>> let us have the courage by survivors and families here today to carry on no matter how dark the night or how difficult the day. >> myron joy aaronson. edward carlino. michael scott car lo. my uncle, salvatore, i was only 3 when you were taken from us and we love you and miss you very much. president obama, please do not bring us to another war. >> another year has passed since the september 11th attacks and 12 years later the wounds are still raw for many americans.

this year americans are honoring those we lost while also debating an attack on another state sponsor of terrorism. repercussions from 9/11 are a major factor in our nation's war fatigue as well as what happened 12 months ago in benghazi and now america's hesitation for the prospect of entering another military campaign. federal officials say there are no current credible terror threats to the u.s. homeland but on the eve of these somber remembrances, president obama emphasizes he believes his administration is focused on ending wars, not starting them. >> a veteran put it more bluntly. this nation is sick and tired of war. my answer is simple. i will not put american boots on the ground in syria. america is not the world's policeman. terrible things happen across the globe and it is beyond our means to right every wrong. but when with modest effort and

risk we can stop children from being gassed to death and there by make our own children safer over the long run, i believe we should act. >> that was the case last night. we start today at the white house with nbc's kristen welker. the president did spend the morning honoring these 9/11 victims. last night a very different tone in the national address on potential intervention in syria. when presidents go on prime time tv and do these speeches they usually ask something of all of us. what was the white house asking last night? >> reporter: i think critics would say that was a bit muddled it was more an update on the policy towards syria. on the one hand president obama argued that a limited military strike might be necessary against syria because president assad used chemical weapons against his own people. on other hand, he said he asked congress to delay votes on the military strike while the

administration gives a diplomatic option a chance to move forward. that put forward by russia and would require syria to turn over its chemical weapons stock pile. i can tell you conversations have already begun on that front. key members in the security council of the u.n. meeting today to discuss how to move forward. secretary of state john kerry headed to jegeneva to meet with his russian counterpart. the white house is being a bit vague about a time line today during the white house briefing. jay carney would not give specifics about what type of a time line the president would like to set for getting this diplomatic option resolved. there's a lot of skepticism this can work because syria is a war torn nation and stockpiles are spread out all over the country. there's a lot of questions how that would actually be implemented. this nation as you pointed out in the introduction is war weary, the majority of americans are opposed to any type of

military intervention. president didn't seem to have the votes in congress so to some extent this is an out for president obama, another option moving forward. there's no better reminder of why this country is to war weary than the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. he spent the morning paying tribute to those who lost their lives 12 years ago on this date and seemed to make a subtle reference to the stigs decision whether or not to use force in syria. >> let us have the wisdom to know while force is at times necessary, force alone cannot build the world we seek. we recommit to the partnerships and progress that builds mutual respect and deepens trust and allows more people to live in dignity and pros spert and freedom. president obama just wrapping up a stop at the service project here in the washington, d.c. area, which gives brown bag lunches to those suffering with life threatening

illnesses, all a part of this day of remembrance for our nation. but of course, once he gets back to the white house and remainder of this week and coming days and weeks, the discussions here at the white house and obama administration will be dominated by syria. back to you. >> kristen wielker at the white house. joining us now, mark ginsburg. you've spoken about the fact that people say congressional legislation is sausage making, sometimes so is diplomacy. what do you make of the international embrace of what seemed like an unscripted breakthrough? >> it was totally unscripted. if it had been scripted it would have come out of the theatrics of the st. petersburg g-20 meeting with president putin and obama standing side by side. be that as it may, i would take stumbling into a solution far more than going into a conflict

where the clear objectives and american people are not behind it. i also believe that in the end, let's also be pragmatic. it's going to take an extraordinarily long amount of time from the president's speech yesterday to come to any verification of whether or not this process of eliminating syrian chemical weapons can be eliminated and the test is going to fall to the international atomic energy agency and they only have certain number of staff on the ground and able to do this. and the pentagon estimated it would take 75,000 troops to be able to just secure syria's chemical weapons. >> ambassador, there were many moments last night where i wanted a little more clarification. i know there are many others out there still scratching their head with questions, where do we go from here? what is the role of congress in all of this? what does the timeline look like as the cycle's key diplomat, i

