Eve Ewing is an author, poet and a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. Before she became a professor, Ewing was a middle school teacher for Chicago public schools. Since then, she's spent several years thinking about how schools work and uncovering the historic wounds that explain how education today has fallen short, particularly for children of color. 

In her latest book “Original Sin: The (Mis)education of Black and native Children and Construction of American Racism,” Ewing situates the construction of Americans schools alongside American slavery and the attempted genocide of Native Americans. She argues they are used as a tool to condition Black and native communities. 

While schools here in Michigan are struggling to develop student’s reading and math skills, producer Cary Junior II explored why Ewing believes the way we measure and define intelligence is inadequate.