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The Shocking Truth About Modern Education Gaps | Renee Vardouniotis DSH #890
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🎓 The Shocking Truth About Modern Education Gaps is here, and you won't want to miss it! Tune in now to join the conversation with Sean Kelly and Renee Vardouniotis, the founder of Mighty Minds Academy, as they uncover the eye-opening realities behind today's educational system. 📚
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A
All right, guys. Founder of Mighty Minds Academy, Renee V. Here today from Philly. Thanks for flying in.
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C
Yes. Awesome. I'm so happy to be here.
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A
Absolutely. Tell everyone about Mighty Minds and what the goal is, though.
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C
Okay, so Mighty Minds Academy is an online platform for children and teens and young adults and adults if they really want to participate. And it's loosely based on the concepts that were in the book Thinking Real Rich, as well as the Thinking to Results program that I was in with Bob Proctor. I was learning so many concepts that I knew were really powerful as an adult that I understood should be really taught to our kids because we could probably, you know, diminish a lot of the anxiety and depression and confusion that our kids are having. So I develop these programs and they're online, and I work with children and teens on their mindset.
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A
Nice. So is it a supplemental thing to school, or is it a replacement?
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C
Yes. I mean, I would like it to be a replacement, but it's not. It's definitely a supplement, a bridge between what our kids are learning in school, the curriculum, and real life skills really is what it is. Nice learning more about yourself because in school, we're learning about everybody else. We're not learning about ourselves. And a lot of times people are coming out of this, you know, intensive academic, you know, how many years we're in academics and not really knowing what they want to do, where they want to go, who they want to be.
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A
No idea at all.
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C
No idea. And I, in my opinion, I feel like the reason why there's been spikes in the mental health, mental health world and with mental illness, depression, anxiety, suicide, is all correlated with the fact that people aren't thinking the right thoughts 100%.
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A
Yeah, it's definitely related. I think Shark Tank and YouTube University really saved me because what I was learning in school, there's no purpose or passion with any of those topics.
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C
No. And I remember back then being like, why am I learning this? Yeah.
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A
Even as a kid you're thinking, as.
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C
A kid, why am I learning this? What is the relevance to my life to learn what a parallelogram is? You know, it's, it's. And it extends from there that it's not just that there's a lot of useful material that we learn, but I feel like it's a lot of just we're being scored on. Learn memorizing, regurgitation, memorizing, regurgitation and whatever grades you get, then you kind of base who you are and what your capabilities are on that score and it's just not a good sign of anyone's potential.
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A
Absolutely. I also don't like how they teach at the same pace as your peers.
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C
Because everyone learns different and in the same fashion. Right. I mean, some people are audi. They need to visual. Some people learn better auditorily, Some people need kinesthetic. And a lot of schools are now, in my experience, really diversifying a little bit with that. But it's not enough. It's not enough.
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A
There were no options when I was in school. Like you were put in the class and that's it.
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C
Yes. Thank goodness we all turned out okay.
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A
Some of us did. No, I look at because I'm about to have my 10 year reunion. I'm actually very curious where everyone's at. So we'll see. Did you go to yours?
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C
It's funny, I did not go to mine because I felt like I already knew what everyone was doing because social media was around. I was seeing people's weddings and they're having babies. And I said usually the reunion is to see what everyone's doing, but I already felt like I knew what everyone was doing.
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A
Were you in a small school or smallish?
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C
I think I graduated in a class of maybe 300 kids.
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A
Yeah, mine had 820, so.
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C
So that's big.
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A
Yeah.
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C
Yes. That's what my children are experiencing. Big. My daughter's going into middle school, so there's 26 sections of fifth grade.
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A
Geez. Yes, that's crazy. The class size is another thing too. Yes, mine was pretty big. No one on one attention pretty much.
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C
Even for children that needed it.
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A
So those kids with the special needs got put in separate classes. But no, if you were in just a regular academic class like it was a 40 minute class with 30 kids, so you didn't really get much attention.
