Did Kourtney Kardashian Just Cancel Public School?

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Andrea: [00:00:00] The disrespect from Kourtney and from people like Kourtney, um, to the public school system is deeply offensive. Shame on you, Kourtney. Honestly, shame on you for not looking around and recognizing the profound and significant service that these teachers are selflessly doing every single day.

Hey, teacher besties. Welcome to How to Survive the Classroom. I hope you guys are having a. Phenomenal week. Right now. I, again, just like last week, I have my, my sick child with me, so if you hear some, some snuffles or anything like that, that would be him or me. It might be me too. Sometimes I sniff, you know, like.

Life. Life is life. So I came across something this week that, um, I feel like we need to have a little chitty chat about. So I, let's preface this right with, I [00:01:00] love trash tv, but my brand of trash TV is usually like reality. Dating shows like Married at First Sight or, um, love Is Blind and stuff like that.

I've never been someone who's like actually sat down and watched the Kardashians. Okay. So like little background, like, not, not my like flavor of trash tv, which is fine if it's yours, that's great. But generally, like I basically just see like clips online and all of that, and. So for my very limited exposure to the Kardashians, my favorite has always been Kourtney.

Okay. So she, you know, seems to be one of the ones that's a little bit more grounded. Um, which again, my limited exposure, her, maybe she's not, maybe she's just better at performing for the cameras. Who knows? Um, but she recently came, um, out and talked about, so she's got a podcast called Khloe in Wonderland, and she has.

Made some comments [00:02:00] about public school and um, so she's got several kids. So she's got, um, a 15-year-old, a 12-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a 1-year-old. So the first three were with Scott Dik, and then the recent little 1-year-old is with Travis Barker. Um, and.

Apparently said that she believes that sending children to school is so dated. And she said, I think living authentically is not conforming to whatever it is, which I don't know what it is in this, in this context. Um, but she feels that it's really dated, um, to send your kids to. School. She feels like homeschool is the only way really to go.

She said, um, why do kids go, why do kids fing go to school? Truly, it's so dated. Um, I'm such a homeschool person. Don't even get me started. And then [00:03:00] she said that her kids have sent her videos about successful people who never went to school. Okay.

I have a lot of thoughts. First of all, the great irony. Of someone who is in the position of profound wealth and privilege that she is making comments about why kids would go to the public schools, um, is kind of insane to me, right? Like of all the people in the world to make comments about the public school system, someone who is sitting at the, the one percentile of wealth and then saying like, why would you send your kids to school?

Girl? The irony that she said, it's so dated. What she's talking about where the only kids that are going to be getting a quality education in her mind are going to be kids of the 1%. Right. Because she's like, why would you send kids to school that's so dated? Because I'm sure she says she's pro homeschool, but I don't think that she's probably doing the homeschooling [00:04:00] herself.

Right. She probably has a private tutor that comes in and teaches her kids. And I just wanna establish real quick, like I'm actually not against homeschooling. Like it's not for me, it's not a choice that I'm gonna make, but I have friends that are doing that. I have a friend who's actually, she and her family are going to go on 130 day cruise, I think.

And she's gonna homeschool her kids while they're on that cruise and they're gonna see the world. So cool. Right. But for most of us, it's simply not even a conversation of whether or not we're gonna homeschool our kids, because most of us have to have a two income household in order to support our families.

Especially if you have multiple kids. I mean, I just have two kids and we're, you know, try, always looking at the budget, trying to see what's working, trying to see, you know, what we can do to make a better lives for our kids and all of that. The most dated thing you can possibly do is hire a tutor to independently educate your child, because that's literally what people did before the public school [00:05:00] system existed.

Like if you look in a history book, you will find that for many, many, many, many, many years, that's how people did it, right? Like pre American education, school system, early American education. Usually it was in smaller communities, early America, they like. Were basically like you would have a tutor in only the super wealthy were the ones that are getting that education.

And then as time wore on and in early, and I'm specifically talking about American education here 'cause I'm not as familiar with other education systems and how they developed. Um, but as time went on, the communities started looking around and saying, Hey, it might benefit all of us if. We had an educated populace, right?

