
it's just kinda like, so you,
you are part of this elite group of folks that I refer to as, um,
as my John Brown white people. Right. . And I know,
and I know whiteness is not like the, the, the total,
the totality of your identity. Yeah.
But I am white. I'm white. Yeah. It's, and I wanna like, no,
before they see my last name, I'm a white girl with fake blonde hair. It's fake,
but blonde hair, right?
Like fake blonde hair. Your hair's not fake. The blonde, the.
Blonde, the hair is real baby. Yeah. Real.
Hair color.
A.
Little fake. This gray that I have is also real. Um, yeah, yeah. No, but so,
so like, so there's a few of you, there's,
there's our mutual friend Chris Deere, um, there's a few of you.
And I'm kinda like, you know what, these are white people.
If I said we are raiding Harper's Ferry, they are coming with me. .
Right?
Yeah. I'd be down. I'd be down.
And so, but I think that's been your,
your digital engagement and what you've done aside from just not
just this is important aside,
in addition to validating stories and being a safe place for your
students from marginalized and minoritized communities to come, you know,
to come to you have also taken these very,
very strong stands that when even when I look at it, I'm like, oh, shoot.
I don't know if I would say that. . Like, what am like.
What.
What am I saying? Well, no, because i's just a funny, I'm That's funny.
I'm just a sensitive person. Okay, got it. And so, like, people,
people get mad and Oh, they do mad. And I get my feelings hurt. And I'm like,
oh, but, and people get big mad at you. They.
Get really, especially on Instagram lately, like, I can't even open.
Instagram. Instagram. That's what, that's something that like blows me away.
It's crazy matter.
It's like all the hat haters got confused by Twitter and decided to get on
Instagram.
They're so mad at me on Instagram, like all day, like so mad.
Ugh.
Now, now are they mad? Are they Jordan Peterson mad at a puppet worm? Mad.
'cause that's wild.
. Yeah. I don't even know. I mean, it feels like, I don't even know. I,
it's every name a type of mad I have it. Yeah.
Every single type of.
Mad. So like, uh, like I, I would,
I would curl up in a ball 'cause I'm insecure. Um,
but how me how do you .
Aren't we all, I mean, come on.
How do you, but like, and,
and we're not even talking about like what you post is like time consuming.
Like, it's not just something you can do just quick and be like,
let's just real quick throw this video up. Like,
there's work that goes into that. Yeah. Um, how do you,
how do you do that with all of the hatred coming at you?
It fuels me. I mean, I will say that, damn, I love that answer. It fuels me.
It fuels me. Uh, I, someone writes a bunch of hateful stuff and I'm like,
all right, I'll make another video about that. Got it. It fuels me.
The hate fuels me because it can do two things to you. It can, because I know,
and, and my friend Little Miss Marxist always reminds me of this,
if they're coming after you, it's because you struck a nerve. Because why?
Because I always want, I don't respond to them, but I, sometimes I do.
And then I block them and I write, you could've kept scrolling,
but you just wrote me an essay bra. Like, why are you,
you're.
Like, yo, who is living rent free in your head. Your.
Head. I mean,
and then they'll write back sometimes before and then I block them.
'cause I don't want them to report my account because they're crazy.
They'll write something like, you, you video was fed to me. And I said,
but you could have kept scrolling. Yeah. But instead you wrote an essay to me.
I got you so angry.
And because you disagree with me so much and you want me to do my research that
you did it for me and sent me your ideas. But it does fuel me.
But I will say that I wanna speak about,
I think that what happened was that it takes, what do they say?
The fir what's the saying? The first cut's the deepest. So Yeah. Yeah. That,
that's right. You know, like the first broke,
the first time you have a broken heart. It hurts the most. Although I have,
I always get a broken heart. It hurts the same, but it hurts the same.
That doesn't that it always hurts. I disagree with that. Like.
Hey y'all, stop breaking Sarah's heart. Stop breaking.
My heart. Yo.
I'm gonna fight you. We're we're besties. Now I'm gonna.
I'm gonna you. Yeah. Don't even try now my best. He's coming. Exactly. But,
but yeah, in terms of the hate online, it's that saying like, the first cut's,
the deepest and the first, there are two incidents.
