Unlearn16: Class is in Session - The One Where I Create Gay Common Core Curriculum in Florida

00:00:00.000 classes in session hey everybody welcome to unlearn 16 classes in session and i am wicked

00:00:08.720 lucky to have back dr z dr z how you doing honey amazing as soon as you message me jj i come running

00:00:16.400 and i caught you before you take a you know a small trip to where zambia zambia and botswana

00:00:24.160 with 18 undergrads, part of the Gonzaga study abroad program. I'll go check my mail. Is it in

00:00:32.120 there? One of the many amazing things that Gonzaga does is has a very important study abroad

00:00:39.840 part of their program for the undergrads. You can go to Venice for a semester. You can go to

00:00:46.380 Europe for a semester, but they have several small study abroad and one is called Gonzaga

00:00:52.980 in Zambezi. Zambezi is a city in Zambia, and we're going for five weeks, May 18th to June 21st.

00:01:01.940 And the 18 students have been divided into four groups. I have a group of students,

00:01:07.540 and we're going to be teaching computers in the morning at several Zambian schools,

00:01:13.220 and then a community computer class in the afternoon. Another group is doing some leadership

00:01:18.740 studies another group is working um at uh developing a sort of a ymca soccer program

00:01:25.380 and another group's kind of doing you know how do you get grants and stuff to improve so

00:01:30.500 i was beyond honored to be asked i'm also selfishly going to be doing a big study while i'm there

00:01:38.820 on zambian teachers use of social emotional learning strategies um you know tie into what

00:01:46.740 we're going to talk about today yes well what's what i think is going to be fascinating is we

00:01:51.620 know social emotional learning uh has been around in america for years castle c-a-s-e-l of course

00:01:57.940 developed the the ideas and then thousands of programs exist today but what are the childhood

00:02:04.100 traumas that african children have experienced and do different social emotional programs support

00:02:10.580 those traumas right um there's certainly some laws in zambia that aren't as protective of children

00:02:16.820 there's some child bride situations um and i'm really going to be proud to do some in-depth

00:02:24.260 discussions some comparative work and then publish it in um in a journal um saying what we can learn

00:02:30.980 from them yeah so i'm really excited it's gonna be a lot of work but i think i'm three and a half

00:02:36.020 weeks out i just got eight vaccinations that's right thursday you get yellow

00:02:44.100 plus plus they gave me another booster shingles and pneumonia oh there you go rabies rabies

00:02:50.980 because dogs there are what they are so friday i felt like i had every disease under the sun

00:02:56.020 but i'm 100 pretty sure you're captain america right now that's i think that's the level you're

00:03:00.740 at. She's been on my podcast prior. She's amazing on TikTok. She's an amazing educator,

00:03:09.200 originally from Canada, now shifted to the United States and doing all this amazing work.

00:03:14.640 And I'm going to give you all her stuff in my bio and you can go check her out on all

00:03:19.440 her platforms. But what we really want to talk about today, because I'm at my wit's

00:03:25.180 I don't even know what to do anymore. I wake up in a rage about what's going on in the educational system, particularly in the United States. I don't think that Canada is immune because I feel like it all bleeds over here. It like spills all of our borders and then seeps in everywhere else.

00:03:43.380 I think we got to look at what's going on in Florida, what's going on in Texas, and then how it's spilling out seemingly to, I don't know, how many major states when it comes to things like the Don't Say Gay Bill, CRT, and what they are using CRT as a catalyst for and why the heck all of this is coming out now.

00:04:09.820 i have my theories i know you have yours but i i mean where do you want to start you want to

00:04:17.000 start with desantis you want to start in florida the number one thing i want to start with is

00:04:21.640 i'm really happy you're in canada and and if you are in canada and if you are a canadian educator

00:04:30.520 or a canadian parent i want you to know from me that canada's educational system

00:04:39.240 with its with its bruises yeah it's exceptional yeah it is so let's just let's just do one small

00:04:45.960 comparative thing and i talk about this a lot in ontario we have the ontario education ministry

00:04:55.080 who has published the curriculum for every grade in every subject it's a publicly accessible

00:05:01.720 document it's upgraded every five years or so it it has everything in the document for a teacher

00:05:08.360 and a parent and a student the big ideas the exemplars the expectations as a teacher you

00:05:15.400 download it and you map out your 195 days yeah if you're a parent and your kid's sitting in a grade

00:05:22.600 five classroom in Sudbury Ontario and you move to Toronto you're getting the exact same program

00:05:30.840 and if you're a parent in Ontario and you move to Alberta pretty similar program because all

00:05:37.320 of our provinces have these province-wide curriculums I'm worried about Alberta a little

00:05:42.840 bit that's where it's spilling out seemingly it's spilling out into Alberta and he's altering it but

00:05:48.280 nonetheless i i absolutely get what it's this idea of common in america people will say we have the

00:05:55.400 common core which was a program established many years ago yeah to have a common math and language

00:06:03.640 curriculum yeah great idea just equity fairness saving of time the understanding of age appropriate

00:06:11.480 capacity. The problem is not everybody adapted it. It was a choice. Some states have it and some

00:06:19.580 states don't. Well, therefore, then the word common isn't going to work. If I move, my kid

00:06:24.700 is going to have a completely different program. And just so everybody understands the reason why

00:06:29.020 is because the federal government in the United States has a lot less power than individual state

00:06:33.400 governments. So individual state governments are constantly asserting that they know what's best

00:06:38.360 for their people what's best for their state it's as old as the origins of the united states in and

00:06:44.040 of itself trying to avoid a kingship and all of that kind of crap so here we're sitting with this

00:06:49.320 this common core as it applies to math and i've and language and language and language but the math

00:06:55.800 the math is what i think a lot of people are having a problem with um sorry so continue on

00:07:00.680 with the common core yeah so like you said every state has this sort of office of superintendent

00:07:05.560 of public instruction they oversee everything they oversee hiring uh certificates uh the

00:07:12.660 professional development provided to teachers what a great idea the problem is is the money

00:07:18.000 that's wasted on 50 with 50 different offices everyone who thinks they're unique nobody is

00:07:25.840 aligning with each other and taking best practices you know me and best practices why are we

00:07:31.540 reinventing the wheel right you know it's and it goes back to this idea of understanding what a

00:07:37.400 seven-year-old is and what they're capable of right I don't believe that a seven-year-old in

00:07:42.680 Utah is any different than a seven-year-old in Florida or a seven-year-old in Texas sure

00:07:50.240 there's some family values and cultural differences but their learning capabilities are the same right

00:07:57.420 So therefore, what they're provided should be similar. What's expected of them should be similar. And there's way too many people, way too many ideas, way too much money being spent on trying to individualize each state's learning platform.

00:08:14.040 and you see money being thrown away. Well, here's, and here's the big problem. I mean,

00:08:21.100 we can talk about common core when it comes to math, because I know a lot of parents and a lot

00:08:25.600 of teachers really, really hate it. And I've tried my best to understand it. And let's just

00:08:29.560 sum it up. It is, it is allowing kids to understand, and please correct me if I'm wrong,

00:08:35.340 because heaven help me, I've tried to understand it. It is trying to figure out how kids, younger

00:08:40.700 kids should understand numeracy and mathematical concepts outside of just simply memorizing

00:08:48.820 equations and things like that. They use all these different methodologies to make them understand

00:08:54.140 numbers and what the equations mean and why we've created them and how you can get there.