want to know what you think the best diplomatic situation is? >> let's walk through this just quickly. there's going to be a u.n. security council resolution now being negotiated, redrafted. it will be proposed and then hopefully it will be adopted. the adoption will essentially require that syria agree to turn over the weapons of mass destruction and the united states will try to impose a deadline. next thing you know there will be the implementation factor. how do you get the operational aspects into a deadline. they cannot unilaterally impose a deadline with not having an understanding assuming that the russians and syrians are going to be cooperative, which remains, shall we say, call me a skeptic. that said and done, we're talking months and months before congress would have to be able to be placed in a position to have a clear unee quif cal

determination that they have complied or not xplied. ladies and gentlemen, i hope you enjoy the theater, because you'll be buying tickets for a long, drawn out play. >> that sounds awesome. the cynical part of this, i am kind of enjoying that phase of it. one of the key arguments in favor of this assault, this limited nonpinprick of an assault. if assad and syria are not punished, what happens next? we go right to international normization of the use of chemical weapons. in 1988, iraq ugsed chemical weapons against iran to try to end that 10-year war that did help end the 10-year war they were having. and as far as we know, no nation used chemical weapons until syria in 2013. iraq was not punished. so the idea that syria going

unpunished for this without some strike, some spanking will lead to international normalization doesn't really track? >> i agree, i know there's an issue that is perhaps getting lost in the shuffle. i actually agree with you. i actually agree with the president's analysis on the responsibility of not signing treaties that are not implemented. let's also understand the humanitarian aspect of this. there are 2 million refugees on the borders of syria right now. that number one escalate if the public believes that assad was not punished and therefore could use chemical weapons again. if we thought jordan and lebanon and turkey were destabilized now, can you imagine what would happen if people believed that he could get by with impunity on this? we would have a catastrophe that the american people would have to deal with indirectly as a result of that. number two, how does this play out ultimately in the long run

for american diplomacy? look, the bottom line is that you and i know the president didn't have the votes for authorization, but he's going to need these votes in order to keep the russians and syrians' feet to the fire. somehow or other in the sausage making going on, there's going to have to be some agreement with congress to hold in abayance to understand that even if they are reluctant to give the president the authorization, this is the best insurance policy they have to in effect prevent a strike by getting the president the authority he needs at least to have that appear to the russians and syrians. >> we talked about russia and their role and you mentioned the u.n. security resolution that is being drafted as we speak. what is china's role in this and how are they viewing this whole situation? >> the chinese have largely been quiet. they've been more or less lock step with the russians because they have only really one major interest in syria and that's

their oil. the dirty little secret here is that china purchases most of syria's oil, syria gets about $15 million or so every week from the oil which it uses then to pay off mr. putin's armed supply factories for the arm supplies coming in and being transported into syria from the russian navy and russian cargo fleet. >> very helpful background. thanks for spending time with us today. >> good to be with you, as always. >> we have russia as our next best hope for dealing with syria, which confused some people. we'll get into how likely that is to work out and what the rest of the world is thinking about this. more to come here on wednesday, september 11th. [ male announcer ] this is claira.

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as president obama keeps plans for an attack on syria active but on hold, the battle will now play out at the u.n. talks there are under way among the members on a proposed resolution to put syria's chemical weapons into international control. if we can trust assad to comply, how would a weapons hand overwork. back with us today, professor, this is how the president left it last night. let's take a look. >> it's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed. any agreement must verify that the assad regime keeps its commitments. but this initiative has the potential to remove chemical weapons without the use of

force, particularly because russia is one of assad's strongest allies. >> just the idea of a possible diplomatic resolution to a situation with no answers, you've been promoting this for day one. how skeptical should we be for russia playing us a fool? do you think it will work out in the end? >> well, first of all, i don't think russia is playing the united states fool. i know there are many skeptical voices in the united states and they should be. we have seen russia's in transit in the last two years and a half. but remember, russia has big stakes involved inside syria. we keep talking about the credibility of american foreign policy inside syria, well, the credibility of russia is on the line inside syria. if america decides to attack syria, this would really undermine russia's credibility because russia would be exposed. that doesn't -- worldwide it

