bradley graham, on behalf of the entire staff, welcome. it's a pleasure to have you here and a pleasure to be hosting nadia lopez, how one principle in a tough community is inspiring the world. you have any noise--making devices, take a moment to silence them. nadia will discuss the book for about 30 minutes and take as many questions as we can get into 20 more minutes. we encouraging you questions. we just need you to use the microphones by the pillars. so thank you for that in advance. after the question and answers it's a great help if you fold up your chair and place it against the book shelf and come up and get your book signed and say hello and the books are for sale right where you walked in. nadia lopez is a founding principal of academy as community work together to create successful and engage young adults. a comment from one student.

tells her story to middle school days with kindness of teachers and staff helped succeed in difficult times to later efforts to build an environment. so please welcome nadia lopez. [applause] >> good evening, thank you so much for having me. can everyone hear me in the back ? ..

but i was able to succeed. and it was really because my parents, prior to them separating, who come from guatemala and honduras, believed in the power of education, and when they came to this country they didn't come with way. wealth: they found each other on the dance floor in the bronx. once i came into the world my mother felt like the only thing she could provide me was a solid education. so in new york city we are zoned by stricts, and so my mom -- she was clever -- shed the district we lived in wasn't going to provide me with the excellent education that she felt was going to give me the pathway to success. so what he did was go to a neighbor, literally three blocks away, and ask him if it was possible to get a rent receipt so that she could place me in the school right across the

street from his house. because of my mom's relentless pursuit in me getting into a really good elementary school, it got me into one of the top middle schools. back then it was junior high school. and it was gifted and talented children. and it was right -- it was fairly near the projects of fort green, and brooklyn tech, one over the specialized high schools, the hub of where one of the most notorious gangs came to be, the -- my mom wasn't concern about the violence. the only thing she was concerned about was i would get a quality education. so every day i got on the train at the aim of 11 and i made sure i was able to learn, understand what i was learning because my mother made it clear when i got home, she couldn't be able to help me. from there i ended up going to april randolph high school,

which is also a challenging neighborhood in harlem. but it had an excellent education which led me to wagner college. and the rope i'm taking you through that pathway is because i am the example of a called oh comes from a community that was underserved, whose parents are immigrants, but education was my solid foundation. and i had excellent teachers. not all were perfect. i will never forget my math teacher in 1st grade during trying knockty -- i was not good at trug -- told me i would not make it to college and called me mother and said, you're wasting your time. save your money because she'll never make it. and i became angry. because she never asked me, what is going on at home? she never took time to tell me that everything would be okay. instead, she placed me in a box,

and almost made me feel like, because of math, i couldn't be anything successful. but it was the teacher, my u.s. history teacher, mr. peerson, whose class i was also failing, who said to me, you seem to know a lot about u.s. history. you're really got at talking politics but you never do my work. what is going on? and it was in that moment i literally fell in his arms because someone finally cared. it wasn't the first time. in middle school it happened when my parents separated so i knew there were teachers who cared, but in that instance i realized, had i listened to the math teacher, i could have went on to a bad trajectory in my life and never went to conclude. but're pierce still held me accountable, even though i failed his class and had to go to summer school, i ended up at wagner college, getting a bs in

nursing, which is not one of the easiest journeys to follow through. but i loved nursing before i came an educator. so, when i had my daughter, i was working for verizon, the phone company. you might say did you get from nursing to verizon but like many kids you think you know what you want to do and then realize, that's not it. and verizon gave me an opportunity to really figure out what i wanted to do with my life, and essentially came by looking at my daughter and realizing that the most important thing that could ever give me purpose in life is being able to touch the lives of children, and i'm going to have to trust someone with my precious gift. who is going to ensure that in our classrooms, there's going to be that teacher who cares? who is going to ask that child if they're okay? and out of that, i decided i was

