August 25, 2024 • 20 mins
What if you could transform your child's educational journey from mundane tasks to inspired learning? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Gail Hugman, an educator with decades of experience, who started her teaching career in 1974.
Parents and educators alike will find this episode incredibly valuable as we unpack essential skills children need to thrive and the mental hurdles they might face. Gail shares practical tips from her latest book, "Making the Pennies Drop," offering everyday strategies to help children grasp complex concepts with ease. Learn about the difference between hearing and truly listening, and how patience and repeated practice are key to mastering any subject. Plus, get actionable insights into how to motivate not just children but also staff in professional settings, making this episode a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone invested in purposeful teaching and effective motivation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cindy Mendez (00:05):
Hello, my name's Gail Hugman and I'm an educator
and have been for many, manyyears.
I started teaching in 1974 and,as you can imagine, that means
I've seen many changes and I'mtrying to help parents interpret
the world for their children.
Gail Hugman (00:27):
Well, welcome, gail.
I'm so excited to be chattingwith you today and we're going
to get a little bit intospotlighting your career but
also understanding how it isthat you're helping parents with
their children.
Especially our target listenersare working moms, so that can
be challenging to take on notonly possibly, their own to do's
(00:49):
, but also your child'seducation and all of their
milestones.
Cindy Mendez (00:54):
Tell us what inspired you to get into
education and your journey asyou went from teaching to now
with your own, you know businessand supporting children and
parents well, I think peopleused to describe me as a born
teacher, and the reason for thatwas I used to line up all my
(01:15):
teddy bears and talk to them asthough I was the boss, even from
the age of six, and so myfather made me a little
blackboard which I used to takeout into my tent that I made in
the garden and I would teach allmy dolls and my bears to read
(01:36):
that was my firstand and I decided even at the
age of six that I would eitherbe a mother or a teacher.
And I wanted to be a teacher.
So I chose then and every yearI used to check do I still want
to teach or do I want to be amother?
But I always wanted to teachand I've enjoyed my career and
(01:59):
my business.
And in my last year of teaching,on the first day day of term
and I've actually written thisstory into one of my books a
student came in on the first dayand the principal asked me if
he could come and be in myclassroom as I was the senior
teacher, and as he stood in thecorner of the room, the children
(02:23):
all came piling through thedoor, were 10, 11-year-old
children and I was about to takea breath to bring them all to
order and I suddenly saw themthrough this young student's
eyes and I remembered my firstday in teaching 30 years before,
when all the children had beenlined up in silence in the
(02:48):
playground and the contrast wasquite staggering and I thought
what has changed in 30 years?
And I waited a full 15 minutesfor these children to settle
down and they were all pushingeach other and say I want to sit
there and I'm going to do this,and I'm going to settle down.
And they were all pushing eachother and say I want to sit
there and I'm going to do this,and I'm going to do that.
And when they'd finished andeverybody went what's going on?
(03:11):
Why hasn't she said anything?
I waited until there was totalsilence and I said I'm
absolutely amazed you did that.
And they looked at me as ifsaying who did what.
And I said I'm amazed you camein here like that.
This is your last year in thisschool.
You are the senior children inthis school.
(03:35):
I am going to be your teacherthis year.
Not one of you said is it okay,can we come in?
Not one of you asked if I'dprepared the room in a
particular way.
Where is your self-respect?
And at that point you couldhave heard a pin drop, and it
(03:55):
wasn't that I was telling themoff.
I was shocked.
I was shocked because I thoughtwhy aren't they really keen and
engaged?
Because this is the platformfor their life.
They are creating the platformfor their life and yet it's a
(04:17):
battle for teachers.
It's often a battle.
I'm sure it is as well inAmerica that you want to engage
and you are trying to inspirethem, and yet we talk about
discipline and I thought why?
Why have they not gotself-discipline?
They feel that I need to takecharge of their behavior.
(04:38):
And that's where it started.
And I asked a young teacherwhat is it you struggle with in
education?
He said I can get them to dowhat they have to do, but I
can't get them to want to do it.