Like that was one of like the early founding fathers discussions is like, Hey, we should, like Thomas Jefferson was very well known for being a big supporter of educating the masses, right? And so to go from like a system where only the wealthy are [00:06:00] able to afford to educate their children, they basically, as a community got all got together.

Everyone in like a small town or a small village would put money together. And they would pay for the, the school teacher to live there and to work. Right? So before taxes were paying for it. Before all of that, it was just communities getting together, trying to make sure that their kids could read and write.

And at early days it was mostly because of needing to learn to read the Bible. Like that was the, the Quaker, the Puritan like idea, right? Like early education in America was largely formed by the Puritans, right? The, the fact that she is sitting here in her incredible wealth and in her incredible privilege and saying like, why would anyone do that?

Girl touch grass. Go touch grass, because if you look at the statistics, if you look at every school system, the level of education correlates pretty much across the board with [00:07:00] like prosperity, with financial outcomes, with crime rates. So if you have. A low, low, low educated populace, then the crime rates go up.

Opportunities limited. Like the reason we send kids to school is so that they have opportunities, so that they have choices. I'm not sitting there saying that these kids have to adhere to whatever my specific belief system is, but I do think kids need to learn to read and write. I do think it's helpful for us to have common cultural touchpoints to talk about like I do.

And I, this one is a little bit of a hot take. I do think kids should read Shakespeare. I don't think that's all they should read, but I think that if you're out there in the world and you're trying to interact in the culture like these are, there are really, really big books out there that as an English teacher, I always advocated for because they are culturally relevant, right?

It helps you to have a common language with the people around you. I also think that we should diversify the books we're reading and diversify the resources we're using so that kids can also see themselves in theirs, those books, and I don't think it has to be either or. [00:08:00] People like Chloe making comments about how stupid it is to send your kids to school just reveals a very basic misunderstanding of what schools do for kids.

And a basic misunderstanding of the fact that for a lot of families, for a lot of communities, you can see that these schools are also doing things that are far beyond just providing reading, writing, and arithmetic. They're making sure that these kids have access to food, making sure they have coats in the winter, doing a social service that is far beyond what the initial learn to read, so you can go and read the Bible kind of things.

I just thought that was insane, especially because when this came out within 24 hours, we got a notification, um, across the, like, it was like, one was a post about, um, about Courtney Kardashian saying why would people go to school, blah, blah, blah. And then Kim Kardashian just [00:09:00] graduated from law school. And the great irony of that, right?

That one sister, it's like, why would you And honestly kind of shocking that it wasn't vice versa. And I know that like Kim has to be a lot smarter than she lets on in her public image because you don't get to where she is unless you are very bright. Um, but she, like, she just spent all of this time going to law school and she finally graduated and she, you know, took the exams and.

All of that stuff. Right. And in the same news cycle, we see her sister being like, why would anyone need this? And it's just this like. Insane paradox of people that are in the 1% seeing that like there is value, right? There's social currency to getting this education. Um, so much so that she's probably paying tutors, I assume.

I don't know that for sure, but she, like, I'm sure Courtney is paying tutors to educate her kids. So she does see the value of it, but she doesn't see that not everyone has the resources she does. And I think that is one of the [00:10:00] major issues that people are dealing with these days as we have people that are in profound wealth and then we have people.

That are scraping by and doing their best. And it's like, there's just such a huge disconnect between what feels like the haves and the haves nots and what is actually being done in classrooms right now. Because it's a lot. Teachers are doing a lot, they're doing the most right now. And especially as I'm like as I'm recording this, you know, it's end of school year timeframe right now for a lot of these teachers and they are.

Barely surviving. Um, my, my son got hand, foot and mouth and his sweet teacher yesterday when I picked him up, when we realized he had hand, foot and mouth, she was in tears and. I was like, are you okay? And she's like, I just had so many fun things planned for my kids and now like half the class is not gonna be here for it.

Like that's the level of love that's, that these teachers have for the kids is like, she's so heartbroken because she had this image of her last day of school with these kids who she's built relationships with and taught. Their [00:11:00] letters and to count and all of that over the course of the year, and it's being robbed from her right over hand, foot and mouth.

So I just, the, the disrespect from Courtney and from people like Courtney, um, to the public school system is deeply offensive. Shame on you, Courtney. Honestly, shame on you for not looking around and recognizing the profound and significant service that these teachers are selflessly doing every single day.