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C
Yeah, it puts you in a box, doesn't it?
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A
Yeah.
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C
Able to do what Johnny's doing because.
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A
I felt a lot of shame just asking questions like I felt like raising my hand. I felt so anxious because I didn't want to be like a loser or whatever, you know?
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C
Yeah. And you don't want everyone looking at you.
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A
Yeah.
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C
You know, or making fun of you. Kids can be really mean.
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A
Oh, yeah. That's when. Yeah, I was mean too. But yeah, everyone was mean to me. It was kind of like a cyclical thing.
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C
Yes. And. And where does that stem from?
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A
Parents?
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C
Lack of self. Love.
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A
Yeah.
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C
You know, I mean, we only project on others what we feel inside.
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A
Absolutely.
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C
So if we're not happy with ourselves, we're always looking to nitpick someone else.
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A
Yeah. So with your kids, are they in public school, both of them?
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C
They are.
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A
Okay. How are they feeling about that?
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C
I think that, I think they're good with it. I. We are in a really good school district. Is the reason why when I moved from New York to Pennsylvania, we were pretty intentional about where my kids were going to school. I don't love what they're learning. I don't find significance in a lot of it or how it's going to help them. But that's why I feel so, so happy that I'm the one that's going to be able to bridge that gap for them. And I'm already seeing a lot of positive outcomes from my work with my children. And it's not even very, you know, scripted with them. It's just, it's just a behavior. It's a lifestyle that I've adopted since I've learned all these concepts that I now see them understanding and, and showing me that they are learning from me without me even teaching them. And that's a really important that parents understand that.
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A
Yeah. That's powerful. Yeah. To be able to learn real world skills as a teenager, that's huge.
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C
Yes.
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A
Because we got taught nothing about taxes or real estate or investing none of that saving money.
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C
No, I mean, we, I think we were taught to write a check, you know, and, and that was that then. But what we're noticing is that with the evolution of tech and just all of the, these amazing inventions in the world, our schools are not keeping up with that. They're not evolving. So I think I saw somewhere where you, you know, you look at cars from the 9th, you know, 100 years ago, they look so different than the cars now.
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A
Right.
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C
You know, because it's evolved and technology's changed things. And then you look at even our phones, you know, going from, I don't know, you're probably too young for this, but the phone on the wall with the, you know, you had to die, the rotary dial and. And now we're carrying computers in our pockets. It's an evolution. But if you look at a classroom from 100 years ago and you look at a classroom now, they look very much the same.
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A
Right. Only thing that's changed is the chalkboard to whiteboard. I'd say yes.
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C
And the whiteboard's wonderful. And now my children both have laptops and iPads that the school provides, which wow. Yes, it's wonderful. But it also reminds you that even though they're learning that curriculum, they're not. Even though they're using technology with that curriculum, I personally feel that it should be used for something in different ways. Teaching them how to. And they are starting to do it now a little bit, teaching them how to code and things like that. But it's not enough yet, you know, to keep up with society and how fast everything's moving.
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A
Right. What do you think a school is banning phones and laptops? Because that's how I make a living. A lot of people I know make a living off those devices.
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C
Yes. Well, my, my district that my kids are in, they don't ban them. They're just not allowed to have them out for obvious reasons. It's distraction and, you know, they don't want you calling during the day and, you know, they're there to learn. But I haven't had any of that by me. I don't know where that's happening.
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A
But yeah, a lot of public schools.
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C
So I think, I don't think that's a good idea because that is how our kids are being raised. You know, I came from a school where. Stop, stop, stop.
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A
Had enough. Kick out mucus and quiet the cough with Mucinex 12 hour DM for long lasting cough and chest congestion relief by Mucinex 12 hour DM at your local retailer.