And then I never got scared again and watched me knock on wood because I don't
wanna anything else. But so far I've been okay.
I just don't look at the comments.
But the first time was I po the first post that all the crazy right wing people
came for me was around the time that they were passing those,
the original c r t anti c r t bills.
We don't even need to talk about what everyone understands how dumb those were.
And I, right around 4th of July weekend, I always post, what did the slaves,
the 4th of July,
the famous Frederick Douglass speech that he gave back in the,
the slavery day, still like, you know, they had, it was still slavery.
And they asked him to give a speech about the 4th of July.
And he called him out on hypocrisy of this nation celebrating the 4th of July
when people were not independent in this country. All the enslaved people.
So I noticed, I, I just tweeted a bit of a thread that said,
Hey, so does this mean that in your states that you've banned Frederick,
do you know conversations about racism and race and slavery?
Can they read this speech anymore? Now? Not,
not fr they can learn about Frederick Douglass, but can they learn this speech?
Right. And then I, and they all found this tweet for some reason,
and they all said the same thing. Siri's lying, this isn't true.
And then screenshotting that you can read like thenar, you know,
the life story of Frederick Douglass. Okay. That is different than this speech.
Than his 4th of July speech. Absolutely.
And but the problem is that nuance doesn't work online in general.
And it certainly doesn't with these,
this army of trolls that we're probably in some weird troll room together.
And we're given this line to say, Siri's a liar. You're.
Picturing a troll room right now. Yeah. Of all these like, people,
like you guys, sir, tweeted a thing that I'm mad about. Yeah.
What are we gonna do That's better.
We're gonna call her. And if you notice that's the pattern. They just say,
you're a liar. Siri's lying. And, and you can, you can limit comments,
but you can't. Now, Twitter's god it's X, but oh God.
Even it's even before Elon Musk,
one thing that they would do was even if you didn't allow them to respond to
you, you could live at comments. They can quote, tweet you.
So there was all these quote tweets.
And then they started coming after saying I had plastic, you know,
going after my face. Plastic surgery. Like no plastic surgery by the way,
it's just my face. . That's right. And I'd be like, oh,
you think I'm pretty that I paid for my face.
Oh, thanks. So that was, you don't think this is, I woke up like.
This. I woke up like this with this plastic surgery face .
So that was the first attack.
And then the second attack was even worse because I learned another lesson,
which is don't tweet a picture from your classroom with the words
white supremacy and multiracial democracy and say,
and wearing a mask. 'cause I was still mask times.
Saying, oh yeah, you, you're checking off all of their.
Hate boxes. Wait.
And then I tweeted teaching about the January 6th and whatever the hashtag
happened was capital riots. I was, I was,
I was not thinking, I thought, who follows me on? You know, like, are you.
Sure? 'cause that sounds kind of intentional. It's kind like here. No,
it wasn't. Let me bait you jerks. No, I really, no, totally. Not totally. It.
Usually goes, it usually, a lot of times when I would tweet,
it would go on like mist. And I was actually,
interestingly enough thought I was promoting the article I had just written for,
not like Marxist magazine, but Parents Magazine.
I had written an article and actually balanced in fair article about how to
teach your kids about January 6th for parents.com.
So I thought I was advertising because it was the lesson that actually was a
lesson that we got from the N Y C D O E. Like,
I didn't come up with this lesson and it was like a see, think wonder,
which they were making fun of. Like,
what's the difference between thinking and wondering?
It's actually a teaching device. We're professionals. It's what we use idiots.
Yeah. What do you notice? What do you wonder? And.
What is we exactly not see, think, wonder, like, have you been to school, dude?
So they, I tweeted this picture and I got,
because my last name is Rosenberg,
that's when I was reminded that my last name's Rosenberg,
all the terrible anti-Semitic stuff. My one thing I had said was like,
if they start bringing up the Holocaust and ovens,
I don't know if I can be tweeting anymore.
And they did that and it was terrifying. It was disgusting. Wow. Yeah. I,
I can't e like, I can't tell you how many I saw. And the echo symbol,
which I learned is a, a dog whistle for, for Jew, um,
Jewish person, the nose, everything, you know,
anti-Semitic cartoons all under my,
so I deleted the tweet so everyone listening thinks the story's over. Oh no.