00:08:59.120 And there's multitudes of ways to get to the answer, which leads me to believe the reason

00:09:04.520 why most people stand against it just like me because they don't understand it because the

00:09:10.740 parents didn't do math that way so their kid brings home homework they're like I don't know

00:09:14.600 what to do and I would also probably argue a lot of teachers don't understand a lot of those core

00:09:21.320 principles I've been advocating forever in Ontario that we should have math specialist teachers

00:09:26.480 teaching elementary math from the hop I should not be teaching kids math just because I can add

00:09:32.060 three and seven doesn't mean that I understand those foundational components of math. So by the

00:09:38.720 time they get to grade 10, it doesn't all fall apart. And nobody, especially in the States,

00:09:44.440 is putting nearly enough money into if so-and-so is having a problem with these concepts, they take

00:09:50.320 their math book home. Their mom and dad look at it and go, that's garbage. They call their state 0.98

00:09:54.260 representative and say, this is crap, get rid of it, rather than having somebody at the school who 0.99

00:09:59.840 is paid, teacher staying later, tutor staying later, so that kids can truly understand these 0.99

00:10:06.880 essential concepts. That is 100% correct. Plus, they're buying a textbook that they're trying

00:10:17.180 to teach these concepts from. So an absorbent amount of money is being spent. And we all know

00:10:22.120 textbooks. They're published three years after they've been written, so they're already out of

00:10:25.900 style uh half the kids sitting in a classroom don't have the capacity to understand let alone

00:10:30.780 read and do some of the questions in the math so then they're looked upon poorly yeah um they're

00:10:36.460 too visual or they're not visual enough depending on the kind of learner that's in front of them

00:10:39.900 they rely so heavily on the resource as opposed to the method because they don't i don't think

00:10:45.480 they understand the method yeah i'm with you i taught i taught grade seven math to about three

00:10:51.740 different cohorts of kids and i did a huge disservice to those children i would be a mess

00:10:57.360 it would be it would be memorize the times tables kids it's because it's how i learned

00:11:01.320 right but i didn't learn the foundational i don't understand you know the kids that can do rubik's

00:11:07.180 cubes and that under have that amazing spatial intelligence right those are math kids

00:11:12.300 they have an instinct for it i never had that i learned how to do a quadratic equation then i

00:11:18.380 just applied it from here to here to here to here I never understood I still to this day don't

00:11:23.100 understand why we do it but I can get to the right answer and I can do it the way they taught me to

00:11:27.340 do it that doesn't make me you know fundamentally understanding math so a lot of states I hear

00:11:34.640 and we're going to get to Florida are trying to get rid of common core now they're like we're done

00:11:39.440 with it it's garbage yep right yep and and that's great but what are we going to do instead I'm all

00:11:46.940 about reinventing i'm all about tweaking but you can't throw it out unless there's something in its

00:11:52.700 place well you know we have children sitting in the seats looking for something absolutely the

00:11:58.700 other part that they're not doing is it and it's this is so important to me personally is this idea

00:12:04.860 of um collaborative collaborative subjects math is a great subject and it can be taught alone

00:12:12.780 but when you put it with science and geography and show the application of the calculation of

00:12:20.940 it's so much richer a student sits there and goes oh this is why i need to know it

00:12:25.340 a student sits there and goes oh i want to go into this line of this line of work therefore

00:12:30.460 i'll be able to do it because i understand this way of processing something we've made it to

00:12:36.220 stand alone yeah and whenever you do that with any subject it then becomes a black and white

00:12:42.300 situation i like it or i don't like it as opposed to i understand it i need it yeah and i i'm just

00:12:50.060 all about how like my favorite thing was i did a huge unit every year on the titanic and it was a

00:12:56.300 math science geography and language unit flotation they learned about writing letters they learned

00:13:04.540 about um you know you know and they got so much out of it because they were able to understand

00:13:12.220 what a boat is and how a boat floats and how a boat's propelled and where it was in the world

00:13:17.020 when it's when it went down and how they brought it back up and what it means to you know what

00:13:21.420 what's a last letter to a family member you have to incorporate things to make you don't mean my

00:13:26.700 idea of being a scholar practitioner right i want everything rooted in theory and rooted in in prior

00:13:32.940 knowledge but that it's practical to who you are and relevant today. I want to know like and we're

00:13:41.080 going to get specifically to Ron DeSantis but I want to know because it's not just Ron DeSantis

00:13:45.220 it is state after state after state it seems that they're falling like freaking dominoes

00:13:50.060 I want to know who is arguing against that kind of logic but but I think what's happening is that

00:13:56.720 kind of logic is never brought up. I think what they're saying are things like, listen, you as

00:14:02.780 parents don't get what your kids are doing. We think it's garbage. We want to return to the way 0.99

00:14:07.640 you were raised because, and it's all this bull crap, your childhood was so much better than it 0.97

00:14:12.880 is today. We want to return to how you were raised and how you memorize timetables and how you did 0.98

00:14:19.220 it. Why? Because you understood math, probably didn't, but we want to return to that because

00:14:23.980 that's when for the love for heaven help me America was great right like it's that kind of

00:14:29.140 line that they're trying to have and people want to buy into that because you don't want to feel

00:14:34.160 like an ass as a parent I don't want to be a parent in anywhere and my kid brings home work 0.99

00:14:38.600 and I have to go I don't want to understand that I I now I now I feel like an idiot and I look like 1.00

00:14:45.200 an idiot in front of my kid this is this isn't good this isn't good for me so rather than me go 0.95

00:14:50.780 wow you guys have advanced so much that you need to teach me that I need to do some learning 1.00

00:14:57.020 parents look and a lot of parents don't have time in all fairness it's not like I think all parents

00:15:01.200 can relearn math but we're so painfully painfully limited by our own egos even when it comes to our 0.98

00:15:10.900 kids that will listen to guys like Ron DeSantis who say we should get rid of it that's garbage

00:15:16.180 we should get rid of it but but my problem my bigger problem with brawn so many problems i i 0.99

00:15:22.980 just i just don't like it and i feel for parents because like you said you feel like an idiot but 0.80

00:15:29.780 first of all you know i don't believe in homework right i i don't want a parent 0.81

00:15:35.060 but also i'm a high school teacher not an elementary school teacher i want i want work

00:15:39.620 done at home but i don't want it to be an argument difficult upsetting to a family you know taking

00:15:46.660 away from family time i i won't work at home but i don't i'm not going to mark it i want them to do

00:15:50.900 things and then bring it and apply it at home but that's that's different but this idea of parents

00:15:56.420 are afraid to look dumb in front of their children so they're bringing home division and a parent

00:16:03.220 says this is how you do division and the child says no that's not how i was taught and a fight 0.84