going to become a teacher and entered the new york city teacher fellow. i ended up working for one of the most challenging schools in brooklyn, where children were dealing with parents who were on crack, parents who had abandoned them. some of them being raised by their grandparents. i had to deal with administrators who did not truly believe in children. i had to deal with teachers who came just because the wanted to check and wanted summers off. but there was a cohort of teachers who really cared, who showed up, who used money out of their pockets just to educate the poorest children of that neighborhood. so, i was inspired by those teachers. and i was inspired by the children. i'll be hospital, when i first went into my first teaching

experience, i didn't understand those children because i came from a gifted and talent middle school so i fell like they should appreciate education, and they didn't. because they were just trying to survive. all they wanted to do is know that someone cared about them. many of them came to school just to eat and just to get some type of shelter. from 8:00 to 3:00 p.m. so in my classroom, almost like walking into a theater. was an actress. and everything single day we performed a play. and those children were going to receive love, but they also were expected to work. so if they didn't have materials, pens, pencils can book bags, i purchased it. they used computers. they did research. and what was so amazing is one day assistant principal ran down the hallway and entered the room

and said, that's going on here? because the kids were working together in groups to work on a project. they were learning about the declaration of independence and arguing the point whether or not are all men created equal and apply that to notion of hurricane katrina, and the state of new orleans. are all men created equal? let lack at how this community is similar to your community, based off of education, based off of the demographics. let's talk about what could have been done to avoid this disaster from happening. this was seventh graders doing this work. and she said to me, they can't understand this. and i looked at her and said, well, why don't you sit in the classroom and ask them. and from there, i realized that

there are people in positions who are hired to empower and inspire our children, but sometimes they're disheart ended. they become jaded by the process, and can't see the brilliance in our children. so, i stayed in that school for three years, and then had the opportunity of becoming a founding teacher of an all-girl school, and i took that opportunity because as much as i touched the lives of those children i also needed an opportunity for myself to grow, and to get the experience of what it's like to create a new school. especially for young girls of color. in the area of science, technology, and engineering, and math. which is often underrepresented by individuals of color. and it was a phenomenal experience. to build a culture to develop a mission, and have a vision.

to brand a school. to recruit teachers, because i was the first founding teacher. i think back to that moment and those girls gave me what i consider the greatest inspiration because i could see hope in their eyes. and so i was there for two years, and during that two years the two principals ended up having their own children, and so they left me in charge. ironically, right? so i was responsible for pta meetings, developing programs, talking to parents, recruiting new students, recruiting teachers. i almost became the face of the school, and so i knew how to run a school. knew how to open a school. i knew how to be present, and it was as though i was being pepperdine for the next chapter in hi life. so an organization by new

leaders had the opportunity for aspiring principals to come -- become part of a cohort, and i took advantage of the opportunity. and i joined this national organization and i became a resident principal, in which i actually worked in a charter school, and i'll be very honest, i was so against it. because i am proud product of public schools, but i also needed to have insight because you can't criticize and judge something you have no idea what is going on on the inside and don't understand their vision and mission. and i will say this. i had a phenomenal mentor. i understood that they did an excellent job when it came to data, but for me what was a diseight -- disconnect was often times the relationship built with parents, the relationship

built with young men of color, and just being able to develop programs that was out of just academics, academics, academics. felt like the whole child was missing, and my nursing background made me look from the perspective of, let's look at the whole person. let look beyond the diagnosis. let's find out what is really going on. i took all of this experiences and i wrote my own proposal. and i found some of the best educators, partners who would come with me on this journey to open up this school, bridges opened two years after i presented my proposal to department of education. prior to opening the school, though, i was an assistant principal in the statement district i am now, and what i realized is that the community of brownsville was struggling, and that someone had allowed it

to help and it was very hard for me to understand how a community in new york city, one of the richest cities in the world could have a community that was so poor, that lacked resources. that lacked hope. and every time i read "the new york times" or the "new york post" or read "the wall street journal," there was always something negative being written. but it's hard to find something positive when all you have is this narrative, when all you have are children who are failing. i was in a kindergarten to eighth grade school. i was assistant principal of the middle school. no one had ever spoken to those children about going to college or showing them what college looked like.

