No. 80: The Current State of Urban Education - An Educators' Round Table. Part TWO of THREE. - Hand Me My Purse.

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hand Me My Purse is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
So I saw this and I saw it on Taraji
p Henson's Internet, and it's coming from an account that
I love to frequently check out called We the Urban
And this is on Instagram. And today I'm going to

(00:21):
read to you nine things that you need to hear today.
Let's get ready.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
One.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
You spent most of twenty twenty three in survival mode.
Let twenty twenty four be your year in revival mode.
It is possible to thrive while getting to where you're
meant to be.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Two.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Take your Vitamin D, go to therapy, prioritize hydration, make
a daily to do list, keep your space clean, meditate, journal, stretch,
Focus on what you can control, apply actions to intentions,
give yourself grace above all, love yourself. May you attract

(01:03):
a relationship. This is three where conversations feel like bridges,
not battlefields. Come on now now listen now, who baby,
Let me read that again. Number three is May you
attract a relationship where conversations feel like bridges and not battlefields.

(01:25):
Number four, You are good enough. Number five sending love
to everyone who experienced the worst of their mental health
this past year. I'm so proud of us for doing
our bests to be Okay, the journey hasn't been perfect,
but we made it and we will continue to. If

(01:46):
you want it to last, take your time. Remember you
are still healing. Give yourself grace. Keep doing the things
you found to be helpful and find peace and knowing
this this won't last forever. Keep pushing your progress is

(02:07):
your power. And lastly, remember you are still healing. Give
yourself grace.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
I can't see the bat that have it.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Okay, what's up, y'all? Welcome to Hand Me my Purse
the Podcast. I am Mimi Walker, and I will be
your forever host each and every single time you turn
into this podcast. So go ahead and get comfortable. Get
yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, whether that is
alkaline water, some red kool aid, a hot cup of

(03:01):
tea with honey or Hennessy. Go light yourself a candle,
some incense, or burn yourself some sage, and just get
ready to chill out.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
And have a good time.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
What's up, friends, and ken, it's Memi, Resident Auntie Supreme,
here at Hand Me my Purse the Podcast, and today
I am sipping on.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Beat juice.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Okay, And I know you're probably thinking, like, say here,
but beat juice is really really delicious. I enjoy beat juice,
and I think I like it because it has a
really earthy but sweet taste. The funny thing is that
I'm not a big fan of beats. I will eat

(04:03):
beets in a salad if they're shredded, and I will
drink beat juice. My grandmother, May she peacefully rest and
always be in my heart and in my spirit. She
loved pickled beets, and I used to look at her like,
why would you want to eat that? But I love

(04:24):
beat juice. Be juice is good for you. Why I
told you I like a lot of not that delicious
tasting beverages because I feel like undelicious tasting beverages are
really healthy and good for you. And beat us has
lots of benefits, such as it can help to lower
your blood pressure. It may help to reduce your LDL

(04:45):
or the bad cholesterol that you may or may not have.
It can improve your exercise stamina. That's good to know,
because maybe I'll try that. Because they sell bet juice
at my gym. Maybe I'll drink beat juice instead of
the other energy drink that I drink before I workout.
That's like fucking crack. And I mean it's great. It's

(05:08):
good stuff. It may improve your muscle strength for people
with heart failure. It can help you maintain a healthy weight.
If that's the case, I need to get an iv
with it. And it can help prevent or reduce fatty
deposits from forming in your liver. And it is an
excellent source of potassium and essential minerals like iron and manganese. Right,

(05:36):
what is manganese? But anyway, Another thing I read, though,
is that you should not drink beet juice every single day.
I did read that. Am I a doctor, Absolutely not,
But I do be knowing a little stuff about health,
And I don't care if I am fat. Just because
you're skinny don't mean you know a lot about health.
It just means that you know you're skinny.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
That's all. Where you're thin.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
And just because you're fat doesn't mean that you don't
know things about good nutrition health.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Just meet your fat. That's it.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
I did read that you should not drink it every day.
I cannot remember why it said so, but I do.
I did make a note to say it says that
you should not drink it every single day. What I
am gonna do, though, is the next time I go
to the gym, instead of drinking my energy drink that
I will not name here because nobody's saying me to,
I don't give a shit Celsius.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
It's like crack. I love it.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Me and my friend Susie shout out to my friend Susie,
what up shut? We are accountability partners for the gym,
and we always talk about how we drink Celsius and
we love it and how it's cracked and how it
interrupts our sleep pattern for the evening even if we
drink it early in the day. So I'm gonna try
Beat juice and see if that helps me. I do

(06:49):
not think it's going to be the same as Celsius.
But maybe I'll buy like the powdered Celsius and put
a little bit in the Beat juice. I wonder what
that would do that may help, and not put the
whole pack. I just put like half. That might be
a thing. I'm gonna try it, and I'll let you
guys know when I try. It might not be this week,
but I'm gonna try it. I want to see what happens.

(07:11):
All right, all right, go ahead and get you some beaches,
but don't drink it every day. Also, do your own research.
Don't believe everything I say because I'm not a doctor.
Don't be silly. So friends in Ken for today's jam,
I went with a classic.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
This song.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
The album that It's on came out in nineteen ninety one,
and it was released. The album released was released, but Sorry.
The album was released on September third, nineteen ninety one.
What was I doing on September third of nineteen ninety one.
I don't know, But I was in the sixth grade.
I think I'm lying.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
I was not.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
I was in the seventh grade. So I was about
to start seventh grade in ninety one. Yep, I was
about to start seventh grade here in Baltimore at a school.
That's enough information. Anyway, I was about to start seventh grade.
And so I was a big fan of Queen Latifa

(08:16):
because I love hip hop. I've always loved hip hop.
My mother loved hip hop and rap. We loved music.
We listened to music together. And I loved Queen Latifa
because she just always looks so regal. She always wore
those weird hats on her head, and I was like,
this lady must be an African queen from New Jersey
or something, because she always has on these wild head pieces.

(08:38):
But anyway, the song is called Latifa's Had It Up
to Here and it is on her album Nature of
a Sista. Okay, Sista with a A. I love when white
people will try to say that and they're like trying
to be very intentional about saying it in a hip
incorrect way. So they say sista and it's like, it's

(08:59):
not that heavy, just say sister.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
It's just nature of a Sister.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
But anyway, the album's called Nature of a Sista. The
song is the very first song on the album Latifa's
Had It Up to Hear. It's dope at song. The
hook says give it to him, Queen. Yeah, yeah, give
it to him, Queen. I got it. But anyway, the
song was actually written and produced in addition to Dana Owens,

(09:26):
who was Queen Latifa. It was written and produced. It
was produced by Naughty by Nature and written by Naughty
by Nature with Queen Latifa. So I'm not going to
do a lot of talking about it. Listen to it.
I hope you like it. Of course, in the show notes,
we're going to have the link so that you can

(09:47):
watch the video, and the link is for the actual
video that came out. I want you guys to look
at her hair because my hair was like that at
one point too. Shout out to asymmetrical haircuts. So let's
go ahead and listen to the song right now, and
uh then after you listen to the song, we're gonna
go ahead and get right into part two of uh

(10:11):
the educators around table. So let'sten go ahead and listen
and then get ready to get this party stored. Checks
over hip hop. Pot You not your clock? This is
my spot and I've got the pots. How do why
you little play out shoe?