00:16:07.380 breaks out yeah that i do not wish that in any home around the world anywhere i want it to be

00:16:13.620 this is how i was taught mom this is how i was taught child that's cool it's kind of the same

00:16:18.260 it's a little short a little faster but we still get to the same answer awesome yeah it's everything

00:16:23.220 is a fight yeah because again everything is black and white right or wrong up and down yes and no

00:16:29.060 good and bad where is the gray it's all great it really is where is for this particular family for

00:16:35.860 this first particular school for this particular subject for this particular community this is what

00:16:41.220 works yeah and i i'm not about big blanket things i go back to what do we know about child

00:16:49.780 development what do we know about the capabilities of people how are we preparing teachers and

00:16:55.620 there's another in canada we make generalists in elementary and k-8 in canada you are you teach

00:17:01.700 all 11 subjects that's just expected expected of you which i don't agree with yeah in elementary

00:17:08.580 it's tough yeah i mean i and and i've said this before i think there can be subject areas just

00:17:14.900 like i'm a high school teacher i can teach geography i can teach society i can teach politics

00:17:20.420 i can teach but let's not let's not put me in a bio room you know let's not put me somewhere

00:17:26.420 where i don't have the expertise it's not that i can't read the textbook everybody thinks that a

00:17:31.220 a teacher's job is to read the textbook and regurgitate it. It's not. The real job of a

00:17:35.920 teacher, the hardest job of a teacher, is to read the textbook, assign it to the curriculum,

00:17:41.760 and then explain it. And when the kid doesn't get it, and 10 of them don't, you have to figure out

00:17:48.060 10 ways to explain it. And the only way you can do that as a teacher, a good teacher, a competent

00:17:53.120 teacher, is by having proficiencies and expertise in a narrower field of vision, right?

00:18:01.120 Correct.

00:18:02.600 And that costs money, Dr. Z. That's the bottom, right? It costs money. The reason why kids are

00:18:08.000 coming home with that homework is because they don't want to stay at school. Why don't they

00:18:10.740 want to stay at school? Because they don't have the resources for them after 3.30. Everybody's

00:18:14.600 gone out the door. We'll start pouring resources into that. And then they don't need to come home

00:18:20.240 and do homework because they have them there they have experts there and their parents can be an

00:18:25.280 expert at being parents you know over covid and i know you want to talk about this a lot i had a lot

00:18:30.560 of parents say joanna what do you think about homeschooling i said oh look i have a friend that

00:18:36.800 homeschooled six of her kids god bless i if you have the ability a you have the education b you

00:18:46.000 have the just like i just explained i would argue i do not have the competence i don't think i have

00:18:52.560 the competence to teach my kids from grade one all the way i don't think i do but if you think you do

00:18:58.640 amazing i'm not saying you can't but for you to separate parent and family time from this is my

00:19:06.480 teacher hat time and you can do that and you can have a healthy healthy you know amazing household

00:19:13.280 where your kid's learning great god bless put it in a document put it online we should blow it up

00:19:19.920 so everybody can follow it i don't necessarily think it's as plausible i think you can get them

00:19:25.760 to read a book i think you can get them to do the math equations and read the answer at the back of

00:19:30.000 the book but i don't know how much if your kid's not getting it i don't know how many different

00:19:36.080 ways you can get at that right if you've got the time and the patience and the space and the

00:19:41.360 the resources and that's what you need as a family because of your family situation my answer is

00:19:48.960 always awesome yeah a hundred percent awesome I said you know because there are laws associated

00:19:55.120 with homeschooling and packages and schools can sign off on it it is an option for people

00:20:00.000 and I'm all about options yeah whatever option works for you but like you said it's not easy

00:20:06.620 and school isn't just about learning subjects absolutely there is a huge component of social

00:20:15.460 emotionalness social skills opportunities for sports and travel and talk about that for a

00:20:21.280 second your social emotional learning because we're going to come back to ron and his bill

00:20:25.880 the whole whatever and his textbook bands but what i dug when i dug into it it's really about

00:20:32.260 getting rid of common core and i couldn't believe this sell social and emotional learning he wants

00:20:40.180 to get rid of it why in anywhere i read that and went what would be a driving purpose

00:20:49.700 even a freaking political one for that well because people who haven't worked in schools

00:20:56.440 or don't work in schools or haven't been educators are making these decisions right and if you

00:21:00.940 haven't sat in a classroom in the last I'm going to say three years to see that students are coming

00:21:06.160 to school not prepared to learn because of whatever trauma is happening in their lives

00:21:12.060 you would say we should be doing more social emotional learning I can't even tell you as a

00:21:17.040 principal when students were sent to me for behavior in the classroom 99% of the time it

00:21:22.860 is because they weren't available for learning and they weren't available emotionally

00:21:28.920 because of, and I want me to start the list, obviously horrific things happening in their

00:21:34.760 lives, but things like tired because they're a traveling sports kid, haven't eaten because of

00:21:40.140 a situation, a family divorce that's caused some situations, the feeling of abandonment,

00:21:44.580 mental health, anxiety, they're not available for learning. So anyone who says, let's get rid of

00:21:50.900 that let's get rid of caring for kids emotional health and just focus on drill and kill you don't

00:21:58.420 know what you're talking about and i would say you put 500 teachers in front of you today 498 would

00:22:04.280 say i can't teach 90 of the time because my students are not available absolutely and long

00:22:12.460 before covid long before covid yeah yeah once we're still around before covid or you know child

00:22:18.760 abuse or horrific things happening to children exhaustion hunger poverty all that was still

00:22:24.460 happening long before covid covid just exasperated it put it put us into their homes to know more

00:22:32.500 yeah yeah yeah there's a there's a sight line right what would you say to people because this

00:22:37.640 is what a lot of politicians are saying and whatever well it was better when i was a kid

00:22:41.700 because when i was a kid kids didn't have anxiety sure stuff went on at home but you know what we

00:22:46.360 all survived it. Do you have any idea what my mom used to do to me? Do you know what my dad used to

00:22:50.300 do to me when I was a kid? I survived it. And look, I'm making six, seven figures today. I'm

00:22:55.300 doing just fine. We should stop coddling. I'm pleased I'm playing devil's advocate, anybody

00:22:59.620 listening right now. But these are the real arguments. Stop coddling these kids because

00:23:04.540 the more we coddle these kids, the more broken and pathetic our society becomes. And that's why 1.00

00:23:10.600 they're not accomplishing things how how do you because i'm sure that's the argument right so

00:23:15.980 social emotional learning is not coddling that's that's not i think coddling is the participation

00:23:21.080 ribbon in trophies right i don't want anybody crying after the game because they didn't get

00:23:25.640 something social learning is truly helping kids adapt yeah to situations regulate their emotions

00:23:34.240 Yeah. And I'm going to say, sure, it was different when I grew up, but there also wasn't crappy food that's ruined our hormonal balance. There wasn't as much divorce, which has ruined children's self-esteem. There wasn't as much drug abuse that has torn families apart. There wasn't as much diversity and diverse communities coming with different styles of living and being. It's just different.