that was hard for me to understand. because when i would ask the children, let's talk about college, i'm not going to college. why aren't you going to college? because we don't go to college around here. you're going to go to college. you're going to have the opportunity. monday lopez i'm not going to college. i'm going to go to the school up the block. that's what we do. so luckily there was a young man by the name of marlin peterson who is actually mentioned the book as well, and marlin had serve ten years in prison. he was with the wrong friends and had made the wrong decision and he had to serve ten years, and through his time incarcerated, while i was at the first school, i told him, i don't want your time there to be spent in vain.

so i need you to communicate to my kids, to explain to them why they should never end up in jail. because your story is more powerful than me telling them they shouldn't go there. so, literally marlin would write them letters and i would read the letters and they would write him back and we created a correspondents program. that was back in 2003. when marlin came out in 2008, december, it was 2009. i told marlin he was expected to be at my school on the friday. and i assigned him 25 young men, and he came every single week. and i will tell you this. we took 25 young people to vassar college. girls and boys.

out of the 25 today, 24 are in college. that to tell you the power of changing the narrative, showing the lessons of someone can make a mistake, about if you just place children in places you see them, it can change their trajectory. and that was the first time those children had ever gone to a college. because for many of them their parents had not even graduated high school. so here's the statistics of brownsville. starting two percent of the residents have a high school diploma. 14% have a bachelor's. three% have a master's. the average income median is $28,000 a year. living in housing developments is 11,000 a year. we have the highest incidence of

hiv and aids and teenage pregnancies, the highest incident of any type of health risk. hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol and asthma. by those statistics you would say, why are you there? why do you care? but the question goes back to, how does a community end up this way? why are there no resources to support these children. so when i opened up my school, and they told me it was going to be in brownsville, already knew the numbers. but i also remembered that those children who went to vassar college, who then promised me they were going to go to college, were an example of what was possible. and i remember how my mother fought for me. and so these children didn't have a parent who was going to provide the same expectations,

then i would have to become their parent. so the summer that i had to open up my school, i had no kids on my roster. so could you imagine after i write a proposal, inspired, there are absolutely no kids on my roster. i have to now go out in the hottest summer and walk the streets of brownsville, with cupcakes, standing on corners. begging people to sign up. i would go into the housing developments. i would go to the train station, to the library, in search of kids. we're in new york city. there's kids everywhere. but i really didn't have a name. was an assistant program but people didn't know me and had to trust this young face. they had to trust that i wasn't a charter school and i wasn't going to take over their resources. they had to trust that i was going to do right by their children.

even though for the longest while they weren't being done right by many people. but because i was willing to show up in places no one else would go, 24 parents trusted me and that's what we opened up the school with. at the end of the year we had 45 children. but the reputation had gone out that this principal is a little crazy, and she is willing to do whatever it takes for these children. by the second 'er we had 124 -- second year we had 124 kids itch was able to create programs for my scholars. she is me, is an empowerment program for my girls so they know that there are young -- women of color who are doing significant and outstanding things in their community. wanted to take away the stigma that says that as women of color we argue and we fight and we tear each other down abuse that's what the media has imposed on everyone.