- [12:07]
C
Uses directed. I didn't have any of that, so. But I didn't need any of it because it wasn't, it didn't exist really at the time. But now our children need to learn how to use technology for the better of their lives. And pretty much born with knowing how to use a cell phone. And I'm pretty much strongly opinionated on this, where I feel like it should be something that's utilized because it's the way life is headed. So when my daughter's doing her homework and she does have struggles in school and she has an iep, so when she's sitting there doing these complicated math concepts that I don't even know how to do, I tell her to ask Siri, I love it. Or Alexa, because why not? Right. Remember when you were in school and you had a calculator and they said you're not going to always have a calculator with you?
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A
A TI84.
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C
Yes.
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A
Yes.
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C
I just had to order one of those for my daughter.
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A
Really?
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C
A ti. Something. But yeah. Yes, we will have. We have them in our pockets, right?
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A
Yeah.
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C
They always have them on our wrists. We have them everywhere. And let's devote our time to learn better and more impactful concepts than what the curriculum states that they want us to learn.
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A
Yep.
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C
So if we could avoid learning complicated math problems that probably won't serve us when we leave school. Instead, why don't we plug it into something to find the answer? That's how I feel.
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A
I agree. Yeah. Soon it'll be in our heads with neuralink. Like, you won't even need a calculator.
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C
Yes. And. And it's just an evolution. And the schools are kind of lagging behind in that.
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A
Agreed. And a lot of them also banned AI, which to me is crazy, man. I use it almost every day.
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C
So do I. It's brilliant.
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A
It's incredible.
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C
If you use it the right way. You know, some people are plugging things in and then they're. It's spitting out answers and they're just copying and pasting without, you know, making it sound like themselves, number one. Or using words that they would use or making it sound more humanized. But the way it's worded and the way it comes up with, you know, concepts and. And words it in such a better way because sometimes you just get a block, you know, and you're like, how do I say this better? And you just plug it in and there it is.
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A
Yeah, I disagreed with that one. I mean, I get it because kids were cheating on tests, but, like, it could help the teachers, too, with grading tests. You could just put a screenshot. I'll tell you how many answers you got right and wrong.
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C
Right.
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A
Because teachers spend hours grading.
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C
Oh, they do tests that. Of information that kids are never going to use.
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A
Right.
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C
It's. It Just boggles my mind.
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A
Like, think about the sat. Imagine if I could just grade all that.
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C
Oh, yes. Well, the SAT is not even required anymore for college.
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A
Oh, really?
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C
No.
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A
What? That was a huge deal when we were huge students. Huge.
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C
And I was not a good test taker. I was a straight A student. I could not take a standardized test for the life of me, so I had to go through SAT courses and all this stuff. And then for grad school, I had to take the gre, so I had to take that a couple times.
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A
Geez.
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C
And I ended up going to NYU because I didn't take GRE scores.
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A
Wow.
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C
It's all the only place I could get in.
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A
That's crazy. Well, NYU is pretty good though, right?
- [15:18]
C
Yes, NYU is, you know, elite. It's. It's where I learned, you know, how to be a speech pathologist. And just the experience of living Manhattan was a blast. Unparalleled. It was so much fun.
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A
Yeah. Manhattan's always a blast.
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C
Yes. Especially when you're in your early 20s.
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A
Oh, yeah. The young energy there is just infectious. Even when I fly there now, I get out the plane and you could just see people hustling everywhere. It's a cool vibe.
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C
It just, every time I visit, I will go just for, you know, go to dinner or something. And I instantly am like, transported back to when I was there.
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A
Yeah.
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C
And it's just such a good feeling. Absolutely good feeling. I had great memories living there and being a student because my friends were working, so I had no money. I was the poor grad student. And we would go out and we would go to happy hours. There's just always something to do. And it's just a vibrant, vibrant city.
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A
So what exactly is a speech pathologist?