I went and got my hair done to calm down.
And my hairstylist was the one who's like, just take it down. So I took it down.
He was smart. He's like, just take it down. I'm like, you're right.
He's just gonna take it down. Why do I need it up? Yep. Well, Jack Poso,
I don't even know how to say his last name, that Nazi, doesn't.
Matter. Doesn't matter.
Whatever the hell his name is. Nazi guy with a million followers. Yeah.
Someone Oh, lives of TikTok. Found it, posted it,
sent it to him and he decided to retweet it and tag me.
Hey Siri, Beth Rose, why did you delete this? Okay.
Yeah.
So that was around 10 o'clock eastern. Oh shoot. I understand.
.
Okay.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna have you pause for one second. I need to, uh,
plug in 'cause my battery sucks. Okay. Okay. Be right back bestie. All right,
we are back. And I'm plugged in and Sarah's plugged in and we are ready to go.
Go. So part two, we're talking about Jack. Yeah. Who,
whatever the hell his name, whatever.
Nazi guy, he retweets me.
He takes my picture of the tweet and asked me why I deleted it. It was like a,
you know, late at night, late,
late enough at night in New York time where all my friends online who were in
California and elsewhere, no,
all my friends in New York and stuff couldn't come to my rescue,
like East coast time. So I talked to a friend and he basically said,
go private for the night and make that be the focus. I mean,
this is like a whole strategy online. Go private for the night and then, um,
let them go,
let them feel like they won because you went private and they scared you.
And it was just every possible mean thing that people could say.
But the thing is, is that they, they were, it was all anti-Semitism,
but then it was also just like attacks on my looks, attacks on my face.
Like they found like my profile picture. And they were like, God busted girl.
You know? And you have to be so secure and be like, no,
I know I'm not busted looking. And even if I am, fuck them. You know, like,
sorry for cursing and.
Like whatever. That's okay. No, I mean, and, and it's,
it's wild because I know that I've, I've just seen this happen to.
It's disgusting.
So many women on, on X especially. Oh yeah. But you know,
in a lot of other places. Yeah. So, so just so the,
the hatred kind of took a whole new level of like nastiness.
Oh yeah. And cruelty.
And, and I just, I, people are like, don't I look? But you know what happens?
You get numb. So once you start seeing it over and over, you,
I think what happened to me, me at least, and maybe this I'm sick. Yeah.
I just started separating the online stuff from me because I started thinking,
these people don't know me.
They're attacking this icon that is me online. Right.
That represents liberal Jewish lady fighting for black people,
which they hate.
Like white people fighting for black and brown people wanting a multiracial
democracy, calling out their white supremacy. That's what they're fighting.
I mean, that is also what.
I believe, but it's like in a really weird, so in a really, in, in a way, not,
not a really weird way, but,
so the way that you receive this kind of thing as like,
you're not actually attacking me 'cause you don't know me. Yeah. You're not,
this isn't personal. You just look at this,
at this presence and for you, you feel that it,
I just represent everything that you hate.
And so really what you hate is everything that literally exists in this country.
Right.
And I'm just, I'm just your symbol for it.
Yeah. I became the, I yeah, the sim exactly. That,
that's you articulated perfectly.
And that's how I'm able to keep able to keep going because,
so basically the next morning I went public again.
My friends told me to just say, I'm still here.
And then I tweeted the reason I deleted the other tweet and I listed all the
anti-Semitic things that happened to me because of that tweet.
And that's why I deleted, it's because the hate that I received,
because my last name's Rosenberg. Yeah. And so, you know,
every Nazi flooded in and we reported them. Yeah.
And before Elon Musk had taken over,
it was a lot of those accounts got taken down. Yep. So I felt like, I felt like,
you know,
I was the Nazi hunter that I wanted to have been in the thirties and forties.
. Yes. I became that Nazi hunter online. I love that. I mean,
they're all, all those accounts are back. So that's,
so once those two things happened,
I started seeing it in that way.
That's not to say that when people that I don't know come up to me,
I definitely get weird sometimes.
And it's because they know they don't know me from that. But I,
I definitely am on edge a little without realizing it because it,
it gets in your head like, oh, these people hate, like, they hate me. Yeah.
They don't hate me, but they hate this person. They see.