Speaker 3 (10:31):
I'm allergic to.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Wake So the Pope, the park, the Queen is so
bro what salt that you're never seen before?

Speaker 1 (10:38):
How dam does he talk? We can't have them? So
make me want to go up with the bat and
the magna. Yeah okay, So for the next part of

(11:06):
our conversation with my friends here as I talk to
educators and we sit on this educator's round table, David
had to leave, so he is not here. But I
wanted to talk about how the educators are feeling. We
talked a lot in the first conversation about the state

(11:27):
of education, and you know, everyone has some solutions, and
we talked about, you know, what we feel like is
not really working. But I want to talk about like
how you guys feel. And you've already established that you
don't really feel supported by the parents, right, But how
do you feel Do you feel like you are supported
by the parents, by the district, by your administrators, by

(11:48):
your fellow educators, even at home, by your friends and
your family members. Do you feel like you are supported.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
I feel like I have have a strong support system
within my school. Some of that comes from administration. I
come to work every day, I work my butt off,
I toe the line, I do what I need to
do for kids, and I'm supported in that period. I
know that there's sometimes where teachers feel like, oh, administration

(12:19):
doesn't support me, but I don't think they've taken the
time to understand how administration can support you. And there's
sometimes where you leave your administrators with their hands tied
behind their back based on your actions as an educator. Right,
So there's that part. The other part of feeling supported
is I have a husband at home who I love,
and a door on most days, you know, some days

(12:40):
I come in there, I'm like, I get you know.
You know, he knows right, and he does not fully
understand what it's like to be on in front of
one hundred and twenty six hundred and eight hundred whatever
kids every single day, but he knows enough to listen
and nod his head and say what really in all

(13:04):
the right places. So I feel supported by him. But
I think the measure of support that I have that
keeps me at the top of my game and moving
through education like I do right now is because I
have sought out companions in this journey from fellow educators.

(13:24):
So I have educator friends that I draw on for
support inside of school. Outside of school, I have people
in the building that I can walk to and talk
to who will hold me accountable on my shit, who
will lift me up, and I do the same for them.

(13:46):
And I feel like part of the teacher turnover issue
throughout the nation is I think a lot of people
enter into education, specially post COVID, thinking about weekends off
and summer vacation and health insurance and are faced with
some of the things that Ebany mentioned you know kids
with mental health issues, and like David mentioned, you know

(14:07):
the battle between teachers and parents, and they walk away
because they don't have support, not necessarily from yes, not
the network, not necessarily the support from administration or the
support at home, but being able to rally together as
teachers and lift each other up, have someone to vent
to that actually understands what you may have gone through

(14:28):
to today. So I feel supportive. But some of that
support is not just what innately was here when I arrived.
You cultivated you have to cultivate it. I would say
that throughout the years collectively, I've been supported for the
most part. Often tell especially new teachers that if I

(14:54):
was just coming in and Nail, I don't know, I
can honestly say I don't know if I be able
to make it.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
I think it is some of that that grit that you,
that we we built for ourselves early on, is what
I feel have has led me to year twenty five.
I truly believe that teaching or whatever whatever it was

(15:22):
destined for you to do in life as a ministry,
and I did believe that teaching is one of is
a ministry for me and which is why even after
year five, I could not throw in the towel. I
could have. I could have before then said you know,
I'll forget it. But you definitely have to have a
passion for it because there are so many hats that
you wear. It's not just standing in front of this

(15:44):
class and teaching a lesson, a book lesson or content specific.
A lot of times we are that young lady's year
when we are that shoulder.

Speaker 5 (15:56):
We are the only.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Hug that some of these babies get when they come
to school. We are the only one that says I
love you on a daily basis. And I tell my
students every day when they leave out the room, I
love you, guys. I'll see you later, you know, make
good choices. I love you, you know. And I say
those things because I know for some of them they
don't hear it on a regular And to me, that's

(16:18):
what keeps me going. That's what I feel has gotten
me this far and this career of education is knowing
that the students need me. However, the flip side to
that is sometimes that the students need me sometimes can
get taken advantage of. Because people know your heart, they

(16:38):
know the passion you have and they know that you
will probably go to the end of the earth for
some of these students. Sometimes I feel like the career
as a whole district, not necessarily school school base, but
as a district. They know that, and so they'll test

(16:58):
it to see just how far you go before you
actually say, you know what, that's it. I'm not doing that,
You've gone too far. So I think that's where that passion,
that drive comes in as an educator, knowing that, yes,
you're here for the students, but you also to know
your worth and you have to also know when you

(17:19):
feel supported or even when you're not, and communicate. Communication
is so key because a lot of times people don't
know that they're not supporting you unless you say something, yes,
you know close. So that's something else I can say.
Maybe it's the veteran in me, but I listen to
people and they might complain, I'm like, I couldn't do that,

(17:42):
So I'm going to say what I have to say.
If you know, I'm going to speak my mind, not
why you want to take it, but I'm going to
say what I have to say, because you're not going
to do that to me, you know. And I think
sometimes I think sometimes that is where I think the
breakdown comes because the lack of communication. I'm not expressing

(18:02):
how I feel, don't know him.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
That's unless right.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Nobody's here to read anybody's minds. But that's in any
relationship like that's in a friendship. And your hairstylist, your nailtech,
your wife, your husband, whatever, your parents, your sisters, brothers.
You have to open your mouth because people cannot. Nobody
can read your mind. So if you're upset about something
that I did, you need to let me know because

(18:28):
there's a chance that I might do it again because
I did it and you didn't respond, and not that
I did it for you to respond, but I did it.
And if I didn't know that, it bothers you. And
if you're somebody that I here's the thing. If you're
somebody that I care about. Me and Brian deal with
this sometimes because we are pretty close. So if he
does something or if I do something that he doesn't like,
you know, we may be mad for you know, an

(18:49):
hour or two, and then I'll say to him, I
don't like when you did that. You know it upset
me and hurt my feelings.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Don't get kicked the face.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
And then he'll say or he'll say, you know, I'm
tired of you always saying this to me like that.
It ubsess me when you do it, and I have
to take account and take accountability. Brian, wh don't start.
I have to take accountability for what I am saying
or doing, because if I care about how he feels,
I don't want him to be upset. And I think
that even if it is a relationship where you're an