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C
So a speech language pathologist is pretty much the field is of, I mean, it's overall communication disorders. So whether someone has a stutter or they have a speech sound disorder, or they, they are social, they have social language challenges, which a lot of the children with special needs do. And, and it's really learning about how to communicate in the best way. So whether it's learning new vocabulary or understanding vocabulary, categorizing things, I mean, it really runs the gamut of goals that you could have for a student. And I've worked with really, really disabled children who couldn't speak, couldn't walk, all the way up to really high functioning autism, where they're really just wanting to learn how to make eye contact and learning how to read people's nonverbal cues and perspective, taking and things like that. So I've kind of combined my mindset training with that. So I started utilizing what I was learning in thinking into results with my students, and I was seeing profound changes in that.
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A
Wow.
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C
Yes.
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A
So even someone with autism.
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C
Yes.
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A
That's fascinating.
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C
Yes, it was wonderful. Because really, all it goes back to is belief. Right? Belief, thoughts. Planting positivity and direction into someone's mind can change everything. And that's with everything, really. I mean, any kind of sport you play or if you play an instrument, anything like that, if you think. If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. So basically, when I see students, some of them hit plateaus, and I didn't understand why. And when I really thought about it, after I was being trained in all these amazing concepts, I said, well, you know, I think they are not believing in them, that they are able and capable to do this. And I don't know where that's stemming from, but I know I can help them fix that.
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A
So is it a confidence thing? A lot of the times, yes. Wow. So it's not really like a genetic.
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C
So genetic, Yes. I think it's circumstantial, you know, if it's confidence or not, But I think if a lot of children aren't feeling inside that they're worthy of. Of speaking the best way that they possibly can, or maybe they had a trauma that caused them to have a speech disorder, which I had a student that. That's exactly what happened. And once I started working with him, he had a severe stutter, and it. It. He was completely fluent before his little brother was born.
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A
Wow.
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C
Yes. So trauma can rear its head in different ways. And this little boy could not get his words out. And his mom said he used to be fluent. I was like, oh, my gosh, I have to learn more about this. This is so interesting. What. What flipped for him? And it was trauma.
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A
So he had a public speaking event and just got traumatized, so.
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C
No, he was traumatized by the birth of his younger brother.
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A
Oh, what? Yes. He, like, witnessed it or something.
- [19:10]
C
He would know. He wasn't. He just. The baby comes home. He's an only child till first grade.
- [19:14]
A
Oh, wow.
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C
Yes. Back in college, he developed a severe stutter. So when I started working with him, I said, you know, Ethan, let's talk about how you're feeling. What are you thinking? Because our thoughts affect our feelings affect our actions, which affect our results. And I felt. I discovered that I was addressing the actions. Right. The therapeutic. You know what I Learned in school. And this is how we treat disfluencies without really addressing how he was, what he was thinking, and his capabilities and how he was feeling about his brother being born. So not that he didn't love his brother, but it was a shock to his system, and it manifested in a severe stutter.
- [19:57]
A
Dang. If I find someone with a stutter, I'll send them your way.
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C
Sure. Well, it's all about learning to intentionally put thoughts in your mind of belief and worthiness. And once you do that, most parents don't realize that, you know, so his mom couldn't really help him.
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A
Right.
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C
So. But once I started working with him, just talking about his thoughts and his capability, and then I started doing the fluency techniques with him, he remediated his stutter in four months.
- [20:28]
A
Whoa. Yeah. I would have never thought it was a mindset thing. So that's. That's good to know, actually.
- [20:32]
C
Yes, it can be. It's not. It's a. Generally, it can be. A lot of times, you know, you'll find kids who stutter when they're excited. You know, it's emotional. So it's really whatever's going through their mind, their thoughts is what's affecting them.
- [20:46]
A
What about lisps?
- [20:48]
C
What about lisps?
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A
Like, are those fixable? Because. Oh, yeah, they sound really annoying.
- [20:53]
C
Yes, they do. So when you're growing up, when you're developing and learning your speech, you. By default, we have, you know, you see kids, they have their pacifier, they suck their thumb. There's a lot of, like, oral fixations that go on. So what that sometimes does is push your teeth out and pushes your tongue forward. So that manifests in a frontal lisp, which is very fixable because it's just a placement issue. But if you hear a child going. When they're saying their sounds, that means the air is going out the side of their mouth. And that's not typical. And that's really hard to remediate.