i created "i matter," after the fact that we originally had my brother's keeper, prior to the president, may add, but the reality is that no one would show up. and i'll tell you the real truth behind it. i was asking men to be someone else's keeper. when no one ever showed up for them. and often times they felt like i was asking for a commitment. all they knew was abandonment. a lot of. the, their fathers had been incars rated, or -- incarcerated or less or ended up murdered. so, they didn't understand that what i was asking was simply to be a positive influence to the next generation. but what i realized and recognized was, they were searching for someone to say

that they mattered. and because no one kept reminding them, it just was easier for them to say, i don't feel like doing that. so i started thinking about my young men because there was a one-year-old that was murdered around the corner because his father was in gangs. and some rival gang members came on his block and couldn't find him and they started shooting up the area they live in and actually hit his son. he was only one years old. so i sat with my team and i said, don't know how they know if they matter. is it because they reach home every night? because the woke up? do they know they matter, and the word matter kept coming up. i said we're going to call it "i matter pow because i need them to affirm to themselves thaw matter. and wake up every morning, even i society does not tell them, because i'm going to say in this

day and age, if we can't go to churches and have good times with our families, if we can't travel to another country and know that we matter, no one else can convince us unless we tell ourselves. so i need them to say it to themselves eave single day. the minute we did that, literally we had 250 to 300 young men that participate in our program, every single year. what we do is we create a space where they engage in dialogue, talk about the concerns they have. to talk about the issues that law enforcement. because to me the most important thing for our union the do is to engage dialogue and become advocates. i don't want them to think that those who are in positions of law and order are there to harm them. i want them to be part of the process. want them to become politicians.

i want them to become ofs. want them to be in the same spaces that often people are fearful of. so, we also have a program which is science, technology, engineering, arts and math, the rope who i i changed it from stem to steam is because children don't know how amazing art is. it's not just feathers and glue and glitter. it's about learning art history, about learning time periods and why this artist chose this medium and what culture and their location of where they have, how that has influence on them. how beautiful for children to just enjoy learning. and to understand that they are creative beings. so our children learn coding, they learned drumming, they learned videography, they create their own documentaries.

they build their open web site. they're beekeepers and cultivate their own happy and sell it. every one of my students have to go through an entrepreneur program. i explained to you the average income its $27,000, $28,000. correction. and if you live in the projects it's $11,000. i need them to know that they can make money. we live in a capitalistic society. why not teach them? to have a great idea. to develop a product. pitch it. and so they all go through this program, and they have to pitch their idea, and it's like shark tank. and at the end they get a monetary prize, and then they get to compete in a citywide program. that is me preparing my scholars for the future. that me believing in them.

i don't want my children to be, quote-unquote, saved. want them to have access. i want them to have equity. but i spoke a lot about the scholarships and didn't really touch on the teachers. i have an amazing group of teachers who work for me. they don't all make it. when i say they don't all make it, i'm a tough cookie. if you heft noticed yet. i have very high expectations. i outwork everybody. i work hard, though, because i remember those who worked hard for me and i remember everything single night i expect someone to work just as hard for my daughter. so when my teachers feel like they can't push another day, i will sit there with them. i plan lessons. i teach classes. i'm in classrooms eave single day. because i want them to know that i'm not here to evaluate you without knowing through evidence

what your areas of support are. if this is not the right space, we have those conversations. don't want anyone to feel like they're only gifted to stay in this space, that they're not honored. that don't feel like they're their very best. think it's insane to keep a teacher in a space, other to demean and degrade them. i think it's unfair for a child to have a teacher who only wants to work until 3:00 and thinks they can get the work done. i respect the unions. but good teachers, great teachers, exceptional teachers, understand that you can't get this done between the hour's of 8:00 and 3:00. so they're asked to stay if they can. pay them. i prioritize the money, the. we have to make sure my teachers are paid. i don't take a dime extra, more than i take. although i work probably 14, 15

hours a day, every single day. on sundays, after church, i go to work. all because i like the silence of my building on sundays. but my scholars, they're there from 8:00 in the morning until 6:00 every day. on saturday wes have our mentoring program that runs from 10:00, should end at 12:00 but they're there until 2:00 and i'm okay with that because now anywhere a safe space. knee that every summer we offer them a comprehensive program in which my sixth graders learn about horticulture, and they understand that it's important to have community gardens, and we have one connected to our school, because i want them to be able to understand the importance of healthy living. so let grow our own.