But yeah. But they, they hate the, I mean, and that's the other thing too,
especially as a woman, they,
they hate what you represent enough that it could lead to violence.
It could be like, they're not philosophical enough to say, oh, that's Siri,
but I just hate the idea of her. I would never hurt her. Like, right.
That has to be something that creates that anxiety.
So I think this is really important because, you know, and,
and it's interesting 'cause I kind of ad hoc talked about superheroes, right?
Mm-hmm. . And I think one of the things about superheroes,
I'm a big comic book nerd. This, this is, I love it kind of where I live.
I love it. I love it. Um, I consider teachers of color to be like the X-men,
like there's a soul.
Oh, totally. Totally.
Totally, totally. Yeah.
And so the way I kind of see this is that like there
is this kind of superhero arc where there is pain and there is
fear, and there is anxiety. And I think what's really powerful,
and listeners I hope you're getting this, like,
is that it isn't that people like Siri,
like other folks that we've seen get attacked mostly women. Yeah. Um,
Khalisa Wing, the homegirl, right? Oh yeah. Like, uh, my, my, my, my homie,
uh, key from what kindergarten. Like,
it's not that they have some unique shell or some unique ability
to fight back and resist and be like, haha, you can't defeat me.
I'm Sir Beth Rose. You know, it isn't that, that's a thing. It's like, nah,
this stuff hurts and this stuff is scary. Yeah. And this stuff is fucked. Sorry,
we're gonna have to put the E on this. Yeah, yeah. And, um, and,
but I choose the fight. Yeah. I choose the fight,
which kind of gets me in you,
you're already kind of talking about the next topic. Yeah. Which is,
this is kind of the work, right? Right, right. Like we,
as much as people like me, let's be honest,
are dismissive of like perceptions through social media and that kind of thing,
, I mean,
there's whole sets of consciousnesses that are being developed on social media
and playing out on social media. Now we're seeing, it used to be,
man, you would never talk to somebody in person like that. Well,
now people are starting to do it. And so yeah, they are,
we're starting to see that tail wig wag the dog a little bit. And so this,
this matters, this is important. And, um,
and so how do you view just your work as an
educator that isn't just about reciting the standards and making sure kids pass
tests?
So my job is, yes, they have to,
they wanna do all in the AP US exam, and they wanna do, of course,
they wanna pass the Regents exam and know the content for that,
and have the skills. But I, I always say that if I,
I trust I've taught 21 years of students. So my,
I feel happiest and acco most accomplished when I run
into students, whether it's at a reunion or anywhere in New York.
'cause I see my students everywhere now, which is awesome. When they say,
I think about your class, every time I watch the news,
every time I read a newspaper, I'm like, Ooh, you're reading a newspaper. Good.
Or every time I'm reading the news online, or every time I'm on Twitter,
TikTok and seeing history videos, I think about the history class.
Because to me,
that's what we're getting away from with all this testing and,
and just standards, which is that why do we study the past?
And I think it's becoming abundantly clear today that what happens when you
don't study the past or make it relevant is that we repeat.
The or or reframe the past to suit. Right.
Your own comfort and your own anything that just affirms your
own narrative. Exactly.
And so it's so important that for me,
that now more than ever,
that you make those connections between current day and the past.
And they're not neat connections. Like everything, the past,
everything that happened in the past is different in its context.
But to see the, see how it rhymes and see some of the parallels.
And so that's what I want students to take from my class.
And so some of them, some I think when they first enter my class,
they think I'm being random. 'cause I bring up, oh, the UAW is on strike. And,
and I Yeah. Right. Connected it to some word that was in a reading.
And they're like, that has no, that has nothing to do with the reading.
Let's stay on track. But they don't realize, like, I always tell 'em like,
there's method to my madness. Like there's a reason I'm,
because I wanna make them feel.
See, I, I tell people there's a madness to my method.
Oh, well there's that. Oh, see, this is why we're friends.
This is why we're besties, , yin, yin and yang. Well,
maybe I should start saying now I'm gonna copy you, but I, I.
Know folks, everything that I'm not good at, sir, is good at.
And everything that I am good at, sir is better at. So go ahead.
Oh, stop it. Oh, stop it. Oh my God. Watch me teach one day. I might,
you might disagree. Oh.
my teaching. Go ahead.