Alright, I'm gonna step down from my, uh, little box that I was standing on and we are gonna jump in to the voicemails that you guys sent me. I cannot wait. Let's listen to the first one. 

Voicemail: So I. Teacher at a post grad school in Florida, and I gave the students the opportunity to decide when they had the ability to turn something in.

When that happened, I said, Hey, you know, this is what's gonna happen. If I get [00:12:00] them by Monday, I'm gonna have to upload them Tuesday. And again, a bunch of post grad students got angry that I did not upload. To information and projects before I actually submitted them. They were angry that I did not submit them Sunday morning when they were due Sunday night, and this is my second semester of actually teaching, and I hope it doesn't get any worse than this, but I know it will.

Andrea: So I think if I'm gathering, 'cause you, you mentioned a couple of uh, terms that make me think that formation. There were a couple of, um, I think learning management systems that I'm not familiar with, but it sounds like you gave your students an extension on the time of when everything was gonna be due and then they expected that you were gonna have stuff graded within.

Like hours of when it was actually supposed to be due. Um, yeah, it's that entitlement, right? Like I feel like it is this really fascinating thing in schools of all grades right [00:13:00] now. So like, not just, you know, I, and I'm also wondering like, is that a trade school or is that a college? Because I've never heard a post grad, so I don't know if that means.

Like a community college or something like that. But it makes me wonder, um, because when you start working with students who are paying tuition, especially, um, and when I worked at a school where it was a tuition based school, the it, it does become a little bit more of a exchange where you. Sometimes might be spoken to, like you work for them, not even just the students, like the parents.

Honestly, at the private school I worked at overwhelmingly, most of them very, very sweet. But there were a couple that very much treated me like I was their direct employee. Um. Which is wild because working at a private school, this is something that like, I feel like most people don't recognize is like private school employees usually make less than public school, depending on the school.

Of course, if you [00:14:00] worked at like some crazy fancy prep school or something like that, I was actually making 40% less at the private school I worked at. Then when I got the job at the public school, um, and I had stayed there for a few years for the free tuition and for a free, a couple of things like that, and I, you know, enjoyed the people I was working with.

But there, the thing that made me want to go elsewhere, it was the money. I'm not gonna lie. Like number one, the money. If I was making equal amounts, I probably would've stuck around longer. But the other piece of it was the parents at private schools treat you like the help. Like they treat you like the help in a way that is so offensive.

Like when I first started at that school, I was in my fourth year teaching and I had my master's degree in secondary education. Right. So I was a highly qualified teacher. I was not a first year teacher. I had already gotten my master's degree. I, you know, I knew what I was doing at that stage, and the parents that came in and grilled me and treated me.

[00:15:00] So like, disrespectfully, like I was just some random person. It was infuriating. And I found out a little bit later that it was because that, that position had kind of been a rot revolving door. Um, and so they kept on getting all these fresh new teachers and number one, pay your teachers more if you want 'em to stick around.

Number two, treat 'em nicer if you want 'em to stick around. Um, and so it was this really weird vibe where I got where like I showed up and it. Big difference between that and secondary teaching With public school, a lot of times you won't have parents that are available in the evenings or whatever to come to back to school nights.

All the parents showed up and very much like asked me questions in a, a bit of an antagonistic way. Um, so it is like a really weird entitlement thing when you teach a little bit older, um, students or there's a tuition based situation. Um. I'm very aware of that working with my college students, especially because Indiana State is a [00:16:00] school that tends to cater to students who are first gen college students and are often here on scholarship or they are paying out of their own pocket.

And so I try and treat them with the respect that they're due, you know? Um, it's a very different relationship working with adults as opposed to working with like teenagers. Um. Because ultimately, like they are paying their tuition and I, I am working with them. You know, it's, it's far more of a, um, back and forth I think when I'm working with college students.

But I will also say I've never had a college student treat me the way that private school parents treated me college. Even though they, like the money is coming out of these students' pockets, they still treat me with like a lot more respect than the, the treatment I got at the private schools. So yeah, entitlement.