let me teach you the importance of what you need to teach your families. let's change those behaviors that create the health risks in this community. that is important to me. my seventh graders learn social justice. and what we did was take a twist on the analysis, the historical analysis of "black lives matter," not looking at what's going on now but the civil rights movement. slavery. have things changed, and if they haven't, what are some of the things we can do? nonviolently to change the community. how can you develop voice in order to speak about injustice. that was important to me because when i would go to meetings, parents were angry, and they didn't know how to communicate themselves. and to me no one can hear you when you're yelling. but if you come with hard facts,

if you come with a passion and want change, we can engage in a dialogue that i can respect. so we teach our scholars that. and then for my eighth graders, they prepare themselves for the algebra region because so plane fail in elementary school, that they over age by the time they get to middle school. to average age usually in middle school would be 11 to 13 or 14. i have scholars who are as old as 16. that is because someone held them back two or three years. but no one took the responsibility to say, the buck stops here. how do we make sure child is truly prepared for the next grade? so this book, shareses those stories. shares the beautiful challenges, and i call it the beautiful challenge because my brownsville

brilliance, which are my scholars, my life-long learners, they need to be respected and need to be seen not as numbers but as human beings. who have issues. who need support. who need access. this book is on behalf of so many educators who are working hard in their building. a lot of prison pals work in ice lane. all we do is get criticize and it our teacher and remind what we haven't done. but no one ever criticizes those who haven't helped us, who are in positions of helping us. no one ever criticizes the testing companies that continue to make money because they make assessments that our children simply cannot pass, and it

doesn't mean those who are disadvantaged. children with special needs. and new york city alone you may have about 43% of children who are proficient. that includes those childrens who come from wealthy backgrounds. children in sixth grade should not be responsible for taking exams that are filled with research documents that i had to read in college. those researcherred did not make the tesss off a sixth grate comprehension tess. neither was a book made in 19450. if we don't start pushing our legislators, with we don't start showing up and asking the good questions, how can i help? or i sitting next to a child and asking them, what did they learn today? ...

what do you think i important for young people such as myself who are considering working in education, i'm to understand that it takes a heartbeat the potential that educators have to have a positive impact for their students and why? >> are you currently education major? >> i'm not currently. >> okay. so, the thing about education is a lot of focus on theory and not practice. and so what i would suggest is that if you have the opportunity of volunteering, perhaps meeting with special education teachers so you can really understand the

dynamics of what is required, when it comes to special education because what many people fail to remember is. special education is not a place, it's a service. and so for many schools, special education has become this dumping ground in which those children that we don't want to be bothered with, we put them in there because of their behavior issues, because they don't learn the same way that the other kids learn or with my biases, i want them to learn this way. we then create a narrative that says this child needs special education, but we look at it as a place. so you want to understand from your own personal experience what were the things that worked, who were those teachers who inspired you, what didn't work, and then go to a school and see what that looks like in practice. and then as a teach are you develop your own philosophy our how you will apply your services or your practices because i was a special education teacher. i didn't have special needs.

just knew math was not something i learned very well. and so the same strategy that you would use with a child who has special needs is the way i had to learn. right? visualses. manipulatives. using computer technology, and some way shape or form to gain access. so the best thing for you to do is, go to a school, volunteer, and speak to someone in special education. make sense? >> yes. >> excellent. >> fine, how are you. >> i'm also a lopez. >> familia. >> former student, current pre-k immersion educator, and talk about how you want well-rounded students, want you to expand at

bit more if you could about standardized testing, statewide tests like here at park, core standards and the perception that teachers are teaching to the exams rather than well-rounded curriculum. >> so i'm not against standards. i'm not against assessments. what my issue is that the standardized testing says that every child should learn the same way and pass the same tests, but children come in different levels, and some of our tests we're giving children are not even at the level of the grade. right? so for those of you who don't know how it really works is the day that we administer the test is the day that we open the test. so no one gets to see it except for the testing companies. school administrators don't see it. those who create policies don't see it.

