Unpacking the Invisible Backpack: A Deep Dive into Student Experiences
Summary
This podcast episode elucidates the pressing matter of the "invisible backpack," a metaphorical representation of the myriad burdens that students, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, carry with them into educational settings. We engage in a profound discourse surrounding the imperative for educators to acknowledge these challenges, which include experiences of trauma, discrimination, and socio-economic disparities. The conversation emphasizes the necessity for educators to cultivate environments characterized by open doors and an unwavering commitment to the dignity as a birthright of every student, thereby fostering a climate conducive to learning and growth. As we navigate the complexities of the upcoming academic year, we stress the importance of being attentive to the evolving realities that our students will face, encouraging educators to confront their own mental models and biases in order to better serve their communities. Ultimately, this episode serves as a clarion call for educators to embrace their roles as advocates for equity and humanity in the learning environment.
Additional Notes
The third episode of season ten of the Wheelhouse podcast serves as a profound exploration of the responsibilities that educators bear in fostering an inclusive and equitable learning environment. Our conversation, led by a diverse team of educators including Kathy Mohney, Michael Pipa, Dr. Alicia Monroe, and Dr. Grant Chandler, delves into the concept of the 'invisible backpack,' which encapsulates the unseen obstacles that many students face, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds. We reflect on the systemic challenges and emotional burdens that disproportionately affect students of color, those with LGBTQIA identities, students who live in poverty, and individuals with disabilities, to name only a few, all of which hinder their ability to thrive in educational settings. The episode serves as a clarion call for educators to recognize and address these disparities actively.
Throughout the episode, we engage in a thoughtful dialogue that emphasizes the necessity of empathy and understanding in educational practices. By sharing a poignant narrative about a high school student grappling with the ramifications of a parent's deportation, we illuminate the urgent need for educators to be attuned to the personal struggles of their students. This narrative exemplifies the critical importance of developing meaningful relationships with students, as it is through these connections that educators can provide the support necessary for students to overcome their challenges. We argue that creating 'open doors' in education is essential for nurturing a sense of belonging and ensuring that every student sees their potential reflected in the educational experience.
As we conclude our discussion, we reaffirm our commitment to prioritizing the dignity and humanity of each student. The episode serves as a reminder that our work as educators extends far beyond curriculum delivery; it is about empowering students to envision and pursue their aspirations amidst adversity. We encourage our listeners to reflect on their own practices and the systemic structures that may hinder student success, urging a collective effort to cultivate an educational landscape that celebrates diversity and promotes equity. Ultimately, we invite our audience to join us in this vital conversation, as we strive to ensure that every student knows they are distinctive and irreplaceable, deserving of love, respect, and infinite possibilities.
Takeaways:
- The podcast emphasizes the necessity of recognizing the diverse experiences of marginalized students, thus promoting an inclusive educational environment.
- Educators are urged to respond empathetically to students' individual circumstances, especially in light of increasing societal challenges in the coming years.
- The discussion highlights the importance of powerful student care, advocating for dignity and humanity in educational practices to foster student growth.
- Listeners are reminded that the emotional well-being of both students and educators is paramount, requiring ongoing reflection and community support in the teaching profession.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
It's episode three of season ten.
Speaker A:So what's this invisible backpack?
Speaker A:Find out.
Speaker A:A new episode of the Wheelhouse begins right now.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to give us a listen.
Speaker A:So season 10 features a team of four like minded friends and colleagues.
Speaker A:Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, Dr. Alicia Monroe, and yours truly.
Speaker A:We've opened the conversation this season to think about empowering educators to cultivate open doors and unlimited possibilities for each student.
Speaker A:For many students, especially students of color, students who live in poverty, students who.
Speaker A:Students with IEPs, students who identify as LGBTQIA, neurodivergent students, and many others, we've just named a few for these students.
Speaker A:There was a long history of these students being pushed aside, marginalized, erased, continuously faced with doors slammed shut.
Speaker A: also need to be ready that in: Speaker A:For some of our students, the attacks on humanity and dignity are the antithesis to distinctive and irreplaceable.
Speaker A:How do we move toward open doors in light of what our students will experience in the coming year, in addition to all they've endured before?
Speaker A:It's about the love of who we serve, the human spirit.
