Unlearn16: Class is in Session - May 07, 2024


The One Where I Colour Outside The Lines And Start A School

Topics
education philosophy
The One Where I Have Lunch With Mama Tot The One Where Transitions Suck...But Change is Magical

Episode Stats


Length

27 minutes

Words per minute

121.2

Word count

3,288

Sentence count

169

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

11

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
00:00:00.000 Class is in session.
00:00:04.380 How you doing and welcome to Unlearn 16 Class is in Session.
00:00:09.940 Listen, I am sorry I missed last week.
00:00:12.360 I think it's the first podcast week I've ever missed.
00:00:14.960 My life has been a spectacle, a parade, a tornado of insanity, guys.
00:00:23.660 and to top it all off, I had some weird laryngitis throat thing that was trying to take me down and
00:00:30.720 out. Put all of that aside. When I was a kid, I want you to jump into this with me. We're gonna
00:00:40.400 go for a bit of a walk today, guys. I don't know what to say. Just come with me, all right? Get a
00:00:45.800 tea, hunker down. When I was a kid, I was really quite good at a couple things.
00:00:59.400 Following instruction, sort of operating within the parameters of, let's say, what school or the
00:01:10.040 world wanted for me, as long as, as long as I was allowed to talk, all right? Two things define me.
00:01:21.460 I colored inside the lines, metaphorically and quite literally. Nobody did a grade nine
00:01:27.320 geography map quite like I did. I was a coloring in the lines kind of kid.
00:01:33.500 when I was growing up, I didn't have this... I might have challenged teachers or whatever
00:01:43.920 with some jokes and with me kind of getting to be the person that I was, but I really didn't
00:01:49.560 challenge the structure. I didn't challenge what they were asking of me. I didn't question
00:01:56.340 why an essay. I didn't question what about that history lesson. I didn't ask why we were studying
00:02:03.280 a particular novel, guys, I just did it. I figured out the structure, I figured out the game,
00:02:09.540 and I did it. And I got good at it. And as I went through university, guess what? I got better at
00:02:16.580 it. I got better at understanding what they expected and how to deliver it. And I remember
00:02:23.600 at some point, I had a TA and a professor say to me, as I tried to give my opinion on something,
00:02:33.280 And I love to give my opinion. Remember, I colored in the lines, but man, did I like to talk.
00:02:39.660 And as I gave my opinion, he said to me, Joanna, you don't know enough yet to give your opinion.
00:02:50.880 And I remember being so incredibly offended by that.
00:02:54.960 Like, what do you mean I don't know enough to give my opinion?
00:02:59.660 I have lots of opinions to give.
00:03:02.740 And he said, listen, he goes, it's not that you're not smart.
00:03:06.440 It's not that you can't understand the information.
00:03:11.460 It is simply that you haven't read enough and you haven't learned enough about what's already been said.
00:03:21.280 So in that vein, you might have an opinion, but it might not be something new, something insightful, something powerful, because it's already been described. It's already been said.
00:03:39.180 So, you need to learn more. You need to read more. You need to expand more. Because then, your opinion has context. It has value. It has weight. God, I hated that. You know what I hate even more about that? Damn guy was right.
00:03:58.900 And the older you get 1.00
00:04:01.740 And the more insanity you step into
00:04:05.680 And step through and get through
00:04:07.780 The more you understand
00:04:09.600 You're 25 and 30 years old 0.99
00:04:14.720 Damn, I didn't know anything 0.99
00:04:17.740 Because with the more that you accumulate 0.99
00:04:24.140 With the more knowledge you get
00:04:28.900 And the more critical, and not in a negative way, but critical in a nuanced way, critical in a I-need-to-see-the-37-sides-to-that-point kind of way, that doesn't happen unless you get old enough to live through it, brave enough to ask questions, and I guess confident enough to keep giving your opinion.
00:04:55.440 and it took me a long time to get to a place where I discovered that coloring
