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April 20, 2022 - RFK Jr. The Defender

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Seeking Teachers with Leila Centner

Centner Academy is seeking teachers; learn more from Leila Centner. For more info and to apply please visit: https://centneracademy.com/careers

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	Hey everybody, I'm really excited that we get to have my guest and my personal friend on today for an encore, Layla Sentner, who is the co-founder, the principal, the happiness director of Sentner Academy, which is a Miami progressive independent happiness school that combines a deep commitment to emotional intelligence,
	mindfulness, and happiness with a challenging curriculum that Featuring language immersion, entrepreneurial thinking, problem solving, creativity, and collaboration.
	And it is an amazing place.
	I have visited.
	I've spent a couple of days there and seen how amazing and engaged your students are and your teachers.
	It's really this incredible ferment of intellectual activity and just kindness and brotherhood and sisterhood.
	I got caught in the middle of what I would say is a huge global cytokine storm.
	The last time we had you here, you were right in the middle of it because she made national, international, global headlines by encouraging her children to not wear masks in the school, to encouraging the children, the parents, the teachers not to get vaccinated.
	And to instead focus on building their immune systems and building themselves, building their health, building their emotional health and physical health and intellectual health.
	And you're an amazing teacher, you're an amazing role model, and you've got a lot of courage because you stood firm when everybody was...
	This typhoon of indignation and anger and fury and ridicule and derision and gaslighting that was coming against you from the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, the New York Times, And from outlets all over the globe.
	So tell us what happened.
	And I think you've lost 100 students at that time because there was a lot of parents who just disagreed with you, but you kept on going.
	Tell us what happened.
	Thanks, Bobby.
	And, you know, it was amazing having speakers.
	I want to say this.
	I wanted you on because I saw that you are looking still for teachers because you have so many new students have come in.
	I know this is a happy ending.
	I'm kind of killing the-- I'm doing a spoiler here.
	You have so many new students now.
	You're hiring teachers by the dozen, trying to get them in as quickly as possible.
	So anybody who's interested in becoming a teacher at Center Academy, moving to Florida from someplace else, actually working in a humane, civilized Kind and common sense environment.
	You should listen to this podcast and then file your application with Layla.
	I think we'll probably tell you how exactly to do that.
	But tell us what happened, Layla.
	Thank you, Bobby.
	I appreciate the introduction.
	So I stood my ground.
	It wasn't easy at the time.
	And the bright side of it is, you know, we lost like 100 students and we gained over 125 new students.
	And I'll tell you, Bobbi, it has been so incredible to see these families who have literally moved across the country to come to our school.
	I mean, you know, we have a family that came just to our school from London and ended up going back to London, selling their house, selling everything.
	To move to our school.
	You know, we have families from Canada that have done the same thing, California, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, you name it.
	You know, and for me, it's like, you know, on one hand, it's a little sad that my little school has to be a safe haven.
	But on the other hand, I feel very blessed that I was able to be a safe haven for those parents who could see through the insanity of it all, right?
	It's like, none of this makes sense.
	And most of the families, the new families that joined, You know, they expressed they were the black sheep in their schools before.
	They were the only ones saying, guys, what are we doing to our kids?
	So they found us.
	We were able to be the light for them.
	And, you know, we formed like a brotherhood and sisterhood group.
	And on Sunday, we had an amazing, I had like 200 people at my house that had an amazing Easter celebration day where we hid all these eggs all over and You know, the kids were in bounce houses, playing on the pool.
	And, you know, they just came together saying, like, we have a home.
	We finally feel like we have a home in this world that seems to have lost it, right?
	And that I can have any conversation with the families at your school about vaccines, about masks, about mandates, and not have someone look at me like I'm crazy because we've all found each other.
	And so that's really the silver lining from this, Bobbi.
	Stand your ground, do what you believe in your heart and soul is right to protect these kids, and you will attract that community that is so in alignment.
	Where not only, you know, are you here together as a community, but you're building this great group.
	You're growing.
	You're just, you know, we have a farm, a 34-acre farm that we had just purchased when we had met.
	We're already growing food, feeding our community.
	It's really fun.
	Actually, next week.
	No, I'm sorry.
	Tomorrow, we're doing a field trip.
	Tomorrow and Friday and Saturday for the different grades.
	Just to go hang out at the farm, put our hands in the soil, see, you know, how we're growing the vegetables and just really like becoming closer and closer.
	So I'm Definitely looking for amazing educators.
	I'm definitely looking to fill some great spots that we have for next year open.
	We're also going to be opening a high school.
	So I'm looking for a high school principal.
	I'm looking for some people who can build a high school curriculum and just continue to add to the amazing base of educators that we have now.
	Many of my teachers were fired from New York for not getting the shot.
	And so they came and found us and they just feel like they're free.
	And Centner Academy has incredible world-class sporting fields.
	They have a beautiful, beautiful facility that is modern.
	It's very environmental.
	It is just a welcoming, welcoming place.
	Tell us what subjects you need teachers to teach and what qualities you're looking for in your new instructors.
	So we're looking for some elementary school teachers.