. But two dope teachers who, who teach sometimes. No,
you can't teach. You can't teach. That's the whole, that's why we're dope. Yo.
That's right. . But .
But I will say that I want kids to feel lit.
I'm gonna come up with a phrase like, let me think of it. Current events,
literate, I, we can come up with a better one later workshop it.
But this idea that I want kids to be able to do that too,
I love that idea of kids being able to seamlessly connect
something that they're learning about during the New Deal and connect it to
something in Biden's program or something that didn't happen during Trump's
program, or they tried to make happen during another presidency. Right. So like,
I don't wanna bash anyone. So I, I want kids. That's why I do that in the class.
I want them to realize. 'cause I think it feels,
I think that when they learn about government and civics and pay attention to
the news, it's, it's scary.
It's like intimidating because it's all this new information at once.
Especially if they haven't been paying attention to the news at all.
And so I want, I wanna model that it can be a seamless process.
And so I guess if I were to analyze why I do it,
that's why I want them to feel comfortable and confident
in that. Even they can understand that they can relate the past, the present.
It's not that hard. It's just knowing it and understanding the content. Oh,
wait, you went quiet.
Yeah. Yeah.
So I, um,
started my career at an alternative school where a lot of students had just not
been in school much over the, over their entire high school careers.
And even there when we, when I taught history, they would say, well,
Mr. That we do that in Denver too, Mr. I like that. That's just like today.
So I never even had to
manufacture or guide them to a connection in saying, Hey, do we see any,
they would kind of bring that unprompted and,
and I think the way you kind of explain the way that
your other topics come into conversations,
you might be talking about the new deal and then it leads to other things. Um,
that helps me view the teaching of history.
And actually my practice was a lot like that. Cool.
Where I really view the teaching and the learning and the studying of history as
a dynamic thing. Yeah. It's not static.
It's not a list of facts that you just have to know that have never been
interrogated. And when I talked to students,
so I was teaching AP world history Oh, cool.
And what I would share with my students is that, you know,
we would talk about point of view statements Right.
Back when they were doing p o v statements. Yeah. And I would say,
and they would say, well, like what? Like,
what if there's like a million points of view? I'm like, well,
there probably are.
And so our job as historians is to learn what those points of view are and what,
and why people have them,
and why people felt that those points of view that they had were
absolutely rational and absolutely reasonable to the point that they
communicated them. Right? Yes. And so what it sounds like is, um, Mr.
Rosenberg's classroom is,
is dynamic and it is establishing those connections and,
and that the students are able to make those connections.
And I think that is the work. Um, you know, we talk about this,
the urgency of history. I, and, you know, I'm biased. I'm,
I was a history major, I taught history. Um,
I just don't think that there's a more important discipline for our time right
now. There's no, I agree.
Nothing else is possible without understanding the history and what came before
and how people saw it. Um, and that's, that's the work.
Yeah. And I feel like also the other thing I like to,
I I've been not talking a lot about with them is I, I,
I'm really mindful of the fact that so much of American history,
when you start interrogating it and looking at it through a critical lens Yeah.
In let's say a complex lens, the one that they don't want us doing in Florida.
Right. Right. Which is, you know, the negative history. I'm really,
I'm of the mindset that it, that it makes them,
the kids already know that stuff.
And your job is to give them the tools to understand it and also to,
and that doesn't make them hate America. Right. Right.
It makes them appreciate it more because when they understand the struggles that
people went through I to,
to get us to becoming more of a multiracial, multiracial democracy,
which we've yet to achieve. Yeah.
And to understand that sometimes there's decades where you see it going in that
direction, and other times they're not. But then there's those human beings,
those individuals who say, no, I'm not gonna let it go this way.
I'm gonna bring it back to the direction where everyone's included.
Or we try to do that. I think that's so important.
I don't think that makes them hate it more.
And one thing I'm really getting talking a lot about this year in the pa first
couple weeks is this idea that, and I,
it's funny because I was interviewing Congressman Bowman for something else
mm-hmm. , and he was saying the same thing. I was like, okay, cool.
Other people are saying that . Yes.