- [21:31]
A
Wow.
- [21:32]
C
So. But it is about the technique. Where is the air? You know, a lot of visual type stuff. Showing them where the air comes out is how you remediate that. And some people just never. It doesn't bother them, or they just never fix it because maybe they weren't guided in the right way to fix it, and it just becomes a part of who they are.
- [21:50]
A
This is fascinating. Yeah. My dad had severe autism, so this has always been a challenge for him.
- [21:55]
C
Get out of town speaking.
- [21:57]
A
Yeah.
- [21:57]
C
Wow.
- [21:58]
A
He was too direct with people.
- [21:59]
C
Yes. They're very blunt, very oh, man. And concrete.
- [22:03]
A
We've been in some uncomfortable situations.
- [22:05]
C
Yes.
- [22:06]
A
Yeah.
- [22:07]
C
Wow.
- [22:08]
A
Yeah, it was rough. And I'm pretty blunt, too. But he's. He's another level.
- [22:12]
C
Oh, my goodness.
- [22:13]
A
Yeah. I. I didn't even know something like this existed. I would have recommended it to him.
- [22:17]
C
You know, so he. So he grew up with severe autism and didn't have any interventions?
- [22:22]
A
Well, he didn't get diagnosed till 60.
- [22:25]
C
Whoa.
- [22:26]
A
Yeah. So, like, I knew he was different, like, my whole life, but I never knew what to label it or whatever, you know?
- [22:33]
C
Yes, yes. And a lot of people don't. And that's why I think there's a rise in autism numbers. Because years ago, they didn't know what it was.
- [22:41]
A
Right.
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C
So they would label it as mentally retarded or, you know, just low IQ or socially inept or schizophrenic. I mean, the labels that were thrown at people with autism years ago weren't fair.
- [22:55]
A
Right.
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C
But they didn't have another name for it. They didn't understand, why is this person so different? And why are there so many ranges? Right. It's called a spectrum disorder for a reason. Because you could have really, really severely autistic children or adults that, you know, really can't function by themselves, and then you have ones that could have children.
- [23:13]
A
Yep. You're seeing it really commonly in kids now, I heard. Yes, the data is pretty concerning.
- [23:18]
C
It is very concerning. But it's great. We have interventions that can help them. And children with autism can really come out on the other side as typically developing as possible with the right intervention.
- [23:31]
A
Really? What would that look like?
- [23:34]
C
Intensive occupational therapy, sometimes physical therapy, social skills. So social groups where they're practicing their conversational skills, understanding how to follow directions, things like that, and being able to perspective take is huge, because that we need. That's a life skill. Right. So those children that are trained to do these things, you know, can kind of turn into what looks more typically developing.
- [24:04]
A
Yeah. The social skills. That was important for me because I have it, too. And being around people, learning how to talk, I think that played a role.
- [24:11]
C
Absolutely.
- [24:12]
A
My development, for sure.
- [24:13]
C
Absolutely. Is who you surround yourself with. So if you surrounded yourself with others that were, you know, maybe not socially appropriate or things like that, you might have modeled their behavior just because, you know, your environment's everything.
- [24:23]
A
Yeah.
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C
So if you're in. If you're in an environment where you're not being stimulated in an appropriate way, then you could go the wrong way, if that makes sense.
- [24:34]
A
Yeah. You also help people improve their Emotional intelligence. Yes, that's a much needed skill with guys.
- [24:39]
C
Yes, some girls do, but yes, emotional intelligence is something that's not taught in schools. We are, schools are very IQ based.
- [24:49]
A
Right. I wouldn't even call that iq. What they teach.
- [24:52]
C
I don't, I don't either. But we judge. So, so it's funny, I mean, backtrack. We judge our kids based on their iq.
- [25:00]
A
Oh, you judge your kids?