cannot protect its ally. so russia has an interest in preventing u.s. military action and protecting its ally and also carrying out its initiative in order to arm syria's chemical weapons. >> russia has a vested interest here and assad has a vested interest in not having us come in and help the rebels. somebody is going to have to verify that syria's weapons stockpile is gone. chemical weapons inspector was shot out in damascus last month. it would take at least 75,000 troops to safeguard any inspectors who would go into the nation, france intelligence says they have 1,000 tons of weapons. who in the world thinks assad will tell us about his entire stockpile easily and right away. how do you possibly and reasonably oversee the removal

and verification that this is actually gone through? >> well, you have already, i mean, listed some of the major hurdles and difficulties. to say it is complex and difficult is an understatement as you know. no one is suggesting that it's going to be easy. and simple. and done very quickly. that's not the question. first now -- the focus has shifted from war to diplomatic -- negotiations between the united states and russia. and russia is very serious because remember, russia has a vested interest in not chemical weapons being used, not just syria, anywhere in the world. this is a common interest between the united states and russia. and i think both of united states and russia would like to see a way out inside syria. how do you carry out this particular -- initiative is a difficult part. in particular when you have --

war waging all over syria, it might take weeks or months or might take a year or two. look, i think the challenge, we should not really basically lose sight of the big picture. the big picture is not only to disarm syria's chemical arsenal but to layout a framework, a road map to really a political solution. chemical weapons are a critical component of this particular political horizon. this should not secure the greater challenge. the greater challenge is to find a political settlement whereby you end carnage and preserve state institutions. and i think what we are seeing now russia and united states are actively engaged in high politics and high diplomacy in order to find a way out of the carnage inside syria. and also in order to prevent a

regionwide war in the middle east which really affects both the interests of russia and the united states. >> i think you're underscoring such an important point, the direction of this. are we directed towards this feeling after an inevitable war or attack or doing what presidents say is their obligation, war only as a last resort and pursue every other avenue, whether it's high probability, medium or low, i think that's such an important point. if you look at this idea that we're shifting a little bit from a war footing to a diplomatic footing and on the part of syria, explain to us how important do you think it is that they are shifting from deceit and telling the world they don't have chemical weapons to some form of disclosure, admitting they have them and negotiating over what to do with them? >> well, i mean, all of the cards on the table now. the syrian government has acknowledged that it has chemical and biological weapons. it has accepted the russian initiative basically to

dismantle its chemical and biological weapons, to put them first under international control. what we're talking is about the process. no one is suggesting the process is going to be easy. but remember i said it last week, whatever russia wants in syria, russia will get. the very survival of the assad regime depends on russia. i'm very much not in just the threat of war but the united states is using finally the obama administration is politically and diplomatically actively engaged along with the russians, the two great powers now find themselves the credibility and interests are on the line. to say it's difficult, it's complex and extremely difficult, of course it is but now it's the stage where all of us would like this particular stage to produce results and i think both john kerry and his russian counterpart will sit down in the

next two days and hammer out a road map and framework and i hope this particular framework does not just focus on chemical weapons but the greater bigger challenge that affects both the interest of the russia and survival of sear gentlemyria as as a nation. >> the speech the president gave last night was aimed at the domestic audience here but i'm sure there was very much an awareness that assad and putin among others would be listening carefully. what do you think those two actors got out of the speech last night? >> well, i mean, i think the president, this was really the speech for the american public, really designed to convince americans that what happened in syria not only a great humanitarian tragedy but also affects america's core national interest. i think the argument has been made many times over and i think we know what the lines shall in the international system.

many people are deeply skeptical about the case for war. in particular, many people are saying, look, i mean the american public is not convinced and u.s. congress have not convinced and there was a sigh of relief all over the world. i want to tell you in london and paris and middle east and everywhere that basically now we are back to diplomacy and back to high politics. i know it's difficult. i know it's complex and very complicated but the reality is hopefully within the next few days or weeks we'll see a way out of this. >> very complicated. professor gerges, thank you for your insight. up next, did congress manage to get itself off the hook? we'll dig into that angle of the syria crisis and go through the other top stories of the day and news. [announcer] there's no hiding the goodness of the latest from beneful baked delights. new heartfuls are made with real bacon...