And that difference betweengetting them to do and getting
(05:00):
them to want to do is what Idecided to focus on.
I expected very high standardsof work and they delivered, not
because I forced them, butbecause they wanted to be the
best they could be, becausethat's what I see in human
beings and that's what I wantedto draw on.
(05:21):
So I wrote my first little book.
Well, it wasn't a little book,it was a letter to draw on.
So I wrote my first little book.
Well, it wasn't a little book,it was a letter to the head
teacher and I called it a shortand simple book for the wise and
it it's just a description ofwhat I believe made my teaching
different.
It was a letter to the headteacher and I sent it to all
(05:44):
sorts of people to see if Icould bring about some change.
Gail Hugman (05:49):
and people used to say thank you that's a very
nice project, you know.
Cindy Mendez (05:54):
Good luck.
But I thought, well, if I can'tchange the system because it's
so traditional in the UK if Ican't change the system, then
I'll go through the parents andI started my one-to-one teaching
service.
When you sit next to a childand they say why should I?
And you really want to tellthem why they should, you've got
(06:20):
to go deep and you've got tomeet them.
Human to human.
You can't.
You know, I could say, becauseyou're not going to get dessert.
It's easier to say you shouldbecause you owe it to your life.
Or and a boy said to me whyshould I?
(06:40):
And I said you know, whenyou're born you think you get
one life, but actually you gettwo.
And I drew a line and at oneend I put zero and at the other
end I put a hundred.
And then I marked it you know,50, 40, 30, 20, 10 and the other
(07:02):
way.
And I said between birth, atzero and 10, you're a child.
Between 10 and 20 nightmare.
Between 20 and 30 you're ayoung adult.
And I went through thedifferent stages and I and I
(07:22):
could feel he hadn't heardanything like this and I hadn't
ever said anything and I saidyour first lie.
I call your natural life, andthat is the same for every
single human being on the planet.
And then you get a second lifeand that I call your world life.
(07:45):
And your world life is yourexperience in the world, and
that is different for everysingle human being, because your
natural life is about you andyour development.
Your world life is like a wholebig banquet of experience for
(08:07):
you to choose what is going tohelp you develop you.
And I always ask the childrendo you want?
You can see that the world isnot quite like it should be.
There's a lot of unhappy peopleand they always say, yeah, it's
terrible.
And I said, well, do you wantto make the world better or do
(08:29):
you want to make it worse?
Why, children, they're sogorgeous?
They always say I want to makeit better.
You can start today, and you canstart by being the absolute
best you can be and only behappy when you're satisfied
You're doing the best you canwith every single thing you do.
And they respond to thatbecause they feel included, they
(08:51):
feel they're helping, they feelthat they can do something.
It gives them a chance to lookat it and say, well, there's
good things.
I don't want to be involved inthe bad things.
I am going to choose the goodthings, because you can learn to
be patient by collecting stamps.
You can learn to be patient bygrowing flowers.
(09:12):
You can learn to be patient bybecoming an athlete, and it is
all about what are you going tochoose in the world to help you
develop yourself, because that'swhat human beings are for we're
meant to grow and develop.
And when you look at naturewhich is what I use as my
(09:32):
reference and I would say to thechildren, if you look out of
the window, how many blades ofgrass can you see?
and then we go oh, millions, andI think how many blades of
grass do you think there are inthe world, and are some of the
blades of grass not trying ashard as the others?
Every blade of grass is tryingto be the best blade of grass it
(09:58):
can be and it doesn't fightwith all the others and it can
push through concrete and it canreally the stamina in a blade
of grass and you can be the sameand they love it.
They love it.
So they respond to that andeach child would trigger another
human thing that would make mesay another magical lesson, like
(10:24):
the two lives.
So I thought parents need this,parents need to know.
Gail Hugman (10:28):
And here I am still doing it no, but it makes
total sense when the way thatyou describe it right it takes
away the duty of education andturns it into like almost a gift
, like almost just giving themchoice and opportunity and
(10:49):
helping them understand there'sa purpose Not many are explained
to.