Speaker A:What does it mean for educators to be mindful of the need and be ready to respond?
Speaker A:How does surfacing and interrogating our own mental models prepare us for the year ahead?
Speaker A:This episode, thanks to Dr. Munro, is full of mic drops.
Speaker A:And keep in mind at the end of the day that what we do for some children is even bigger than cultivating hope or killing dreams.
Speaker A:It's a matter of life and death.
Speaker A:This was an amazing conversation.
Speaker A:There were so many intriguing ideas that were brought to the space.
Speaker A:I hope you'll listen to the entire episode to hear the details together.
Speaker A:Let's ensure open doors and unlimited possibilities for each and every student.
Speaker A:And now, episode three and a great conversation with my amazing friends and colleagues, Cathy Mone, Michael Pipa and Dr. Alicia Munro.
Speaker A:You're not going to want to miss this.
Speaker A:Take a listen.
Speaker A:Good morning.
Speaker A:Welcome to the Wheelhouse.
Speaker A:This is episode three and this week the entire team is together in the recording studio.
Speaker A:I'm so excited.
Speaker A:So good morning, Kathy Mone, Michael Piper and Alicia Monroe.
Speaker B:Good morning.
Speaker A:Good morning.
Speaker A:That was almost even in unison.
Speaker B:Oh, my favorite humans, all in one space.
Speaker C:This is so fantastic.
Speaker A:I am super excited to have you all together in a space is what I look forward to every week.
Speaker A:I know I say that every week, but I mean it every week.
Speaker A:There's something that happens emotionally in my being when I turn on this recording studio and there are four beautiful, well, three beautiful faces looking back.
Speaker A:I absolutely love it.
Speaker A:So welcome, welcome.
Speaker A:Welcome back to the wheelhouse.
Speaker D:It's like a little quadrant of joy.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker C:That's a nice way of putting it.
Speaker A:That is a nice way of putting it.
Speaker A:I think that is a social media post.
Speaker A:A quadrant of joy.
Speaker B:Let me write that down.
Speaker A:Our executive director of publications is now writing that down.
Speaker A:That will show up somewhere.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So first, I want to compliment you all on episode two, your candor.
Speaker A:It's one thing to talk about the issues.
Speaker A:It's another thing when those issues become personal.
Speaker A:And your willingness to go there and to talk about that, I really appreciate.
Speaker A:And I think our listeners did, too.
Speaker A:I think there's a lot of.
Speaker A:There's a lot that can be learned, a lot can be said and a lot that we can think about when we think about A Tale of Two Stories.
Speaker A:And we're going to follow up with that today.
Speaker A:You know, I heard a story this weekend that just.
Speaker A:I can't let it go.
Speaker A:You know, we hear those a lot.
Speaker A:Can't let it go.
Speaker A:And I think it's just a natural segue and a natural.
Speaker A:Next question to the conversation that we were having.
Speaker A:And the story's not, it's not unique by any means.
Speaker A:It's a story of a high school student in a tiny, little, small town somewhere in the mysterious Midwest who's taken summer school classes online and who's disengaged and whose teacher kind of follows up and says, hey, this only lasts three weeks.
Speaker A:Where are you?
Speaker A:What are you doing?
Speaker A:What's going on?
Speaker A:And he talked about the fact that his father had just been deported and that his mother is, you know, trying, trying to work two jobs because there's an income that they have to replace in order to survive.
Speaker A:And he was just lost.
Speaker A:He was just lost.
Speaker A:And that pain, I think, is, it is.
Speaker A:It is not unique to certain children.
Speaker A:Many of our children come to school with all sorts of experiences of marginalization, trauma, being pushed aside, having the open door closed in their face, if you remember last week's episode.
Speaker A: o want us to be aware that in: Speaker A:Will have an additional layer.
Speaker A:Some of the pain will be the same that it has always been.
Speaker A:And we need to recognize that pain and we need to respond to that pain.
Speaker A:Some of it Will be.
Speaker A:Will have additional layers.
Speaker A:It'll look more complex than it looked before.
Speaker A:But we gotta be ready for that as educators.
Speaker A:If we're gonna think about open doors and unlimited possibilities, we gotta be ready to respond.