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the place for politics and thus the news cycle, a battle in the bills in the race for the mayor of new york city. bill de blasio is hanging on to a 41.2%, enough to avoid a runoff with bill thompson. but thousands of new yorkers filled out paper ballots because of broken machines so it could take days or weeks to finish counting. thompson vowed not to concede until a recount. anthony weiner ended his campaign literally giving a middle finger to reporters. he finished in fifth place. >> and on a high. >> another high profile new york race, eliot spitzer came up shot in his bid for a political come back. he lost too scott stringer. during a subdued speech, he thanked his supporters and told them he was proud of the campaign they were in.

two democratic state lawmakers who backed tougher gun control laws have been ousted in recall elections. one of the lawmakers supportsed firearms legs lags that included size limits on magazines and checks for online purchases, both of the efforts failed. we'll turn to politics on capitol hill where the focus is still on syria, even though an actual vote on force has been delayed for now. today you'll want to hear this. harry reid invoked the spector of september 11th to justify new strikes against syria, saying, quote, even as we pay tribute to americans tradition of freedom for every citizen across the globe an evil dictator denies his citizens not only their right to liberty but also their right to live. that's what the debate on syria is all about. terrorism. used to be the bush administration officials who did that and got a lot of criticism from democrats like harry reid.

12 years ago it was the terror attacks on september 11th that led our friend and next guest to heed a call to duty and head to iraq where he earned a bronze star. today he is cautioning americans not to get punked and repeated the same mistakes of iraq. welcome back patrick murphy, good to be with you today. >> thanks, everybody. >> absolutely. let's think about what's happening on the hill. we understand, everyone does, we heard an address from the president that is serious and maintained the idea of a delay. fine. but for all of these members of congress in both parties who said they wanted a say on this and wanted to enter into the debate. do you think if you were talking to your former colleagues that they should still do something? you talked about, for example, supporting senator manchin's proposal to get on record before we go to war as a last resort? >> i do think we should intervene but that doesn't mean

a military strike. there's been a false choice presented, military strikes or nothing. i'm not saying nothing but i'm also saying military strike we shouldn't deal in hypotheticals or be the unilateral policeman to the world. we learned from the bush administration not to have an imperial democracy. we need to make sure that we get the u.n. support. the u.n. hasn't gotten a report on a chemical weapons through investigation and secondly haven't taken a vote with the 15 members of the security council. we haven't exhausted our remedies. so there's a lot of things we could be doing right now, including help the millions of refugees that fled syria and gone to jordan and lebanon. jordan is bursting at the seams, they need our help. we should act now to help solve the humanitarian crisis. >> you're absolutely right. within all of that a lot of people think because we have the world's biggest and baddest military when we act militarily,

that solves the problems. they don't fully understand as you perhaps do that often we act militarily and that causes as many problems as it attempts to solve. >> that's right, toure. what's interesting, there's 16 iraq and afghanistan veterans in the u.s. congress. 14 of the 16 are against military strikes in syria. you know why? because when you send tomahawk mus i wi missiles into a sovereign nation, that is an act of war. people say, well, no, that is our country doing something. let me be very clear, what's going on with the women and children being killed is horrendous and we're ledding the charge against that but that doesn't mean we declare and commit an act of war without u.n. support. >> patrick, you talked earlier too about the importance of going through the u.n. we're all hopeful the u.n. will play a vital role. take a listen to something the president said at the g-20

summit about the u.n.'s role in this. >> if we end up using the u.n. security council not as a means of enforcing international norms and international law, but rather as a barrier to acting on behalf of international norms and international law, then i think people rightly are going to be pretty skeptical about the system. and whether it can work to protect those children that we saw in those videos. >> so if the u.n. proves to be inept and unable to hold a bad actor like bashar al assad accountable. doesn't the united states have a responsibility to act? >> i think our responsibility, actions right now are to make sure the u.n. acts and has a vote on it. i'm very hopeful on the compromise that russia -- that they proposed that syria would