(19:22):
administrator or it's the district or it's the government, like,
if you care about the people who are doing the
work that you need that you need done, do you
care about their voice? Do you care about how they're feeling?
Then if I'm doing something and I'm upsetting you, and
I've come to you and I told you, hey, I
don't like it when you do that, it makes me
feel X. If you continue to do it, then personally,
and I know this is just me, I'm feeling like

(19:45):
you're saying.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Well fuck you.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Then I tell kids that too, Like I've asked you
to take your earrings off three times, you still don't
take them off. I feel like you're saying if you
miss me me, I don't care about what you say,
I'm gonna do what I want to do, So go
ahead and wear your earrings. But as a result, I'm
going to alter my relationship with you because I feel
like you don't care about how I feel. And people say, well,

(20:07):
you can't do that to kids, says who I have feelings.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
I have feelings too.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I hate when people say that that's a part of
social emotional wellness and learning and awareness. You can't keep
giving me or ask the kids and think that I
want to play with you no more because.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
I don't specifically now, because we're in middle school in
high school, like not so much with pre K, not
so much with pre K, but with middle school high school,
we can teach them that your actions affect people. Everything
you say and do has a ripple effect to the
people around you.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
And it'll affect you.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
Yeah, and when you show me this that you're not
going to take those earrings off, even though I've asked
you kindly, even though I've explained to you that it's
a school rule. I have to move differently around you
now because I know that for whatever reason, you're choosing
not to respect this rule, you're choosing not to respect
me or my authority.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, in my boundaries, but I want Heather to tell
us that she feels supported. All right, I'm sorry we
went off on adhd undiagnosed in.

Speaker 6 (21:10):
Perfectly, perfectly fine. I definitely understand it. When I first
started teaching, my first year was my worst year. I
feel like I cried every day. I feel like I
was not supported, and at the end of that year,
I was like, I'm not coming back. I had an
administrator that was afraid of the parents in the in
the community, so she had dead boat locks on her

(21:32):
office door. She stayed on door. Y'all was just yourself, basically,
it was.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
And like Joy said, college does not.

Speaker 7 (21:43):
Teach you how like it may teach you the textbook stuff.
It may teach you strategies, but it does not teach
you real world like in the classroom, in the trenches,
especially in the community that we served, like, it does not.
So like she just that you have to build that
for yourself. And after my first year, I had to learn, Okay,

(22:04):
I need to put on my combat boots, right, I
need to put on my boots. I need to toughen
up because I was not. It was and it wasn't
the kids.

Speaker 6 (22:13):
It was not the kids, it was the people in
the building and the administrator who was scared of everything.
She really did not have a support system of support
staff either, so it was everyone finding for themselves. And
like Joy mentioned, you have to cultivate your friendships. You

(22:33):
have to cultivate those people. You have to build a
community around yourself. And that's what I learned to do.
And as the years passed, I do have a group
of people that understand what it is like. And those
people now, in my twenty second year, I look forward
to coming to school because I want to see those faces.
I want to see those faces. Yeah, work is hard,

(22:55):
being the political aspect of teaching is very hard, and
those are things that we can't shake. We can't But
having a circle around you of people that understand and
that support you really makes it.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
So much easier. So do I feel supported now?

Speaker 7 (23:10):
Absolutely, because I feel supported good.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
And I would say not only does that support not
only do you feel it amongst your your your friends
that you you know that you've made throughout your years,
your years of work, but the students see it. The
students get a kick out of when you know my
friends at work and I say, we love each other,
we have a kiss on the cheek. They're looking like,

(23:34):
y'all do that, but they see it. I think that's
also very important. And they also know that, Okay, I
can't mess with that teacher, you know. And I feel like,
as far as we're talking about support, I think that's
why when listen to what Heather just said, that's why
when we I remember, we got a new teacher at
the school where I teach. We got a new teacher

(23:55):
on the team, and we rallied around this teacher. We
made sure because when I first met him, I'm like, oh,
d over top. You know, it's middle school, you know,
But we made sure the team we rallied around this teacher.
We made sure that the students knew not to play
with this teacher. You played with him, you play with
everybody else on this team, and they knew that. But

(24:17):
I will say that not just in support in that aspect,
but supporting them as far as resources be in that room.
They can come in and watch and observe and see
how you do classroom management, encouraging them to go to
other classes outside of the grade level in which they teach,
to go to the high school. You know, you know,

(24:38):
learn on your own, learn for yourself any questions you
have come back. I think that is something that people
have to show humility when it comes to that. You're
the humble yourself when you understand that I don't have
it all figured out and I don't know what in
the ham sandwich I'm doing, but I'm going to learn.
So I think that's also where support comes in, because

(25:00):
you have to know your strengths and your areas of strength,
your areas of weakness. And even now in year twenty five,
there are things I do not know and I do
lean on the younger teachers. I lean on them for
technology support because that is not my area of expertise.
And I think that support to me is not just
from one from one source. Support is all around and

(25:25):
it's what you It's the grit that you build for
yourself throughout the years. Brian, you have an interesting perspective
because you are an administrator, and as an administrator, I

(25:50):
wonder do you feel like you are supported by parents,
by the district, by fellow administrators, by the educators in
the building, because you I feel like administrators need to
feel supported by the teachers, like it's a two way relationship.
Do you feel like you are supported? So I'm honestly please,

(26:10):
thank you.

Speaker 8 (26:11):
I'm fortunate in the sense that much too, Cheetah and
Joy's points and Heather's points a moment ago, because we've
been together for a while and have been able to
build that relationship around things.

Speaker 5 (26:28):
I think it.

Speaker 8 (26:29):
You know, I do feel supported by my teachers. I
feel like, you know, you can get mad and frustrated
or ticked off about certain things that are happening eighty
five percent of the time it actually doesn't have anything
to do with me. So I'm able to let that
just kind of roll. It's things coming from on high
that we can't really control, and I know that, and
I also understand the teachers need time to vent and

(26:49):
think through it and go through their process of you know,
doing that. I always felt when I was a teacher,
I would probably be more similar to Joy's thing, where
I wanted to shut my door and let me do
what I'm doing, and you know, if the results aren't great, yes,
come in and somebody when I'm not doing great, but
I'm willing to receive feedback at all times. But I
just wanted to just teach the kids I had in

(27:10):
front of me. So I always felt, as an administrator,
my job was to give you guys the ability to
teach without the outside noise, the freedom without the outside
noise of district parents, you know, craziness going on, this, that,
and the other. So I always felt my job is
to try to shield you guys from that as much
as possible. And you know, when there was times where

(27:31):
I had to take heat for that from parents yelling
screaming at me. You know, I'm going to stand by
my teacher because I know what she does in the
end or he does in the end, and you're going
to grow to love this teacher, trust me. I will
say though, that more recently, I have felt it has
become increasingly difficult to support teachers the way I would

(27:51):
like to, and I think a big part of that
is not really in house, as I would say it is.

Speaker 5 (27:57):
District policy.