	I think we have one preschool position open.
	We're looking for a middle school math and English language arts teacher.
	We have a couple of languages open, like I believe a second Italian teacher and a second Spanish teacher.
	We're looking for more people to build our curriculum team because the goal is to take what we're doing and And put it all on paper so we can give this to other parents that want to start schools across the country.
	Obviously, I don't want to start schools across the country, but I would like to give them the roadmap and the blueprint on how to do that.
	So we really need teachers who are open-minded to do things in a completely different way.
	Part of our foundation is mindfulness.
	So our kids meditate with They're morning classroom teachers every morning.
	They do salvo healing on rotation once a week.
	Our food is...
	Most of our vegetables are coming from our farm.
	We have gluten-free, sugar-free, organic, non-processed, non-GMO, you know, just...
	It's a fun place, but we need teachers that are creative, right?
	Because we're not, even though we're giving them a template and a structure and like parameters or framework, we're not telling them exactly how to do, you know, like we're not giving them a textbook saying, hey, follow this.
	They need to be able to be creative.
	We want to teach our kids to critically think.
	We don't want to put them in this box where they're learning how to just memorize and regurgitate because that's not going to help you in the real world.
	Especially with everything that's happening today, we want by the time they graduate, they have quality life skills that they can use in the real world.
	I'm not sure if you saw this program.
	Actually, it's new this year.
	We started an entrepreneurship program, but you have to come back and see.
	It's super cool.
	So we started with a shark tank where the kids got to present to their parents their idea and raise money.
	And then every month since January, we've been doing these marketplaces where these kids who have these incredible ideas actually sell their products that they had been working on.
	And so it ranges from bracelets to this amazing chapstick that's all organic, no toxic chemicals, to these amazing sneakers that are custom hand-painted.
	It's incredible how many ideas and how Smart these ideas are that coming from fourth graders to eighth graders.
	And what is understanding business?
	When you understand business, even if you don't want to be an entrepreneur, you can apply those business skills to anything.
	Let's say you're an artist.
	You will learn how to basically sell your paintings.
	You'll learn how to understand supply and demand.
	You'll learn how to Market yourself.
	Market your product.
	And those skills apply to anything that you do in life.
	Even if it's being a manager or an employee in a certain business.
	How do I get ahead?
	Oh, I need to learn how to sell my skills.
	I need to learn how to communicate.
	I need to learn how to price myself.
	Right?
	So it's exciting.
	It's really exciting.
	And the kids are actually making a lot of money.
	And they're shocked at the power they have to actually create on their own and generate some money.
	Layla and her husband David are serial entrepreneurs, extremely, extremely successful.
	She could be doing anything she wanted right now.
	She could be relaxing on a Caribbean estate, smoking a cigar and looking out over the ocean, but she has devoted her life to helping these kids.
	And we actually, you and I went to see Romero Brito, who is a famous Miami artist, one of the most successful artists alive today.
	And we went to see him, and he was an amazing entrepreneur.
	And has a, I don't know, it looks like a million square foot warehouse with cranking out his stuff.
	It really was amazing.
	And I think you took the students down to see his operation as well.
	But tell us how people can reach you.
	That's what we want.
	We want people to be listening to this podcast and contacting Layla, moving to Florida and teaching these kids.
	You can contact us a few ways.
	The best way would be to go to our website at centneracademy.com.
	You have to add that extra N in there because there is a center without.
	So you need the two N's in Centner.
	Centneracademy.com.
	Click on the careers page and you can see most of the jobs that are there.
	I think we need to add a few more positions up there.
	And you can submit your resume that way.
	You can also go to our Instagram, which is Centner Academy, and see the cool videos, the fun things that we do, the little projects, you know, the little celebrations.
	You got to get a feel for our culture.
	So one of the parents was talking to me, I think it was yesterday, and she said to me, just the way I'm greeted in your school, You know, when pickup drop-off, we have music playing, people are dancing, the kids get hugs.
	Like, it's a very special place where if you're not comfortable with being hugged, you probably wouldn't like our school because, you know, the kids are constantly hugging each other.
	The teachers are always hugging each other.
	The kids are hugging the teachers.
	It's just An environment filled with love and connection.
	And that's why the masks rubbed me the wrong way from day one.
	Because the first thing that the masks do are create disconnection.
	You can't see if somebody's happy or sad because they're hidden behind this mask.
	And it actually gave people the permission to be more, you know, disconnected and angry because they're kind of hiding it behind this mask.
	So it's a fun environment.
	And another thing that I heard from this particular parent is when they walk through the doors, they get that same inviting feeling from all of our employees.
	And it's not like we train them to be that way, but a smile is contagious.
	When you're walking around and everybody is smiling, they're smiling because it's like the yawn, right?
	Someone yawns and everybody else yawns.
	Somebody smiles and everybody's smiling.
	That's kind of the The happy environment that we're trying to create.
	Layla Centner, Centner Academy, change your life.
	Go teach at Centner and be part of this incredible oasis of love, of kindness, of common sense in the midst of the dystopian nightmare that we're all living in right now.
	Thank you very much, Layla, for creating this space and we're going to grow it and, you know, bring love back to the world.
	Thank you, Bobbi.
	I love you.
	I appreciate your time.

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