turn over their weapons. let me be very clear. the president said trust by verify. if they are trying to run out the clock or punk us on this, let's no stand for that. let's make sure we can hopefully solve this without firing weapons and seeing more bloodshed of civilians in syria and not our own women and men in uniform down the line. >> veterans know the realities of war better than anyone. it's not just a matter of hitting a few targets. it's much more than that. you're among many other veterans on capitol hill on both sides of the aisle that have come out against a strike in syria. is it about this war fatigue, this idea iraq hangover we're all feeling or more about the realities of syria? >> it's really the very thread of what our countries stands for, abby, america is at its best the reluctant warrior. even eisenhower who led the world war ii efforts, he was

making sure we had basically not such come to the military complex but have war as a last resort. too often times people in washington who have never worn a cloth of our country are too quick to use the military option and syria is just another example of what's been happening for decades. >> thank you for being here and thank you for your service. >> thanks everybody, appreciate it. >> it is a day we know americans will never forget. we'll look at it through the eyes of brave firefighters first on the scene of the 9/11 attacks. >> ten houses search and rescue team had been one of the first to climb the stairwell in the north tower. no one knows if they ever heard the may day call. ready to run your lines?

okay, who helps you focus on your recovery? yo, yo, yo. aflac. wow. [ under his breath ] that was horrible. pays you cash when you're sick or hurt? [ japanese accent ] aflac. love it. [ under his breath ] hate it. helps you focus on getting back to normal? [ as a southern belle ] aflac. [ as a cowboy ] aflac. [ sassily ] aflac. uh huh. [ under his breath ] i am so fired. you're on in 5, duck. [ male announcer ] when you're sick or hurt, aflac pays you cash. find out more at aflac.com.

there are 46 million americans not yet born when 9/11 happened. the day that changed america will have to be explained to them by those of us who remember the pain and anger and anguished

good-bye phone calls and jumpers and soot covered people and searching for fellow americans who would never return. the smell that hung over this city, the volunteers who jumped up to pitch in, the way this nation rallied around those in need, heroism of those who brought down one of the planes into the field and courage of the first responders who ran into the okchaos, we will never forget. craig melvin is at ground zero where 12 years later the memories are still fresh. >> reporter: fresh indeed. there were lots of folks making good on the pledge to never forget. what you're hearing behind me right now is a motorcycle -- >> that's craig melvin at ground zero, we've lost him for a moment. one of the ways we're going to tell the next generation, the 46 million who weren't born when 9/11 happened through

documentaries like the 911 fire house that tells the story of firefighters who truly were first responders. their ladder company, 10 house was just feet from tower one. >> on the morning of september 11th, the men at 10 house are changing shifts. the night crews eat breakfast and joke with brothers as they clock out. suddenly, above them, american airlines flight 11 slams into the north tower. cutting through 6 floors and igniting thousands of gallons of jet fuel. for 10 house, the big one has arrived. >> still hard to watch. 9/11 fire house premieres tonight at 8:00 p.m. on discovery. peter dan kona is featured and he moved heaven and earth to respond to ground zero at that day. tell us your story of how you got down there. >> i was supposed to be working that morning. i got subpoenaed to court the

night before. i called the fire house and i told captain i couldn't make it in. i had to go to court in the morning. in the fire house if we need a day off we could usually just ask one of the other guys on a single tour to take over for you. jeff olson picked up for -- >> still hard to talk about. >> said he would do it for me. he asked me for a day off in october. i said not a problem, i'll give it to you. that morning i was on my way to court and i was on long island expressway going in early. district attorney called me told me to be there. i got a phone call from a buddy of mine from another fire house in brooklyn, are you working? no, why? a plane just hit the trade center. oh, god. i said, what was it?

i think it was a small plane. we really didn't have anything at that time. i turn on the radio and i'm listening to this. i said, you know, i've got to go down there. i said, they may not need me or need anybody else but guys are going to be tired and may want to go home early. i'm going to relief somebody earlier. i had to work that night anyway. on my way in i'm hearing on radio, didn't sound good at all. called the district attorney, i'm not coming in. you got to come in, the judge is going to be mad. listen, i don't care what the judge says, i got to go. my fire house is at the bottom of the world trade center i've got to be there. started to get a little worse as i'm heading down the expressway. and heading into queens from long island and it's -- i'm hearing on the radio it wasn't good. i could start seeing the smoke from nassau county. i remember getting up right