Speaker 8 (28:00):
To conduct, to shift it in such a way that
it is really hard for me to look at a
teacher and know how they were disrespected and made to
feel like crap by some scholar or their parent, and
then have to deliver this kid back to a classroom
without any kind of like.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Like the kid just saying sorry or.

Speaker 8 (28:21):
Not even or not even God forbid, you know, without
even having that ability to like reconnect those that relationship
without being restoredive thank you emany, because I feel like
we're in such an odd place where I'll hold parents
accountable and then five minutes later, I'm being held accountable
for holding a parent accountable for yelling and screaming to people.

Speaker 5 (28:43):
And I'm still willing to do those things.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
But your teacher exactly, which is not okay.

Speaker 8 (28:51):
And I don't mind being yelled and scream that by
the parents and trying to be that shield, but I
feel like the district and the policies that beer making
it increasingly difficult to you know, put your heels in
the ground and say, look, man, that's got to stay outside.
Like in here, we're going to be respectful. We're going
to treat each other, you know, like we all care
about the same thing, which is your child, because that's

(29:11):
why we're all here, right, So you're coming in here
yelling and screaming at us, and we're trying to meet
you halfway so that we can, you know, figure out
a way that we can all be on the same page.
And I just feel like as an administrator, we are
put you know, we're middle management. We're putting a really
tough spot in terms of I understand the anger from
the teachers. There's are times that I really understand the

(29:31):
frustration from the parents, but oftentimes policies are what they are,
and us having to try to adhere to those is
almost impossible and keeping anybody happy, so everybody's miserable instead
of just some people being happy. So I feel like,
instead in the district's attempts to just try to placate
families and their frustration, we've now gotten to a place

(29:51):
where teachers are leaving it an all time high.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah. I was literally like going to work at Target right.

Speaker 8 (29:57):
And like, we're fortunate in our middle school. Would we
have one opening this year? I mean, over the past
three years we've had less than probably every other school
in the district, as in middle school, but look at
the high school, like they increasingly have more people leaving.
Look at other schools in the district. It's just a
constant cycle. And it's because they don't have that support.
They don't have I'm not saying from administration, I'm saying
from each other, from the team, so they don't have

(30:19):
each other to lean on, and then when once that starts,
I mean I could see it unraveling really fast. I
mean we couldn't hire people until September. There were some
people still coming on. I mean I was literally holding
interviews at eight o'clock a night, you know, driving to
people's houses just to try to get people hired because
we're that short. So I would say from my lens,

(30:40):
I don't think teachers are being supported at all, and
as a result, we're seeing the de professionally deprofessionalism.

Speaker 5 (30:50):
Make it up.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Come on, wait a minute, I like that. It makes
me think of a living color when Damon Walls was
in and he would be like the high bauchery excuse me,
the high bacherization of that's what you just said, the
d professionalization of.

Speaker 5 (31:11):
Yeah, yeah at it.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (31:13):
I feel like we're taking that away from teachers, and
that is it is causing people to think that they
can come and treat them as if they're not professionals.
And people in here are working at their craft, they're professionals.
They are really, you know, practicing to get better all
the time. They should be treated like professionals. They shouldn't
be treated as if you can just come in and
yell and scream and do whatever you want to them,

(31:34):
because they're working really hard at their jobs.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
I just want you to know, Brian, that de professionalization
is a word, my friend. It is the process by
which members of a high status occupation lose the facility
to have autonomous control over its internal affairs and the
behavior of its.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
Hole please, I got to click it, the.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Behavior of its sorry, behavior of its membership. It also
results in a loss of the monopoly of the members
of the profession to have exclusive rights to do certain
kinds of work, and a loss of control over the
expert knowledge that before the professionalization was not available to

(32:17):
the general public. Crying everybody, come on.

Speaker 5 (32:22):
But that's why I said it.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
I can't know nothing.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
It stands on business MIA.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
So that's a special educator.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
It's you know, it's it's interesting. We're in an an
interesting position in the school. In most In most cases,
I feel like personally I get more support from the
people who don't really know or understand what I do
than I do from the people who know exactly what
I do. And when I say to people who know

(32:56):
exactly what I do, I mean the district Again, most
of the specialists, the special education specialists that I would
go to for support in my role, have been in
my role before. They were class from special education, class
from teachers, and then they were IP chairs, So they
know the teaching aspect and then they know the compliance aspect.

(33:20):
They are the least supportive people you ever want to
meet in your life. They know what we go through
in the schools when we request support from them for
a student. For example, when we have students like AE
who have these extreme behaviors, who's performing significantly below grade level,
who we've given every intervention known to man, but we

(33:42):
still can't get this person to sit in class, attend
to instruction, and behave themselves every day. And so we
suspect that this is not the right placement for them.
So we go to the district office for support. We say, hey,
we need you to come in. We need you to
observe this student. We need you to tell us what
we can do to improve his educational experience. Right, So

(34:06):
first they make us complete a ten page of application,
and along with that ten page application, you have to
I mean gonna say referra, I'm gonna say application, because
we're applying for support, and then you have to attach
to that all of this anecdotal information, all of this

(34:30):
assessment data, everything known to man, and then they come in,
they observe, and the first thing they say is the
teacher is not doing X y Z. The teacher needs
to do X y Z. But the teacher has done
everything known to man, and then they still don't give
us any support. So this student stays in the environment
that they're in now. As far as administration and teachers,

(34:54):
I feel like I am supported as much as they
can support me. I don't think people fully understand what
my is. I think sometimes the expectations of what I
can control and cannot control far exceed what I can
actually do. Parents, for the most part, are supportive, but
I think sometimes they have unrealistic expectations too, because they

(35:17):
know that they have a child who's limited. They know
that the child needs supports and services, and they think
that once we give this child supports and services, they're
going to be an a student, They're going to be
reading above grade level, they're going to be doing pre
calculus in seventh grade. And we know that not to
be true. And so that's where the problem comes in

(35:38):
with the parents. But again, for the most part, I
feel supported by the people who are in the school. Again,
a special education position is very difficult because you have
fewer colleagues that can relate to what you do. And
in my position, I only have one colleague who knows
exactly what I do, and we don't have a good relationship,

(35:59):
so she's not very supportive of me in this role.
So that's what makes it very difficult for me the district,
you know, the relationship with my peer, and then the
relationship with everybody else in the school who really don't
know what I do.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Thank you, Ebany.

Speaker 9 (36:18):
Yes, so I can agree with what everyone is saying
in terms of feeling supported locally and within the culture
of this community. But it's different for me as a
mental health professional in a school system because you have
maybe seventy to eighty teachers in one social worker, and

(36:40):
so sometimes that can be very isolating on many levels.
And the support that we get it is a phone
call away, it is an email away, but it's not
always a fix to what we're talking about, which is
human behavior, which is mental health challenges, family challenges or

(37:00):
whatever those you know struggles are within our community. And
so while I do believe that there is a tremendous
amount of support in this building. I am isolated as
a mental health professional, and I feel it right to
the extent of it's not just about the school system,
but it's really about if a kid is struggling and

(37:25):
needs support bigger than us, I don't always have anywhere
to send them. So it's not even the district. It's
not this school. There are so many other things that
come into play. If a family is homeless, and that
comes to me, Okay, they're homeless, Okay, I know that,

(37:46):
But where am I going to send Where they're going
to have somewhere to go that night? And so when
you think about the support part, it just looks very
different because.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
It's grass grassroots.

