What did a kid say in class that made the entire faculty meeting go dead silent the next morning? — Transcript

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1. 0:00What did a kid say in class that made
2. 0:01the entire faculty meeting go dead
3. 0:03silent the next morning? I was teaching
4. 0:04fourth grade economics, the unit nobody
5. 0:06volunteers for because explaining
6. 0:07inflation to 9-year-olds is somehow
7. 0:09harder than explaining it to grown
8. 0:10adults. I'd been at this school 6 years
9. 0:12and pulled the short straw again.
10. 0:13Recessions, debt, central banks, the
11. 0:15housing market, concepts the average
12. 0:16professional barely understands and I
13. 0:18had 30 kids who still thought money came
14. 0:20out of the ATM like water from a tap. I
15. 0:22tried everything, posters, cartoons, a
16. 0:24whole interactive game where they ran a
17. 0:25lemonade stand. Half of them just ate
18. 0:27the lemons. So that Friday I gave up on
19. 0:29textbook explanations and assigned them
20. 0:30homework. Go home, ask your parents what
21. 0:32causes a recession, come back Monday and
22. 0:34tell us what they said. Worst case,
23. 0:35they'd hear the word recession out loud
24. 0:36and remember it for the test. Monday
25. 0:38morning the answers were exactly what
26. 0:39you'd expect. One kid said her mom
27. 0:41blamed gas prices. Another said his dad
28. 0:42blamed the people in charge. A girl in
29. 0:44the back said her grandma blamed
30. 0:45avocados, which got a laugh. One kid
31. 0:47said his stepdad said the recession was
32. 0:48caused by feelings, which I just wrote
33. 0:50down and chose not to follow up on. Then
34. 0:52little Otis raised his hand. I should
35. 0:53explain something about Otis. Otis is
36. 0:55the kid who every time he opens his
37. 0:56mouth the entire room shifts in their
38. 0:58chairs. Not because he's loud, because
39. 1:00Otis says things, things that haunt you
40. 1:01in the shower 3 days later. I'd already
41. 1:03had two parent meetings that semester,
42. 1:05both of them about Otis and both of them
43. 1:06ended with his parents apologizing to me
44. 1:08on behalf of generations of their
45. 1:10family. But I called on him anyway
46. 1:11because the alternative was admitting I
47. 1:12was scared of an 8-year-old. He stood up
48. 1:14like he was being sworn in at a Senate
49. 1:15hearing. I asked my dad what causes a
50. 1:17recession, he said, and he told me our
51. 1:19family is exactly like the economy. He
52. 1:21said if I paid attention at dinner I'd
53. 1:22understand the whole thing. I already
54. 1:24have that feeling, the one where your
55. 1:25stomach drops a little because you've
56. 1:26lost control of the lesson. Dad said
57. 1:28he's the working class. He goes to work
58. 1:30brings home the money, comes home tired
59. 1:31and nobody appreciates him. Mom is the
60. 1:32government. She decides where every
61. 1:34dollar goes and there's no voting.
62. 1:35Grandma's the Federal Reserve because
63. 1:37she shows up with extra money whenever
64. 1:38she feels like it. My big sister Layla
65. 1:40is inflation. Every birthday she costs
66. 1:41more than the last one and dad says her
67. 1:43allowance is officially out of control.
68. 1:44The baby is the housing market. He's
69. 1:46unstable, he's expensive, he screams in
70. 1:47the middle of the night and somehow
71. 1:49everyone keeps throwing money at him.
72. 1:50And me, I'm the middle class. I work
73. 1:51hard at school, I do my chores and I
74. 1:53still get told there's no money for
75. 1:54anything I want. The class is dead
76. 1:56silent. The teacher next door has
77. 1:57stopped talking, and I'm pretty sure she
78. 1:59can hear this through the wall. So, dad
79. 2:01told me to watch dinner last night and
80. 2:02I'd understand recessions. Otis says, "I
81. 2:04should have stopped him. I should have
82. 2:05said, 'Thank you, Otis. Great work.
83. 2:07Please sit down.' But, you don't
84. 2:08interrupt this kind of moment. You
85. 2:09don't. Grandma came over with a birthday
86. 2:10check for $60. Mom took the envelope
87. 2:12before dad got home from work. Dad came
88. 2:14in late, ate leftover spaghetti standing
89. 2:16up at the counter, and never even asked
90. 2:17about the check because he didn't know
91. 2:18it existed. Layla came downstairs and
92. 2:20asked for 40 bucks for some lip stuff,
93. 2:22and mom just handed it to her. The baby
94. 2:23started crying for an hour, that ended
95. 2:25with mom ordering him new shoes online.
96. 2:27And then I asked if I could go on the
97. 2:28science museum field trip, and mom said,
98. 2:30"I'm sorry, sweetie. There's just no
99. 2:31money this month." He pauses. He looks
100. 2:33around the room. He's 8 years old, and
101. 2:34he has the comedic timing of a man who
102. 2:36has lived three lives. So, now I get it,
103. 2:38Otis says. The Federal Reserve prints
104. 2:39money out of nowhere. The government
105. 2:41takes its cut before anyone can blink.
106. 2:42The working class never even sees the
107. 2:44cash. Inflation gets whatever it wants
108. 2:45and costs more every year. The housing
109. 2:47market screams for hours and still gets
110. 2:48bailed out. And the middle class, we're
111. 2:50the only ones who get told there's no
112. 2:51money left.