00:00:00.000class is in session how you doing and welcome to unlearn 16 class is in session so I had no
00:00:10.760idea what I was gonna do today like I didn't I was coming in to do in this podcast tonight
00:00:15.840and I had really no idea and I was thinking maybe I'll do some true detective maybe I'll
00:00:20.640do the fact that I got a ticket I don't want to talk about it all right it was a rolling stop
00:00:28.440I digress. All right. But then I went and I taught today my grade seven and eights.
00:00:37.180And as I walked in to my grade seven and eight classroom, this is a lesson, I think, for everybody.
00:00:43.340I walk in and they're debating who the best Spider-Man was. So you got Tobey Maguire. You
00:00:48.600got Andrew Garfield. You got What's-His-Face from the dancing movie. Oh my God, his name's
00:00:55.720totally gone for my head. Oh my goodness. Guys, fill it in the comments, for the love of God.
00:01:02.620Not Tobey Maguire, not Andrew Garfield, but, but, what's his name? It'll come to me. Nonetheless,
00:01:10.940it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The funny part was, and it does matter, it's going to bother
00:01:15.120me for the rest of this podcast, and I'm sure I'll come back to it eventually. Otherwise,
00:01:18.140for the love of God, put it in the comments. He's getting married to Zendaya. How can I,
00:01:24.960Joanna, focus. All right. They're debating on the best Spider-Man. And one of the kids says,
00:01:31.200or actually a few of them said, we really like Andrew Garfield. And Andrew Garfield,
00:01:35.720you know, he got fired. He got fired because he was sick and he couldn't go to this. And that's
00:01:40.060the speculation. And then they started talking about mental health and how that might've played
00:01:46.520a role. And they're sort of debating amongst themselves, right? Tom Holland, for the love of
00:01:52.680God, Tom Holland. I feel so much better. Anyways, they're debating amongst themselves. And
00:01:58.740they, you could hear them say stuff like this. Well, if you had mental health stuff, you have
00:02:04.980anxiety and depression, they should have taken that into account. And, and why wouldn't they
00:02:09.380have taken into account? Of course they take it into account. And I jumped in and I said, guys,
00:02:13.840listen, you're in a generation where for the first time, mental health is being taken
00:02:22.920seriously as our physical health. Swear to God, 12-year-old, 13-year-old kid stops me and says,
00:02:31.460what do you mean it wasn't taken seriously? I'm like, nobody talked about. Nobody talked
00:02:36.580about anxiety or depression. Sure as heck, nobody talked about that it was going to get you out of
00:02:41.860your job or get you out of school or get you out of anything like that and this kid looks me dead
00:02:47.920in my face and he said but if your head's not right it doesn't even matter if your body's right
00:02:54.700isn't your head more important grade seven and eight if your head's not right it doesn't matter
00:03:06.420if your body's right. And he goes, it just seems like it all follows, right? So why wouldn't you
00:03:15.500take that seriously? Anyways, and we had this sort of big discussion about that, again, 12,
00:03:20.94013 years old, for the love of God. And as we're having this discussion, I know that every once
00:03:28.840in a while, I try to mitigate fun. Not mitigate fun. I try to include fun to mitigate stress.
00:03:41.340Understanding that these are 13-year-old kids and they're going to school and with the quizzes
00:03:47.340and the essays and the this and the that and the social dynamic and the puberty and all of these
00:03:52.800things sort of can ramp them up into some very, very stressful situations in which if their head's
00:04:04.140not right, the rest of them can't do the job that they need to do, including focusing on any academic
00:04:14.160task at hand. Now, I do not think that we all of a sudden you feel a little bit of stress and you
00:04:21.480just get to call it a day. Please understand, I do not mean that. But there is a balance,
00:04:28.740guys. And I think it's time we really tried to reach it between my generation or generations
00:04:35.260not too long ago, where we say, nobody cares, get on with it, nobody's going to care in the real
00:04:41.040world, blah, blah, blah, deal with it. And every bit of anxiety or feeling badly or is sort of
00:04:51.320debilitating and the world's going to pad you and never make you do anything. There are two options,
00:04:58.340right? But then there's a whole gray area in between that we don't spend any time really
00:05:06.540talking about it in a real way. So I can kind of see cracks in it, right? They're very,
00:05:16.300they did very well in my quiz, but they've amped themselves up. And so I know that they need a
00:05:22.280break. Now, when they need a break in history class, I do certain things. Now, lately, each
00:05:29.540class, this is kind of interesting, needs different outlets, right? And as a teacher,
00:05:36.060you try to figure out what does this class need? How does this class de-escalate those feelings?