Speaker 9 (37:57):
So it's not just the district, but it's all so
within the community, and they are so limited. You know,
there's such a limited amount of resources when we talk
about vocation and housing and mental health and case management,
all of those things which I'm not in this building,
but it's looked upon when a child suffers, you know,

(38:19):
the way that it comes to us. And so in
some instances, the lack of support is on a much
different scale.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
How do you feel like your mental health is impacted
by the work that you do? And oh, they're laughing,
I'm sorry, do you still have mental health?

Speaker 3 (38:51):
Ors?

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Go on, now, I'm passed mental health. I'm just singing it.
How's your mental health? How does your job impact your
mental health? And what kind of strategies or coping mechanisms
or basically, how do you deal with it?

Speaker 3 (39:05):
If it is drugs? Don't say so on this show.

Speaker 9 (39:09):
I'll start off by saying, faith, right.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
I believe that, come on Jesus.

Speaker 9 (39:14):
Yes, I believe that we all need a foundation of
faith that supports us and that is our source. But
I also believe that there has to be strong boundaries
and what we do and how we do what we do,
we have to be able to take care of ourselves
at any means necessary, especially in this season. And that

(39:36):
may look different to people, you know, because other people
may not understand the measures that you have to take
to care for yourself. But I think having that self
care and establishing those boundaries and someone said earlier, asking
for help when needed and looking to that support. I
also think that when our mental health is challenged, we

(39:59):
have to be able to be honest and say I
don't have it, you know, And a lot of times
we continue to work, work, work, work, work, and that's
what we do because we're you know, we're hard workers.
We have great work ethic awareness. Season now where that's
just not enough anymore and you have to be able
to stop.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
I agree with that at me completely. I feel like
the best of us teachers are teachers who for a
long time didn't have any boundaries, and we push ourselves
to the limit, which then in turn pushes our mental
health to the limit. And mem and I have had
this conversation a thousand times and I really feel like

(40:42):
it just took last year. But she's always told me,
no is a complete sentence. No is a complete sentence.
I also think back to something that I share with
my students about pour into the people that pour into you.
There's sometimes that you're pouring into something and it's to
no benefit. You have to balance your energies and know
that what you're putting into is going to benefit you

(41:06):
or someone else. As far as my own mental health,
I drink wine, I cry in the car sometimes on.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
The way home.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
I do yoga, I meditate. I make it a priority
to spend time with my family. I make it a
priority to spend time with my husband. I make it
a priority to spend time in fresh air, outside in
the quiet, sometimes just taking a walk. Prioritizing those things

(41:37):
is what keeps me on any given day from just
kind of tipping over the edge, you know, and then
reaching out to my support group of friends, you know,
being able to vent and laugh and talk and be like,
do you know what this child did and there today?
Like being able to get you know that off my chest.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
I think, yes, okay, Ryan, I already know his answer.
He works out.

Speaker 8 (42:03):
I find that, you know, keeping myself healthy is the priority,
but also just like pushing myself, you know, when I
am working out and stuff, to just get out that
frustration and whatnot. I'm fortunate in that my wife was
an educator for a long time, so she understands when
I'm frustrated or ticked off with something that work. But

(42:24):
I almost never bring work home. I almost never talk
about it. I compartmentalize it. Yeah, when I walk in
the door, I'm able to say, all right, it's time
to turn back on and go back into education. But
I know, if I'm thinking about something that's going on
in the building and I'm with my kids trying to
coach or do this or that. Then I'm a miserable person.

(42:47):
So I'd rather just try to give a hundred percent
when I'm here, and then when I'm not here, give
one hundred.

Speaker 5 (42:52):
Percent to other things. So well, that's two No, it's
one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
And two different places in two different places.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Tea sure, And.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
He's not lying lately. Recently. I called you the other day.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
I think it was right before we went on break,
and we were talking about something that happened at work
and I was probably gossiping and I was like something
some something, and then he was like okay, and he
didn't hang the phone up, and I was driving, so
I didn't hang the phone up. And he was walking
into his house and I'm assuming that was your wife
and your daughter you want with us, And he said, hey, ladies,

(43:28):
And it was like something snapped in him, like where
he went from being my coworker or my friend Brian
into being Bryan the father and Brian the husband, Brian
the husband.

Speaker 3 (43:38):
It was kind of cute.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
Oh we go back to when we go back to
like feeling supported. I think one of the things that
makes us feel supported here is his ability to do that,
his ability to be like when it's school at school,
when it's home, it's home, and then there's a level
of compassion. Yeah, there's always at empathy. Compassion and empathy
like under standing that he is an educator who has

(44:03):
a life outside of school and so are all of us.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
He sees that in all of us.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
So that's that's like that level of support that you're
able to give is because you know, when we leave here,
you don't want us to feel completely defeated because you
know we have a family to go home to, or
just our own lives to go home to.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
All right, that's welcome to the Brian Joseph appreciation. Please
call in and say nice things. I did everything everyone
just said. Definitely, being in a building where I have
people to vent to that is definitely one way of

(44:45):
managing that mental health. Of course, going back to what
Ebane said as far as having that faith being faith based,
because if I didn't have God to talk to sometimes
because he has talked me down off of the ledge
multiple time, I'm about.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
To blow my mind.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
But the blow and I'm like even even my students
have seen me look up and just start talking to
them like, Lord, okay, it's a test.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
I know you said.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
If I don't pass the test now to pass it later
on which one to everybody to do?

Speaker 5 (45:13):
You know? So you know?

Speaker 3 (45:15):
So I I know definitely.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
Then know the kids think I'm crazy because I'm talking
to myself. Not talking to myself, I'm talking to the Lord.
But then that serenity prayer of being able to you know,
asking God to grant me the strength to accept the
things I cannot change.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
There are the things I just cannot.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Change, and then the courage to embrace those things that
I can change. So I think going back to that
is what keeps my mental health intact. Also working out
now that I can get back now that I'm cleared,
and then having that spouse and my friends of course,

(45:51):
but then, but then my spouse that makes me cut
it off because sometimes I don't cut it off.