Speaker A:We gotta be ready to be there, to be there for all of our children, whatever they're experiencing.
Speaker A:And I think that for me is the takeaway from the story that I heard on Sunday.
Speaker A:And I wanted to share and I wanted us all to talk about that.
Speaker A:So I throw this big idea out there into the space and say, talk to me, my beautiful, smart, amazing friends.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:So before we jump in, as we discuss moving from agency to self efficacy to self authorship, Mass last week, and we did actually stumble upon a tale of two stories.
Speaker A:Stumbled is a great word.
Speaker C:I sat in some self reflection as we have to walk this stuff out ourselves to become great leaders.
Speaker C:And I wanted to share with our listeners that this sense of passion and advocacy and justice could come from two sides of the spectrum.
Speaker C:One, from someone who is persecuted, who sits in oppression, who is determined to beat the odds and overcome the perspectives and perceptions of their potential, and another who sits in a sense of.
Speaker C:Of privilege that is inherited, that has chosen to use their privilege for the benefit of others.
Speaker C:And that that heart and that spirit for the work could come from two very different stories and lived experiences.
Speaker C:Nevertheless, that shared commitment, common vision and meaning for community, for growth, for potential, for success for all, not just singling out a chosen few for all, could be a communal thought.
Speaker C:So I just wanted to bring that out because it was so powerful last session that you have two brilliant educators sitting in the same space for justice and for advocacy.
Speaker C:And it's about the love, right?
Speaker C:The love of who we serve, the humans that we touch every day.
Speaker C:And we had two very different diametrically opposed experiences in the public education system in this country.
Speaker C:So I wanted to lift that up as we really tap on the circumstances that we're going to wrap ourselves earnestly around today and then kind of set the tone, Grant, as you place that layer down to see where this discussion goes.
Speaker A:It's all about the love.
Speaker A:Alicia is our mic dropper.
Speaker C:I'll take that.
Speaker C:I'll take that.
Speaker A:She brings the one liners that like her.
Speaker C:Bam.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker D:That is just such a beautiful frame for what the conversation last week represented.
Speaker D:It, it.
Speaker D:It's such a beautiful frame of, you know, the.
Speaker D:On the one hand, oppression experienced versus oppression witnessed there, there's a world of difference between the two.
Speaker D:But the fact that each of us are of the family of humans who believe that we are connected at the heart of everything and that your well being is my well being.
Speaker D:That is your orientation, Dr. Monroe, and it is mine.
Speaker D:And no difference can.
Speaker D:Can cloud that.
Speaker D:I. I just love that frame that you established brilliantly.
Speaker D:Thank you for that.
Speaker B:Really, that understanding of how do we create those spaces in which each of our students can be vulnerable, can share, can say to the summer school teacher, here's why.
Speaker B:Here's why I'm not connected right now.
Speaker B:My dad is gone.
Speaker B:He's been taken away and feel like I can say that.
Speaker B:And that's a significant difference in how we show up and create those spaces for students.
Speaker B:And so when we are truly walking and talking these words of ensuring that every student believes and understands that they are distinctive and irreplaceable, what does it mean to create those spaces?
Speaker B:How do we show up as educators in a way that allows that?
Speaker D:Grant, your story is particularly familiar to me.
Speaker D:Over the last six years, I've had the privilege of working with teachers new to the profession in the TESOL discipline.
Speaker D:And they're serving students who are learning English.
Speaker D:And those students are coming from sometimes multiple other languages.
Speaker D:And they represent, you know, as we live in this current context, a uniquely vulnerable demographic in our schools.
Speaker D:And they're under threat in so many ways.
Speaker D:And I'm watching the extraordinary moves these educators have been making over the last six years.
Speaker D:And as this continues to escalate, the question again keeps presenting itself.
Speaker D:What?
Speaker D:What else?
Speaker D:And what more can we do on behalf of ours who are under threat?
Speaker D:I think about how exhausted teachers in general feel by the demands of a profession that has never stopped asking more, how impossible their jobs feel.
Speaker D:And I remember the impact I felt reading powerful student care for the first time and the authority that, you know, I kind of rose up in me again as an educator, why have I repeatedly insisted on the primacy of humanity?
Speaker D:But Powerful student care makes such a comprehensive argument.