But it's this idea that human beings created these systems that we're living
with now. And so I said to my students, so if human beings created them,
what can they also do? They can tear them down. But wait,
the people listening who think I wanna tear everything down and build up better
structures. Right. That's right. That's right. I people, and I think that is,
that, that's the theme of a good history class, which is that in the end,
these systems didn't just get imposed on us from up above
human beings worked really hard to create white supremacy and the patriarchy and
all these systems that have hurt people, including, you know,
not dealing with our planet and not addressing global warming. Yeah.
And so we can do the reverse,
but we actually have to all learn about it and figure out what the best way to
move forward is.
So I think you can talk about the negative stuff and frame it in that way and
not make kids hate America. I think it's possible, you know?
Yep. And I never had that experience of, and I taught black and brown children.
I never, I very rarely did someone say, man, I hate this country. Like,
it was it,
they always had this optimistic view that we can make things better and we can,
we can look to the future. Well,
something that you said really reminds me of something that I've been trying to
hold in my mind a lot. Um,
the first is that systems don't sustain themselves.
Systems are upheld by people. Right.
And so what are the decisions that we all make? And I,
and of course being in a central office space, I see that very clearly, right?
Yeah.
What are the decisions that we make every day that are either disrupting or
reinforcing the system? It's, it's either or. Yeah. Um, yeah.
And then the other thing I think about a lot is, you know,
when we talk about tearing things down, right? I mean, for me,
I think more in terms of what am I creating that's just gonna render these
current understandings and systems obsolete. Like,
do you still walk around with a Walkman? I don't like, I don't need to. Like,
the Walkman was probably fine for its time, and it was,
we didn't see any better possibility at that point.
Now we've got these little devices Yeah. That have our, the whole, uh,
life and a text from one of my direct reports, um, Yeah. On them,
which is okay. And more.
And more and.
More and more. Yeah. Um, so I think that's really powerful stuff. Like yes,
eventually something has to give. Um, but it's like,
if the revolution happens tomorrow, do we still have to work on Monday?
I mean Yeah. There's still stuff to do. . Yeah. Like afterwards. Yeah.
We still.
Have to keep working. Yeah.
Yeah.
So apologies to anybody who thought the revolution would immediately end to us
not working. Uh, we will get there. Just not this weekend. Yeah.
Not this weekend. Man. I could talk to you all night, sir.
I know. It's too, we can,
we can maybe do a part two or maybe I can we can do more. Or maybe I can.
Maybe I can be Ooh, let's do it. Let's do it. You're on the roster. Awesome. Um,
so I talked about Walkman's and I talked about creative destruction slash
planned obsolescence. Who knows which one it is? Yeah. Who know? Um,
so on your Walkman, no, just kidding. Yeah. Um, yeah. I have a.
Walkman, my.
Sports man. You listen to music. You, you like music. Of course.
I like music and pizza like a normal person. And I And pizza. Yes. Normal pizza.
Musical pizza is even better. I, um,
feel like I might not be surprised by what you choose.
'cause I am a devote a devotee of Sarabeth Nation. Sarah Beth Rose Nation.
Oh my God.
You're.
Fascinating. I follow your stuff. I like watching this stuff.
So I might have some guesses. However,
what are the top five tracks slash musicians slash styles that are showing
up on your music player? And I want,
and I wanna qualify that a little bit by saying,
this doesn't mean your top five ever. No.
Yeah. Please don't make me.
It's a snapshot. Right? A snapshot I'm looking at right now. Yeah.
Moment in fall, almost fall of 2023 in this place,
in this corner of the metaverse. Like what is,
what is resonating with you now? And it's also not,
doesn't have to be hierarchical. Okay. So you can just say, these are the five,
right. And yeah. Um, you can have ties.
Oh wow. I, this is the best. See, this is how Gen X does it,
because that's right.
I know this is a theme and I'm sure people listening are like,
she needs to stop it with the Gen X thing.
not because also Gen X people storm the capital. So we're not all great.
I don't speak for them. Right. Yeah.
We also raised some, a lot of us also raised Gen Z, whether it was our,
our actual children Yes. Or the children that we taught in our classrooms. Yeah.
We raised those children who were ready to like, just.
Tear it down, dismantle.
Everything. So.
Like, I take credit for that and because I've taught a lot of them mm-hmm.
. Okay. But I like the way you asked the que. Okay.