Absolutely crazy. And it might get better. I will say it might get better and you might just learn that next time you let them know like, hey, this is the, this is when your grades are gonna be uploaded, or this is when the [00:17:00] assignment needs to be due because I've tried that as well where you're like, turn it in whenever.

Um, and that ended up being a bit of a hellscape, and so I had to give. A little bit stronger structure in order for students to be successful, um, both in college and when I was teaching high school. So, all right, let's go ahead and listen to the second voice memo. 

Voicemail: Student comes up between the hallway. Do you know what this kid did in the bathroom today?

Me and my other teacher? Um, no. What happened? Student A said student B was gripping up the sides of the, with his legs elevated. Shaking and moaning while he's trying to use the restroom. We had to send the students away and it was very hard to not laugh. 

Andrea: Wait, so like did this guy have like gastrointestinal distress because that is absolute, and how like if he was moaning and shaking because he had such [00:18:00] bad like bowel issues, then I feel really bad for him.

If he was just being weird, I feel far less bad. That is one of the weird things about being a parent is the amount of. Talking that goes on when your, your kids are using the bathroom. Um, my, both of my kids will do that where they're like midway through a poop and they're, maybe they're even like struggling a little bit, but like last night one of my kids was literally pooping and was like, mom.

And I'm like, yeah. And they're like, I love you. Like you're so unburdened by self-awareness. My sweet baby angel. It's so gross. And it's so funny because you know, you have that like, like you're so free at that age that you're just like, well, yeah, I had to poop. And also I wanted to remind my mother that I loved her.

And so I'm not like, what else am I gonna do with this time? And I don't know when that transition happens for us, when we go [00:19:00] from being like so deeply unburdened by the self-awareness to now as an adult, like. I will go into the family restroom if I have to drop a deuce anywhere. Like I, I will, because I'm like, I, they can't, people can't hear the plop.

What if they hear it? Like, what if they hear that? That's terrifying. Which is insane. Right? Um, or there was like one time where I really thought I was alone in the bathroom, right? Like, I thought I was totally alone. I like went in there, went into the stall, and it just, it was, it was allowed. Situation, let's say.

It was too loud. It was too loud. Um, and I thought I was alone. Right. And it was one of, you know how like you can tell like when someone thinks that they're alone and they just like unleash hell, right? It was one of those, and then I heard someone go

and I wanted to die and like, my si my [00:20:00] daughter would've probably been like, bless you. It is so funny because we do hit that age where like, I think maybe around like nine maybe, maybe even earlier, where we realize like, oh, this is maybe something that no one else wants to experience with us. Like we need to hide that deep down and like that's something that has, it's so funny my, one of the stories, my husband absolutely loves to tell people.

From early on in our marriage, like first year after we got married and I got married as like a little, a little young, young thing. I was 21 when we got married. Um, and when we first got married we had just moved to Virginia and I had no job at this point. I was looking for a job. This was before I started working at Wegmans, which shout out Wegmans.

I love you so much. Um, I hadn't started working there yet, and I was just searching for jobs, so I was spending all day. Every single day alone by myself at home, on my computer, on my laptop, at the kitchen table, right? Like all day. [00:21:00] And I got very used to that. I got very used to my solitary, my alone time, one might say.

Um, and my husband came home from work and he was sitting in the same room watching tv. It was a tiny apartment, right? So like kitchen table, couch, where three feet apart. Um, and I forgot he was there and I had my headphones on. And I'm tippy tapping away. And all sudden I had to fart and I was sitting on a, like a flat wood chair, and it just, it was like, like the clapping loudness, like it was so und dainty.

It was so undignified. And I just let it rip. And then I'm like, tip tapping away. And my husband like pops his head up from behind the couch and looks at me and said, was that you? And at that moment I was like, I forgot you were home. And he has never let me forget it. Never let me forget it. I now live in that deep abiding shame, unfortunately, because I let it rip and I [00:22:00] still like, try and hide.

Like I've been with my hu We figured this out actually yesterday. My husband and I have been together. We've been married now, uh, we got married in December of 2008, which means this December we will have been married for 17 years. We have been together for 19 years. I met the man when I was 19 years old.

