You could start by reading some of the links in this thread
From the Hawking video - asking what is outside the universe is like asking what is further south than the south pole - it's just meaningless.
If you read my earlier links, you will find that matter (which is energy) can be created out of "nothing". It is very rare, but you are dealing with enormous numbers.
I wouldn't expect a school science teacher to be able to talk knowledgeably about this stuff. If you want to, you have a lot of reading ahead of you.
Have they backtracked on the laws of physics then, cause isnt one of the fundamental laws of energy the fact that, energy in a system is constant but can be transferred from one form to another.
Which link do you mean btw. cba looking through.
Hawking does take a stand that there is and was nothing. Meaningless to debate it like you said. BUT he is very vague on the questions surrounding the Big Bang and exactly how it did develop itself.
Fair enough that maybe he chooses his methods with a regard to his audience, and you need an above average idea of quantum mechanics to comprehend, but even then, to creative something from nothing.. good luck
That is and will be the major problem cause you cannot expect people to agree that something can be created out of nothing.