So I will say that I was talking to a friend the other day and he was saying
like, new music, you know,
we were talking about how we still listen to the indie music of the two.
If we're listening to rock, it's like all the like indie music of the twenties,
two early, like the strokes and stuff. Yeah. Like,
they're really odd after that. It's really odd.
But I was saying I love Fred again. Do you know who Fred again is?
I do. Wow. I love Fred.
Again. Fred.
Again Is Fred again. So good. Fred, congratulations.
First appearance on a top five.
Okay. Fred again. And if anyone's listening and wants to gift me with tickets,
'cause they're really expensive in New York, but it's like, you know,
these tickets are so expensive, but I lo he's just, he's a dj. Yep.
But if you watch anything on, if you,
now that I've said this and you're listening, it's gonna show up on your TikTok.
'cause that's how the algorithm.
Works.
. That's right. Fred. Again. Fred again. Fred. Again,
it's gonna then play All Cool.
So I'm gonna have to look for it.
Dj, it's, it's, he's great. He just, it's amazing, brilliant. Great samples.
And really just love that beautiful songs and also good ones to work out to.
Yeah. And then I guess I'm going through my playlist. I mean,
I like such a range of music because, yep. Okay.
So I will say that I know that people rag on Drake all the time,
but he was my number one artist on Spotify last year. Sorry, not sorry. I mean,
I mean, I guess I listen to Drake a lot.
I don't dunno if it's gonna happen this year, but that's a,
that comes up a lot on my playlist. Um, yeah.
Drake resonates with a lot of folks. I'm not gonna lie, I I don't always get it.
I don't actively hate his music. Um, yeah.
No, the newer stuff I don't love as.
Much.
Don't. But yeah.
But also, like a lot of people, Sage, right.
More people probably agree with you than with me. So I.
No, I, I, I, I'm slow. People are slowly trying to get me off the train beyond,
and I mean, some of my stuff is gonna be like honest.
Well to me, like I, it's, to me it's a little bit like Eminem, right? Yeah.
Like Eminem I thought was just annoying when I, when he first came out.
And now as I've aged as a hip hop head,
I'm like actually kind of a gifted mc Right. And kind of,
kind of unique. And so I've come to, yeah.
I agree.
My daughter has me in my inner phone as Eminem's number one fan. So I'm like.
Oh, thanks. Really? Wow. Okay. So that's changed. So I, okay.
I'll get more respect from you because my favorite Jay-Z album of all time,
I love Jay-Z. Jay-Z is above it all. Like, if I'm walking to work,
I usually put on Jay-Z and Reasonable Doubt is the best Jay-Z album.
Yes. Of all time. Say that.
Reasonable Doubt. Say put it on Start to Finish. That's an album.
That's it's novel. It's no Skip album. It's no Skip.
Album. And no matter what your mood, it works.
Yep. It.
Works. Right. So I love.
That.
All over the place. Yeah. You gotta include Reasonable Doubt. Love, love it.
And, and I, and I of course, bi Beyonce, like, yeah, everything Beyonce.
But I will say that like, I'm looking, I have this, I always have like,
running playlists and the one I have recently,
it's like my late summer run and I put on Green Light. I love, it's a,
it's a green light. Beyonce is just,
and it's the Free Mason's remix if you don't wanna.
Work out. Okay. Oh, I haven't heard that one. Put that it's.
But Green Light, I feel like people don't put that on their list.
It's just a good,
fun Beyonce song And Upgrade You is also another great Beyonce Beyonce song.
Oh yeah. Those are the songs that I feel like.
What's the, um, free the Freedom song? The Oh yeah. From Lemonade.
Ken Lemonade with, with Kendrick Lemonade's Lemonade is, well.
Lemonade actually that whole album. Yeah.
But that collab song with Kendrick is Wild. Great.
Also, I love Kendrick. I love Kendrick. I know his, for his most recent album.
I think some people didn't like some of his references. We won't get into that.
But I, he's a, he's a master and I do, I have, I already said five.
Damn. That's.
That's alright. You can have a tie. Tie.
Okay. And I mean also there's, I like Rihanna and Nikki.
Of course.
Rihanna and Nikki. Yeah.
Why is he either words basic, I feel like I'm basic.