it's the testing companies, and the classroom teacher who will then administer to the kids. so, when you teach, you're supposed to always know your end result. it's called backward design. so you should know what the test looks like so that this way you can actually prepare the kids as you go along, but the problem is that we don't know what we're preparing the kids for. right? and so what teachers then start to do is they get so nervous and they get overwhelmed because at the end of the day, how they're evaluated is based off of these testedful so what you find is that, by february, depending on when your test is, everything is so focused on the kids need to be reading, writing, answering questions, reading, writing, answers questions, they're not focused on anything else. and so what happened to the process of inquiry? what happened to kids just learning and reading from a book and asking really good questions and drilling down and understanding the author's

purpose, without it feeling like a gotcha on a test. that no longer in our classroom. it's more about, if you didn't do well on this test, then you're just not go enough. and then that impacts the teacher because it's to say, you as a child did not do well. you're making me look as though i don't know how i'm teaching. right? so we need to go back to, when children had time for play, had time for socialization, we need to go back to days of home economics where there was balance between just learning for the test and also learning skills. those things have been taken out of our school system and so the wholistic child, they're listened to. given voice in a classroom. they're also being able to drive some of the instruction pause it's about connecting where they're at. so that they can access the work. does that make sense? >> your story is my story-so

much love. >> thank you. >> thank you for your book, i'm looking forward to reading it eye. been volunteering maybe with younger kids in d.c. schools since my son was born 24 years ago, and i'm wondering what you think about volunteers in the schools, if you see many examples where they're being helpful? i've work mainly with younger kids but i know your children are a little older. but do you generally see that they are very helpful, and if so, in what ways and also are there programs in new york city aimed at parents of very young children, to help prepare them for school, and if so, have you seen that any of those are effective? >> at most school -- you have multiple questions. in terms of volunteers, i think volunteers are very helpful

they're helpful when you know what you want them to do. if not at the they sit around i without purpose. volunteers, because our classes can consist of the teachers to student ratio can be a lot, it's helpful to a have vons to help kids-whether it's with reading or writing, they find that a volunteer can be someone they trust and can sit and talk to. sometimes it's just good helping with snack time, going to the bathroom. the older kids it's good for them to see an extra body in the building. it's almost like not a role model. the more the merrier but the way to make volunteers effective is they have to have purpose. because then they feel like they're equally invested and want to come to do something that is helpful and the children see them as an asset, not just ass an extra person who is just hanging around. it was another question you asked. >> i wondered about programs to

prepare children for school. >> in terms of how children are prepared is really comes down to the community they live in. so, if you have a more affluent neighborhood where parents really get together, you have mommy and me groups, then you find there's a lot of parents who drive that. but in most disadvantaged communities parents lack the skills so it's hard for them to learn from someone who has not had the skills. thes and is not something they take initiative. so a lot of principals find themselves trying too create programs, but i guess the most disheartening thing is often times that schools are considered places where parents are uncomfortable, especially in disadvantaged communities, because they haven't had a really good interaction with the adults in the building, so they tend not to come in because for me to tell you, let me support your parent, it's to say you're missing something.

so they internalize that is that they're less than as opposed to me pouring into you so you can be the best you can be. >> can't think of any good way to counter that? >> for me in my school particularly we create programs, but in terms of overall, throughout new york city, it's based off of the leader of the school, off of the strength and numbers of the pta programs. people have to want to do it and create the initiative, a lot of it often time falls on those who are in those buildings so that's why you don't see the consistency that happens throughout all of our public schools. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> last year in the district, the tv city jape school took their kids -- told their kids to prepare their goal. nor school 'er and then took them to the steps of the lincoln memorial to speak on the steps so day what the goals were for the school year. my never u's wife is a teacher in albany, new york, used to be