00:24:04.240 it wasn't better it wasn't worse it was just yeah sorry go ahead it's just it just was different

00:24:11.280 and we have to adapt I had a yeah I had a t when I first started practice teaching I was I was in

00:24:19.840 a classroom with an older gentleman who had been near the end of his career right so however old

00:24:24.700 he was and I remember saying to him because a lot of people you know you know that the line

00:24:29.360 kids aren't the way they used to be nowadays kids nowadays they're crappier they're less respectful

00:24:35.040 whatever right and i said to him you've been teaching he was teaching for 35 years and that

00:24:41.520 was in like 2002 so he was teaching in from the 70s all the way right and i said do you think

00:24:49.120 kids are different now do you think the whole kids are right and he goes no he goes you want to know

00:24:55.120 the difference is i'll tell you what the difference is in 1975 or 1985 even in 1990

00:25:02.640 if a kid wasn't respectful if a kid didn't want to be there if a kid wasn't pulling his own weight

00:25:09.920 if a kid and and heaven knows why if a kid just couldn't get it you know what we did we showed

00:25:15.680 them the door so here's what happened the classroom was incredibly well managed because

00:25:24.080 We eliminated all of the kids that had all of the things you've just described, and they

00:25:30.740 went and got jobs at McDonald's or on a factory line or doing whatever, and none of which

00:25:36.160 exists.

00:25:36.840 You can't live like that anymore.

00:25:39.100 It's not even an option.

00:25:41.600 And then we made kids.

00:25:42.920 We created all these laws, and we created all these stipulations about kids staying

00:25:47.460 there to graduate high school, come hell or high water.

00:25:51.160 um and now we're like oh well classroom management it's not because of a different kid

00:25:56.860 we just force them to stay in the room and I thought how amazing like think about that was

00:26:03.200 an old he was an old white dude who had a very cool perception and a very aware perception rather 0.96

00:26:09.760 than saying yeah they're jerks today but a very aware perception of how things really have panned 0.93

00:26:15.860 out, you know, over the last 30, 40 years. But let's go back to 1975. How many, how many families 0.98

00:26:23.840 were, were two parent families? Yeah. Well, you weren't allowed to divorce. I'm just going to say

00:26:30.260 most, but how many of those talk about how much abuse might've been in those families too. Right.

00:26:35.860 So like the level, so divorce was less, but I'm going to guess abuse was higher and less talk

00:26:43.700 and more accepted and different and different kinds of abuse right yeah yeah yeah how many of

00:26:49.700 those families in 1975 were a one income family with one of the one of the parents at home yeah

00:26:57.860 how many of those families were one car family how many of those families took a a summer vacation

00:27:06.020 as a family together with other family how many of those families had multiple children

00:27:13.700 it really comes down to the nuclear family is not the same today as it was in 75.

00:27:22.800 I remember my mom went back to work when I was in grade six, not heard of, got a car.

00:27:28.480 We were two cars, two incomes, a mom who worked.

00:27:33.820 But that came with, she wasn't at my games.

00:27:38.260 It was hard for parent-teacher night, which we see for families today.

00:27:43.700 because people have to work because the world is expensive or we're on our own we have to trans

00:27:51.780 have transportation because not too many people were well because before covid were working in

00:27:57.540 their homes people uh were supporting elderly parents multiple children potentially multiple

00:28:04.820 spouse like it is about the nuclear family and the breakdown of what we used to have and so all these

00:28:11.700 policymakers and bill makers want us to go back to that we can't because people can't afford

00:28:18.660 to go back to one income one car one and small lovely home that you live in kind of life it's

00:28:26.980 not possible right i think it's also and technology and technology in a classroom today somebody's 0.97

00:28:35.940 being a jerk and you kick them out and they go in the hall and they pick up their phone and they 0.87

00:28:41.220 They text their mom and they say, mom, I just got kicked out of home act for doing nothing. 1.00

00:28:45.280 Lie.

00:28:46.140 Yeah.

00:28:46.420 And next thing I'm sitting in my office and a mom's at my door going, why, why was so 0.96

00:28:50.340 and so kicked out of class?

00:28:51.300 I'm like, I don't know.

00:28:52.100 And he's hiding in the bathroom.

00:28:54.660 He's told his mom a lie.

00:28:56.160 Mom believes mom yells at me.

00:28:58.160 We know no details.

00:28:59.380 And the next thing you know, we don't have a really healthy relationship between community

00:29:03.240 member, family member, stakeholder, student in school.

00:29:06.780 That didn't happen.

00:29:08.340 when I got in trouble at school guess what happened with that information it was kept a

00:29:13.180 secret I wasn't going home and telling my mom I got kicked out of class I wasn't making up an

00:29:19.780 excuse because nobody was gonna know so it it is about the family and that's what bothers me about

00:29:26.520 the removing of books the removing of resources the removing the removing of anything who's to

00:29:34.420 say that that book won't contribute in some way and i i'm you know i mean critical thinking and

00:29:40.260 problem solving which is what i want i don't care how old you are or what subject and what grade

00:29:44.920 that's what you should be learning and we can always learn it forever till the day we die

00:29:50.000 we how did we get to the moon we solved the problem how do how are we developing unbelievable

00:29:56.200 cancer things critical thinking like that's the way we need to move forward and until people

00:30:03.040 realize that memorization doesn't solve problems it doesn't cure cancer we're not going to get

00:30:11.940 too far forward with a really richer math curriculum which is so frustrating it is so

00:30:18.760 frustrating and it's and to me it always comes down to money and application so if I can test

00:30:28.940 a kid and give them a scantron card and get them to fill out an sat and they get a high mark and

00:30:35.880 they can memorize and they can do this and they can do that and then they go to this school and

00:30:39.760 then that school and then they get a job i'm like well see this is a this kid if a kid comes out of

00:30:46.620 that learning how to critically think it's not because of the curriculum for the love of god

00:30:53.180 it's in spite of. And could you imagine for a minute, had we built a curriculum to challenge

00:31:01.300 that critical thinker, what they could have accomplished? You know what I mean? You think

00:31:08.320 about guys like Einstein who dropped out, or you think about all these amazing, like very,

00:31:12.740 who didn't even stay in school. Why didn't they stay in school? Because they were way more advanced

00:31:19.380 in their processing and thinking and awareness than the teachers that were in front of them.

00:31:25.300 I've had kids, listen, I've had a handful of kids over the last 20 years where I'm like,

00:31:29.560 shoot, this kid's smarter than me. Oh, I've had numerous. I love it. I love it.

