August 15, 2023 • 30 mins
Combating student apathy is not an easy job. In this episode, I begin a series sharing tips that teachers can use to help students overcome apathy and engage.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Just yesterday, I was talking toa member of my family, a young
man who's about to start high school, and it was crazy because I realized
that he got to this point thatI throughout my career, I've seen many
students arrive at this point of apathy, just straight up apathy regarding school.
(00:32):
And it was really for me.It was really surprising because I had never
heard him. I had never heardhim mention mentioned that it never came through
and our discussions, our previous discussionsabout school, and you know, it
(00:53):
just really hit me because I wasable to easily identify it because I've seen
it many times throughout my career asa teacher, as an administrator, and
it just got me thinking that itjust got me to thinking that I need
(01:14):
to share that with you, myaudience, because I believe that I know
what. I know what the startof the solution is. I know what
the start of the solution is.Like it's not and it's not something that
you know. Rarely are there arethere things that that are gonna work one
(01:38):
hundred percent for every student. ButI believe that this today, what I'm
about to share with you, thisis this is you know, this this
first thing is definitely something that Ibelieve that every student needs to have in
order to help them combat apathy.You need to have this information in order
(02:00):
to help students combat apathy. Ifyou're going to get a student to to
to change the way they think,to act differently, you're and and and
and fight against apathy to go intoin a different direction. You're going to
need this today. And really whatit all comes down to is it's it's
(02:25):
the why. I mean, that'sit that that that's the why. It's
nothing, it's nothing magical, it'sit's nothing mysterious, but it's it's all
about the why. You know,this family member of mine, he didn't
really truly understand and embrace the whyof school, and so I, you
(02:49):
know, I broke it down tohim and filled me with a lot of
energy, love and passion as Iwas talking to him, as I was
expressing to him what I tell mystudents over on the Vision Chaser side,
my other YouTube channel, about thewhy when it comes to school. You
know, in the past, ineducation, we used to just let students
(03:15):
make their own decisions. If theydidn't, you know, if they chose
not to work, if they choseto be apathetic. If they chose not
to come to school, that's onthem. You know. In the past,
that's that's largely what the response was, and that was largely the accepted
response. But now things have changed. Since no child left behind, it
(03:35):
is it is our duty as teachersand administrators. More more responsibility on administrators,
definitely since no child left behind tomonitor progress and respond, and as
leaders in the classroom, you wereto do the same as well. Now
(03:57):
I want to share with you acouple of things you can do today in
order to in order to respond toapathetic students, students who just who have
that apathy about them that just seemit seemingly it just seems like they just
don't care. They'd rather be somewhereelse. Because as I said, as
(04:18):
I've said many times before to you, our goal is to you know,
with every student, we exhaust allthe tools in our toolbox, and when
we've done that, we go getsome more tools until until the school year
is over and that child moves on. But that's that's what we do.
(04:38):
And as leaders in the classroom,we take great pride in knowing that we
didn't give up on a single student. We we we did the best that
we knew. How with that student, we never gave up. We never
gave up. And you know,it feels good even though even though it
(05:00):
doesn't you don't see it in thein that moment, in that year,
But it just feels good when whenyou know years later, when that student,
when that student finds you, orwhen you cross paths with that student
and that student sends you an email, or when you see how that students
doing on Facebook and they reach outand say, hey, thanks a lot.
(05:20):
Even if you don't get that,thanks a lot, I remember what
you did for me. Just seeingthem doing well and just knowing that,
hey, you played a small partin the life and in the success of
that individual. That's that's a beautifulthing. So we we don't give up.
We never give up. We alwaystry different things. And that's why
(05:43):
you are here and I appreciate youbeing here. So let's talk about this.
So the first the first thing thatI had to do, the first
thing that I had to do wasshow this young man. I had to
I had just show my nephew.I just show him that this is the
purpose of school. What is thepurpose of school? And when when you
(06:06):
really when you really understand that.When when when a student really understands that,
when when they really have it,like really for real have it.
Because he didn't really have it,and he probably still doesn't have it,
I'm probably going to have to havenumerous conversations with him about this, and
(06:27):
prayerfully, it is my prayer thathe has teachers going into the school year
they they that they understand this too, that they have this language as well,
and that they can help him tobe motivated about what he's doing at
school. So a lot of studentswho display that apathy a lot of it.
(06:51):
A lot of students are wondering,well, how is how does this
help me? What's in it forme? And that's human nature, right
of course, it is what's what'sin it for me? Because every student
they have to make that, theyhave to make a time investment, while
at the same time, there areother things that are competing for their attention,
(07:15):
like those phones. Who don't getme started on those phones. And
you know, I've been out ofI've been out of the classroom for about
six years now, and you know, the phones were an issue when I
was in the classroom. I can'teven imagine now with the things that these
phones can do. Now, Ijust I can I know it's a struggle.