I'm not giving you, I'm not giving you my like, you know, off the,
I guess Fred again was my cool one. No. And then I will say that was a cool one.
This, this goes out to Mr. Servin because we were getting a, the students,
students and I were talking how we love Drake. He's like,
have you listened to the new Drake? I'm like, text Go Green is such a good song.
And Mr. Servin was like, play it. And he is like, is it? And I was like, oh,
I guess I don't know that I'm trying to explain it.
Maybe I just can relate to when the text go green. I'm just kidding. Yeah.
But I just, I like the sentiment. But I will say that then he told me,
and I hope it doesn't start playing, he said, you're missing out. He's like,
he told me and he's right. This is a really good album. So it's, uh,
well now you're gonna have to have it explicit. No, I'm just kidding.
So JPEG mafia jpeg mafiaa, Jenny Brown.
The album's called Scaring the Hose.
Oh, okay. Okay. .
Put.
It in your ears. I don't know that one. Me.
Neither. He was like, no, no, no, just listen to it.
And he started playing it for me and a couple students and we were like, oh,
good stuff. Okay. And I'm, I'm into that. So I think I've said 20.
Yep. That's great. This is you, you're, you're in almost Eric Hale territory.
Uh.
And I will say you got Led Zeppelin always Led Zeppelin.
Lead. Yeah. Led Zeppelin's. Good. Gotta that out.
Eric Hale 2021 Teacher of the Year. My guy from Texas. Yeah. Um,
who I believe he still texts me songs today and we interviewed him three years
ago.
So I'm so, uh, yeah, you can just cut me off 'cause I'm about to.
'cause I do love. I listen to E D M when I go running and I listen to,
I listen to it all. I listen to it all name a song. That's great.
Except for country. Sorry.
Yeah. I listen to some kind. No, but there's some,
there's some definitely anti-cop like, you know,
anarchy, like country music, like the real stuff. So shout out to my guy Sam,
who exposed me to his like,
dope country music that is just about working people and
defying authority.
Okay. Can I say one more song? ? Yes.
Gary Gary Clark.
Okay. Here's an amazing song that I play a lot. Gary Clark Jr.
This Land.
Okay. Yep.
You know that song? That is a great.
I know that one song. Yeah, that one. That, that's a great, um, inclusion.
All right. Okay. I'll stop. We're gonna, I'll stop. Yeah. We're,
we're gonna keep talking about music for the next four hours,
but we will not make the rest of you listen to it. Sir Rosenberg,
I'm so happy you joined me tonight. That was.
So fun.
Yeah.
This is a really dumb question because I'm pretty sure that everybody already
knows where to find you, but where do people find you on social media to.
Partake find in your work? Sorry, I cut you off. I, they can find,
I almost like so excited to tell. I'm like, where can they find me?
What find me everywhere. I used to have a joke. I was on every website.
Um, no, but you can find me at Sir Beth Rose. So my name is Sir Beth Rosenberg,
but I thought, oh, no one's gonna know it's me 'cause I'm just using my ated.
It's clearly if you Google me, it's obviously you. It comes up , sir.
Yeah, it's my face. So can.
Confirm.
Can confirm. Yes, it's me. I'm Sir Beth Rose. And also follow my sub stack.
It's called Yo Miss You Miss,
it's Sarah beth rosenberg Miss sub.com. Yeah. Love it. But it's.
A, I need, need to start putting things on my sub stack. Yeah. Yeah.
Get your sub stack going.
For real. Yeah, it's going. I'm just not doing anything with it.
So that's how you find, um, my bestie. Sir Rosenberg, um,
thank you so much for joining me on Tudo teachers. And I'm Mike. Uh,
the way I like to close things out is I'm gonna ramble even more than usual. Um,
and then when I give you the signal, we're gonna say state oak together.
Does that sound good? Sounds great. All right. So for my guest,
Siri Rosenberg, for my guy Kevin Adams, who is doing that, uh,
principal training grind for the two Dope Nation who continues to
do this work in the classroom,
I wish you could discover you're origin story, discover that you're a superhero,
discover toughness, creativity, and digital engagement. Stay focused,
stay joyful, stay celebrating the elders and the young ones. But above all,
you wanna make sure that you always.
Stay.
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