Speaker D:It's an airtight case why we prioritize humanity so that we don't miss the opportunities that often announce themselves.
Speaker D:And in the story that the teacher your friend told to you, the opportunity of a student's disengagement, the opportunity of a student's silence and absence.
Speaker D:She didn't miss it.
Speaker D:Not this time.
Speaker D:And powerful student care tells us again and again how we can begin to see those opportunities.
Speaker D:What are the tenets and practices that allow us to see better so we can take better advantage of all the madness, of all the chaos of the demands?
Speaker D:I feel like the gift it gives me, as an educator, is the argument, the airtight case for why I start here, why this is the most important thing, why from this, all things become possible, and without it, little is possible.
Speaker D:So as teachers contemplate another year, I feel like the hope and the promise of this approach is timeless.
Speaker D:It's essential.
Speaker D:And that's what I'm reminded of when I think about how do we do things differently?
Speaker A:Interesting.
Speaker A:That student was expecting my relative.
Speaker A:He was expecting the teacher to want to talk about getting him back on track.
Speaker A:And she's like, wait a minute.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:She goes, I just want to make sure you're okay.
Speaker A:What is it that your family needs at this moment?
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:This is a unique, acute episode in your life.
Speaker A:And what is it that.
Speaker A:How can we help?
Speaker A:How can we help?
Speaker A:And we know that there are examples all over the country.
Speaker A:Some of them have hit the news of educators doing amazing things, just amazing things for children who are at the receiving end of the lack of humanity.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I think this episode, I just wanted to call our attention to the fact that we got to be.
Speaker A:We're going to have to.
Speaker A:We need to be eyes open, ears open, and be looking and listening, because there are going to be a lot of children who continue to experience things that we don't want them to experience, and then some even having an additional layer of that.
Speaker A:Alicia, you look like you want to say something.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Because when I.
Speaker C:And thank you for acknowledging that.
Speaker C:When I think about psc, well, powerful student care, I think about dignity.
Speaker C:And then I relate that tenet of dignity.
Speaker C:And, you know, we dig deep with that.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Because Grant and I sit there and literally unpack and.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And whittle away at dignity.
Speaker C:Dignity is such a powerful term.
Speaker C:It speaks about what I always uplift in the space.
Speaker C:Mattering that student mattered to that teacher.
Speaker C:Mattering means I could see.
Speaker C:I could see inside.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:I could.
Speaker C:I. I don't only see the knapsack that you physically carry, but.
Speaker C:And my research is really invested in the invisible knapsack right At Spoonie G has a graphic, and I want to give credit where credit is due.
Speaker C:It's just because I carry it well doesn't mean it's not heavy.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Just because I carry it well doesn't mean it's not heavy.
Speaker C:Folks are carrying stuff.
Speaker C:Stuff that we see and stuff that's even heavier that we don't see.
Speaker C:Michael, that comes to your point around relationship.
Speaker C:I don't have relationship with you.
Speaker C:If that teacher didn't have relationship with that student just to Notice something different.
Speaker C:Could you imagine how that student starts to disintegrate and decline over a period of time?
Speaker C:Then what becomes of that student's life trajectory and understanding of their own personal potential and achievement?
Speaker C:It's real, folks.
Speaker C:This is the power that educators hold in their hand.
Speaker C:Either we could cultivate hope or we could kill dreams.
Speaker C:It is what it is.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So I am so glad that we're really hitting on a real life recent scenario that builds on the current conditions of our society today.
Speaker C:Because, yes, Michael, we're going to see it more and more as teacher prep for induction day.
Speaker C:And we.
Speaker C:We start to shine the.
Speaker C:The.
Speaker C:The smart boards and.
Speaker C:And we take off the glisten of the plastic around the number two pencils.
Speaker C:Whatever.
Speaker C:We're.
Speaker C:The real stories are getting ready to hit the door, folks.
Speaker C:So be fired up and ready to go because it's a very different state than it was last year and the years before.
Speaker C:We have to be armed with dignity.
Speaker C:We have to be armed with hope.
Speaker C:We have to be armed with love.
Speaker C:We have to be armed with all of these things that once didn't seem sit in the forefront of our profession.
Speaker C:It's ever present now.