(07:39):
I know it's a struggle. Andyeah, so you have all these
things competing for your student's attention.Now, just imagine if they don't understand
the purpose of school. They've hadto get up early and get out of
(08:00):
bed, get dress, rain,sleet, snow, whatever in order to
get out of in order to getout of bed and come to school.
And it's early in the morning,and my wife is calling me right now
to ask for forgiveness later. Butthey've had to go through all of these
different things in order to get toschool, but not really understand the purpose
(08:22):
of school. So off the top, there was a conflict there, and
I think that that conflict has tobe acknowledged by you as the leader in
the classroom, that there's just there'ssomething there that you're going to have to
respond to because ultimately, what thatis going to do is that's going to
(08:43):
that that's obviously going to affect that'sobviously going to affect their performance in your
classroom. And you know what italso does when when when when they don't
understand, like, how's this goingto help me? Where it's in it
for me is in it. Itlends itself to them being easily led to
(09:05):
distractions, like if they don't seethe purpose, well, what else is
going on here? You know?Oh, my friend Johnny's up in the
front, he's cracking jokes. I'mgonna I'm gonna laugh, and and and
add to the disruption of the class. That's and that happens as well.
(09:28):
And it's I think again, it'shuman nature, right, it's human nature.
If you don't see, if youdon't see the purpose in the thing,
if you don't fully understand why youshould go all out and do something,
are you gonna give it your all? Probably not? See when when
(09:52):
you talk to students, and thisis why, and I want to take
a step, but this, thisis why. You know, obviously you
know relationships, yes, where youknow, that's that's not a huge revelation.
But when you talk to students asyou're strengthening those relationships, when you
talk to students, their thinking isrevealed. When you talk to students,
(10:16):
they're thinking is revealed, and youcan use you can use those their words,
You can use their words to highlighttheir thinking, because out of their
thinking comes their actions. Out oftheir thinking comes their actions, and so
you can kind of put a mirrorup to them with their words and give
(10:39):
their words back to them. BecauseI think of it, if there's no
perceived value in a thing, ifthere's no perceived value in a thing,
are you going to fully invest inthat thing? And I submit to you
that many of our students around thiscountry, they're they're faced with that dilemma
(11:01):
no, no, no, orlimited perceived value and getting out of bed,
getting dressed, come to school,doing all these things that the teachers
are asking them to do when there'sthere's all these other things going on,
phone, friends, other distractions.Now I want to pause right here.
(11:26):
I want to pause right here,and I want to talk about why I
haven't been on I haven't been onx formally known as Twitter. I haven't
been on on there in a while, And largely a lot of it is
because there is this there's this there'sthis virtue, this virtue battle. And
(11:48):
I've talked about this before, thisthis seeming this virtue battle, like who's
the more virtuous, you know,who cares about kids the most? On
Twitter? And yeah, I justfind that to be very negative and it
doesn't help. It doesn't help theconversation, it doesn't leave people. It's
(12:13):
hard to leave those Twitter discussions feelingfeeling good when when I see teachers or
or administrators are saying, well,those those teachers, they they they're just
not building relationships with students. Letme tell you what you need to be
doing. You need to be buildingthe relationships. Have you ever heard of
that? No, you haven't heardof that. You need to build relationships
(12:33):
with students, like as if that'sjust this huge revelation and no one's ever
heard of it before. Now,for sure, there are there are teachers.
There are teachers out there who coulduse some help in that area.
There are teachers out there who youknow and none in this audience. But
there are teachers out there who justreally make you scratch your head and just
(12:54):
wonder like why why did why didyou choose this? Like for sure,
But ladies and gentlemen, you've beenin this audience. You've you've been,
you've been part of this audience,you've watched the show. I tend to
believe that most of our educators outthere, they want to do good in
(13:15):
the world. That's why they becameeducators. They want to do what they
can. And you know, you, I think you believe because you're here.
You believe that that teachers, youbelieve in that message that teachers are
leaders, and you know that asleaders, it is our job to look
at ourselves first. It's our jobto look at ourselves first. When things
(13:35):
don't go as planned, we lookat ourselves first. But it is true,
it is true, and it needsto be acknowledged that there are students
who, you know, they they'vethey for the most part, they've got
their needs met. They're not dealingwith with trauma. They just they just
(14:01):
are not interested in school. That'swhat we're talking about today. We're talking
about apathy, right, and we'renot talking about any you know. And
yeah, and this is the thingthat I get on about the virtue battles,
like, oh, you just don'twant to understand what that student maybe
going through. It's just like,okay, we we we are, of
(14:24):
course, we are sensitive to that, we are sensitive to that. But
there are students again, I'm submittingto you, there are students who are
simply just struggling with apathy. Likethey they've got again needs meant, they've
not dealing with any trauma. Theyjust they just dealing with apathy. They're
(14:48):
just dealing with apathy. And sothat's what we're talking about here. That's
that's what we're talking about here.I want to be I want to be
clear. I want to be clearabout that. Okay, I want to
be clear about that. And II think I think that it's possible to
add to the discussion on X andother social media and even in your circles
(15:13):
with educators. I think it's ait's possible to add to the discussion in
a positive way without dunking on teachers. Right. I get it. A
lot of people are out there onX, myself included, you know,
trying to make a name for themselves, trying to share a message that they
think is valuable. Like there's there'sa lot of there's and there's a lot
(15:37):
of people out there, a lotof opinions out there. But I definitely,
definitely, definitely, definitely feel likethat you can you can share a
good message. If your stuff isgood, it's well researched and and it's
engaging content, people are going topay attention. But you don't have to
dunk on teachers. You don't haveto build up this straw man. Oh,
(16:00):
that teacher just doesn't care about relationshipsthe way that I do. No,
you don't. You don't have todo that. We don't have to
do that. All right, letme get off that soapbox. Okay,
I know where I was. Ididn't lose my I didn't lose my spot.