I mean, I don't think I've everheard anybody give me that take
on education until I was, youknow, in college and it was a
little bit too late of like, oh,you know, maybe I wanted to be
a nurse, but I now I chose otherthings like in, you know, chose
(11:22):
other things like in, you know,middle school and high school.
And now it's a much highermountain to climb, uh, to get to
what you're maybe passionateabout, what you want to do.
And so I think it's so good tohave them understand that that
very base level you're doingthis math problem because it's
not about the math problem, wedon't care how many apples are
(11:44):
there in that problem, it's sothat you can build and use it to
what you want to do in theworld and the good you want to
bring.
So I love that approach andit's so helpful with parents too
, I think our parents listeninghere to incorporate that, not
just for education but forlivelihood with their kids.
(12:05):
You know, following rules athome.
You know you build those skillsfor for a purpose.
Cindy Mendez (12:11):
Well, when you think Cindy into a classroom and
there was a poster on them andit said good listening and it
had images of children with armsfolded, legs crossed, just
sitting.
But that doesn't tell a childwhat good listening is.
But if you've got aneurodiverse child, it may not
(12:34):
look at you, but every child andthis is in one of the books I
always write the stories that gowith the learning and he was
nine years old On one day I saida sentence to him and I said
I'm going to see if your braincan remember things and I want
(12:55):
you to repeat to me exactly whatI say to you.
So I said I put my jacket onand I went out to play.
And so he was looking at methere was only him and me in the
room and and he said I got myjacket and I went out.
So I said no, I want you to sayexactly every word that I said
(13:21):
to you.
So I repeated I might get itwrong now.
I repeated I put my jacket onand I went out to play so he
said I got my jacket and put iton again.
He hadn't repeated exactly whatI'd said and he he laughed when
I pointed it out to him and hesaid I can do it.
(13:44):
So I said well, let's haveanother go, let's see how well
your brain can do this.
You know, it took nine ninesfor him to do that, for him to
slow himself down enoughinternally, but that showed me
what happens inside a child'shead when they're in the
classroom with lots of people.
(14:05):
And when this lesson was over Iwalked through the door and his
father had been listeningoutside and he said to me if I
hadn't heard that for myself,I'd never have believed it.
When we say listen, they think.
If we say, are you listening,they think are you hearing?
(14:25):
And they go yeah, yeah, butthey are not processing the
information because their headsare too busy.
So I teach children aboutlistening and what the process
is, and I've written this intomy hundred things to learn
before you're and so there arelittle things like that, that
(14:47):
parents can try with theirchildren but they don't know how
unless we make them aware of it, Because the world has changed
so much.
Even you know I'm quite old now,but even since you were born
the world has changed a lot.
We've got the World Wide Web,which is affecting brains and
(15:08):
brain development.
We've got the pressure onpeople, but the biggest thing is
the quite fantastic growth ofthe population increases
pressure on resources, on all ofyou know everything on school
places, on everything.
Our old systems are collapsingand breaking down and that's
(15:32):
what we're watching, I believe.
But there's some very excitingyoung people, innovative people
that are beginning to changethings behind the scenes.
I'm very excited about them.
So if I can help parents keeptheir children intact so they
(15:52):
grow the best of human being,that would be a great help.
Gail Hugman (15:57):
There's more hands on practice that's needed at
home, like those examples thatyou gave.
You know, it's just practicewith listening, practice with
staying still for a moment, um,and and just these things that I
think growing up we kind ofwere expected to know and I say
(16:19):
to the children you know whenthey say why are?
Cindy Mendez (16:21):
we going to do math why, algebra.
they hate algebra because whenyou're, when you're born, your
brain is only one thirdprogrammed, if you like.
It's got one third and that isthe unconscious and that has all
the instructions in it formaking you grow and develop and
(16:42):
to keep you safe.
And you know, and I said thereare two other parts to your
brain.
There's one part called theconscious, which is where you
are when you're awake, and thenthere's another part called the
semi-conscious and that's like alibrary and that's the bit
where you do all the thinking.