Speaker D:And armed with that practice and commitment to surfacing our own mental models as we began the work.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:That's real.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because the student that Grant talked about, this is a high school student.
Speaker B:So his experiences have obviously been very different because his teachers coming from this space of care, and he's like, whoa, I don't know what that is.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So how many experiences has he had before now?
Speaker B:This teacher is saying, I see you.
Speaker B:I'm worried about you as a human.
Speaker B:So how do we ensure.
Speaker B:What does that look like even within that exhaustion, Michael?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:We're all exhausted.
Speaker B:Yeah, we are.
Speaker B:This is hard.
Speaker B:It's gonna be hard.
Speaker A:So is that student.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:You cannot set aside that human factor.
Speaker B:Just be like, I'm tired.
Speaker B:So what?
Speaker B:Like, I just.
Speaker B:Like, I just have to say that, like, we're all tired.
Speaker B:Like, this is a student, a child.
Speaker B:And as Grant often reminds us, like a matter of life or death.
Speaker B:Death.
Speaker B:Like, we have the responsibility to treat them with dignity and respect.
Speaker B:And how.
Speaker B:How dare we have this young man make it to.
Speaker B:To high school before he's experiencing an educator that is showing up saying, I just care about you.
Speaker B:I just need to know what you.
Speaker B:What you need like that.
Speaker B:Why is that difficult?
Speaker A:And dignity is a birthright.
Speaker A:Other things are becoming questionable about whether they're a birthright or not.
Speaker A:But dignity is a birthright and as you were talking, Kathy and you were talking about, so what?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Hey, we're all tired.
Speaker A:But so what Geoffrey Benson said in one of his books when he was talking about really supporting children whose lives are very difficult and who present very difficult situations in their classrooms, he's like, hey, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, no matter how tired I am and how frustrated I am, I go home where there's food, the bills are paid, it's safe, and I have a place where I can rest and get ready for another day.
Speaker A:Not everybody has that ability to do that.
Speaker A:So I need to remind myself how fortunate I am, right?
Speaker A:And I think that's a really interesting, really interesting way to respond to, you know, so, hey, we get tired.
Speaker A:This is hard work, right?
Speaker A:This is hard, hard work.
Speaker A:It is very difficult.
Speaker A:It is very difficult to care that deeply about each of your students, right?
Speaker A:As my friend Diane would say, you open yourself up to feeling emotions that you don't always want to feel as you are interacting in the lives of children.
Speaker A:Hey, that's what we do.
Speaker A:That's what we signed up for.
Speaker D:And I think there'd be little dispute about that, especially among our instructional listeners.
Speaker D:I think what can be disorienting, especially for the newest among us to the profession, is which of the priorities am I supposed to value most?
Speaker D:And I have a lot of voices chirping at me, and some of them hire me, some of them evaluate me.
Speaker D:And so which thing do I prioritize?
Speaker D:And that is the cognitive, the psychic load that our practitioners carry every single day.
Speaker D:And one of the most powerful moves we make as educators is take back that authority and to say, I'm a human being.
Speaker D:I've earned my.
Speaker D:My, My moment here to continue to trust my judgment or not.
Speaker D:And my judgment tells me that I'm going to prioritize this way.
Speaker D:And when we do, we recover our energy and we take it back, and we can refocus and leverage what we bring every single day and the ways in which we show up so that the best thing gets served and the nonsense gets cleared away.
Speaker D:That's how we un.
Speaker D:Exhaust ourselves.
Speaker A:And we can humanize our classrooms and teach at the same time.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's not one or the other.
Speaker A:It isn't siloed.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's how we live into what we do so we can humanize and teach, we can humanize and foster growth.
Speaker A:We can humanize and open doors and.
Speaker A:And cultivate unlimited possibilities all at the same time.
Speaker C:So, Michael, it could Be chirping or roaring.
Speaker C:It depends on what kind of situation you're in.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:I've been in both.
Speaker C:I was hoping for a chirp and I got a roar.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And that dictates the ecosystem that we are made to coexist in as we are trying to do this hard work.
Speaker C:But nonetheless, when I thought about the circumstances of the young student that we're talking about today, I always go back and I say, well, how do we activate Maslow's hierarchy of needs and theory of human motivation?