- [25:01]
C
Not me, just society.
- [25:04]
A
Okay. Yeah.
- [25:05]
C
So, right. So if you take this test and you score, you know, whatever above normal IQ, which is what, 1:30 or something like that, then you're put in like a gifted classroom. Right, Right. Or you're, you're having, there's modifications in your regular classroom for you, which is great. But that the children who are falling below that, I think it labels them as lower iq and then that becomes who they are.
- [25:32]
A
Yeah, the standard classes. Right.
- [25:34]
C
That becomes who they are. They, they're not, they're not making the mark.
- [25:37]
A
Right.
- [25:38]
C
So when they're not making the mark, what happens? They go into special ed. But the numbers in special ed are skyrocketing. So it's really interesting to see that if you have a classroom of kids that are learning from One teacher, at one point in the day, about 15 of those kids leave the classroom to go get taught in another classroom. More specialized math, more specialized ela, which is English Language arts. And they get specialized attention based on, you know, what? They didn't do well on a test, a formalized test. So it's kind of a big like bear to tackle because, you know, the kids need help. But why do so many of them need help? Why? It's not because they're not capable. It's because a number is telling them that they're not.
- [26:28]
A
Right.
- [26:29]
C
And it's just not a good representation of their capabilities and what they're able to do.
- [26:35]
A
What do you think the alternative would be then?
- [26:38]
C
A whole overhaul of the curriculum.
- [26:41]
A
Like, are there any topics you think they should keep or do you want to just honestly?
- [26:45]
C
Reading. I hated reading, so I hated math.
- [26:49]
A
Oh, really? Yes, I thought it was decent up until geometry. Yes, I was good at algebra, but geometry and what was after that started with a P, I think.
- [26:58]
C
I don't even remember.
- [26:59]
A
Yeah, that was pre Cal.
- [27:01]
C
Again, nothing to do with my life. So learning all of that and struggling to, to get good grades in, that was hard.
- [27:09]
A
Yeah.
- [27:09]
C
You know, but reading, you know, just being a communication specialist. Reading was always easy for me. English was always easy for me. I am like a grammar. I don't want to say the word, but a grammar not to. I'm like. I'm like. I could pick up on, you know, errors even. Even in my students. And you can really tell who. Whose parents speak to them with proper grammar and who don't.
- [27:31]
A
Oh, 100%. You could see it in the kid.
- [27:33]
C
Yes. And it's very hard to kind of reverse that, because your half hour of speech therapy teaching you about your grammar skills is not going to lend to a lifetime of having great grammar if you're not hearing it from the adults in your life.
- [27:45]
A
Agreed. Yeah. I thought reading was. Was valuable, but the books, I didn't agree with some of them. I. I think it should be more personalized.
- [27:53]
C
Absolutely everything should be personalized.
- [27:56]
A
Yeah. Like, imagine if you could read about books you cared about.
- [27:58]
C
Yeah.
- [27:58]
A
People would love it.
- [27:59]
C
Then you're not dreading it. You're looking forward to it.
- [28:02]
A
Right.
- [28:02]
C
And that's part of growth and learning is. Is appreciating why you're doing it and being motivated to do it instead of being told, you have to do it, or this is the book you have to read. No one wants to do that.
- [28:14]
A
No. Oh, man. Some of those books were brutal. Shout out to Spark Notes.
- [28:17]
C
Brutal. Yeah. And what was Cliff's Notes?
- [28:21]
A
Cliff Notes. That was a good one.
- [28:22]
C
Yes.
- [28:23]
A
If Spark Notes didn't have it, I would go to Cliff Notes.
- [28:25]
C
Why else? What else would you need?
- [28:27]
A
Yeah, but now they have AI, so it's probably even better.
- [28:29]
C
I know. I mean, we're gonna. We're gonna see a lot of changes, I think, you know, with that implementation of. Of AI. It's just incredible.
- [28:37]
A
Yeah.