before the queens midtown tunnel. my car was smoking, i was doing as fast as this thing could go. now i knew something was really bad. looking over the side from the queens midtown tunnel where you could see the trade center and they were both on fire at this point. i heard the second one hit because i had 10-10 on the news. i got stopped at the tunnel in traffic. i had clothes on going to court. i had dress clothes on. i remember i had a fire department shirt in the back seat. through this thing on quick and hoping somebody would notice i'm not cutting along the curb because people are beeping and trying to cut me off. i'm on my way somewhere. eventually everybody was doing this. got stopped at the tunnel and they let us through, only fire men and cops were coming through. >> i know this story is incredibly tough to talk about. you're so courageous, all of us at one point or another have

thought what if that were me in that building? what if i were one of the firefighters? you really should have been there and i i can't imagine feeling somewhat guilt over the years. what advice do you have for others who feel that same feeling of guilt you have felt? how do you feel 13 years later? >> there is no overcoming this feeling. talking about it is the best we can do. i have this on my mind all the time. things remind you of that day, no matter what it is, a car, a certain car i see with a certain color, when i saw it it was burnt walking down the street. it's just -- it never ends talking about it really helps. when you go to therapy, they talk about it. i find my therapy right now is at this table at the table with other friends and fire men that have been through this.

people that have seen certain things, it affects them a little different. i try to be the strongest man i possibly can. for people that know me and my family and for other people who lost somebody, two hours from now, i'll feel different. but it's always there. tonight when i watch the tv, it's going to bother me again. there's not one of us out there that doesn't feel like i feel. we show it differently. we're still human beings, every one of us. you know. >> the man you traded places with didn't come home. >> didn't come home. didn't come home. very hard for me to live with that. everybody does mutuals on our job, i just didn't want it to be somebody i did a mutual with me. it happened, hundreds of guys in my position feel like i do because it happened. this is what we do. there's nothing that can make

that any better, just that people have to know we are there for them. we didn't have to -- i didn't have to go there and other people didn't have to go there. there was hn hundreds of guys who did exactly what i did. i'm going to speak for all of us and hopefully i do the right thing by everybody in the fire department. >> i think you are. thank you so much for sharing your story. >> thank you. >> peter dancona, thank you so much. we'll be right back. the day we rescued riley was a truly amazing day. he was a matted mess in a small cage. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness.

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i'm on expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls

on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your future? we'll help you get there. >> a lady. she died. >> oh, my god. you can see her? >> yes. >> where is she? >> standing next to my window. >> you likely know our next guest from making spooky films but hollywood directly m. knight

shamlian is here to talk about the state of america's schools, while scouting locations for his film, he was struck by the differences between two experts to pen his new book "i got schooled" about the keys to closing the education gap, something i actually talked about here on the program yesterday. reminding me of the glaring inequity in our nation's education system was my daughter's first day of kindergarten right here in manhattan. he joins us now in the guest spot. you had an ah-ha moment in the keys to close the education gap in america over some spinach gnocci. tell us about that. >> i wanted to get involved in the research. >> there it is. >> in case anyone needed some help in what it is. looks yummy. >> i don't think that was actually it. that's a scam. >> all right. >> it's much more delicate.

buttery sauce. >> with hints of basil? >> it's amazing. you know, looking at the research, it seems contradictory. it feels murky. that's why you guys probably have heard some contradictory things, classroom size, small schools, tenure. it feels like everyone is contradicting each other. and that's what it felt like when i spent the first two years looking at the research. it felt like i was seeing something that said yes and something that said no. and i had to believe it all made sense in some paradigm while i was eating dinner with my friends at this italian place, and my presenfriend was the teat penn and telling the story of how he taught these really, really smart residents. you tell your patients if they do these very simple, basic five things, sleep eight hours a day, eat, you know -- exercise three times a week, have a balanced diet, don't smoke, and try to keep your mental health at a certain level, no high stress