00:05:07.680 inside the lines has limited me the coloring inside the lines was just
00:05:15.940 another way to say world give me structure give me barriers give me
00:05:22.700 laneways to run in so that I know what to do. I know what to accomplish in order to get to the
00:05:30.380 end, in order to get through, in order to do well. And so I did that for a very, very long time.
00:05:40.240 Hell, I still do it a little bit, guys. Come on now.
00:05:45.240 And you know where the magic lies?
00:05:47.340 The magic doesn't lie in being aggressive or combative or simply argumentative for argumentative sake.
00:05:58.400 The magic lies in recognizing not that you need to color outside the lines because to hell with them. 1.00
00:06:10.620 They're making you and it's stupid and I shouldn't have to follow their rules. 1.00
00:06:15.840 here's the magic 1.00
00:06:18.040 the idea is
00:06:20.580 you need to challenge the lines they've drawn
00:06:25.100 that they then have told you to color within
00:06:29.480 if you can realize that
00:06:36.080 if you can realize
00:06:37.460 it's not the coloring that's the issue
00:06:41.420 somebody
00:06:43.660 history, groups of people, societal, cultural realities have drawn us in lines.
00:06:56.320 And when you're young, you scream about coloring within them. If you get old and you get a little
00:07:02.380 bit wise, you don't scream at the coloring. You question the lines that have been drawn
00:07:09.520 if they are the best thing for everybody to be coloring within why do i say all this
00:07:18.880 well guys i've been a teacher my whole life i i it's who i am it really is a great part of my
00:07:27.600 identity now i i went to school i got good grades i got my master's i went to teacher's college i
00:07:38.480 I got a job teaching, and I worked in the same school for 21 years.
00:07:46.160 21 years.
00:07:48.980 And as all of you guys know, as of today,
00:07:55.140 my school that has Metro Prep that has been open for 42 years is officially closing.
00:08:01.860 my carefully drawn coloring book
00:08:07.680 gone
00:08:11.180 now
00:08:14.220 I think I'd be freaking out
00:08:16.540 and let's be honest
00:08:17.940 just between you and I
00:08:19.900 I am just a little bit
00:08:21.520 however
00:08:22.880 however
00:08:25.140 because of what I've been through
00:08:29.100 because of what I've been through divorce
00:08:30.860 because i've i've i've lost my grandma i've gone through health scares my mom i've lost my dad
00:08:37.660 i've you know gone through all of this very trying very uh sometimes painful
00:08:50.860 revelatory challenges because i've done all of that
00:08:56.140 And because I was shoved so hard out of those lines, whether I wanted to be shoved or not, and now I stand from outside the perspective of that book and go, the lines were limiting.
00:09:19.340 God, I'm very, like, metaphorically deep tonight, aren't I?
00:09:26.140 Because now I'm standing with Ryan, one of my best friends who I've worked with for the past 21 years. And we're on the precipice of starting a school. And starting a school in the chaos that what I described.
00:09:43.100 very quickly, very much in a reactive way. And I'm drawing upon all the other crazy things that
00:09:54.200 have happened to me in the past four years. The social media stuff, the guest speaking stuff,
00:09:59.480 the talking to people and giving an opinion and having debate and discussion and stepping way
00:10:06.620 outside of those lines and and recognizing oh this is where i should have been living
00:10:16.700 and as scary as all of this is because guys there's no guarantee right there's no guarantee
00:10:25.420 of anything and you i can embrace that there's no guarantee i have this this beautiful idea
00:10:32.860 this beautiful educational philosophy this amazing person and we we have this amazing staff
00:10:40.380 and community and family from that school and i want to see it grow and i realize that i don't
00:10:47.100 care about the lines that the only way to do this is to is to erase them all together
00:10:55.660 Lead with your heart
00:10:58.860 Lead with your gut
00:11:00.100 And then have your intellect follow
00:11:02.980 Talk to people
00:11:05.980 Reach out to people
00:11:07.380 Lean on people
00:11:08.740 Be transparent with people
00:11:11.780 In hopes of creating