- [28:38]
C
You can just ask what a book's about, spit it out to you, and then you just say, okay, this is what the book's about.
- [28:44]
A
Yep. There we go.
- [28:45]
C
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe that you. You know, you relate so well to what I'm talking about.
- [28:53]
A
No, I do, but my teacher would make the test, like, so she knew about Spark Notes and clip notes. So all the questions on the test wouldn't be related to the Spark notes.
- [29:01]
C
Isn't that.
- [29:01]
A
She was one of those Karens?
- [29:03]
C
Yeah, she was a Karen.
- [29:04]
A
She was definitely Karen. Yeah. She called me plagiarizing once, too.
- [29:07]
C
What happened?
- [29:07]
A
I got detention.
- [29:08]
C
That was it. That was good.
- [29:10]
A
Yeah. No, I got, like. I thought I changed enough. Enough words, but I didn't.
- [29:15]
C
You didn't?
- [29:16]
A
And she caught, like, few sentences.
- [29:18]
C
So what do you think is the point of all of that? Like, the point.
- [29:23]
A
So dumb.
- [29:23]
C
You Know like the point of, of writing papers.
- [29:28]
A
No point. In Rutgers University we had to write a five page essay every, I think week or something crazy every couple weeks.
- [29:34]
C
Brutal.
- [29:36]
A
I don't even remember what I wrote about. Like I didn't care about it.
- [29:39]
C
Neither do I. And all of that lends to the fact that our kids are still going through the school system, the same one we went through.
- [29:45]
A
Right.
- [29:46]
C
And times are changing. They need to learn more about who they are and what makes them tick because if they don't, that that's what manifests into anxiety, depression, like a life of unhappiness because we don't realize our worth.
- [30:01]
A
Yeah. I feel bad for the teachers too because they must be so bored of teaching the same exact thing every day.
- [30:06]
C
So I don't know if they are.
- [30:07]
A
You don't think so? No, they looked bored when I was in school. I don't know.
- [30:11]
C
Yeah, well, I think when I was in school I didn't, I wasn't inspired by many of my teachers.
- [30:16]
A
Same. None of them stood out to me as not unique characters.
- [30:19]
C
Like not one. And it's sad to me because my mom's a first grade teacher and she has kids even now, valedictorians going to Harvard and they write her letter saying how much she impacted them.
- [30:30]
A
Wow.
- [30:30]
C
And I don't, I can't name one.
- [30:34]
A
Yeah. There was really none I could think of that were so different. They seem to be just in the system.
- [30:39]
C
Right. And I find that a lot in the school systems now. I work part time now in schools. I worked for 23 years in the public school system. And I think the teachers really value their craft and it does excite them to teach what they're teaching. But what happens is they kind of get pigeonholed into. That's all they do when really. There have been some teachers I've worked with that have been a little outside of the box thinkers and noticed that little Johnny couldn't stop moving. So called the OT and said, you know, let's give him a bicycle at the, at a seat or let's have a standing desk. Yes, all of that's happening now.
- [31:17]
A
Okay.
- [31:17]
C
My son needed that.
- [31:18]
A
I needed that bad.
- [31:19]
C
My son would not stop moving. And you know, in kindergarten his teacher thought he had adhd. She said, can he sit and do a puzzle? I said, he does thousand piece puzzles. He's good, you know, but because in school he was just constantly moving and what he, all he needed was a fidget and the fidget spinner, a fidget, something to touch sometimes they have sticky stuff underneath your desk you can touch. They have the cushions that you can sit on that you can kind of like wiggle. Wiggle, wiggle. They have rocking chairs.
- [31:50]
A
Wow.
- [31:50]
C
Balls. You can bounce on all that. It's that. That was really something that made my heart so happy to see, because we're not all meant to sit in a stiff seat all day.
- [32:02]
A
Definitely not. Oh, man, those seats were brutal.
- [32:05]
C
Brutal. Especially if they were attached to the desk.