00:31:37.560 And I say to them, listen, I'm going to challenge you to the best of my ability. And I say to the

00:31:43.440 kids too, when they hand things in, if you're giving me a paper that deserves a hundred percent

00:31:47.580 grade 10 i'm marking it by my grade 11 standards they're like why i'm like because to hell with

00:31:52.620 you resting in grade 10 why why wouldn't i push you why wouldn't you get as good as you possibly

00:31:59.260 can get as as good as i can possibly push you to be but again it's about um ease at which we can

00:32:08.940 implement curriculum and the ease at which we can give a numerical value to your intelligence and

00:32:15.980 and I use that word loosely because you can't, in order to create a hierarchy so you can go off to

00:32:22.100 university and then you can go do whatever it is you're going to do. And every time somebody talks

00:32:27.600 like that, every time I think this is what's making us less intelligent. People want, you know

00:32:37.860 me about fear and jealousy. So people want normal, they want safe. And you did an awesome TikTok the

00:32:44.220 other day when somebody was criticizing your hair and you're like buddy you're saying that because

00:32:47.840 i scare you yeah because i i would i'm what represents change different that scares you

00:32:53.980 that person that kid that you taught that you gave the stuff to and took the sat and went on

00:32:58.320 to college that's awesome but what about everybody else yeah and i've i've been using this analogy

00:33:05.820 is that students and learning and education is a river right it's a fast moving river and every

00:33:13.880 kids a stick and we throw all these sticks in the river and some of them lucky enough get to the

00:33:18.520 middle and they get bombing down the middle of the river and they make it from one end to the other

00:33:23.560 but what about all the other ones the ones that get hung up on a rock the ones that get stuck on

00:33:27.560 the shore the ones that get pushed down do we just ignore those students do we just ignore those kids

00:33:34.120 no because that's 75 percent of the kids because it's yes unfortunately we have been

00:33:41.640 and the way that the united states is going we're pushing that we're we're not just doing that

00:33:47.560 we're we're encouraging it we're we're glorifying it even oh don't don't even don't be a different

00:33:56.240 shaped stick or a different colored stick or a different weighted stick because god forbid we're

00:34:02.920 going to judge you we're going to assume you're not going to make it to the middle that's the

00:34:06.820 worst part yeah so it's about fear it's about family values it's about a different nuclear

00:34:13.240 family it's about money it's about not understanding capacity it's about people not in education

00:34:18.740 making decisions and rules it's about not embracing change um it's about fear it's that

00:34:26.980 this is why you and i can't fix it because it's it's about everything and until you get everybody

00:34:35.400 in the room, and I'm talking kids and families and parents and, and, and lawmakers, you're not

00:34:41.280 going to make good, I'm not saying the right decision, you're not going to make good decisions.

00:34:45.700 Yeah, I don't think there's any right or wrong. I think there's only, there's only better and

00:34:50.360 worse. Like, what can we do? Because there's always better. There's always, you know, the

00:34:54.820 older I have gotten as a teacher, and the more classrooms you sit in front of, and this should

00:34:59.140 be the way that, you know, the more aware you become, it's sort of that big picture. And all

00:35:05.380 of the things, when I get a kid to sit down and memorize stuff and write a history test,

00:35:10.440 and my kid looks at me, and I know there's kids that are going to get 97, I know their kids are

00:35:14.120 going to get 52. And I know there's some kids that studied really hard for that 97. And some kids

00:35:19.020 that studied really hard for that 52. And there's a whole bunch of other kids, right? Kids that

00:35:23.740 looked at it 10 minutes before the class. What I do know is that method of tests does very, very

00:35:33.980 little, very little to adequately judge or quantify that kid's potential or that kid's knowledge,

00:35:46.540 or even better, how that kid's going to do in the future. And the older I've gotten, the more that

00:35:53.040 I realized, and this is what happens in university for anybody who's gone to social sciences,

00:35:57.520 they chuck tests along. They chuck tests. Why? Because it was easy. When we had a whole bunch

00:36:02.900 of kids, we gave them a scantron, we weeded them out. We got the handful of kids that made it

00:36:07.840 through that process. And then they started really testing us. And how do they really test us? Well,

00:36:13.080 we write papers and then we stand in a room of our peers and we defend every single quote. We

00:36:19.660 defend and apply every single idea now that's learning but nobody has time for that in high

00:36:27.620 school oh you and i could you and i could do an entire series on assessment and evaluation

00:36:33.120 you know that's that's my other baby you know authentic assessment evaluation means that

00:36:38.300 someone's able to just to demonstrate knowledge and not everybody can demonstrate it the same way

00:36:45.560 and just just put 12 adults in the room and say tell me your childhood phone number some people

00:36:51.400 will memorize it some people will go like this some people will look it up right you have knowledge

00:36:55.080 and you have a way to get it and then share it but I'm not going to judge you on that did you

00:36:58.320 get me the answer yeah awesome I'm going to embrace the way you figured it out yeah my favorite thing

00:37:04.100 I ever saw at an amazing teaching partner named Michelle Cordy for many years at an elementary

00:37:09.560 school we shared a classroom I started taught the morning she taught the afternoon she did the math

00:37:13.120 and science and she did two things as a math teacher which blew me away she used to do fermi

00:37:21.840 puzzles fermi problems and fermi f-e-r-m-i was like a famous math scientist or something like

00:37:29.520 that where she would ask kids how much spaghetti does a family of four eat in a year

00:37:35.580 the kids are like i don't know or how many steps does it take to walk from here to the moon

00:37:43.180 i don't know it was these inevitable it was these impossible problems she would teach them

00:37:52.420 how to break that down into small minute things to eventually lead to an answer amazing i saw

00:38:01.800 children's brain grow in front of me i literally saw it i saw them immediately go that's impossible

00:38:10.380 and then over the course of a couple weeks as they each chose their projects these for these

00:38:15.180 impossible equations i saw them be able to take something impossible and be able to think about

00:38:22.040 it in a way that made it so they could actually come up with a response and i'm like that kid

00:38:28.840 doesn't even know eight times eight but man can they think about how to problem solve well and

00:38:33.740 there's there it is right there it is they don't need to know eight by eight they don't need to 0.99

00:38:39.060 know eight times eight stick it in your damn phone the other thing that made me really proud is she 0.99

00:38:44.400 did a huge thing with barbies she gave every kid a barbie and she wanted them to be able to launch 0.99

00:38:49.260 the barbie across the room it's amazing on monday didn't give them anything to launch

00:38:55.020 and by the end of the week these students have had invented these launching fulcrum thing and so

00:39:03.100 she's teaching them as they're talking through problems so to get the barbie to launch on friday

00:39:08.060 we celebrated the barbies launching and who launched the first kids who hated school hated

00:39:13.480 the world hated themselves hated math hated science hated us were there every day smiling

00:39:22.280 engaging with their classmates writing things down being heard it doesn't take much to engage

00:39:32.240 a student but you put a textbook and say okay everybody turn to page 80 and start the questions

00:39:37.440 you're done you're done you give a novel the same novel everybody in the class and say oh let's all

00:39:43.700 read it but when you have educate and I can think of another one a guy named Dennis Woods who was

00:39:49.940 just incredible it was grade six guy that was my associate teacher when I first started he also was

00:39:54.880 the first person ever teach me to never say guys 1991 I'm trying to get all the kids on board I'm

00:40:00.380 like okay guys don't say guys I'm like 1991 he knew he knew that that was sexist right um those

00:40:08.520 are the kinds of people who I want to talk to those are the kinds of people I want in the room

00:40:12.480 those are the kinds of people I want writing curriculum those are the kinds of people I want

00:40:16.860 teaching teachers those are the kind of people i want presenting to parents those are the kinds

00:40:21.220 of people i want talking to lawmakers about what education needs to look like in 2020 2022 2027

00:40:30.300 we can't there's no more straight rows there's no more textbooks it's a waste of time energy and

00:40:37.540 money yeah i think um i i want have you ever seen the movie food ink uh is that great documentary

00:40:45.920 It has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but I'm going to use an analogy he talks about.