00:05:46.180Some class, it's sports. Some class, it's trivia. Some class, it's, you know what this class is?
00:05:50.500I swear to God, guys, singing. The kids that are the quietest, the kids that are the most reserved,
00:05:58.020the kids that seemingly aren't necessarily have different coping mechanisms for that stress because they're relatively introverted.
00:06:07.500I let them sing, and we do it as a class, TV theme songs from like the 80s.
00:06:14.740And these kids are all in, smiling, reading lyrics, getting louder, wanting individual parts, laughing at each other, laughing at themselves.
00:06:28.020and I see such beauty in that, and when people talk about mental health and education,
00:06:38.520we need, as teachers and as a public, because God knows, you know, I post stuff like that on
00:06:44.020that lovely little X app, and people are like, this is my money going to this,
00:06:50.100private education, what a crock, blah, blah, blah, and all I can think about is,
00:06:53.800oh my god are you guys so short-sighted so limited or just wanting to chirp me because
00:07:02.320you know you can't get your hair to look as cool as mine whereas you don't see the value
00:07:07.060in kids having fun and kids figuring out how to have fun in different classes with different
00:07:15.600teachers in different ways you want to know the beginning of mental health that's it the beginning
00:07:23.700of mental health is people understanding the breaks they need along the way. The beginning
00:07:30.540of mental health isn't waiting for a person to break and then trying to piece them back together
00:07:35.640with gorilla glue. The key to mental health is understanding how you mitigate life and the
00:07:44.880stress and the anxiety and the school of it and the family of it and the socialization of it,
00:07:50.320all of it. How can you walk through that together? And I believe that teachers and counselors and
00:08:01.400coaches and parents and all of us have a job to do when it comes to that. It's not to the negation
00:08:09.660of education, but I'll tell you one thing. I'll tell you one thing. Without those breaks,
00:08:17.040the education would fail. Without those moments of levity, without the idea that sometimes
00:08:25.180you can take a half hour out of a very, very serious day and your girlfriend broke up with
00:08:31.280you and your mom was mean to you and you missed the bus and sing a song and have a good time
00:08:37.940and see some sort of camaraderie about it. That's the beginning of mental health. And I'll tell you
00:08:44.280else if we all learn that earlier on maybe possibly we all wouldn't grow up to to internalize
00:08:53.080all of the crap that we do internalize in this world maybe we can start figuring out what
00:09:01.080mechanisms work for us i also think that you figure out as a group right there's a lot of0.79
00:09:11.240of aloneness in this world there's a lot of I have to do this I'm responsible for this I'm
00:09:16.280accountable for this where is the we will get through this we can laugh about this we can joke
00:09:26.100about this we can struggle through this together if you want to build a team of people isn't that
00:09:33.840how you do it if you want to build a bunch of individuals that never think they they like think
00:09:39.120they never need anybody else, all you're going to do is build broken individuals.
00:09:46.140People who think they don't need anybody else, but guess what we all do?
00:10:09.120But for the love of God, they're spending eight hours a day from, what, kindergarten to grade 12 at least in school.
00:10:19.280We talk about mental health, but we haven't started implementing what that looks like.
00:10:25.920And again, what I feel like the government's trying to do is talk to kids about bipolar and talk to kids about anxiety disorders and talk to kids.
00:10:39.120I, guys, listen, that's just, that's just definitions. That means nothing. That means
00:10:45.320nothing. Talking to kids on their level, in their time, in their space, about what they need, how
00:10:52.820they need it, how they can access it, who they can ask for help. That is everything. We're not doing
00:10:59.240that. Well, some people aren't doing that. And pushing all of that aside, how in God's green
00:11:06.680earth are we trying to carve out a balance between kids learning pythagorean theorem and establishing
00:11:13.560a strong healthy sense of self mental health awareness and balance and the understanding
00:11:21.560that your your teammates that your group that your class that the people that surround you
00:11:28.440matter. They matter and you matter to them. How do we ever teach boundaries? How do we ever teach
00:11:39.020young students how to stand up for themselves? Everybody's talking about bullying.