environment, the chance for you getting all diseases drops dramatically, beats every pill, everything invented. but if you don't do one of them, everything -- your chances buoy back to the surface. >> so you need them all. >> so as soon as i heard that, and he was still eating his gnocchi, i remember going that's it. it's a set of things when you don't do together give false-negatives. so you're going to get a lot of reports that say negative and some that say positive. and when i looked at the verch the next couple years. >> what were the five things you came up with? >> oh, my gosh. >> we have them. if you want me to tell you. >> no, it's very interesting and complicated. so first one is obviously teachers have the most impact, right? so what i found is, you know, we need to make a system where 95% of our teachers can teach these kids. it can't be just the top 25%. because the top 25% can close the achievement gap by themselves. but that's not enough teachers. we have to make 95. what it requires is actually, you know, supporting them with

these other tenets, but remembering the very, very, very bottom teachers through, you know, observation, student surveys and student achievement. that combination of the three. when that's done, it's not a perfect science. this is what the issue is. it's not a perfect science. but it's fair. and if you can get that little -- that part of the group drags the entire 95%, 96% with so much weight. they have to overcome so much baggage from that group, it's very hard to do. so one of the tenets is removing road block teachers and the next is leaders. the schools closing the gap, they can't do it without amazing leaders. and amazing leaders are defined by this. they spend 80% of their day teaching teachers. they don't do administrative stuff, they don't fund raise. they spend 80% in the classroom, saying, look, look at sara, you didn't look at sara enough, speak louder, don't get lost in this subject, walk this way. and evaluating, constantly touching base with the teachers all day long. >> but you also talk about saying, basically, smaller

schools, but not smaller classrooms. >> correct. >> what's up with that? >> so, for example, there's -- the research when you look at all the research in a meta way, there is very little positive gain for making small classroom size. very little. in the health model, the equivalent of having a pet. so if you have a pet -- if you have a pet, it's proven, you have a higher life expectancy. it's the truth. >> but not what you would focus on. >> this is triage situation. i'm not going to tell everyone in america to get a pet. i'm going to say don't smoke. >> are you anti pet? >> pets are cute. >> pets are great. >> pets are fantastic. >> pets are fantastic. i love pets, by the way. so -- >> all right. let me take you to hollywood, because i can't have a great hollywood director here andf i show this at your wedding and you go don't do that, it's embarrassing, but i show in front of all your friends and 500 people, suddenly you see it through their eyes and you're like, wow, i can see why this was a great thing. you start to see things

differently. that's a different art form than you on your couch at home, watching the television. >> and what's the scariest thing to put in a movie? >> scary thing to put in a movie? gosh, when you do the unknown. when you make people not -- make things incomplete, you don't tell them what's in the other room, that kind of thing. >> very hitchcockian. >> the book is "i got schooled" and really fantastic and i read a lot on the subject. thank you so much for your work and thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> he'll be back as part of the education nation summit in october. we will see you then. looking forward to that. we will be back with the final word, right after this. wisest kid in the whole world?

we need a new recipe. hmmm. let us consult the scroll of infinite deliciousness. ♪ oh! perfect. [ wisest kid ] campbell's has the recipes kids love. like easy chicken and cheese enchiladas. so good! can i keep this? you already have it at campbellskitchen.com. nice. [ blows ] [ gong ] m'm! m'm! good! do you mind grabbing my phone and opening the capital one purchase eraser? i need to redeem some venture miles before my demise. okay. it's easy to erase any recent travel expense i want. just pick that flight right there. mmm hmmm. give it a few taps, and...it's taken care of. this is pretty easy, and i see it works on hotels too. you bet. now if you like that, press the red button on top. ♪ how did he not see that coming?

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that does it for our show today. martin? >> good afternoon, it is wednesday, september 11th. and on matters at home and abroad, the nation takes a pause. my fellow americans, tonight i want to talk to you about syria. from scripture, we learn of the miracle of restoration. these things happened. the question now is, what the united states of america is prepared to do about it. the survivors who bear the wounds of that day and the families of those we lost. the united states has been the anchor of global security. the pride you carry in your hearts. the burdens of leadership are often heavy. but the world is a better place because we have borne them. the love that will never die. i believe we should act. that's what makes us exceptional. there's no trouble we can't

endure and no calamity we cannot overcome. god bless the united states of america. it is a day of remembrance, a day to honor america's heroes and a day to take stock of this nation's role in today's world. and with the nation debating the path forward on syria, the president began his day with a moment of silence to mark the 12th anniversary of t