00:40:49.360 It's about food production in the United States.

00:40:51.740 Okay, I probably have, yeah.

00:40:53.020 There's this organic farmer, and he goes, I've never seen a country try to get so efficient and great and make so much money from hitting the wrong target.

00:41:09.380 Nobody's questioned the target, right?

00:41:12.880 And he was talking about food production and why we're giving corn to cows and blah, blah, blah. And he's like, everybody assumes that their goal, so like getting a 97 on the test, that target is our target. That is the best target. That is the best indicator of intelligence, the best indicator of what they're going to do with it. That's the target.

00:41:33.280 and we have then built a whole education system around how to get a 97 on a test but the target

00:41:42.140 is garbage that target you're talking about trying to reach perfection but even if i talk

00:41:51.840 about a test the way a written test goes who the hell cares it's a bad target yeah you know 0.99

00:41:57.840 to join the police force in canada in toronto you used to have to run a six minute mile 0.92

00:42:02.960 that was that was one of the precursors right but all the guys joked he's like nobody gives a crap 1.00

00:42:08.760 about this test after you passed it because it's just to keep the women out it's a pretend objective

00:42:13.560 test that makes it seem like it's a logical target but nobody ever does it again and it has nothing 0.99

00:42:19.940 to do with job performance yet we got really good at running a six minute mile why it's a stupid

00:42:27.020 target but it's it seems and this is the and we're going to come back down to to florida it seems 0.80

00:42:34.040 objective doesn't it people love that word people hold on to the word objectivity like a baby

00:42:41.300 blanket yeah no that never existed usually means inequitable in my opinion a hundred and it never

00:42:48.620 it never means objective yeah even if it's inequitably like even if it causes inequitable

00:42:55.180 um consequence it is never objective because somebody has always has decided from their

00:43:03.380 experience from their research from their bias from their childhood from their education in this

00:43:09.000 university what they should be doing which is filled with subjectivity it's mountains of

00:43:16.400 subjective yeah great you know great and that's fine but let's stop using the word objective as

00:43:22.600 though it exists it doesn't exist you know and i and i hear guys like jordan peterson who make my

00:43:28.660 ears bleed i don't know if you listen to a lot of of course yes he loves loves he loves lobsters as

00:43:36.980 much as i do this freaking lobster i can't and i listen to him because i need to know

00:43:44.160 when i stand so fundamentally opposed when i hear people speak and everything he says i go

00:43:51.000 it's not fair for me to hear the 15 seconds or 15 minutes that that's not good so what do I do

00:43:59.700 I do deep dives heaven help me read all his books yeah into his books I didn't read the 12 step I

00:44:07.680 could care less of his 12 rules if I never make a bet again I'll be a happy camper but I read and I

00:44:14.560 and I watch a lot of his podcasts and I listen to the way he thinks and the way he argues and I can

00:44:19.940 tell what he i can i can now tell what he's going to say you can predict yeah i can absolutely

00:44:25.300 predict and he's so he he pretends as though this world of objectivity exists and he's tried to

00:44:30.660 distance himself so much from the social sciences as though pure sciences aren't subjective yeah

00:44:37.140 right and he's he's disavowed marxism feminism any sort of identity politics unless you're a man and

00:44:44.740 And then if it's that identity politics should hold strong.

00:44:50.460 But all of this is to deny subjectivity, to prove a fake objectivity through which we should run the world because it's so incredibly simplistic.

00:45:02.060 And all the while, all he's doing, just like Ron DeSantis, is he's playing on people's fake memories when they were seven and they thought life was better and it wasn't better.

00:45:14.080 they were just ignorant because they were seven and they had no idea of anything so florida let's

00:45:20.720 get to florida and crt and i love florida my parents have a home in florida i spent so much 0.80

00:45:26.440 time in florida it's beautiful everything it's it's it's beautiful there and it obviously

00:45:35.280 is has been around a long time but again it's it's a state that is crumbling and i don't just

00:45:45.780 mean like infrastructure i mean what is it truly standing on and it's been happening for probably

00:45:54.800 the last 12 years right 12 three sets of four and nobody's stepping forward so they'll take anybody

00:46:05.380 anyone willing to do some work and then they will support it it's like we need volunteers

00:46:13.420 but god please don't let that person vote oh they volunteered oh right um i i i'm sad because it

00:46:21.780 could be an incredible state it could be a leader in diversity education it could be a leader in

00:46:27.600 understanding second language learning it could be a leader outside education it has so much going

00:46:34.400 for it but it's not embracing what it is it's it's god it's it's a state with so much water like

00:46:42.920 imagine the work the science the outdoor education that could be you know the beautiful people there

00:46:47.580 but instead they've chosen to try and get rid of we'll just get rid of it we'll get rid of it we'll

00:46:54.420 get rid of it we'll get instead of wait why don't we stop it's a it's deficit model I spent a

00:46:59.560 beautiful day yesterday with an amazing person named Aaron Jones who wrote this incredible

00:47:03.660 book called Bridges to Heal Us and I said the world continues to function from a deficit model

00:47:11.280 instead of a strength-based approach if I was Florida I'd throw everything out and go

00:47:15.140 what do we have that's awesome here okay let's use that to build everything right but instead

00:47:24.320 they'd rather almost ignore their wonderful natural resources uh the beautiful people there

00:47:29.680 the incredible diversity the weather the water they would rather just say no no no we're just

00:47:36.200 going to rip it all all away and i just thought florida is an example of a deficit model

00:47:45.140 I think Americans and some Canadians, look, I can't, I love where I live, but heaven help me. We have our own version, seemingly, of certain political ideologies. And I don't mean Republican or Democrat. I mean, stupid person versus intelligent. And you can get stupid people all over sides of the aisle.

00:48:05.020 But this notion that diversity is a failure, that diversity is a weakness, that diversity is somehow fracturing us, when the only thing that fractures us is when we don't build on how amazing that diversity is. 0.99

00:48:27.140 if you talk about genetic diversity, nothing is stronger. Nothing is stronger than genetic

00:48:34.220 diversity. And you have these individuals that will say, I'm only ever going to marry within

00:48:39.120 my race, within my religion. And what you're doing outside of silly, silly limitations is you're 0.93

00:48:45.800 limiting your strength, your genetic strength. You know what I mean? I joke with my kids all 0.90

00:48:51.580 the time. I go, you guys live here? Cool. You're going to find somebody to procreate with? Can

00:48:56.100 you do it from like I don't know Botswana yeah you do it from I don't know Cambodia why because 0.99

00:49:04.220 the difference in genetics from those different places are going to have weaknesses over here 0.98

00:49:09.920 and weaknesses over here and we come together you know what we do we should do we let go of our

00:49:15.280 the mother nature does it if we would just get the hell out of the way we let go of our weakness

00:49:20.460 each of us. And when we procreate, we build something better. How does that same logic, 1.00

00:49:28.400 unfortunately, I know the answer to this, and it's kind of rhetorical. How does that same logic

00:49:32.800 not facilitate real diversity and equity programs within our schools, within government, within

00:49:41.080 individual states to bring awareness to everybody's different thought process? If you just

00:49:47.820 shut the hell up, stop making them all write the same test. And you actually listen to what each

00:49:53.740 person brought to the table. We all get better tomorrow. Fear and jealousy. Fear and jealousy.