I didn't I know where I was. So one of the questions that
I asked my nephew was, hey, why do you go to school?
(16:25):
And in my mind that question,that question. If I hear there's two
responses to that question, then Iknow we got a problem here. First
answer is to get an education.And then the second answer is because my
(16:48):
parents make me those two answers tome, they get my my antenna,
my antennas go up right or antennaI don't know, I'm I'm I'm alarmed.
Or when I hear that because I'mlistening again, when they talk,
they're thinking, is revealed to getan education? Or what's an education?
(17:14):
This is the question I asked them. Oh well, uh so he struggled
with that. He struggled with theanswer to that question because he didn't know,
He didn't put a lot of thoughtinto it. He just knew that
that was what I, as anadult, wanted to hear. So I
challenged them on that. I said, no, you that's what you think
I want to hear. Why doyou go to school? And he basically
(17:37):
told me because my parents made mego to school. And that's that's that's
troubling, you know, that's that'sthat's troubling because there are so many opportunities
(18:00):
at schools around the country, aroundthe country, to to learn, to
engage, to build community together,to do so many to do so many
different things beyond just learning. Andfor whatever reason, my nephew he was
(18:25):
it was like many many many studentsaround the country. They're struggling again,
didn't see the why, what's init for me? What is the purpose
of all of this? And itreally just goes to show it's just crazy
how you can have hundreds of students, are many hundreds of students in the
(18:48):
building, and they all come fromdifferent backgrounds, and you have like students
who like they're they're on fire,you know, when they go to school,
they engage. It doesn't take alot of motivation. They're they're into
it, they want it, they'reafter it. And then you have students
who just I just you know,I didn't do my homework and I'm I'm
(19:11):
cool with that. And I'm probablynot gonna do my homework tonight, I'm
not gonna do my homework tomorrow night. I'm not gonna do my homework next
week, and and and life isgood. That's okay. And I think
it's just it really is fascinating becausewhen you think about, you know,
things such as such as peer pressure, what I've noticed is there there is
(19:36):
that kids who are apathetic, likethey know, man, maybe I should
do that, but I'm not gonnado it because I really don't want to.
And I think that that's I thinkthat's something that's worth studying, like
really in depth, just looking atat what's what's going on. They're just
really under this level, just engagingthose kids and conversations, just really trying
(20:06):
to find out, Okay, whereare these kids thinking and where does that
thinking come from? And how canwe easily identify it? Well, I
gave you two questions and how youcan easily identify it? But how do
we what is our school wide responseto that? And what was our school
right wide response? Right right nowwe're talking about your classroom because you as
(20:26):
an individual or watching, you're listeningto this. But I think schools need
to look into this more as well. It can't be something that's just solely
placed at the feet of the teachers. I think that I think administrators should
be doing the research. Let mesay again, administrators should be doing the
(20:48):
research within the school that they're workingin. For those administrators at central office,
they should be doing the research insome of those buildings that are in
their district, looking at their students, the students that they serve, trying
to understand what's going on in theminds of our students. More specifically,
(21:10):
what's causing a segment of our studentsto be apathetic about school. Our students
not I read this study from Oregonthat was conducted in Oregon, but we're
we're in Alabama. No, no, no, no, no, what's
going on with our students, withour students. So I broke it down
(21:36):
again. I have a YouTube channelwhere I talk to young people. I
talked to young people on my VisionChasers YouTube channel. Vision Chasers is the
name of the YouTube channel, andI give them over at the Vision Chasers
side, I give them this isfor me. This is Marvin Bird.
This is this is the purpose ofschool. According to Marvin Bird, the
purpose of school is this, it'slearned. It's to learn how to set
(22:00):
and achieve goals. Once again,the purpose of school is to learn how
to set and achieve goals. AndI was breaking this down to my nephew.
You go to school to learn howto set and achieve goals. Doesn't
matter what class you're in. Youcan set a goal and achieve a goal.
(22:26):
You set a goal and achieve agoal. You do that constantly throughout
the day and all of your classes. Think about it for this quarter,
for the first quarter of the schoolyear. I want to earn I want
to earn a B. All right, I want to earn a B.
