Before he became known as Jay-Z, Shawn Carter was a quiet kid who found empowerment and a love of language through his 6th grade English teacher.
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00:00It was in Teen People, and my daughter said,
00:03did you teach Jay-Z?
00:04I said, who's Jay-Z?
00:06You know, this is so long ago.
00:08I had a sixth grade teacher.
00:10Her name was Miss Loudon.
00:12And I just loved the class so much.
00:14It was Shawn Carter, my little Shawn.
00:16He was a skinny little kid.
00:18♪
00:27I knew he was extremely bright, but he was quiet.
00:29And one of the things that I talk about is he never smiled.
00:33That was when his father had left and all that.
00:36And he never smiled.
00:38♪
00:49Like, reading the dictionary and just my love of words,
00:53I just connected with her.
00:55He's been very kind.
00:56He's been very kind, and I think he's giving me more credit,
00:59but I'll take it.
01:02Every famous person has a teacher who probably influenced them,
01:07and I wish they would all shout out the way Jay-Z did.
01:10But I'm glad he appreciates the dictionary lesson that I gave
01:14because that was my favorite thing to do.
01:17♪
01:29Kids should feel.
01:31I mean, my husband's concept was feeling safe in a classroom,
01:35and that's empowering them.
01:37If they could feel safe, if we can teach teachers how to teach
01:44this sanctuary concept where kids will feel safe, boy, can they learn.
01:50I think that also happened with Jay-Z.
01:53He scored 12th grade on the reading test in the 6th grade,
01:58and I remember telling him, and he talks about that a lot,
02:03and I said, you're smart.
02:05You better do something with that.
02:07That's why he's famous, because I told him to do that.
02:11When you're told you're smart, you believe it.
02:15♪
02:29I would like to see education get money.
02:32I used to buy kids books.
02:34I used to buy them pencils.
02:38Teachers should not have to buy this stuff.
02:41We need to pay our teachers more.