00:50:01.520 You think it's fear and jealousy? I think it's the question for power.

00:50:05.560 We don't celebrate others enough. We're so egocentric. You and I could just throw names out

00:50:12.800 of scientific incredible scientific findings none of which were canadian american right

00:50:19.180 even though some incredible things have happened in canada and america but yeah there are some

00:50:23.980 incredible things that have happened in china in france in copenhagen in in places in germany

00:50:30.480 and instead of celebrating that and embracing that and looking to that we're like darn it i wish i

00:50:37.720 had done that okay i'm not going to tell anybody my ideas now because i want to win that right i

00:50:41.940 i want the nobel prize for that number number one is it's the sense of there's not enough

00:50:46.720 celebration of difference in others and what they've accomplished don't even get me started

00:50:50.600 on gender you know what i mean and then fear well if i share my thought my idea with somebody they

00:50:57.700 might take it and then they might get celebrated and i'm not and that's going to really be upsetting

00:51:03.120 the best thing to do is to brainstorm because your idea might get someone else to spur something

00:51:09.600 and then let's celebrate that something's been fixed or created because of a small idea that

00:51:15.060 you had we're so egocentric because we have these houses we live in we have these places that we can

00:51:22.260 go and hide i don't want to tell anybody i don't and we don't want to also let people know our

00:51:26.640 weaknesses if i sit in a room with a whole bunch of people that are different from me they're

00:51:30.780 going to find out i'm not as smart talented tall maybe potentially capable that's what i think i

00:51:37.820 am yeah fear and jealousy do you think one of those driving forces is capitalism oh of course

00:51:46.400 right of course because that's about money leading to an economic bottom line it's about money i'm

00:51:51.540 not going to make as much money i'm not going to get as much money i'm not going to raise as much

00:51:54.980 money i'm going to have to spend more money yeah 100 because i honestly believe that and we i've

00:52:03.080 talked a lot about critical race theory. I honestly believe, sure, the United States has

00:52:08.480 a race problem. There's no question about it. And do they really hate critical race theory for that? 1.00

00:52:13.360 Absolutely. They don't want to talk about it. They don't want to live it. They don't want to

00:52:16.900 carry it, all of that. But I honestly believe that the basis of all that is still capitalism

00:52:22.200 because it does say and it does show direct ties between, and you can't separate it. You can't

00:52:29.600 separate slavery from an economic system. You can't.

00:52:34.820 It wasn't an economic system.

00:52:36.660 You can't. You can't just say those two things go hand in hand.

00:52:40.340 America is one of the greatest empires right to this day,

00:52:44.920 an economic powerhouse, great. But for about 300 years,

00:52:49.040 they had 2 million people working for free. There's reason for that, right?

00:52:54.300 There's a reason that you were able to build what you built and to deny that. 0.99

00:52:59.600 it's so ridiculous. And as soon as you challenge it, it's like, well, you're a communist. Oh, 0.98

00:53:05.820 for the love of God, can we not challenge something and say it's not good enough without

00:53:11.780 saying it has to be that, right? We live in such a, just like you said at the beginning,

00:53:18.320 black or white, yes or no, either or. Those are the only two realities we live in.

00:53:23.260 And I think that serves people trying to garner power because they like to play on the fears and insecurities that you just brought up, right?

00:53:33.640 What is wrong with the truth?

00:53:36.320 This is where I go when I hear critical race theory conversations.

00:53:42.840 Why are we denying the truth?

00:53:46.380 What is it about the truth that's driving these things?

00:53:53.260 because we know it's true yeah well they skew it so they whenever they want to talk about critical

00:53:59.740 race theory right so they write legislation that says no white kid should ever feel uh guilty for

00:54:05.740 the love of god that's not it has nothing to do with the two it it it hopes that nobody understands

00:54:11.900 what critical race theory is by the way it's not being taught in elementary school anyway but it

00:54:16.140 hopes nobody understands it and it hopes that i can fashion it in a way make it feel make you feel

00:54:22.860 like it's attacking you as a white family your fault and i'm gonna come riding it on my horse

00:54:27.980 and protect the traditional american family from what again though it's fear the truth hurts

00:54:37.580 but we have to talk about it we have to address it we have to read about it we have to debate it we

00:54:42.540 have to discuss it so we don't perpetuate it so that we've learned from it we we understand now

00:54:52.540 It's terrible. It wasn't right. It destroyed families and generations of people. Okay, good.

00:55:00.280 Now let's move forward with that knowledge. This is about understanding. Again, I go back to

00:55:06.060 knowledge. What's wrong with gaining knowledge? I think for a lot of people, I think, and again,

00:55:16.240 I go back to, I keep going back to Florida because so much silliness is coming out of there. Texas

00:55:20.720 is is right up there as well but this you know the notion of don't the don't say gay bill and

00:55:26.320 i know people are always up in my comments it never said don't say gay i'm like oh for the

00:55:30.280 love of god just read it for five seconds you understand the implications of the bill

00:55:34.740 um but i think and i'm hopeful here's here's where i'm hopeful there's a reason that all

00:55:41.560 these bills have happened in the last few years and because there's been a huge push from the

00:55:47.720 look, in 20 years, there's been a huge push from the gay community. Lots more rights, lots more

00:55:52.880 power, lots more acknowledgement, lots more representation, right? And now here comes the

00:55:58.360 trans community. And the trans community is fighting, heaven help them, fighting their way

00:56:02.900 through this din. And I think these laws are, it's a painful process, but I honestly believe

00:56:14.720 these laws are the last ditch effort of a dying breed i think they're like the death thrall you

00:56:22.400 know where they make that big noise and there you think they're gonna strike and then they just

00:56:26.960 collapse because this is it this is the only play they have anymore they can't fight it they can't

00:56:35.120 they can't argue around it education's not working for them because oh now people because i can't

00:56:41.600 keep them in the classroom and heaven help me they go on the you know online they find out what 0.94

00:56:45.920 gays there right oh my god they can go look up crt kids can go wait a minute what are you talking 1.00

00:56:52.160 about because i read here and i honestly believe that these are the death thralls of a dying 1.00

00:57:00.080 protective and i hate the word traditional way of living yeah it's gonna be painful don't get

00:57:07.520 me wrong and i and i feel the worst probably for the trans community right about now

00:57:12.800 but it's going to be painful for all involved but i do see the pendulum that is swinging 0.77