Crazy. Um, and he will never let me escape the deep fart shame. And I still hide my farts around him because I'm like, I'm not reliving that. It's not always successful, but I, I still like, I know some women that'll like just let it rip right in the room with their husbands. I can't. And I also would love to know if there's any teachers that have overcome the social anxiety to the point where they will fart in front of their classes.

Like, are you a teacher that will fart in your class, in your classroom and take the blame? Because I knew some teachers that would like, they'd know a kid farted and they'd take the blame for the kid. Right. Very sweet. Little, little sweet. [00:23:00] Teachers, um, couldn't be me. I'd be like, you are nasty. Right? But I would love to know if, are you a teacher?

If you fart number one. Are you gonna try and go in the hall? Are you going to blame it on somebody else? What are you gonna do? I wanna know how are you going to fart in class and get away with it? Because I had a math teacher in middle school, she would let it rip like me on the wood chair, let it rip loud, and she would not even stop writing on the chalkboard.

She would just say it's natural and would just keep going. So I wanna know if I have any listeners that are. That vibe because I have mad respect for that. Um, and I also have a resource I'm very excited to share with you guys and I will tell you all about it right after this. Alright, teacher besties, welcome back.

Um, so this, I'm very excited about this because this is the first time I've been able to say this. Um, this is a brand that actually I [00:24:00] am. Working with, not for the podcast, um, but I'm working with them to create a, an ad for YouTube. And as I was working on it, I legitimately really do like it and I wanted to share it with you guys because it is.

Really, really cool. Um, it is called thrift Books and essentially what it is, it's a book reseller. And the book reseller has really, really good deals. They have a bunch of different types of books that you can get. And so what I have been trying to do, because I'm in the middle of a move right now and there's number one, I'm not a hoarder in any way other than books.

I could hate a book, but I'm not throwing a book away. I'm not gonna do it. I might rehome it, I might find a new, a new place for it to live, but I cannot throw away a book unfortunately. It's a problem. Um, and so I, as I'm looking through my kids' books. Because of [00:25:00] course English teacher, I have supplied my children with so many books.

They have more extensive libraries than any other child I know. And unfortunately, a lot of those books have seen a lot of wear and tear. But there are favorites, right? Like there's a book called Don't Push the Button. That is a really cute book where the kids have to push a button, but there's no actual button.

It's just like a circle in there and they push the button and it's so cute and it has been loved to pieces. There's also a book called, um. Dragons love tacos that my kids absolutely love, and the pages are just falling out and so. Part with those, I will in fact throw those ones away because they're falling apart.

Or like I had some books that my son like spilled water on a mildew. So if you know, if it's gonna be a air quality problem, I can part with those. But I do want them replaced because I might have a problem. So the way I'm doing that right now is through thrift books. Okay. So essentially all of the books on there [00:26:00] are gently used books for the most part, and they always have a rating on them and they'll tell you how.

Used these books are so you're not gonna have to guess. It will say like, oh, you know, this book is basically like new condition. You can also sell your books there. So if you know I was not a hoarder the way that I am, I would probably go on here and I would go in and I would sell some old books. And you know, there are a couple of books that I'm really trying to think of a single book that I could part with.

We read the one we did for the book club, I could part with, I really didn't love the first one we did, um, was not my favorite. And so maybe I could find a new home for that. Um, and the, there's just so many, but the great thing about thrift books as well is they have a special thing specifically for teachers.

And so, um, if you go on there, you're gonna go onto thrift books for teachers. There's like a tab at the top and on there it is, uh, it has, it automatically will [00:27:00] send you a promo code. So the things you have to have, you have to have a school-based email, and then you have to confirm your account through that school-based email.

But once you do that, they give you a discount code so that way you can get a fifth book free when you buy four used books. Okay. Again, like that alone, it's like, okay, well does that save me that much? I got six books for like $22 the other day and I am really excited about it. So I am gonna have that ad that comes out and I'm gonna show you the books that I got and everything.

But it's a really, really good deal, especially if you are someone who like doesn't feel the need for them to be brand new and super shiny. Um. It is a really good deal. And these, so these, uh, discounts where you get the fifth one free, that applies to teachers, faculty, staff members, homeschool instructors.

So Courtney, there you go. Since you know you're out there homeschooling your children, right? Uh, childcare workers and library staff. So that, I think, and, and [00:28:00] part of the way that they are tel talking about it on the website is like, if you wanted to buy books for your classroom, this would be a really good option.