And when you go to school tolearn something, your conscious
(17:07):
gets bored very quickly becauseits job is to find out
everything new and to show youit doesn't know what's good, it
doesn't know what's bad, it justwants to show you new stuff.
And then your semi-conscious iswhere you put all your learning
.
And so when you have to learnsomething for maths, like your
(17:28):
multiplication tables, orsomething, your conscious will
go.
I'm so bored and I say that's agood sign because then, if you
keep doing it, it will getpopped into your library,
because your brain will say hereally wants to learn this,
because he keeps on doing it, soI'll throw it in the library.
(17:48):
and that's when you say I got itnow and it.
It really helps them toappreciate learning in a
different way and it helps youto say, instead of you have to
do this, how many times have Itold you you have to do this?
It helps you to say what areyou actually trying to grow in
(18:10):
yourself?
Are you trying to grow inresponsibility, or are you
trying to make me take controlof you?
Because I don't really want todo that and the children will
always rise into it.
And so my latest book, whichI've only just published, is
called Making the Pennies Drop.
(18:31):
You know that phrase.
I love it.
When the children, oh, I've gotit now, I said you can see the
pennies drop.
And it's when the children getit and they go ah right, got it.
That is Making the Pennies Drop.
So my book, making the PenniesDrop, is all about how parents
(18:52):
can use everyday activities tomake those pennies drop, and
it's a lovely, easy read.
I'm really thrilled with it.
Essentially, the core skillsthat children need to develop so
that they can succeed not onlyin school but in life.
Gail Hugman (19:16):
Well, that's perfect, and thank you for
sharing the information on yournew book too.
I'll put the link for ourlisteners and the notes and for
your website, and hopefully momscan hear and learn something
from this conversation.
I've definitely learned a lotabout motivation, really, I
(19:39):
think not even just for I mean,I have a three-year-old so
trying to explain to him, but atleast I feel prepared for, you
know, when that time comes, andI think I might learn a lot
about not just my kiddo, butmaybe myself too, you know, and
dealing with people and theworkplace as well, because a lot
(20:02):
of what you spoke sometimes canhelp to like motivate staff,
like give them a purpose, givethem an understanding.
Motivate staff like give them apurpose, give them an
understanding.
So I think there's a lot ofgood nuggets of knowledge that
can be pulled from that.
But yeah, thank you so much andfor our listeners, all of
Gail's information will be downin the notes below and feel free
(20:25):
to reach out and ask anyquestions and check out her
books.
Hello, my name's Gail Hugman and I'm an educator
and have been for many, manyyears.
I started teaching in 1974 and,as you can imagine, that means
I've seen many changes and I'mtrying to help parents interpret
the world for their children.
Gail Hugman (00:27):
Well, welcome, gail.
I'm so excited to be chattingwith you today and we're going
to get a little bit intospotlighting your career but
also understanding how it isthat you're helping parents with
their children.
Especially our target listenersare working moms, so that can
be challenging to take on notonly possibly, their own to do's
(00:49):
, but also your child'seducation and all of their
milestones.
Cindy Mendez (00:54):
Tell us what inspired you to get into
education and your journey asyou went from teaching to now
with your own, you know businessand supporting children and
parents well, I think peopleused to describe me as a born
teacher, and the reason for thatwas I used to line up all my
(01:15):
teddy bears and talk to them asthough I was the boss, even from
the age of six, and so myfather made me a little
blackboard which I used to takeout into my tent that I made in
the garden and I would teach allmy dolls and my bears to read
(01:36):
that was my firstand and I decided even at the
age of six that I would eitherbe a mother or a teacher.
And I wanted to be a teacher.
So I chose then and every yearI used to check do I still want
to teach or do I want to be amother?
But I always wanted to teachand I've enjoyed my career and
(01:59):
my business.
And in my last year of teaching,on the first day day of term
and I've actually written thisstory into one of my books a
student came in on the first dayand the principal asked me if
he could come and be in myclassroom as I was the senior
teacher, and as he stood in thecorner of the room, the children
(02:23):
all came piling through thedoor, were 10, 11-year-old
children and I was about to takea breath to bring them all to
order and I suddenly saw themthrough this young student's
eyes and I remembered my firstday in teaching 30 years before,
when all the children had beenlined up in silence in the
(02:48):
playground and the contrast wasquite staggering and I thought
what has changed in 30 years?