Speaker C:How do we take that 2D flat graphic and we make it 4D live?
Speaker C:Clearly that student is not coming into the classroom ready to self actualize.
Speaker C:All right?
Speaker C:They're not coming in at the top, that wonderful student that, that we love and adore.
Speaker C:Somewhere between esteem and safety there, there was a hit, a hit to the structure.
Speaker C:A hit, a hit to that comfort zone.
Speaker C:A hit, a hit to that tear.
Speaker C:Do we know that student enough to understand that they're not ready to self actualize, dize.
Speaker C:They're not ready for that pre class.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Going through the motions and giving high fives at the door has to translate into human connections and understandings in the classroom.
Speaker C:Thank goodness that teacher knew enough to say.
Speaker C:I'm not looking at your academic performance today or your benchmark, how far you've gotten from day one of summer school to now.
Speaker C:I want to know how are you doing today?
Speaker C:Are you well?
Speaker C:What's going on?
Speaker D:What does your family need?
Speaker D:Yeah, right.
Speaker C:What's that?
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:The basic physiological needs.
Speaker C:Right, Michael, Right there.
Speaker C:Shelter, food, clean water.
Speaker D:Safety.
Speaker C:Safety.
Speaker C:We could go on esteem.
Speaker C:Can you imagine?
Speaker C:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker C:So every, every time we make.
Speaker C:We as educators are not at the top of the tiers ourselves every day because we're human.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:We're not ready to engage every day.
Speaker C:We can't have these out of body experiences because we don't mask it well.
Speaker C:Because humans, we're not made to mask.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:We're made to be our authentic selves.
Speaker C:I just wanted to talk about because Michael, you prompted me right after Kathy with the so what?
Speaker C:And Kathy said so what?
Speaker C:I was, I always say, and right.
Speaker C:So what?
Speaker C:And right just prompted me to raise.
Speaker B:That thought because I think that that then as educators, what does that look like?
Speaker B:Who's supporting us?
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:There are layers of that and I think Grant reminding us that it's not one without the other.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:We can't do it alone.
Speaker B:Not one single person can.
Speaker B:And so what does that look like as the layers of education?
Speaker B:And how are leaders supporting?
Speaker B:What does that look like for a leader to say, we're human, you're human, and I'm recognizing my teachers.
Speaker B:And something's off.
Speaker B:Something's off with Alicia today.
Speaker B:I need to figure that out.
Speaker B:How could I help her?
Speaker B:Because she has to show up and help our students.
Speaker B:So we have to make sure.
Speaker B:And when I say, so what it means.
Speaker B:Okay, how are we layering that for that support?
Speaker B:It doesn't mean, like, kick them to the curb because it's like they're exhausted.
Speaker B:So what, you're done.
Speaker B:But how are we supporting.
Speaker B:What does that look like?
Speaker B:And nobody walking this walk alone.
Speaker D:How do we continue to show up for our colleagues when we know that this is how they're needing to support their kids?
Speaker D:And what are they going to need in order to continue to be there, to be present, to.
Speaker D:To.
Speaker D:To give that.
Speaker D:That.
Speaker D:That child and that family as much as.
Speaker D:As we can possibly give them?
Speaker D:Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker B:Because the student is this student experience.
Speaker B:We're going to have staff that are having very similar experiences.
Speaker B:And so what does that look like to support the adults so that the adults can support the students to the level that they deserve?
Speaker D:It's simply not enough for only some of the members of the village to get it.
Speaker B:It's not.
Speaker A:So then that's a really interesting segue, because as you all were talking, I was thinking about, okay, so dignity is a birthright.
Speaker A:That's for each and every.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Each and every.
Speaker A:Each and every student.
Speaker A:We want them to believe that they're distinctive and irreplaceable.
Speaker A:Each and every adult, each and every educator.
Speaker A:Okay, that requires.
Speaker A:Because I'm thinking about a tale of two stories that requires that we.
Speaker A:Some of us.
Speaker A:Some of us are going to have to surface and interrogate some mental models, because we know that this world we're living in is very polarized, and we know that there are educators from a whole continuum of personal beliefs.
Speaker A:And this podcast is not intended to address politics, so we're not going to address politics, but we are going to address the human side.
Speaker A:So it really doesn't matter what any one of us thinks about immigration.