Which it is, but I try not to really push teachers to fund it themselves. If you can find a different funding option to get books for your classroom, then I highly encourage people to do that, especially through donors choose or something like that. Um, but if there was something you really, really wanted to offer for your classes, this is a much, much cheaper option.

Um, and I'm looking right now, like all the books. On here it says you like you can get the Great Gatsby for 3 99 Animal Farm for six 19. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe 3 59 Lord of the Flies, 3 99. So like really, really, really inexpensive. So they have all of those options, but they also have non Teachery books.

Like they have normal children's books, they have New York Times bestsellers, they have different features. And because I am such a nerd. I got absurdly excited because they also have a section for collectibles and on [00:29:00] here. So in, in case you were wondering. The perfect gift for an English teacher is to find their favorite book and find either a first edition or a signed copy.

Uh, like the way that I would faint, right? If some of my favorite books were given to me and they were either signed or first editions or something like that. And some of them are expensive, right? Some of them are like really, really pricey. But there's a bunch of other ones. Like there's a first edition of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck for $17.

That's amazing. That also means it's probably not as rare, which is fine, but. They have sections where you can look through all the first editions or signed books. Um, they have vintage cookbooks. They've got like just so many different things. So you know, if you're trying to figure out a good gift for the Biblio file in your life, this is a really good I.

Place to go. Um, because they do, and they have so many different kinds. I got, I remember for Christmas a couple years ago, my brother, my older brother, um, he loved Michael [00:30:00] Creighton, like favorite, favorite book. And I got him a signed Michael Creighton Jurassic Park, and he was hyped. Like one of the be It's like one of those where you just know someone so well.

You get them something that is gonna be just so, so meaningful, you know, so highly recommend that thrift books is a really, really good option. Um, if you're trying to get either a signed book, a collectible book, or just to get really inexpensive books for your own personal library. Um, I did in fact get my son some more body books because.

But they're really cute and it's like my first book about anatomy and my son really does like, he's fascinated by bones and all of that. And um. I will say that my kids both, because you know, they like, we go to church and everything. And so when my son came home and he has hand, foot and mouth, he's got spots and both of my kids thought that he had leprosy because they talk about leprosy kind [00:31:00] of a lot in the Bible.

And so when they saw the spots, my son was like, is this leprosy? And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Not it's okay Itsy. It's. But yeah, I just had to, uh, share that resource with you guys. It's really cool. Um, thrift books.com is how you can find it. Um, and if you have thoughts about what we talked about today, there are a bunch of ways you can hit us up.

You can email me, andrea@humancontent.com. You can contact me at Educator Andrea on TikTok and Instagram, or you can contact the Whole Human Content Podcast family at Human Content pods. And you can check out the full YouTube episodes. They're up every single week on YouTube. Or you can also join the Patreon because we have bonus episodes and the tea is piping hot over there.

I told you guys about the first book. That was not my favorite, but that did not mean those episodes sucked. We were on fire, Denver and I just. Brought the hate for that one. Um, but we also have a bunch [00:32:00] of other really, really fun books that we're talking about, and we do a live once a month so that we can hang out with all of our wonderful patrons.

So do not wait immediately. Go right now. Sign up for the patreon patreon.com/those who can read and thank you guys so much for leaving feedback and reviews. And if you haven't. Yet done it. Go right now and give us a voicemail about what you experienced in your classroom, because I wanna know, I want to hear about all of the chaos and the shenanigans and the chicanery that you dealt with.

I would love to hear about it. Thank you so much for listening. I am your host, Andrea Forche. Our executive producers are Andrea Ham, Aaron Corny, Rob Goldman, and s Shahnti Brooke. Our editor is Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Zo. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi. Our recording location is Indiana State by College of Education.

To learn more about our How to survive the Classrooms program, disclaimer and ethics, policy and submission verification and licensing terms, you can go to podcast your andrea.com. How to survive the classroom is a human content production.[00:33:00] 

Thank you so much for watching. Want more of how to Survive the classroom? You can watch more episodes right now. Just click on that little box over there, you see it, and if you haven't yet, please subscribe. Okay, bye.