And I waited a full 15 minutesfor these children to settle
down and they were all pushingeach other and say I want to sit
there and I'm going to do this,and I'm going to settle down.
And they were all pushing eachother and say I want to sit
there and I'm going to do this,and I'm going to do that.
And when they'd finished andeverybody went what's going on?
(03:11):
Why hasn't she said anything?
I waited until there was totalsilence and I said I'm
absolutely amazed you did that.
And they looked at me as ifsaying who did what.
And I said I'm amazed you camein here like that.
This is your last year in thisschool.
You are the senior children inthis school.
(03:35):
I am going to be your teacherthis year.
Not one of you said is it okay,can we come in?
Not one of you asked if I'dprepared the room in a
particular way.
Where is your self-respect?
And at that point you couldhave heard a pin drop, and it
(03:55):
wasn't that I was telling themoff.
I was shocked.
I was shocked because I thoughtwhy aren't they really keen and
engaged?
Because this is the platformfor their life.
They are creating the platformfor their life and yet it's a
(04:17):
battle for teachers.
It's often a battle.
I'm sure it is as well inAmerica that you want to engage
and you are trying to inspirethem, and yet we talk about
discipline and I thought why?
Why have they not gotself-discipline?
They feel that I need to takecharge of their behavior.
(04:38):
And that's where it started.
And I asked a young teacherwhat is it you struggle with in
education?
He said I can get them to dowhat they have to do, but I
can't get them to want to do it.
And that difference betweengetting them to do and getting
(05:00):
them to want to do is what Idecided to focus on.
I expected very high standardsof work and they delivered, not
because I forced them, butbecause they wanted to be the
best they could be, becausethat's what I see in human
beings and that's what I wantedto draw on.
(05:21):
So I wrote my first little book.
Well, it wasn't a little book,it was a letter to draw on.
So I wrote my first little book.
Well, it wasn't a little book,it was a letter to the head
teacher and I called it a shortand simple book for the wise and
it it's just a description ofwhat I believe made my teaching
different.
It was a letter to the headteacher and I sent it to all
(05:44):
sorts of people to see if Icould bring about some change.
Gail Hugman (05:49):
and people used to say thank you that's a very
nice project, you know.
Cindy Mendez (05:54):
Good luck.
But I thought, well, if I can'tchange the system because it's
so traditional in the UK if Ican't change the system, then
I'll go through the parents andI started my one-to-one teaching
service.
When you sit next to a childand they say why should I?
And you really want to tellthem why they should, you've got
(06:20):
to go deep and you've got tomeet them.
Human to human.
You can't.
You know, I could say, becauseyou're not going to get dessert.
It's easier to say you shouldbecause you owe it to your life.
Or and a boy said to me whyshould I?
(06:40):
And I said you know, whenyou're born you think you get
one life, but actually you gettwo.
And I drew a line and at oneend I put zero and at the other
end I put a hundred.
And then I marked it you know,50, 40, 30, 20, 10 and the other
(07:02):
way.
And I said between birth, atzero and 10, you're a child.
Between 10 and 20 nightmare.
Between 20 and 30 you're ayoung adult.
And I went through thedifferent stages and I and I
(07:22):
could feel he hadn't heardanything like this and I hadn't
ever said anything and I saidyour first lie.
I call your natural life, andthat is the same for every
single human being on the planet.
And then you get a second lifeand that I call your world life.
(07:45):
And your world life is yourexperience in the world, and
that is different for everysingle human being, because your
natural life is about you andyour development.
Your world life is like a wholebig banquet of experience for
(08:07):
you to choose what is going tohelp you develop you.
And I always ask the childrendo you want?
You can see that the world isnot quite like it should be.
There's a lot of unhappy peopleand they always say, yeah, it's
terrible.
And I said, well, do you wantto make the world better or do
(08:29):
you want to make it worse?