Speaker A:The student's dad was deported.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter whether we agree or disagree.
Speaker A:He doesn't have his dad.
Speaker A:That's what we have to remember.
Speaker A:This child has at least temporarily lost his father.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter whether we believe that transgendered students have the right to whatever.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter because they're still there.
Speaker A:We have them in our classrooms.
Speaker A:We have teachers in our buildings.
Speaker A:And so we have to.
Speaker A:We've got to be ready to address the dignity that all of those students are entitled to.
Speaker A:So that requires some mental models.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:That requires some mental models.
Speaker A:It doesn't really matter what I think about dead names and pronouns.
Speaker A:Doesn't really matter.
Speaker A:Who cares?
Speaker A:It doesn't matter.
Speaker A:What matters is what does that student think and experience?
Speaker A:Doesn't really matter what I think of students of color.
Speaker A:They're showing up every day anyway with a world that is important to them.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so they're there.
Speaker B:They're there.
Speaker A:Indignity is a birthright.
Speaker A:So if I've got issues, if I've got issues, I need to address the issue.
Speaker A:Because educators have tremendous power.
Speaker A:We've all talked about, and that is the power to do good.
Speaker A:That is also the power to harm.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:To kill dreams, to slam doors shut.
Speaker A:And so in this polarizing world that we live in today, and again, this isn't about politics.
Speaker A:This is about the lives of children who are in our classrooms every day.
Speaker A:That represents every aspect of humanity you could possibly imagine.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:And the question that we end up having to ask ourselves in whatever capacity we're serving, what's preventing me from seeing the dignity of this person?
Speaker C:And it's.
Speaker C:And it's usually the mental models.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So it's our.
Speaker C:It's our own worldviews, our lived experiences.
Speaker C:You know, I'm a research practitioner.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So if you're looking up the ladder of inference.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:In Ardres model.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:It's what we choose to keep and what we choose to dispose of.
Speaker C:And what are we keeping and why are we keeping it now?
Speaker C:Why is there a need for us to sit with the stuff that we kept?
Speaker C:That's the hardest part.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker C:And our beliefs are near and dear to us, so it's hard for us to get into that space.
Speaker D:Yep, yep.
Speaker D:And what happens, you know, I mean.
Speaker C:Michael, really, is it, is it, is it, is it worth it for us to get there?
Speaker C:We have to value the fact that we need to self reflect.
Speaker C:And what I call it is our stuff on our stuff on our stuff that offends that damages grant, that harms.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:That causes us to diminish others.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Why is that?
Speaker C:No, I don't sit in privilege.
Speaker C:I sit just like every other human.
Speaker C:And I have to sit with my stuff so that I don't other anymore, that I'm more community thinking and that I'm really looking out for other humans.
Speaker A:And sometimes mental Models are just under the surface and we don't even know we have them.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:We have to surface them and interrogate them and go, is this right?
Speaker A:Is this the mental model I want?
Speaker A:Kathy?
Speaker A:I'm sorry, I think I interrupted you.
Speaker B:No, no.
Speaker B:It's hard work.
Speaker B:It's hard and it's can be painful.
Speaker B:When we look in the mirror and we surface that and we really start to.
Speaker B:To see ourselves in the othering that we're doing.
Speaker B:What in realizing can be.
Speaker B:Can be painful, but it's good pain.
Speaker B:It's the pain that.
Speaker B:That we all need to go through and continue.
Speaker D:Pain.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And you know what?
Speaker C:When.
Speaker C:When you're in a class of people, in a group of people that have been marginalized and othered, we are unapologetic about the discomfort that you feel.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker C:It is because we've been made to feel uncomfortable all of our lives.
Speaker C:So join us exactly.
Speaker C:In the discomfort that you inflict through your mental models.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And shifting.
Speaker C:In shifting the power of your paradigm to realize that there are other humans in the space that matter and they need to be valued.
Speaker A:Mic drop.
Speaker B:Mic drop.
Speaker A:That's what I was like.
Speaker B:And she dropped the mic.
Speaker A:There she goes again, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker B:There she goes multiple times in one episode.
Speaker D:If the work is hard, you know, I'm not entitled to coddling when I go through the hard work.
