Education Week - February 9, 2022 - 10

Q&A
'Who Are We Without Teachers?'
a direct resource, as well as friends who are educators
right now in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. So we all just
had many educators in our lives.
I think it really helped inform a lot of our storytelling.
We always wanted to try to approach our stories
different from the very broad perspective of teaching,
which is that your teacher stands up there in front of
the board and tells you stuff, and then you go home,
and they go home, and they go to sleep and then they
come back the next day and just do that again. There's
so much more life involved in who teachers are just like
anybody else.
There's so much happening when teachers aren't
standing there teaching. That was one thing I learned
from my mom's experience. Being with her in the
mornings and then after school, she didn't stop
working until like 8 sometimes. And whether that was
lesson plans or learning some new program that the
school had come up with or development days, or one
time my mom just decided to teach an after-school
dance class, which we kind of have an episode that's
a nod to that. So sometimes it was by choice, just her
wanting to do something for the kids. And we sought to
show all of that in the show.
Quinta Brunson plays a 2nd grade teacher in a Philadelphia public school on the ABC comedy hit " Abbott Elementary. "
Brunson, who created the show, is the daughter of a teacher and has writers on her team who've been teachers.
At a time when teachers of color, especially
Black teachers, remain underrepresented
in K-12 education, can you talk about the
significance of having a majority Black cast?
In my world of this show, naturally, the majority of
Conversation with
Quinta Brunson
Creator and star of ABC's comedy
'Abbott Elementary'
Teachers are trying their best to play
multiple roles in the lives of their students at
an underfunded public school with limited
support from the higher-ups. Sound familiar?
That's the premise of ABC's new workplace
comedy, " Abbott Elementary. " Created by
Quinta Brunson, who also stars in the show
as 2nd grade teacher Janine Teagues, the
show follows a group of teachers and their
principal at a Philadelphia public school as
they navigate challenges in and out of the
classroom with laughs and heart.
Brunson spoke with Education Week about
how the show captures the nuances of the
teaching profession, the significance of Black
teachers and predominantly Black schools
like Abbott, and the hope that the show can
garner more support for real teachers across
the country.
This interview has been edited for length
and clarity.
Why create a show about teachers and why
specifically now?
I've been watching my mom for years be a teacher.
I've been in her class. I went to the school she taught at.
So I've been with her in the mornings and at night. It was
just a world I knew very well. And I was like, oh, I could
write this world. I know this world. And I think you can
make a great workplace comedy.
The why now of it is interesting because the idea for
this show was developed about three years ago. [That]
is when I originally put it together, developed it, and
pitched it to someone. The pandemic took a year off of
the Hollywood-making-things schedule.
But it just happened to come out at this time when
teachers are such a talking point, in so many ways.
Schools are at the center, unfortunately, of COVID
debates, at the center of gun violence debates, at the
center of educational debates, like critical race theory
and all that stuff. It just happened to come at this time.
Three years ago, no one was talking about teachers
as much as they are now, not in this way. And now,
everywhere we look, we're talking about education,
which is unique. I hope that it leads us into a better
place in this country with our treatment of education,
specifically public education.
How do you come up with the storylines?
Are educators involved in the research or
writing process?
When I hired writers, I did want to make sure that
everyone had at least some experience with an educator
outside of the room.
One of our writers does work with LAUSD, the Los
Angeles public school district. I wanted everyone
to have a healthy relationship to education. Two
of our writers were teachers themselves and had
since stopped teaching and became writers. And my
experience was just so healthy with having my mom as
10 | EDUCATION WEEK | February 9, 2022 | www.edweek.org
the cast is Black, because that's just kind of true to a
school in West Philadelphia, where the majority of my
teachers were Black teachers. And I kind of didn't even
realize that wasn't the norm when I was a kid. I wasn't
thinking about what the norm was for other people. But
that was my normal. And that's the normal for many
kids in a school like Abbott in Philadelphia.
The significance is, I think, here is something that is
so normal for so many people, but kind of pushed to the
side. In America, the default is whiteness all the time.
And that's not actually a lot of people's experience.
The majority of my teachers were Black teachers. So it
almost wasn't a choice for me. It didn't feel like I was
making a significant choice. It felt like I was mirroring
the world of West Philadelphia.
Now that it's out, now I'm seeing the significance.
One character who I did know was significant was
Gregory, who is the Black male teacher. And I did know
that statistically, I think, only 2 percent of teachers are
Black men. So I did know that including that character
was unique. But he's kind of based on a friend of mine
from back home who's a teacher. And he knows the
significance he brings to a school, being a Black male
teacher and Black male role model. And just watching
other people interact with the characters in the show
now that it's out and seeing the importance they see.
And teachers seeing teachers who look like them, and
teachers who interact with students like them and
interact with each other like them. Now I know that
these were significant choices.
What do you think most plagues majority
Black public schools? What do you think
is most beautiful about majority Black
schools?
Schools really represent a moral compass for so
many kids. Schools, their teachers, the staff. We talked
about it on the show. These people are like second
parents to them, and without good teachers who
lead many children to healthier lives and give them
Gilles Mingasson/ABC

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Education Week - February 9, 2022

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