00:11:14.420 And honoring
00:11:16.380 A way of teaching
00:11:17.800 And a way of education
00:11:20.940 That is more powerful
00:11:23.800 more effective
00:11:26.400 more far-reaching
00:11:29.080 than anything I've ever done.
00:11:35.880 So, I sit here
00:11:38.980 as I've erased all the lines
00:11:40.740 trying to figure out where to put my pen to paper.
00:11:44.000 Trying to figure out if there are no lines
00:11:46.680 how do I start to color?
00:11:50.520 And then I remember this.
00:11:51.920 my big mouth. I remember stories my mom used to tell about how when I was little and she'd go on
00:11:59.800 school trips when I was in elementary school and kindergarten and they would take us places and
00:12:05.900 then we would, you know, go to get, you know, a maple syrup tapping or we would go to farms or
00:12:12.900 whatever you do as a kid. And they'd always ask questions. This is the reality of me.
00:12:21.920 They'd always ask questions, and I would shoot up my hand.
00:12:26.660 First person, shoot up my hand.
00:12:29.520 They'd say, Joanna, what's the answer?
00:12:34.860 And I would say, I have no idea.
00:12:38.900 I don't know.
00:12:43.580 Okay, fine.
00:12:44.940 They'd go to somewhere else.
00:12:46.380 And then they'd put up another question. 0.92
00:12:48.560 my mom be sitting beside me with her head kind of shaking in her hand they'd ask a question I
00:12:54.680 shoot up my hand again Joanna what's the answer and I would say I have no idea
00:13:02.060 I don't know but damn it if I wasn't the most confident unaware little soul in the room I
00:13:16.960 don't know. And I don't even know where that came from. My mom was a shy kid. I don't know where all 0.92
00:13:22.060 that came from. I knew I had something of value. I knew I wanted to be in the mix. I knew I wanted
00:13:32.600 to have the conversation. It didn't matter that I didn't know the answer yet, but I was still
00:13:40.340 going to have the chance to talk. And I feel like that is my, that's a bit of my soul.
00:13:47.400 I think I was just born with it. You know, and over COVID and lockdown and TikTok and
00:13:55.880 social media and starting this podcast, I came to understand that it wasn't about being
00:14:02.920 right or wrong in the answer. It was about, I had a consistent need, a consistent confidence,
00:14:12.940 a consistent desire to be a part of the conversation. And I think that's what education is.
00:14:20.740 And as scary as all of this is, as structured as I thought it was,
00:14:26.140 The older I get, the wiser I become
00:14:30.320 Even if it's only a teeny, teeny, teeny wise
00:14:33.280 A baby wise
00:14:35.200 The more I realize it's about the conversation
00:14:39.080 It's about the debate
00:14:41.720 It's about the leaps of faith
00:14:44.420 It's about stepping and hoping the net appears
00:14:47.640 It's about if you're going to do something great
00:14:51.680 It's going to be as scary as you can possibly imagine.
00:14:57.100 Okay.
00:14:59.640 So here we go.
00:15:04.880 I'm going to give you the school name.
00:15:08.360 We're going to talk about, you know, all the letterman's jackets I've already designed.
00:15:13.460 Forget all of that for a second.
00:15:14.740 I want to talk very simply about our philosophy.
00:15:19.140 And I'll talk about from my point of view, and I think later it would be great to have Ryan on here and talk about his.
00:15:26.020 And I think it would be great to have other teachers, you know, who see things differently and talk about theirs.
00:15:33.080 Because I think it's all about that dialogue.
00:15:34.860 I think a great staff has different perspective.
00:15:38.120 But here's what I think.
00:15:39.200 I think in order to be educated, in order to truly inspire, you need to find a way that that student feels connected, feels empowered, and feels brave enough to raise their hand, even if they don't know the answer.
00:16:05.020 And then everything else is gravy.
00:16:08.820 Everything else can come after that.
00:16:13.880 The primary driving force of education isn't how good you are at mathematics.
00:16:21.520 It isn't how many dates you memorize in history.
00:16:24.260 It isn't the chords on a guitar.
00:16:25.520 are. It's trying to find a way to instill, to grow, to highlight a student's sense of