Speaker 5 (45:57):
Sometimes I don't.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
I bring it right in the house, like wait a minute,
hold up, m leave it right in the car, just
hang up the phone. It's our time. Now you're home
with the family. So having that voice or reason also
when I get home, because I don't know for women
it may be a little different. We're very emotional creatures,
and sometimes we hold on and let it fester or

(46:18):
we just keep it in and then we just got
to keep talking about it.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
And he's like, no, it's over.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
We're going to enjoy this weekend. I don't want to
hear you say anything about school or whatever the issue is.
And if I'm talking to somebody from working, but hang
up the phone. Not this weekend, not today, it's you know.
So you have to have that balance, and if you
don't have it, then you have to have someone, an
accountability partner, to make you have balance, because yeah, some people,

(46:44):
I know me, I don't always know how to cut
it off and just knowing that this is my job,
but it is not my life. It's my job, but
it's not my life. I have a life outside of
this place, and that it's not fair to me. I
love ones. When I'm bringing home all this baggage mia therapy, Hey,

(47:09):
wend no once a week every week.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
Come listen.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
My therapist just came back and i''t been struggling because
I ain't seen her in two weeks.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
But I'm looking forward to the tenth when she comes
back and hit a lot of things I need to
show weekly things that haven't even happened a work yet.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
Anticipating that listen, therapy is it. And let me say something.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
I want to give a special shout out to Ebony
for being my interim, not therapists, because that is not
ethically sound. But my this goes back to having somebody
in the building that where you can just go and release.
And I think that in this building there are lots

(47:52):
of people that I am that I like, right, There
are people that I like, and there are a few
people that I love, right, but there is one person
where I can go lay on the floor cry, talk
about my childhood trauma. Snot can run out of my nose,

(48:13):
and she will help me to get off the floor.
She'll give me a tissue for my snot and then
I feel better. Sometimes I really believe that, oh I'm
gonna cry. I really believe that, like having your support
is the only way that sometimes I make it in here,

(48:34):
because sometimes it is a lot. And aside from like
what Brian said, like there, we all have a life
outside of here, and sometimes life outside of here is
not great for some of us. Some of everybody's going
through something, and so to be going through something and
then have to come in here and deal with kids
and administrators and fellow coworkers who may not come in

(48:57):
with joy leading their walk.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
It can be really rough.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
But I just want to say thank you, Ebany, And
also I want to say to you, even though you
get on my nerves really bad, Brian, that I told
Crystal one day, I said, you know, the people that
I really like at work are the reason why I
still go to work, you know. And no shade to
the kids, you know, because kids are great, you know,

(49:22):
whoopedi woo. But you guys are part of the reason
why I still come and why I haven't said fuck this,
I don't want to do this no more. I ain't
coming no more. I literally sometimes come just to be
in community with you. And so that was my feeling supported.
I feel supported by the people that I have cultivated

(49:46):
relationships with so that I do have a network of support.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Heather, how does your.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Job in pactor mental health see how to EIGHTYHD work.
How does this job and pact your mental health and
what strategies do you have to cope with these stressors.

Speaker 6 (50:03):
It took me a while to realize that I was
a person outside of work I used to take work
home all the time and I would just I'm always
always working, and it took. And when I had a child,
it changed all of that because he demands attention, you know.

(50:24):
And my mom was really good at saying, don't take
any work home. You're doing work. Even today, I'm like,
I'm going to work, she was like, no, you're not.
You're not going to work. You have to learn work
is work, home is home. And I had to learn that.
I also, like Umia, had to seek a therapist and
learn because compassion fatigue is so real, Yes it is,

(50:47):
and it was really bringing me down because I would
take I would just absorb all of the traumatic experiences
and all of the woes of my students, and yeah,
I would take it home with me and it wasn't
healthy for me. So I had to learn to like
release it. And I'm working on getting to the point

(51:09):
where Brian is where I just separate school or work
and home and I don't even think about it outside
of work. But I have learned over the years that
I also have to be a person outside of work
because if not, it is really going to cause damage
to me mentally.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
You know what. In addition, to that when we talk
about cultivating relationships and having a support network. I'm gonna
go ahead and say this because I'm going to say it.
I noticed that people who don't do that. Like for me,
I'm a bit empathic and I study like human behavior,
like I watch people constantly. I find that when people

(51:51):
don't do that, it's very loud. Like you can tell
the people who don't separate their work from their home.
You can tell people who who don't have a lot
of autonomy in their home or in their life outside
of work. You can tell the people who don't have
a lot of joy in their life outside of work,
because it's almost like it oozes out of their pores

(52:14):
when they get here. And if they have a little
bit of power, which all adults in this building have
power because we work with children, and you know, adults
are adults and children are children. I feel like it
comes out and it's it's really loud, and I wish
that there was something or a way for us to

(52:35):
help everybody, or if I had a magic wand, which
I do have a Harry Potter wand the severy snake
wand with my name on it that I got from
the Harry Potter Store. I wish I could bring my
magic wand in here, and I wish I could do
a spell and just stop that, because I think that
it's fortunate that the people in this room have people

(52:56):
that they can rely on.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
But Miss Mea was.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Very hearing her talk about how she has one peer
in the building who could really relate to what she's doing,
but they don't have a good relationship, and that has
to be an uncomfortable space to be in. So I
implore you, Mia to cultivate some relationships in this building,
because there are amazing people here for you to cultivate

(53:22):
relationships with, and most of them are sitting at this table.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
And I have yeah, relationships with people.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Absolutely when I'm able to get away out of your.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
Office, she can't get out of there. She can't get
out of there.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
I have a question for you, guys. When did you
want to say something?

Speaker 4 (53:42):
Oh, I was going to go back to what you
said about cultivating community. When I think about our school
and the success of our school, and the success of
any school where a school with eight hundred and seventy
five students, it's only eighty of us, Yeah, about eighty
and one. Social work, social work, and that includes you.

(54:05):
But when I think about that, part of the reason
why our school has not succumbed to so much of
what's going on in other city schools around us is
because of the community that we've cultivated amongst the status.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
It really is fundamentally and.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
I think in doing that, we are modeling work relationships
and friendships and what productive adult relationships look like.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
We're modeling that for the students as well.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
But I definitely think that is one of the huge
factors in the success of.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
All all Right, Friends and Ken Let's go ahead and

(55:10):
get into the straight facts question for today's episode. It says, Mimi,
I need your help. My name is Amber. I have
to start off by telling you how much I love
your podcast. Well Amber, to that, I say thank you,

(55:31):
shout out to you.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Amber. You're a real one.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
I love your podcast. You give the best advice, which
is why I'm writing to you today. I am twenty
five years old and I have been living with my
boyfriend for two years. Together, we try to maintain as
a couple, but it has been really hard. I've been
looking for a second job for months and have not
had any luck. As a result of our financial hardships
we have received in a fiction letter, Dan sis, I'm sorry,

(55:59):
I'm really sorry for that. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, call on
him to be honest. I am embarrassed. First of all,
don't be embarrassed because it should happens and shit hat
should happen to all of us, but the truth of
matters that should happen for a reason.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Back to what I was saying.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
To be honest, I am embarrassed, but not really in
shambles because my parents have always told me that I
can always come back home if I need to. Unfortunately,
my boyfriend does not have the same support and once evicted,
he will not have anywhere to go. He came home
last night and share that someone told him about a
shelter that we both could go to once we get
on our feet, oh until we get on our feet.