So that's the goal. Now youhave to achieve that goal. But here's
(22:52):
the other thing. Life is notperfect. The path to success is not
without problems, obstacles, resistance.So you're gonna have to learn how to
navigate problems along your way to achievingyour goal. That's life. That's what
(23:12):
life is all about. You haveto be able and willing to deal with
problems that are inevitably going to comeup. That's why we talk about in
school, we emphasize creativity. You'vegot to be creative, You've got to
be a problem solver. Grits,come on, get in there, let's
do it. Resilience, even thoughyou know it's hard, it's frustrating.
(23:37):
Things didn't work out the way thatyou wanted them. That feedback that you've
got, you may even disagree withit, you didn't like it, But
now you have a choice. You'regonna move forward or are you're gonna stay
stagnant, You're gonna quit. Areyou gonna try again with better information?
Now that you've got that feedback thatapply to every class, every class you
(24:03):
take while you're in school, you'regoing to get the practice of learning how
to set a goal an accomplish agoal. That's the answer to the to
the question, how am I goingto use this in the real world.
Well, I as a social studiesteacher, I told kids, Hey,
you might not use us history inthe career of your choice, but it's
(24:29):
the way that you acquire the knowledgethat you will use. Because the way
that you're going to acquire this knowledge, you're gonna need creativity, you're gonna
need grit, and you're gonna needresilience along the way to accomplishing your goals
in this classroom. And you knowwho else needs that in the world.
(24:51):
Needs someone who's able to set anaccomplish a goal employers. Employers are looking
for people who are able to toset a goal. And once they set
a goal, they need people whoare able to navigate the problems along the
way. We're going to navigate problemsalong the way, and then they need
(25:12):
people who are going to achieve thatgoal because they were able to navigate those
problems be creative on their way toachieving their goal. Now, I want
you to know that I tell studentsthis all the time. I say,
hey, you don't have to goto college, but you better have a
plan. There are so many opportunitiesnow, so many opportunities now for to
(25:38):
to to make a name for yourself, to make a living. My wife
was telling me about someone who madeover one hundred thousand dollars doing shipped orders.
I mean, there are opportunities outthere, you just you just have
to have You have to have aplan. And so I share that with
(26:00):
my nephew as well. But ifyou're going to go that route, I
mean, you've got to be yougotta be ready, you gotta be hungry,
you gotta be on it. Youknow, you have to have that
fire, that energy, that passion, because there are things that you can
be doing while you're in high schoolto set yourself up for success if colleges,
(26:23):
if that's if you just find thatthat is not your path. Okay,
And here's the other thing too,when we when we talk about the
purpose of school, setting and achievinggoals and managing problems along the way,
this has got to be something that'spart of your language with students. I
(26:45):
talked about in one episode about howyou are the architect of your environment.
You built the culture around you,and the culture is the experience that students
have in your classroom. And Iwant to challenge you to make this a
part of your daily language. Iwant this to be something. I want
(27:08):
you to adopt some power phrases inyour classroom. I want it to be
known in the in the minds ofyour students that hey, this is what
you're about. You're you're you're you'repreaching this message about setting goals and accomplishing
goals and navigating problems along the waythat can help you in any profession.
(27:33):
That you choose, and I believethat that answers the question what's in it
for me? What am I goingto get out of this? I don't
like French, I don't like math. I think it's boring. I think
it's it's frustrating. But when youcome at them with the purpose, the
(27:55):
why. Perhaps again, not everystudent this is the same, but I
really do believe that this is somethingthat's universal to every student. I think
everyone needs to They need that why. They need to have a firm grasp
(28:17):
on that why, what it is, Why am I doing this? They
need to fully understand that. Theyneed to fully understand that this is something
that is there is value there,There is value in doing my homework and
engaging in the lesson. They needto understand that. They need to understand
(28:38):
that. And when you when youbuild your environment, when you weave this
into your environment, I think youhave a sense that there's a sense of
repetition. There's there's repetition in thismessage, setting goals, accomplishing goals,
navigating problems along the way. Ithink this repetition. What it does is
(29:00):
it plants and it nurtures seeds inthe minds of your students. It nurtures,
It nurtures those seeds in the mindsof your students as they go along
the way. And yeah, definitely, once they leave your classroom, you
have no idea, you have nocontrol over what goes on. And so
(29:21):
when they come back to your classyou've got to in a way, You've
got to start this. You've gotto start this all over again. You've
got it. This has to bea continual message that you're sending to students.
Purpose school is to set goals,accomplish goals, and navigate problems along
the way. All right, Sowe're gonna stop right there. Next episode,
(29:45):
I'm gonna give you a few otherthings that you can do to respond
to student apathy. I thank youso much for watching, Thank you so
much for listening, and until wemeet again, please please please please,
Oh one more thing before I leave, Before I leave, before I get
out of here, I want toplug my book. My book is almost
(30:07):
finished. It's almost finished, andit will be available for pre order soon
and very soon. I'll keep youposted on that. So now I'm going
to get out of here. Thankyou so much for watching, Thank you
so much for listening, and untilwe meet again, Please, never ever
forget that teachers are leaders.