00:16:39.400 self-esteem and confidence to raise their hand anyway. That's the heart. That's the
00:16:49.840 heart of my educational philosophy. Sure, it's critical thinking. Sure, it's debate. Sure,
00:16:57.760 it's a hard work ethic and it's expectation and consequence and follow through. It's all
00:17:05.580 of that. You know what? None of that matters unless I can teach my kids, unless I can empower
00:17:12.120 my students to raise their hand even if they don't know the right answer. But they're in
00:17:18.600 the mix, but they're in the mix and they know it doesn't matter if they're not perfect,
00:17:27.100 if they're not right. It doesn't matter that they don't know it. The only thing that matters
00:17:35.300 is their heart and their head are in it. They know that they have something amazing to offer.
00:17:48.600 they have complete and utter confidence that they are in a room and who they are
00:17:55.860 and where they come from and where they are going matters that's it tell me one
00:18:02.940 other thing more important education than that because if you can't do that
00:18:07.020 if you can't find a way through that nothing else matters I'm even gonna go
00:18:12.980 far as to say this, if you can't do that with students, then a 97 in mathematics isn't going
00:18:22.580 to matter. It's not. Everybody talks about a work ethic. Everybody talks about responsibility
00:18:31.540 and accountability. Everybody talks about academic, you know, academic inclination or SAT
00:18:39.700 scores and IQ tests and I say none of that matters
00:18:49.700 without figuring out without focusing on without digging deep and sometimes with
00:18:55.900 kids you have to overcome actually a lot of time you're gonna have to overcome
00:19:01.780 what's gone on before the math class they failed in grade 3 the teacher that
00:19:07.780 yelled at them in grade 5, the parent that didn't support them going to this kind of
00:19:12.060 school, the friends who made fun of them for doing too well or not doing well enough.
00:19:22.460 You have to figure out how each student is going to learn and engage and empower themselves
00:19:32.160 before any of the other stuff works,
00:19:35.540 before they learn it,
00:19:37.020 or before they can use it in the real world.
00:19:40.420 Work ethic will come.
00:19:44.560 Accountability and high marks
00:19:46.380 and, you know, accolades will follow
00:19:49.960 when you figure out
00:19:53.300 how to make them confident
00:19:55.640 to put up their hand
00:19:58.180 even when they don't know the answer.
00:20:02.160 that's my goal that's the foundation of the school
00:20:11.520 the of a philosophy that i believe in it's to teach the student not the course and and you all
00:20:20.720 know i don't mean adjust the curriculum and modify and do all the no no no no no no teaching the
00:20:27.120 student means if you can't figure out what inspires them if you can't figure
00:20:33.360 out what empowers them if you can't figure out how to get their confidence
00:20:40.620 their their mind heart and soul in the game and raise that hand you're not
00:20:46.480 going to do much else that's my philosophy
00:20:52.220 and all of that means
00:20:56.120 you kind of have to teach them
00:20:59.100 not just to color out the lines, but to throw away the book
00:21:03.580 and I know that's weird coming from a teacher
00:21:07.020 a teacher that likes structure, and I do
00:21:09.480 a teacher that knows that kids need structure, because they do
00:21:12.620 but they also need to know when to challenge it
00:21:15.820 they also need to know when to have faith
00:21:19.700 in their ideas, in their opinions, and which way they're going to go.
00:21:23.920 They also need to know that in themselves, they have value, they have power,
00:21:29.700 they have a unique perspective and a way of standing in this world that matters.
00:21:40.720 Okay.
00:21:42.140 Because if you can do that, if they fail a math test, who cares?
00:21:49.700 they'll try differently next time.
00:21:54.000 You know there's a big difference between trying harder and trying differently?
00:21:58.080 Studying longer and studying differently?
00:22:01.800 Studying more and studying with a new perspective?
00:22:05.320 Totally different things!
00:22:07.820 I can't expect kids to know those different things unless we tell them