(56:38):
To be honest, I love him and want to be
with him, but I personally do not want to go
live in the shelter. Would I be wrong if I
tell him? I will continue to support him, support him
O a girl, but I will continue to support him,
but I want to move back home with my family.
Amber from the Bronx Amber. Let me tell you something, girl,

(56:59):
If you don't your ass back home live with your family,
ain't nobody gonna be living in no shelter with nobody.
All of that ride or die shit. That is bullshit.
Chall Listen.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
I know.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
I know somebody's listening saying that's why you single, now, okay,
And I don't give a shit. That's fine because what
I'm not gonna do is live in no shelter because
I could see myself being Amber. My family ain't gonna
ever see me in no shelter ever, ever, ever, ever,
And it's unfortunate that he doesn't have the same support.

(57:37):
What I will say is that you could have you
asked your parents, well how they would feel about him
or the moving in, or the two of you guys
moving back in with them. Truthfully, you know your parents
may be like uh, and they have that right. That
doesn't mean that they don't love you. That doesn't mean

(57:59):
that they don't like your broy. It just means, like
you know, they just don't want that, and they have
the right to do that. If you have exhausted all options,
and all options means a lot of options, because it
could be looking for a cheaper place. It could be
I'm getting a roommate, It could be all kinds of things.
But the truth of the matter is that if you

(58:19):
want to go home and go back to live with
your parents, do that, because who wants to go live
in a shelter? No, thank you, sir. I think it's
a conversation. You know here at hand, me my purse.
Everything falls back on healthy communication. I think that if
you guys have a conversation and you talk to him

(58:41):
and you explain to him, look, bruh, you know, I
love you. I want to be with you, but I
don't want to be with you in a shelter, and
I don't want you in a shelter either. And maybe
just talking about like is there anybody that you have,
Like do you have anybody? Do you have a homeboy
that'll let you, like sleep on his couch, Do you
have a cousin? Do you have anything? Also another question

(59:05):
I was thinking about Amber is you mentioned you having
a job, but does he have a job, Because we
not gonna do that either. We not going you mentioned
something about I will continue to support him, support him
how emotionally and with love, because I hope you ain't
talking about supporting him financially, it ain't got no job.

(59:28):
Get a job, because if you can get a job,
and did you say you had two jobs on shambles?
Financially I can't see because I done took my classes off.
But I would talk to him about it and let
him know that, you know, I don't feel comfortable going
to live in a shelter. I don't want to do that,

(59:51):
and I'm going to go and live with my parents.
Let's talk this through and see who you can possibly
turn to for support or where you can stay with
until we get this thing together, and then tell him, like,
let's sit down and let's work on a plan. Let's
create a plan to get out of this situation, because

(01:00:13):
the truth of matter is that let's be keep it
a buck sis like y'all getting evicted, so shit is real.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
Hold on, please let.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
Me just like she is getting real for y'all. Y'all
getting evicted, ain't nobody got time to be, you know,
being willy nilly. And if I could also be really
honest and transparent. If you're in a place where you're
getting evicted, then somehow something didn't work out along the way,
some a plan fell through there was a loss of focus,

(01:00:46):
you know, like you didn't like hit the points, like
when you saw the writing on the wall. And this
is not me being judgmental, trust me, I'm not that kind.
Like if you are familiar with who I am, you
wear some ugly shoes, you got on face foundation, you
know that, don't mention neck. I might judge you, but

(01:01:06):
I'm not judging you for getting evicted. But what I
will say is that, Okay, we're here now. Obviously there
was not a plan in place. Now let's create a
plan and just let him know that in your plan
is not a part of your plan to live in
a shelter, and that you don't want that for him either.
Now let's go through and think about who you can

(01:01:27):
ask or reach out to for support, because I'm going
to live with my parents until i can figure this out,
and there's nothing wrong with that. And guess what, he
may want to break up with you. That may happen,
and if he does, that's unfortunate, and I'm sure that

(01:01:52):
you would not want that to happen. But you know
the truth of the matter is that he might want
to break up with you, and if he does, that
is fine too. Life will go on. Okay, life moves
on like life keeps moving. The world will not stop.

(01:02:14):
Will you be sad, yes, But will you die, No,
you won't. Life will keep moving and it'll be an
opportunity for a new beginning for you. And all I
will say is, if he loves you, and he is understanding,
and he does not have an ego the size of
Epcot's Center, he will understand that you don't want to

(01:02:37):
live in a shelter and that you want to go
live with your parents. And I think as his girlfriend,
you can be supportive and you can best support him
by helping him work through what resources are available to
him other than living in a shelter, because it's one
thing to you know, everybody has to struggle sometimes, but

(01:02:58):
nobody wants to live in a shell if they don't
have to, and he shouldn't have to either. But if
he does have to, then that is a part of,
you know, his life's plan or his life's like trajectory
at this moment. But you don't have to live in
a shelter if you don't want to. At the end
of the day, the bottom line is this you hear

(01:03:21):
that sounds like a helicopter. At the end of the day.
The bottom line is this. If you don't want to
live in a fucking shelter, Amber, don't. Does that make
your bad girlfriend? Hell no, no it does not. What
it makes you is a good person to yourself. It
makes you a good Amber for Amber. So good luck

(01:03:43):
with that. May God be with you. I hope something
comes through, and I hope that neither of you end
up in a shelter. And I hope that if it
is destined for you to be in a relationship and
be together, then you will be. But if it's not,
then you won't. It's very simple. You're young, you're twenty five.
It may seem like the end of the world, but girl,

(01:04:04):
trusts me, it's not. I'm forty four and I can
tell you that it is not the end of the world.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
May I be with you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
God bless you, and thank God for your family. I
bet you are grateful for them in a different way
now than you were. I'd say two years ago. Thank
God for supportive family. Ye for today's we got to
do better. It is coming from good old Auntie Maya Angelo.

(01:04:34):
I just want to say, there is a gentleman on
the social media's who does the best fucking Maya Angelou
impersonation I have ever heard in my life. And if
I find it by the time I write these show notes,
I will put it in the show notes.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
But when I tell you it is amazing, it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Anyway, Auntie Maya Angelou said, Mother said that I must
always be let me put my glasses on, y'all, because
this is definitely a because I can't see, Oh they dirty.
Mother said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance,
but understanding of illiteracy. That some people unable to go

(01:05:16):
to school were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.
And I selected this quote because of something that Brian,
who was one of the people, one of the educators
on this show that or that was a part of
the series, and in the first episode, he said something

(01:05:42):
about like there's nothing promised to high school's kids when
they get out of school. And as we were talking,
because I know him, I thought about like people who
just are not college educated, or who may not even
be able to read. He also mentioned that some industries
don't even require people to be able to read anymore,

(01:06:02):
because they put pictures up to explain how to do
so many things. And I just think that as we
talk about education sometimes we have to remember that just
because you are educated, or just because of higher education,
it does not mean that you are more or less
intelligent than the next person. Because trust me, I work

(01:06:26):
in a building filled with college educated people with I
don't with PhDs and master's degrees and degrees, degrees, degrees,
and I can promise you some of them don't have
the fucking sense that God gave a goat. And I
don't mean lllkoolj the greatest of all time. I mean

(01:06:47):
a bye like a goat, a goat on a hill.