Just yesterday, I was talking toa member of my family, a young
man who's about to start high school, and it was crazy because I realized
that he got to this point thatI throughout my career, I've seen many
students arrive at this point of apathy, just straight up apathy regarding school.
(00:32):
And it was really for me.It was really surprising because I had never
heard him. I had never heardhim mention mentioned that it never came through
and our discussions, our previous discussionsabout school, and you know, it
(00:53):
just really hit me because I wasable to easily identify it because I've seen
it many times throughout my career asa teacher, as an administrator, and
it just got me thinking that itjust got me to thinking that I need
(01:14):
to share that with you, myaudience, because I believe that I know
what. I know what the startof the solution is. I know what
the start of the solution is.Like it's not and it's not something that
you know. Rarely are there arethere things that that are gonna work one
(01:38):
hundred percent for every student. ButI believe that this today, what I'm
about to share with you, thisis this is you know, this this
first thing is definitely something that Ibelieve that every student needs to have in
order to help them combat apathy.You need to have this information in order
(02:00):
to help students combat apathy. Ifyou're going to get a student to to
to change the way they think,to act differently, you're and and and
and fight against apathy to go intoin a different direction. You're going to
need this today. And really whatit all comes down to is it's it's
(02:25):
the why. I mean, that'sit that that that's the why. It's
nothing, it's nothing magical, it'sit's nothing mysterious, but it's it's all
about the why. You know,this family member of mine, he didn't
really truly understand and embrace the whyof school, and so I, you
(02:49):
know, I broke it down tohim and filled me with a lot of
energy, love and passion as Iwas talking to him, as I was
expressing to him what I tell mystudents over on the Vision Chaser side,
my other YouTube channel, about thewhy when it comes to school. You
know, in the past, ineducation, we used to just let students
(03:15):
make their own decisions. If theydidn't, you know, if they chose
not to work, if they choseto be apathetic. If they chose not
to come to school, that's onthem. You know. In the past,
that's that's largely what the response was, and that was largely the accepted
response. But now things have changed. Since no child left behind, it
(03:35):
is it is our duty as teachersand administrators. More more responsibility on administrators,
definitely since no child left behind tomonitor progress and respond, and as
leaders in the classroom, you wereto do the same as well. Now
(03:57):
I want to share with you acouple of things you can do today in
order to in order to respond toapathetic students, students who just who have
that apathy about them that just seemit seemingly it just seems like they just
don't care. They'd rather be somewhereelse. Because as I said, as
(04:18):
I've said many times before to you, our goal is to you know,
with every student, we exhaust allthe tools in our toolbox, and when
we've done that, we go getsome more tools until until the school year
is over and that child moves on. But that's that's what we do.
(04:38):
And as leaders in the classroom,we take great pride in knowing that we
didn't give up on a single student. We we we did the best that
we knew. How with that student, we never gave up. We never
gave up. And you know,it feels good even though even though it
(05:00):
doesn't you don't see it in thein that moment, in that year,
But it just feels good when whenyou know years later, when that student,
when that student finds you, orwhen you cross paths with that student
and that student sends you an email, or when you see how that students
doing on Facebook and they reach outand say, hey, thanks a lot.
(05:20):
Even if you don't get that,thanks a lot, I remember what
you did for me. Just seeingthem doing well and just knowing that,
hey, you played a small partin the life and in the success of
that individual. That's that's a beautifulthing. So we we don't give up.
We never give up. We alwaystry different things. And that's why
(05:43):
you are here and I appreciate youbeing here. So let's talk about this.
So the first the first thing thatI had to do, the first
thing that I had to do wasshow this young man. I had to
I had just show my nephew.I just show him that this is the
purpose of school. What is thepurpose of school? And when when you
(06:06):
really when you really understand that.When when when a student really understands that,
when when they really have it,like really for real have it.
Because he didn't really have it,and he probably still doesn't have it,
I'm probably going to have to havenumerous conversations with him about this, and
(06:27):
prayerfully, it is my prayer thathe has teachers going into the school year
they they that they understand this too, that they have this language as well,
and that they can help him tobe motivated about what he's doing at
school. So a lot of studentswho display that apathy a lot of it.
(06:51):
A lot of students are wondering,well, how is how does this
help me? What's in it forme? And that's human nature, right
of course, it is what's what'sin it for me? Because every student
they have to make that, theyhave to make a time investment, while
at the same time, there areother things that are competing for their attention,
(07:15):
like those phones. Who don't getme started on those phones. And
you know, I've been out ofI've been out of the classroom for about
six years now, and you know, the phones were an issue when I
was in the classroom. I can'teven imagine now with the things that these
phones can do. Now, Ijust I can I know it's a struggle.
(07:39):
I know it's a struggle. Andyeah, so you have all these
things competing for your student's attention.Now, just imagine if they don't understand
the purpose of school. They've hadto get up early and get out of
(08:00):
bed, get dress, rain,sleet, snow, whatever in order to
get out of in order to getout of bed and come to school.