00:11:44.540But they're always talking about how to stop the bully from doing the bullying or even worse,
00:11:50.800how to punish the bully after they've done the bullying. Where are the big classes and the pushes
00:11:57.480about self-esteem, self-assuredness, confidence, mental health, asking for help, surrounding
00:12:05.940yourself by good people, encouraging this amazing group dynamic where you would never,
00:12:13.420ever, ever let your classmate fall. Where's that? Where the hell are those? Lessons.
00:12:22.160suspend the bully get rid of the look you can keep you can keep being punitive and you can
00:12:29.300keep being reactionary but if you want to create healthy children you can't wait till they break
00:12:36.700and by the way the bully's also broken because i promise you they were at home being bullied
00:12:41.780the day before so i watched these kids today sing fresh prince of bel-air
00:12:48.080and listen Will Smith incident aside it's a good song it's an excellent theme song
00:12:54.320I watch these kids let go and be kids and by the way I run one of the I think
00:13:02.640sort of highest expectation for a grade 7 history class well I know it's higher than any public
00:13:11.140school class just the way that I do it and and I know I expect a lot for them but I say to them
00:13:16.980I expect a lot because you are smart, you are capable, and you are in the position to be pushed
00:13:25.020and I should be able to expect more. Period. You're not children. You know how to handle yourself
00:13:32.960and you need to learn how to handle bigger and bigger things academically, socially, all of
00:13:40.100those things. However, however, working hard doesn't mean you never take a minute. It doesn't
00:13:49.140mean you never have fun. Working hard doesn't mean there's never a day where I put on my radio,
00:13:58.260hand out some lyrics, and we learn a song you've never heard of in your entire life,
00:14:03.880and you belt it out right now again not all classes this doesn't work for all classes
00:14:12.040i'm actually astounded how much these guys love to sing
00:14:16.280and by the way i also have international students in that class love it love it dead
00:14:22.360quiet other times belting out fresh principles listen you need to find what works for that class
00:14:28.760right and then you need to let them have it and have a good time with it so they know no matter
00:14:39.740how old they get no matter what they're going through there needs to be a time to let loose
00:14:44.360there needs to be a time to experience something different amidst stress and work and personal
00:14:53.420accountability. How the hell is that not our educational model? I just, well, I guess part
00:15:02.620of me understands why the public board and the government's not pushing for that, because that
00:15:06.560requires A, smaller class sizes, and B, more respect and acknowledgement of the job in which
00:15:14.300your faculty are doing rather than treating them like glorified babysitters. This is exactly how
00:15:22.960So our young adults start to feel two things, empowered to greatness, because we expect it of them.
00:15:34.140I expect them to do everything in their power to succeed in my room when I give them the tools to do so.
00:15:43.740and number two they need to know that having a balance of fun and having a balance of camaraderie
00:15:56.080and teamwork and being able to step back from that and understand it's just a history class
00:16:02.600and understand that not everything is is you know sort of a make or break moment
00:16:09.180that is the basis of mental health that's it but what have i seen recently in our culture
00:16:19.820you either push them all in meaning all academic all the time high expectation high drive never
00:16:27.860let down never let go never let them have a moments of rest bam bam bam bam bam or
00:16:33.880the opposite of, oh, it's my baby. I'm going to butter your toast for you. I'm going to
00:16:42.220make sure you're okay. Did you not do your assignment? I'll call in for you. Do you want
00:16:46.980a day off? Guys, folks, we're talking about 12 and 13-year-old kids. Capable, intelligent,
00:16:57.380powerful young adults. They're not adults. They're not children. We need to find a middle ground.