Why, children, they're sogorgeous?
They always say I want to makeit better.
You can start today, and you canstart by being the absolute
best you can be and only behappy when you're satisfied
You're doing the best you canwith every single thing you do.
And they respond to thatbecause they feel included, they
(08:51):
feel they're helping, they feelthat they can do something.
It gives them a chance to lookat it and say, well, there's
good things.
I don't want to be involved inthe bad things.
I am going to choose the goodthings, because you can learn to
be patient by collecting stamps.
You can learn to be patient bygrowing flowers.
(09:12):
You can learn to be patient bybecoming an athlete, and it is
all about what are you going tochoose in the world to help you
develop yourself, because that'swhat human beings are for we're
meant to grow and develop.
And when you look at naturewhich is what I use as my
(09:32):
reference and I would say to thechildren, if you look out of
the window, how many blades ofgrass can you see?
and then we go oh, millions, andI think how many blades of
grass do you think there are inthe world, and are some of the
blades of grass not trying ashard as the others?
Every blade of grass is tryingto be the best blade of grass it
(09:58):
can be and it doesn't fightwith all the others and it can
push through concrete and it canreally the stamina in a blade
of grass and you can be the sameand they love it.
They love it.
So they respond to that andeach child would trigger another
human thing that would make mesay another magical lesson, like
(10:24):
the two lives.
So I thought parents need this,parents need to know.
Gail Hugman (10:28):
And here I am still doing it no, but it makes
total sense when the way thatyou describe it right it takes
away the duty of education andturns it into like almost a gift
, like almost just giving themchoice and opportunity and
(10:49):
helping them understand there'sa purpose Not many are explained
to.
I mean, I don't think I've everheard anybody give me that take
on education until I was, youknow, in college and it was a
little bit too late of like, oh,you know, maybe I wanted to be
a nurse, but I now I chose otherthings like in, you know, chose
(11:22):
other things like in, you know,middle school and high school.
And now it's a much highermountain to climb, uh, to get to
what you're maybe passionateabout, what you want to do.
And so I think it's so good tohave them understand that that
very base level you're doingthis math problem because it's
not about the math problem, wedon't care how many apples are
(11:44):
there in that problem, it's sothat you can build and use it to
what you want to do in theworld and the good you want to
bring.
So I love that approach andit's so helpful with parents too
, I think our parents listeninghere to incorporate that, not
just for education but forlivelihood with their kids.
(12:05):
You know, following rules athome.
You know you build those skillsfor for a purpose.
Cindy Mendez (12:11):
Well, when you think Cindy into a classroom and
there was a poster on them andit said good listening and it
had images of children with armsfolded, legs crossed, just
sitting.
But that doesn't tell a childwhat good listening is.
But if you've got aneurodiverse child, it may not
(12:34):
look at you, but every child andthis is in one of the books I
always write the stories that gowith the learning and he was
nine years old On one day I saida sentence to him and I said
I'm going to see if your braincan remember things and I want
(12:55):
you to repeat to me exactly whatI say to you.
So I said I put my jacket onand I went out to play.
And so he was looking at methere was only him and me in the
room and and he said I got myjacket and I went out.
So I said no, I want you to sayexactly every word that I said
(13:21):
to you.
So I repeated I might get itwrong now.
I repeated I put my jacket onand I went out to play so he
said I got my jacket and put iton again.
He hadn't repeated exactly whatI'd said and he he laughed when
I pointed it out to him and hesaid I can do it.
(13:44):
So I said well, let's haveanother go, let's see how well
your brain can do this.
You know, it took nine ninesfor him to do that, for him to
slow himself down enoughinternally, but that showed me
what happens inside a child'shead when they're in the
classroom with lots of people.
(14:05):
And when this lesson was over Iwalked through the door and his
father had been listeningoutside and he said to me if I
hadn't heard that for myself,I'd never have believed it.
When we say listen, they think.
If we say, are you listening,they think are you hearing?
(14:25):
And they go yeah, yeah, butthey are not processing the
information because their headsare too busy.