And it's early in the morning,and my wife is calling me right now
to ask for forgiveness later. Butthey've had to go through all of these
different things in order to get toschool, but not really understand the purpose
(08:22):
of school. So off the top, there was a conflict there, and
I think that that conflict has tobe acknowledged by you as the leader in
the classroom, that there's just there'ssomething there that you're going to have to
respond to because ultimately, what thatis going to do is that's going to
(08:43):
that that's obviously going to affect that'sobviously going to affect their performance in your
classroom. And you know what italso does when when when when they don't
understand, like, how's this goingto help me? Where it's in it
for me is in it. Itlends itself to them being easily led to
(09:05):
distractions, like if they don't seethe purpose, well, what else is
going on here? You know?Oh, my friend Johnny's up in the
front, he's cracking jokes. I'mgonna I'm gonna laugh, and and and
add to the disruption of the class. That's and that happens as well.
(09:28):
And it's I think again, it'shuman nature, right, it's human nature.
If you don't see, if youdon't see the purpose in the thing,
if you don't fully understand why youshould go all out and do something,
are you gonna give it your all? Probably not? See when when
(09:52):
you talk to students, and thisis why, and I want to take
a step, but this, thisis why. You know, obviously you
know relationships, yes, where youknow, that's that's not a huge revelation.
But when you talk to students asyou're strengthening those relationships, when you
talk to students, their thinking isrevealed. When you talk to students,
(10:16):
they're thinking is revealed, and youcan use you can use those their words,
You can use their words to highlighttheir thinking, because out of their
thinking comes their actions. Out oftheir thinking comes their actions, and so
you can kind of put a mirrorup to them with their words and give
(10:39):
their words back to them. BecauseI think of it, if there's no
perceived value in a thing, ifthere's no perceived value in a thing,
are you going to fully invest inthat thing? And I submit to you
that many of our students around thiscountry, they're they're faced with that dilemma
(11:01):
no, no, no, orlimited perceived value and getting out of bed,
getting dressed, come to school,doing all these things that the teachers
are asking them to do when there'sthere's all these other things going on,
phone, friends, other distractions.Now I want to pause right here.
(11:26):
I want to pause right here,and I want to talk about why I
haven't been on I haven't been onx formally known as Twitter. I haven't
been on on there in a while, And largely a lot of it is
because there is this there's this there'sthis virtue, this virtue battle. And
(11:48):
I've talked about this before, thisthis seeming this virtue battle, like who's
the more virtuous, you know,who cares about kids the most? On
Twitter? And yeah, I justfind that to be very negative and it
doesn't help. It doesn't help theconversation, it doesn't leave people. It's
(12:13):
hard to leave those Twitter discussions feelingfeeling good when when I see teachers or
or administrators are saying, well,those those teachers, they they they're just
not building relationships with students. Letme tell you what you need to be
doing. You need to be buildingthe relationships. Have you ever heard of
that? No, you haven't heardof that. You need to build relationships
(12:33):
with students, like as if that'sjust this huge revelation and no one's ever
heard of it before. Now,for sure, there are there are teachers.
There are teachers out there who coulduse some help in that area.
There are teachers out there who youknow and none in this audience. But
there are teachers out there who justreally make you scratch your head and just
(12:54):
wonder like why why did why didyou choose this? Like for sure,
But ladies and gentlemen, you've beenin this audience. You've you've been,
you've been part of this audience,you've watched the show. I tend to
believe that most of our educators outthere, they want to do good in
(13:15):
the world. That's why they becameeducators. They want to do what they
can. And you know, you, I think you believe because you're here.
You believe that that teachers, youbelieve in that message that teachers are
leaders, and you know that asleaders, it is our job to look
at ourselves first. It's our jobto look at ourselves first. When things
(13:35):
don't go as planned, we lookat ourselves first. But it is true,
it is true, and it needsto be acknowledged that there are students
who, you know, they they'vethey for the most part, they've got
their needs met. They're not dealingwith with trauma. They just they just
(14:01):
are not interested in school. That'swhat we're talking about today. We're talking
about apathy, right, and we'renot talking about any you know. And
yeah, and this is the thingthat I get on about the virtue battles,
like, oh, you just don'twant to understand what that student maybe
going through. It's just like,okay, we we we are, of
(14:24):
course, we are sensitive to that, we are sensitive to that. But
there are students again, I'm submittingto you, there are students who are
simply just struggling with apathy. Likethey they've got again needs meant, they've
not dealing with any trauma. Theyjust they just dealing with apathy. They're
(14:48):
just dealing with apathy. And sothat's what we're talking about here. That's
that's what we're talking about here.I want to be I want to be
clear. I want to be clearabout that. Okay, I want to
be clear about that. And II think I think that it's possible to
add to the discussion on X andother social media and even in your circles
(15:13):
with educators. I think it's ait's possible to add to the discussion in
a positive way without dunking on teachers. Right. I get it. A
lot of people are out there onX, myself included, you know,
trying to make a name for themselves, trying to share a message that they
think is valuable. Like there's there'sa lot of there's and there's a lot
(15:37):
of people out there, a lotof opinions out there. But I definitely,
definitely, definitely, definitely feel likethat you can you can share a
good message. If your stuff isgood, it's well researched and and it's
engaging content, people are going topay attention. But you don't have to
dunk on teachers. You don't haveto build up this straw man. Oh,
(16:00):
that teacher just doesn't care about relationshipsthe way that I do. No,
you don't. You don't have todo that. We don't have to
do that. All right, letme get off that soapbox. Okay,
I know where I was. Ididn't lose my I didn't lose my spot.