00:17:10.120It's hard. It is very, very hard. But I think that if you make everything clear enough,
00:17:20.040if you make those expectations that I spoke about crystal clear for both parents and students,
00:17:26.660they can respect them they might not always live up to them that's okay they might not be
00:17:33.800you know perfect in their acknowledgement of their responsibilities and taking them on and
00:17:39.660doing everything at a hundred okay that's okay but here's the bottom line
00:17:45.380when they don't they're gonna know it's something they chose not to do or not to carry
00:17:55.400And if it's something external, as life happens, they should also have the backup of their friends, teachers, and family to say, that's okay.
00:21:23.920Because if we are to hold them accountable for the mistakes they make, we need to make sure they understand they are not their mistakes forever.
00:21:37.800A mistake is something they did, not who they are.
00:21:43.040Isn't that at the foundation of mental health?
00:21:45.640how in the hell is that not the main tenant the main underpinning of education
00:21:52.920in general i don't care what you're teaching if you don't understand how to separate a kid's
00:21:59.700actions from who they are and and and do it in an articulate fashion when you can sit down with
00:22:06.200that kid or they're that kid and their parents or a classroom of kids you're not you're doing a bad
00:22:12.460job as a teacher. And PS, don't think that I've never made that mistake. I mean, being a baby
00:22:21.420teacher, everybody's so worried about the curriculum. Stop it, right? Curriculum and how
00:22:28.700long my tests are and all of this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We do it backwards. We should be
00:22:35.080worried about, how can I quickly, intelligently, correctly assess who the student is, what they
00:22:44.200need, how I can give it to them, and how I can convey my expectations to them clearly. And when
00:22:51.220they misstep, and they will misstep, and when they fly, they will lie. And when they try to get out
00:22:57.460or cheat on a test or do whatever the power of a teacher is essential to hold them accountable
00:23:09.140for the mistakes they made but don't make them ashamed for those mistakes being who they are
00:23:16.020i don't know i want to say it 1700 times because i think it's so incredibly important and that's
00:23:22.500why it's so incredibly important to give kids breaks in classes especially classes
00:23:27.140they don't like and they're not good at make them feel strong and brave and have a good time in a
00:23:33.860math class for the love of god and then sit right back with them and start doing a right angle
00:23:40.420triangle and figuring out you know what is it the sine and cosine of it all
00:23:49.780teachers need to figure out how to tap into something that a kid feels great about
00:23:57.140And how to make sure that that kid can still feel great, even when they're doing a hard thing, even when they might fail doing that hard thing.
00:24:06.440If we weren't a society that only judged kids by how great they do, if we were a society that started judging kids or started taking into account how hard they busted their butt to get to a 65,0.80
00:24:21.240five? They had to take the class three times to get it and then they did? How in the hell are we
00:24:30.560not a society that starts recognizing that, celebrating that, putting that on a freaking0.99
00:24:37.800banner? I'm not talking about giving out participation medals, guys. I'm talking about0.77
00:24:44.100teaching kids that struggle, that adversity, that facing difficult things and doing difficult
00:24:52.480things that you aren't good at is your superpower. You're not good at math? Cool. Who is? Let's sit
00:25:03.960down and suck at it until we don't suck at it anymore. How about that? How about we build an1.00
00:25:09.280education system of that. So when a kid gets out of school, they're not so narrowly focused. They
00:25:15.660can only do one job. So they actually have a level of transferable skills and they're not scared to
00:25:21.280try something new. They're not scared to step into a different work or line of work or a different
00:25:27.260room with different people. Why? Because they have an inner confidence that says, no matter how hard
00:25:33.120it sucks or how hard I can't, how, how much I can't understand or accomplish. It doesn't mean
00:25:39.760I'm done. It doesn't mean I'm out. It just means I need to work harder and I need to find a line
00:25:44.320through, but I'm not dropping the class. I'm not quitting the job. I'm not leaving that space.
00:25:51.500How are we not doing that? And I get frustrated because I know it's not happening in schools.
00:26:28.520not give these kids an understanding about how quickly life's going to change
00:26:35.080and whatever they're learning today, they've got to learn something new tomorrow.
00:26:39.320The rate of change is incrementally faster than ever before.
00:26:48.120It's not enough to teach kids how to memorize the plan for today.
00:26:51.660We have to be able to inspire kids and show them how when something new arises that is hard and difficult and you don't understand it, give it a minute.