So I teach children aboutlistening and what the process
is, and I've written this intomy hundred things to learn
before you're and so there arelittle things like that, that
(14:47):
parents can try with theirchildren but they don't know how
unless we make them aware of it, Because the world has changed
so much.
Even you know I'm quite old now,but even since you were born
the world has changed a lot.
We've got the World Wide Web,which is affecting brains and
(15:08):
brain development.
We've got the pressure onpeople, but the biggest thing is
the quite fantastic growth ofthe population increases
pressure on resources, on all ofyou know everything on school
places, on everything.
Our old systems are collapsingand breaking down and that's
(15:32):
what we're watching, I believe.
But there's some very excitingyoung people, innovative people
that are beginning to changethings behind the scenes.
I'm very excited about them.
So if I can help parents keeptheir children intact so they
(15:52):
grow the best of human being,that would be a great help.
Gail Hugman (15:57):
There's more hands on practice that's needed at
home, like those examples thatyou gave.
You know, it's just practicewith listening, practice with
staying still for a moment, um,and and just these things that I
think growing up we kind ofwere expected to know and I say
(16:19):
to the children you know whenthey say why are?
Cindy Mendez (16:21):
we going to do math why, algebra.
they hate algebra because whenyou're, when you're born, your
brain is only one thirdprogrammed, if you like.
It's got one third and that isthe unconscious and that has all
the instructions in it formaking you grow and develop and
(16:42):
to keep you safe.
And you know, and I said thereare two other parts to your
brain.
There's one part called theconscious, which is where you
are when you're awake, and thenthere's another part called the
semi-conscious and that's like alibrary and that's the bit
where you do all the thinking.
And when you go to school tolearn something, your conscious
(17:07):
gets bored very quickly becauseits job is to find out
everything new and to show youit doesn't know what's good, it
doesn't know what's bad, it justwants to show you new stuff.
And then your semi-conscious iswhere you put all your learning
.
And so when you have to learnsomething for maths, like your
(17:28):
multiplication tables, orsomething, your conscious will
go.
I'm so bored and I say that's agood sign because then, if you
keep doing it, it will getpopped into your library,
because your brain will say hereally wants to learn this,
because he keeps on doing it, soI'll throw it in the library.
(17:48):
and that's when you say I got itnow and it.
It really helps them toappreciate learning in a
different way and it helps youto say, instead of you have to
do this, how many times have Itold you you have to do this?
It helps you to say what areyou actually trying to grow in
(18:10):
yourself?
Are you trying to grow inresponsibility, or are you
trying to make me take controlof you?
Because I don't really want todo that and the children will
always rise into it.
And so my latest book, whichI've only just published, is
called Making the Pennies Drop.
(18:31):
You know that phrase.
I love it.
When the children, oh, I've gotit now, I said you can see the
pennies drop.
And it's when the children getit and they go ah right, got it.
That is Making the Pennies Drop.
So my book, making the PenniesDrop, is all about how parents
(18:52):
can use everyday activities tomake those pennies drop, and
it's a lovely, easy read.
I'm really thrilled with it.
Essentially, the core skillsthat children need to develop so
that they can succeed not onlyin school but in life.
Gail Hugman (19:16):
Well, that's perfect, and thank you for
sharing the information on yournew book too.
I'll put the link for ourlisteners and the notes and for
your website, and hopefully momscan hear and learn something
from this conversation.
I've definitely learned a lotabout motivation, really, I
(19:39):
think not even just for I mean,I have a three-year-old so
trying to explain to him, but atleast I feel prepared for, you
know, when that time comes, andI think I might learn a lot
about not just my kiddo, butmaybe myself too, you know, and
dealing with people and theworkplace as well, because a lot
(20:02):
of what you spoke sometimes canhelp to like motivate staff,
like give them a purpose, givethem an understanding.
Motivate staff like give them apurpose, give them an
understanding.
So I think there's a lot ofgood nuggets of knowledge that
can be pulled from that.
But yeah, thank you so much andfor our listeners, all of
Gail's information will be downin the notes below and feel free
(20:25):
to reach out and ask anyquestions and check out her
books.
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