I didn't I know where I was. So one of the questions that
I asked my nephew was, hey, why do you go to school?
(16:25):
And in my mind that question,that question. If I hear there's two
responses to that question, then Iknow we got a problem here. First
answer is to get an education.And then the second answer is because my
(16:48):
parents make me those two answers tome, they get my my antenna,
my antennas go up right or antennaI don't know, I'm I'm I'm alarmed.
Or when I hear that because I'mlistening again, when they talk,
they're thinking, is revealed to getan education? Or what's an education?
(17:14):
This is the question I asked them. Oh well, uh so he struggled
with that. He struggled with theanswer to that question because he didn't know,
He didn't put a lot of thoughtinto it. He just knew that
that was what I, as anadult, wanted to hear. So I
challenged them on that. I said, no, you that's what you think
I want to hear. Why doyou go to school? And he basically
(17:37):
told me because my parents made mego to school. And that's that's that's
troubling, you know, that's that'sthat's troubling because there are so many opportunities
(18:00):
at schools around the country, aroundthe country, to to learn, to
engage, to build community together,to do so many to do so many
different things beyond just learning. Andfor whatever reason, my nephew he was
(18:25):
it was like many many many studentsaround the country. They're struggling again,
didn't see the why, what's init for me? What is the purpose
of all of this? And itreally just goes to show it's just crazy
how you can have hundreds of students, are many hundreds of students in the
(18:48):
building, and they all come fromdifferent backgrounds, and you have like students
who like they're they're on fire,you know, when they go to school,
they engage. It doesn't take alot of motivation. They're they're into
it, they want it, they'reafter it. And then you have students
who just I just you know,I didn't do my homework and I'm I'm
(19:11):
cool with that. And I'm probablynot gonna do my homework tonight, I'm
not gonna do my homework tomorrow night. I'm not gonna do my homework next
week, and and and life isgood. That's okay. And I think
it's just it really is fascinating becausewhen you think about, you know,
things such as such as peer pressure, what I've noticed is there there is
(19:36):
that kids who are apathetic, likethey know, man, maybe I should
do that, but I'm not gonnado it because I really don't want to.
And I think that that's I thinkthat's something that's worth studying, like
really in depth, just looking atat what's what's going on. They're just
really under this level, just engagingthose kids and conversations, just really trying
(20:06):
to find out, Okay, whereare these kids thinking and where does that
thinking come from? And how canwe easily identify it? Well, I
gave you two questions and how youcan easily identify it? But how do
we what is our school wide responseto that? And what was our school
right wide response? Right right nowwe're talking about your classroom because you as
(20:26):
an individual or watching, you're listeningto this. But I think schools need
to look into this more as well. It can't be something that's just solely
placed at the feet of the teachers. I think that I think administrators should
be doing the research. Let mesay again, administrators should be doing the
(20:48):
research within the school that they're workingin. For those administrators at central office,
they should be doing the research insome of those buildings that are in
their district, looking at their students, the students that they serve, trying
to understand what's going on in theminds of our students. More specifically,
(21:10):
what's causing a segment of our studentsto be apathetic about school. Our students
not I read this study from Oregonthat was conducted in Oregon, but we're
we're in Alabama. No, no, no, no, no, what's
going on with our students, withour students. So I broke it down
(21:36):
again. I have a YouTube channelwhere I talk to young people. I
talked to young people on my VisionChasers YouTube channel. Vision Chasers is the
name of the YouTube channel, andI give them over at the Vision Chasers
side, I give them this isfor me. This is Marvin Bird.
This is this is the purpose ofschool. According to Marvin Bird, the
purpose of school is this, it'slearned. It's to learn how to set
(22:00):
and achieve goals. Once again,the purpose of school is to learn how
to set and achieve goals. AndI was breaking this down to my nephew.
You go to school to learn howto set and achieve goals. Doesn't
matter what class you're in. Youcan set a goal and achieve a goal.
(22:26):
You set a goal and achieve agoal. You do that constantly throughout
the day and all of your classes. Think about it for this quarter,
for the first quarter of the schoolyear. I want to earn I want
to earn a B. All right, I want to earn a B.