Speaker C:You know, Mike, don't let me have to come off this screen and jump at you.
Speaker B:This is so what.
Speaker A:And I think.
Speaker A:And one of the things that we're really trying to do with the Wheelhouse is to create this community of like minded educators.
Speaker A:And this is hard work.
Speaker A:It's hard work.
Speaker A:And so, hey, interact with.
Speaker A:Let us help you.
Speaker A:If this is really hard for you to do or you just want to sit in a space with other people who approach humanity and dignity like you do, then the Wheelhouse company is absolutely where you want to be.
Speaker A:As this work gets harder and harder to do in an environment which is becoming increasingly polarized and is kind of the antithesis of distinctive and irreplaceable, then the Wheelhouse community is for you.
Speaker A:Join us in Substack and tell us what you need and how we can help.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And what you're doing.
Speaker A:And show us good examples of how you are cultivating humanity and open doors and unlimited possibilities.
Speaker A:So join us in substack.
Speaker A:If you want an even safer space, join us at the Wheelhouse forum in Learn harbor, which is a curated space where we can dive deeper and even have live conversations around this work.
Speaker A:We know that this is hard.
Speaker A:We know that what is being asked of us is to some degree unfair.
Speaker A:And to some degree, that's what we signed up for because our children need us to do this work that we will never arrive if all we focus on is the end of course assessments, reading, writing, and math.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:If they're not in the space that they're ready for that, then all of our efforts are in vain.
Speaker A:And it's not one or the other.
Speaker A:We can do all of that great work together.
Speaker A:So I invite you, I encourage you to join us in the Wheelhouse company.
Speaker A:We want to continue this conversation long after this podcast episode comes to an end.
Speaker D:I just, I. I'm so grateful that you're weaving it all together at the end of how this conversation is really meant to be inclusive and it needs everybody.
Speaker D:So I. I'm.
Speaker D:I'm so hopeful that people will begin to take advantage of all these entryways to participate in the conversation with.
Speaker D:But I'm so grateful to each of you this morning for just elevating this facet and that facet.
Speaker D:It just feels like such an important and timely conversation.
Speaker C:As the Wheelhouse grows, it's lovely to see that we are courageous and brave enough as a collective to not only honor, but to unpack the many stories.
Speaker C:So we look forward to more.
Speaker C:We look forward to our listeners to join us, to give us some feedback, to tell us what they want to hear.
Speaker C:We want to hear their stories as well.
Speaker A:Thanks, Jane, for sharing that amazing story to that student.
Speaker A:I know you will not be listening to this podcast, but please know you are seen and heard, and you represent so many children's lives all over this nation.
Speaker A:Not just of children whose parents are immigrants, but of all sorts of folks who are marginalized and oppressed, who are not valued in ways that they need to be valued.
Speaker A:You represent them all today.
Speaker A:And again, you will never listen to this podcast, I'm sure, but please know you are seen and heard.
Speaker A:And that's a wrap of season 10, episode three of the Wheelhouse.
Speaker A:A special thank you to the team, Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro.
Speaker A:We're back in the studio next week and we can't wait to continue the conversation with you.
Speaker A: Chisholm, author of the ASCD: Speaker A:You are not going to want to miss hearing from this outstanding educator and just fantastic human we hope you'll join us next week in Episode four.
Speaker A:We also hope you'll join the Wheelhouse Company Are you a like minded educator who's committed to open doors and unlimited possibilities for each student?
Speaker A:Follow Students Matter LLC on Instagram or LinkedIn or any of the four of us who are also on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:Subscribe to the Wheelhouse Chronicle on Substack.
Speaker A:Michael's waiting to hear your comments and we're all excited to continue this conversation with you that's at the Wheelhouse or join the curated community the Wheelhouse Forum, only available at Students Matters very own Learn harbor that's available at learnharbor.thinkific.com the Wheelhouse is a production of Students Matter LLC.
Speaker A:Our show's theme music, Off We Go was written and performed by Cody Martin and obtained through soundstripe.com stop by our website and check out what we offer at www.ourstudentsmatter.org.
Speaker A:together, our goal is simply to prove to each student and to each teacher that they are both distinctive and irreplaceable.
Speaker A:Until next time.
Speaker A:Remember, we got.