00:22:12.120 the lines don't matter.
00:22:17.240 Draw new lines.
00:22:18.560 Find new pathways
00:22:20.540 Carve out ways that make sense to you
00:22:24.300 Talk about them
00:22:25.840 Embrace being wrong
00:22:28.640 Embrace not being good at something 0.96
00:22:32.100 Celebrate the freaking failure 0.97
00:22:35.980 Guys, I'm a horrible singer 0.96
00:22:37.680 You know what I want to do?
00:22:38.440 Take singing lessons
00:22:39.440 Want to know why?
00:22:40.400 Because those are the kind of people that need singing lessons
00:22:42.960 If you're not good at something
00:22:46.300 You don't just avoid it
00:22:48.560 embrace it i'm so exhausted of thinking that all of these students and to be honest adults
00:22:59.420 walking around this world think that they only can be good at things to do them they should be
00:23:04.420 the best they should be this they should be that everything else gets pushed aside because who
00:23:08.920 needs it and that's not what we're doing and how am i going to make lots of money and i'm
00:23:12.240 whatever happened to the renaissance man whatever happened to holistic education
00:23:20.240 whatever happened to the understanding that if i'm not good at something i don't just avoid it
00:23:25.100 i embrace it and say how do i get better at it stop being ashamed stop feeling shame
00:23:34.700 that i'm not everything to all people and i don't have to avoid the things i'm not good at
00:23:41.880 because maybe tomorrow I'll be a little bit better.
00:23:46.020 The only people that can do that,
00:23:48.360 adults and students alike,
00:23:50.540 are people that have an inner confidence
00:23:54.100 to put up their hand when they don't know the answer.
00:24:02.760 So as I sit here,
00:24:04.960 and I'm formulating,
00:24:06.940 and I'm working with my staff
00:24:09.140 and this beautiful community of parents and students and staff members.
00:24:17.740 And we're sitting here talking about this incredible environment
00:24:22.800 that we have the ability, the possibility to grow.
00:24:29.620 I will forever try to find out,
00:24:32.960 as the primary focus of my educational philosophy,
00:24:39.140 and God knows I've read enough of them
00:24:42.200 that it isn't about the material
00:24:46.000 it isn't about the curriculum
00:24:48.320 it isn't about the memorizational skills
00:24:51.280 or how well you can debate
00:24:53.320 or what organizational structure you can implore
00:24:56.740 the primary aspect of education
00:25:00.240 is the student
00:25:03.460 and their willingness
00:25:05.600 to not be right
00:25:08.660 and their confidence to try again tomorrow anyways.
00:25:15.040 Do you guys have that?
00:25:16.840 Does somebody give that to you?
00:25:20.060 I want all the comments written down.
00:25:23.600 I want all your opinions.
00:25:26.860 Every avenue that you can think that I need to go down
00:25:30.380 and I need to think about, I want you telling me.
00:25:35.560 Challenge me.
00:25:36.680 Throw ideas at me
00:25:40.260 Left, right, center
00:25:41.600 It doesn't matter
00:25:42.860 I want it all
00:25:44.020 I want it all
00:25:45.580 Because I want
00:25:49.980 And I will push myself to create
00:25:52.720 And I will push everybody around me
00:25:57.580 To create
00:25:58.520 As we create together
00:26:00.100 All of those avenues
00:26:02.880 To ensure
00:26:03.820 not just a good
00:26:07.580 mark, but to ensure that when a student
00:26:11.580 walks out of our school, they walk into
00:26:15.700 this world understanding
00:26:19.380 that they draw their own lines and they put
00:26:23.680 their hands up even when they don't know, but they figure it out for tomorrow.
00:26:29.460 That's what I want.
00:26:30.560 and that's what I want my school to be
00:26:34.200 thank you guys for hanging out with me today
00:26:37.680 I know it was a little bit of a windy ride
00:26:40.420 but you're going to see a lot more of these
00:26:42.700 because as I go
00:26:45.560 I'm going to build
00:26:46.980 and as I build
00:26:48.160 and our staff builds
00:26:51.500 my school builds
00:26:52.640 the parents build
00:26:53.920 I'm going to include you along with me
00:26:56.700 so have a great night guys
00:26:59.300 throw lots of ideas in the comments and I will see you next week. Same bat time, same bat channel.