So that's the goal. Now youhave to achieve that goal. But here's
(22:52):
the other thing. Life is notperfect. The path to success is not
without problems, obstacles, resistance.So you're gonna have to learn how to
navigate problems along your way to achievingyour goal. That's life. That's what
(23:12):
life is all about. You haveto be able and willing to deal with
problems that are inevitably going to comeup. That's why we talk about in
school, we emphasize creativity. You'vegot to be creative, You've got to
be a problem solver. Grits,come on, get in there, let's
do it. Resilience, even thoughyou know it's hard, it's frustrating.
(23:37):
Things didn't work out the way thatyou wanted them. That feedback that you've
got, you may even disagree withit, you didn't like it, But
now you have a choice. You'regonna move forward or are you're gonna stay
stagnant, You're gonna quit. Areyou gonna try again with better information?
Now that you've got that feedback thatapply to every class, every class you
(24:03):
take while you're in school, you'regoing to get the practice of learning how
to set a goal an accomplish agoal. That's the answer to the to
the question, how am I goingto use this in the real world.
Well, I as a social studiesteacher, I told kids, Hey,
you might not use us history inthe career of your choice, but it's
(24:29):
the way that you acquire the knowledgethat you will use. Because the way
that you're going to acquire this knowledge, you're gonna need creativity, you're gonna
need grit, and you're gonna needresilience along the way to accomplishing your goals
in this classroom. And you knowwho else needs that in the world.
(24:51):
Needs someone who's able to set anaccomplish a goal employers. Employers are looking
for people who are able to toset a goal. And once they set
a goal, they need people whoare able to navigate the problems along the
way. We're going to navigate problemsalong the way, and then they need
(25:12):
people who are going to achieve thatgoal because they were able to navigate those
problems be creative on their way toachieving their goal. Now, I want
you to know that I tell studentsthis all the time. I say,
hey, you don't have to goto college, but you better have a
plan. There are so many opportunitiesnow, so many opportunities now for to
(25:38):
to to make a name for yourself, to make a living. My wife
was telling me about someone who madeover one hundred thousand dollars doing shipped orders.
I mean, there are opportunities outthere, you just you just have
to have You have to have aplan. And so I share that with
(26:00):
my nephew as well. But ifyou're going to go that route, I
mean, you've got to be yougotta be ready, you gotta be hungry,
you gotta be on it. Youknow, you have to have that
fire, that energy, that passion, because there are things that you can
be doing while you're in high schoolto set yourself up for success if colleges,
(26:23):
if that's if you just find thatthat is not your path. Okay,
And here's the other thing too,when we when we talk about the
purpose of school, setting and achievinggoals and managing problems along the way,
this has got to be something that'spart of your language with students. I
(26:45):
talked about in one episode about howyou are the architect of your environment.
You built the culture around you,and the culture is the experience that students
have in your classroom. And Iwant to challenge you to make this a
part of your daily language. Iwant this to be something. I want
(27:08):
you to adopt some power phrases inyour classroom. I want it to be
known in the in the minds ofyour students that hey, this is what
you're about. You're you're you're you'repreaching this message about setting goals and accomplishing
goals and navigating problems along the waythat can help you in any profession.
(27:33):
That you choose, and I believethat that answers the question what's in it
for me? What am I goingto get out of this? I don't
like French, I don't like math. I think it's boring. I think
it's it's frustrating. But when youcome at them with the purpose, the
(27:55):
why. Perhaps again, not everystudent this is the same, but I
really do believe that this is somethingthat's universal to every student. I think
everyone needs to They need that why. They need to have a firm grasp
(28:17):
on that why, what it is, Why am I doing this? They
need to fully understand that. Theyneed to fully understand that this is something
that is there is value there,There is value in doing my homework and
engaging in the lesson. They needto understand that. They need to understand
(28:38):
that. And when you when youbuild your environment, when you weave this
into your environment, I think youhave a sense that there's a sense of
repetition. There's there's repetition in thismessage, setting goals, accomplishing goals,
navigating problems along the way. Ithink this repetition. What it does is
(29:00):
it plants and it nurtures seeds inthe minds of your students. It nurtures,
It nurtures those seeds in the mindsof your students as they go along
the way. And yeah, definitely, once they leave your classroom, you
have no idea, you have nocontrol over what goes on. And so
(29:21):
when they come back to your classyou've got to in a way, You've
got to start this. You've gotto start this all over again. You've
got it. This has to bea continual message that you're sending to students.
Purpose school is to set goals,accomplish goals, and navigate problems along
the way. All right, Sowe're gonna stop right there. Next episode,
(29:45):
I'm gonna give you a few otherthings that you can do to respond
to student apathy. I thank youso much for watching, Thank you so
much for listening, and until wemeet again, please please please please,
Oh one more thing before I leave, Before I leave, before I get
out of here, I want toplug my book. My book is almost
(30:07):
finished. It's almost finished, andit will be available for pre order soon
and very soon. I'll keep youposted on that. So now I'm going
to get out of here. Thankyou so much for watching, Thank you
so much for listening, and untilwe meet again, Please, never ever
forget that teachers are leaders.
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