- [32:08]
A
Oh, I hated those. I was too tall for those.
- [32:10]
C
You couldn't even move.
- [32:11]
A
No, you were stuck.
- [32:12]
C
Yes, you're. That's it. You could not move. I mean, it's almost like punishment.
- [32:17]
A
No, it literally is for eight hours. Yes, Eight hours a day. And gym class was a joke.
- [32:21]
C
Yes.
- [32:22]
A
They need a revamped gym.
- [32:23]
C
I think so, too. It's. They're getting better. I think if you go into schools now, it's a little more evolved. But, yes, I agree with you. And I think it also matters. It matters who the teacher is. Right. So if you have a really innovative teacher, you're going to have a great gym experience.
- [32:38]
A
My gym teacher was £400.
- [32:41]
C
Well, that's not motivating, is it?
- [32:43]
A
Definitely not.
- [32:43]
C
No.
- [32:44]
A
We didn't do much.
- [32:45]
C
No. Did. Were you. Did you like sports or anything?
- [32:48]
A
Loved sports. But gym class, no one cared. So, like, we would just stand around for 40 minutes, you know, so it sucked. And then lunch. Oh, my gosh. I look back at what we used to eat, and it's disgusting.
- [33:01]
C
I packed. I never bought.
- [33:02]
A
Oh, you were one of those.
- [33:03]
C
I was one of those my son now buys because he prefers to have, like, something hot. And they've really revamped that a little bit, too. I think Michelle Obama had a really, you know, good idea with that and, you know, just making our kids aware of what they're ingesting and, you know, balancing what they're eating. So they have gotten better with that.
- [33:24]
A
Okay, I'll have to go to my old high school and see if they change because, oh, my gosh, what they gave us was criminal slop. Criminal, yes.
- [33:32]
C
Jail food.
- [33:33]
A
Literally jail food. It was probably almost the same quality, if I had to guess. It was so bad.
- [33:38]
C
Awful.
- [33:40]
A
What else are you working on? What's next for you?
- [33:43]
C
So Mighty Minds Academy is really my baby. It's been a labor of love and just creation to really break down important concepts for our youth that they can. They can ingest and apply to their lives. So I have topics, you know, that range for. Range from even what is mindset, because that word is a buzzword and no one really knows what it is to, you know, techniques for, for loving yourself and understanding your worth to emotional intelligence, goal setting, which is a big one because all of these concepts are the basis of a fulfilled life. And I think the sooner we can, everyone can hop on the bandwagon with this, the sooner that we're going to see a shift in mental health and understanding. You know, we're not going to tackle the education curriculum. It's too big of a mountain to move right now. But we can supplement it.
- [34:41]
A
Absolutely.
- [34:42]
C
And make sure our kids, or even adults, to be honest, are learning about who they are. Because we are our kids role models. They're watching us. They're not listening to us, they're watching us. So if they're watching our every move and we're not showing them that we love ourselves, not showing them that we set goals and we take incremental steps to reaching them, not showing them that we're intentional about our thought process, that we, that we respond, not react. Right, that's what they're going to model and that is how they are going. It's going to be passed down through generations. So it's time that we break that mold of not understanding who we are as adults because it's our responsibility really to pass on the best version of us that we can to our kids. It's really important.
- [35:32]
A
Absolutely. It definitely is. I share the same vision with you. We'll link Mighty Minds below. Thank you, people interested in joining.
- [35:38]
C
Thank you. And I love hopping on calls with people just to talk about, you know, because everyone's struggling, Sean. Everybody's struggling. I mean, there is. If you're not struggling in this area, you're struggling in this area. So, you know. But what is important is that we invest in ourselves and learn about who we are in order to help our kids with the same thing.
- [35:57]
A
Absolutely.
- [35:58]
C
Because we can't give out what we don't have.
- [36:00]
A
Yep, perfect. We'll link it below. Thanks for watching. Thanks for coming on, Renee. Thank you guys. Next time.
- [36:10]
B
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