a home economics teacher, and now her job seems to be to figure out ways to identify kids that might be better for vocational education, how to track them, how to approach them on that, how to assess them. what your take -- and how to deal with the feedback if they object. what's your take on a setup like that? >> so the reality is that every child is not going to go to college because i might not be a good fit for. the. right? everybody doesn't go to college, but for me, i don't want to limit a child. so, i will take them to the colleges and place their feet on the step odd harvard or the steps of yale or on the schooled throughout new york city because i want them to know they have indeed options. but' n addition to that in our schools, we also give them a variety of programs that they can get experiences that they

wasn't norm yale get anywhere else. so for instance, we have a veterinarian program, where through an organization called suzie's dogs our kid goes to veterinarian hots, they've gone to the k-9 unit, they've gone to a disability farm, upstate, and stayed overnight. and then they also do what is called lab rats where they do die servings because a -- dissections because a lot of kidded are interested in the medical field, and that sixth, seventh and eight graders who get to do that we have kids who design their open clothing and create fashion lines and we want to give. the as much experiences as possible because then they can then make decisions and choices. what we don't do that, then they're only going to do what they see, and when i say what they see, if they only know the fast-food industry, i've had children who before tell me they just want to work at

mcdonald's and there's nothing wrong with that but it that your choice, lefts talk. you become can a manager or creating your bones and creating healthy food in your community. still mailing modify but i don't want to limit children. that make sense? >> yeah. -- she does that often -- >> you have to ask, i'm sure it's something that was put together. >> a dem -- demographer. >> would quipped -- we'll talk about why how to it the word "brims" in the name of the school. >> sure. i'm from brooklyn, so i paid homeam to the brooklyn bridge. second, i believe that we're all connected to succeed, and when you think about a bridge and how a bridge fungses, it has to all

be connected, and so if you go on our school's web site, you will see it's literally looks like figures of people that are connected and and it's colored, so those -- that is the scholars, the teachers, the parents, the community, and partners, and so for me, if we all stand together, we can ensure the success of our children and the community at large. and also it's about the connection of the past, the present, to the future. so in the book, i describe how we walk over the brooklyn bridge. you would think because we live in brooklyn, the children have had experienced with the brooklyn bridge and they haven't. so, every single year my incoming sixth graders, i walk with. the over the bridge, and it's to signify that what you left in the past was your fifth grade year. your presenter is currently at mount hall bridges and as we walk over the bridge, it's your

pathway to your future, and the children who considerably the most challenging, the ones who are the hardest children are the most fearful children walking over the bridge, because of the vibration, the fact that the cars are moving underneath them. they cling on to you. and so it's symbolic because we end up as adults holing them and reminding them, i got you. i won't let you fall. i won't let you fail. we are indeed connected to succeed. so that is where you get the bridges from. [applause]

>> the next book tv author you'll hear from on thing this week's campaign issue, education, is andrew hacker. his book is the math myth and other stem delusions. >> welcome know national museum of mathematics and to a very special event. and i income we're all delighted that the museum is putting on this event tonight, and even more delighted that they're doing it with the support of the mathematical association of america, which is helping out tonight. and in particular, loaned us james hansen who i will introduce. my name john ewing, the president of math for america and i'm a mathematician. [applause] >> this was not meant to be an

aa meeting, by the way. now, every professional mathematician knows that mathematicians and their subject have a certain reputation. a world famous math in m taker -- mathematician is walking walking in at the countryside and comes upon a huge flock of sheep, being a world famous mama particular, goes up to the shepherd and makes a proposition. $100 against one of your sheep that i can tell you instantly how many sheep are in the flock. the shepherd, knowing there were an awful lot of search says, okay, i'll try it. mathematician looked around and says there are 937 sheep in this flock. the shepherd says, incredible. absolutely incredible. the mathematician picks up a anthony, drove is i around his shoulders and begins to walk away.