Speaker 3 (01:06:51):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Some of them don't have the social emotional intelligence that
a dead leaf on a rose pedal has. Okay, So
just remember that just because you have lots of degrees
or you're you know, formally educated, uh, that doesn't mean

(01:07:13):
that you're more intelligent than the man or the woman
who does not have those degrees, because intelligence is measured
in so many different ways, and.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
One is not more.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Important than the other. Please be advised, because you can
you can have tons of degrees and not have any
understanding of boundaries and not having an understanding of boundaries
in the workplace can be a problem.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
It can cost you your job. Okay, you can have a.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Lot of social, social, emotional intelligence and not be able
to read, and you may need that in your job.
So I say that to say that, to say, excuse me,
just because you have more of one type of intelligence.
And there's so many different types of intelligence. They're spiritual intelligence,

(01:08:08):
emotional intelligence, mental intelligence, social intelligence, physical intelligence like actual intelligence,
academic intelligence like it's so many different ways to be smart.
Being smart and being intelligent is not only about a
book and a piece of paper that somebody gives you

(01:08:30):
to validate your intelligence. It's beyond that. I just want
everyone to understand that what Auntie Mayo was saying is that,
you know, some people aren't able to go to school.
Some people aren't able to finish school. Some people weren't
able to finish But that doesn't mean that they're less
intelligent than people who did. They just may not know

(01:08:51):
more about a certain thing than them. And so in closing,
I'm going to read it one more time. Mother said
that I must always be intolerant of ignorance, but understanding
of illiteracy. That some people unable to go to school
were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
Friends and kin.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
The first thing I want to do is say thank
you to God, because God is supreme and God is
at the helm of all things that I do. All
of the sunshine and the wonderful things that happen, God
is there. And then all of the things that happen
that aren't always sunshine, God is there too, because there's

(01:09:41):
a lesson in that for me, and God is in
the lesson business, lessons and blessings. That's what he's doing, Okay,
lessons and blessings. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I want to verbally
say that I recognize and appreciate the grace that God
extends me what every day of my Black Gas life.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
I want to say thank you to you guys. You
are my people.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Thank you to each and every one of you that
have been rolling with me since day one, since March
the first of twenty twenty. I appreciate you. I appreciate
you for being here with me. And even if you
just started listening in twenty twenty four or in twenty
twenty three, I thank you for that as well. Either
way you cut it up, I'm grateful. I'm thankful for
my family. I love them. I love my family. Shout
out to my fucking family. I love my friends. Shout

(01:10:28):
out to my fucking friends. All of y'all, my friends
and can tho, my supporters, and of course and most importantly,
every single one of you guys out there listening. Give
yourselves a round of applause. I love you guys so much,
so much, and it's just nothing short of an honor,

(01:10:50):
a privilege, and a blessing for me to share my
time and my energy with you guys, especially if you
decide to keep coming back and spending time with me.
I look forward to the next time that we get
to do this with one another, which will be next Tuesday. Now,
before you exit out of whatever streaming service you're using
to listen to this, stop what you're doing, and if
you haven't already done so, look for the subscribe or

(01:11:11):
follow button. Click on that if it's an option on
the streaming service where you're listening. Next, I want you
to go over to Instagram and follow me at hand
Me My Purse Underscore Podcast. Also follow me on Twitter
at HMMP Underscore Podcast, and on Facebook just search hand
Me My Purse podcast. I'm up over there. Then there's threads.

(01:11:34):
Go to my Instagram profile. Threads is there, click on it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
Follow me.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
Very simple if you listen on a streaming service that
allows you to please rate and review the show or
give it a thumbs up.

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
If you can.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Reviewing the show takes two minutes. I would really really
really really really really.

Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
Really appreciate it. If you would rate the show, it
would really touch my heart and I will read here.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
Here's the thing, the next person who writes a review
for my show, I'm reading it on the show because
it'll be my first review of twenty twenty four and
I want to start the year out with an awesome review.

Speaker 3 (01:12:08):
So how about this. Here's a challenge for you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
The next person or the first person to rate my show,
I mean, not review my show, to write a review
on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, because now you can
leave like questions or comments on Spotify. The next person
to do that or the first person to do that
in twenty twenty four on both platforms, I will read

(01:12:32):
them on the next show, because the next show will
be the last show of the.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Month of January.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Moving forward, be sure to share your with your friends
and ken and people you don't like share hearing my
Purse with them. Because the best way for people to
learn and find out about this show is by you
guys telling them all about it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
So tell a friend to tell a friend to what
tell a friend?

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
Please submit your questions for the straight Fact segment by
clicking on the link in the show notes that says
submit a question for straight Facts.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
It's right under the jam.

Speaker 1 (01:13:07):
I moved it. I moved it last week. I moved
it so that just right under the jam. It's very
easy to find. Just click on that little link. It's
gonna take you to a whole form. You're gonna fill
out a Google form. You can keep it anonymous. Nobody
needs to know your name. You can make up a name,
or I can make up a name for you if
you want me to. You can make up a location.
But you can submit the question there, or click the

(01:13:27):
link in my Instagram profile and look for the button
that directs you to submit a question. And you never
know your question. Excuse me, maybe the next question featured
on hand me my purse. Also remember that show notes
are always available in the episode description wherever you're listening
to the show. Be sure to take a look at
the show notes, because that, my friends and kN is

(01:13:48):
where I put all of the links and other information
that I mentioned during the show that you may want
to check out, in addition to some staple stuff that
I want to share with you every week. I want
you to look at this every week. Okay, check it
out every week. I'm gonna add something new for February,
I think. Anyway, I want you to know that the

(01:14:09):
music for Handing My Purse is provided by none other
than West Baltimore's own Gloomy Tunes. Shout out to West
Baltimore and shout out to Gloomy Tunes. And last but
not least, I want to give a big old shout
out to Evan and Taylor. Together along with me, we
make up Rando Banjo.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
And the Dirty Throats.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
I look forward to you looking forward to listening to
Hanmy My Purse the podcast each and every single Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (01:14:34):
And I'm off this bit, y'all. Peace.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
Handy My Purse is a production of iHeart Podcasts. For
more shows from ihart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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No. 80: The Current State of Urban Education - An Educators' Round Table. Part TWO of THREE.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}No. 80: The Current State of Urban Education - An Educators' Round Table. Part TWO of THREE.