00:57:20.320 is because this is all they got this is the last last ditch effort yeah last ditch effort

00:57:27.680 yeah but so those who are allies those who are supporters those who are educators those who are

00:57:33.200 intelligent what should we be doing during this time should we be laughing should we be

00:57:42.240 staying the course should we be out there chanting what like i think this is what's important for

00:57:49.520 for your followers to think about a great question yeah what should they be doing

00:57:53.920 during these very difficult times that we know are wrong

00:57:57.600 because fight or flight people are going to go back in their homes and hide and wait till it's

00:58:06.920 over or they're going to be out there fighting and and not necessarily are people equipped with

00:58:12.700 the kind of knowledge and skills to be able to fight this properly but and i think this is what

00:58:18.860 i would tell people first of all everybody has a different avenue everybody is going to have a

00:58:23.320 different avenue, right? If you're a restaurant owner, or you're an electrician, or you're a

00:58:30.120 teacher, or you're all going to have different avenues, right? So as individual as your world

00:58:38.420 is, you stand up in your world, right? So for me, this platform, my TikTok, any platform I can get

00:58:48.780 my hands on, any TED Talks that I can procure, any ability I have to travel to states like Florida,

00:58:56.260 like Texas, like Missouri, I don't care, wherever, and sit down in a room full of people.

00:59:02.260 And for me, I really like to target people who don't agree with me. I mean, that's just

00:59:05.880 my nature. I want people, I want maybe not Ron because I might smack them, but like the people

00:59:11.800 that that maybe aren't in their hearts bigoted hateful people but they just it just makes a lot

00:59:18.720 of sense to them because they no one's taking the time to explain something else that's what i would

00:59:22.700 do so you've seen that visual of the circle of control circle of influence out of your control

00:59:28.640 out of your influence i i'm really glad you said what you said which is in your context

00:59:33.200 but what can you do do do that in your context if i own a restaurant yeah i put up signs in my

00:59:40.740 restaurant, I make sure that trans kids and kids who are gay and African American families are

00:59:48.520 celebrated. If I'm an electrician, I walk into a home saying, this is what I'm about. I put it on

00:59:54.800 my van. I put a big sticker on my van. Every single person can be a social advocate. And I'm not a big

01:00:02.640 fan. Look, between you and I, the chanting and the picketing and the signs, I don't feel a lot

01:00:09.420 of weight with that. I don't feel a lot of change with that. I do feel that change comes personally

01:00:15.640 and what I can do personally might be a little bit different. But if, could you imagine if you

01:00:20.420 had an electrician come in your home and on his shirt or her shirt, they had a patch that says

01:00:27.300 this company supports diversity, equity, and safety and community. Put right there. Can you

01:00:37.060 imagine i would feel 10 times better with that person coming to my home and that's that tiny 0.99

01:00:41.460 thing you walk into a family's home that maybe is a new immigrant family or a refugee family to this 0.94

01:00:47.140 country and you have to come fix their sink and you have just that tiny little thing you don't 0.83

01:00:53.940 have to do anything else in your damn day i think that that in and of itself is power i also think 0.92

01:01:00.900 it's power you know this goes back to you know that uh the the holocaust poem you know first 0.99

01:01:07.920 they came for so and so but i wasn't i also think standing up when you hear garbage come out of

01:01:14.100 people's mouths you have to say something we tell our kids that all the time you can't be at an adult

01:01:20.560 party and hear somebody say a racist joke and you keep your mouth shut you are not you're just as

01:01:26.420 bad you have to say something 100 i um as you know i love thrift thrift thrift store shopping

01:01:34.520 oh my god i was just all i did was in kensington today just love it got it went out yesterday

01:01:40.260 morning or two days ago uh there's a there's lots of supportive places here in spokane

01:01:47.500 catholic charities the gospel mission you know value village i'm at the gospel mission i'm buying

01:01:54.420 planters because I have a big patio. They, of course, my, oh, and there's a veterans one that

01:01:58.560 I love too. And of course they employ a variety of diverse people. And I always say, who's the

01:02:04.180 manager? Thank you for employing diverse people or vets or whatever. Can you imagine? Oh, I'm

01:02:09.640 sorry, Dr. Z. Can you imagine if everybody goes into a store and says that to a manager? Yeah.

01:02:13.540 Makes me so proud. Makes me so, again, strength-based, right? We're not a deficit model

01:02:17.900 here. We're strength-based. A guy is putting all this stuff on the shelves and he has a t-shirt on

01:02:23.000 that says homeless and it's got a big strike through it and it says human right and i stared

01:02:32.400 at that shirt and i thought the simplicity of that message especially there's an unbelievable

01:02:38.680 amount of homelessness and in poverty here in spokane it's a real have have not sort of community

01:02:44.520 i just thought i i where'd you get that shirt i have to wear that i want it i'm gonna give it to

01:02:48.360 everybody I know because we don't see others as humans very often we see them as whatever they

01:02:55.280 are um but really we see them as how we want to see them that breaks my heart as opposed to no

01:03:01.460 everyone's a human yeah and imagine if we had all kinds of things where we just put you know

01:03:07.160 you know uh whatever on there and stroking out go no human yeah so it it is about getting back

01:03:17.280 to seeing everyone you know I'm all about individualization but we it's and yesterday

01:03:24.680 I ended my chat with Erin Jones saying because I was asking her how do I become a better ally

01:03:28.960 how do I call people out more on the racism and I said you know what I'm not using love enough

01:03:34.600 I'm not coming at enough with love and when I saw that shirt I'm like that is just all about love

01:03:40.460 we're not loving one another we're not loving ourselves we're not loving our situations we're

01:03:45.960 not loving our employers we're not loving our families as much as we should so how do we get

01:03:50.780 back to that concept which will then drive better decision making that's it that's where i'm at

01:03:59.300 i like it and i think that's this week's this week's thing i'm going to try and work on i think

01:04:05.480 that's a powerful place to end i think i i mean i always have a great cup we could sit here for

01:04:10.920 hours. Oh, I know. I know. You know, I was just in Toronto. I feel really bad. I was in, I was in

01:04:17.280 Aurelia. That's close enough. The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board. I did their

01:04:23.220 principal and vice principal, um, conferences. So I was between Aurelia, Toronto and London in nine

01:04:29.460 days. It was crazy. And I'm like, the one thing I should have done was ensured that I got to see,

01:04:33.780 but I will see you. I will see when I come back from Africa. I promise. Okay. All right. Well,

01:04:38.500 thank you so much. I appreciate it so much. I'm going to put all of Dr. Z's stuff in the bio.

01:04:43.840 So you're going to see where you can go hear her amazing stuff and go experience all of that sort

01:04:50.220 of transformative learning and perspective that you bring to the table each day. Thank you so

01:04:55.540 much, guys. Thank you for spending Tuesday with me. I will see you next week. Same bat time,

01:05:00.740 same bat station. Have a good day, guys. Bye, Dr. Z. Dismissed.

Unlearn16: Class is in Session - April 26, 2022

The One Where I Create Gay Common Core Curriculum in Florida

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