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- [00:00]
Dr. Christy Bach
You're never happier than your saddest child. So imagine you have a child who has something going on and you do not know what it is and you do not have the answers. Well, we come into the picture either through the school districts or private evaluations, and we give them the answers. And not only do we give them the answers, but we give them path forward. We give them that roadmap that they need to be able to support their child.
- [00:24]
Narrator
Dr. Christy Bach is a compassionate educational psychologist and the founder of Cornerstone Educational Solutions. Drawing from her journey of overcomin undiagnosed dyslexia, she empowers students, families, and educators with the tools, advocacy, and support needed to help every learner thrive with confidence.
- [00:42]
Dr. Christy Bach
The education tends to be same old, same old. There's not a lot of change.
- [00:46]
Jason Tyler
There's not a lot of innovation, right?
- [00:48]
Dr. Christy Bach
No, there's not. I think a lot of it is schools not necessarily giving the students what they need because the schools don't have the knowledge of what they need. And that's why I say we disrupt. I mean, what we do with the way we do evaluations, we're disruptors. We are changing the way evaluations are being done.
- [01:10]
Podcast Intro Voice
It spans the globe like a super high cold Internet. Elvis Presley. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over until I win. The Living your Legacy podcast. For those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan Open Chicago with the lead, Usain Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream.
- [01:43]
Jason Tyler
Welcome back to another episode of the Living youg Legacy podcast. My name is Jason Tyler and today I'm joined by Dr. Christy Bach. Welcome. Thank you, doctor.
- [01:54]
Dr. Christy Bach
Thank you.
- [01:55]
Jason Tyler
How are you doing today?
- [01:56]
Dr. Christy Bach
Doing great, thank you.
- [01:58]
Jason Tyler
So you just wrapped up filming your episode with Kofi. How are you feeling now on the other side of it?
- [02:03]
Dr. Christy Bach
Good. Relieved it's over. It was great. It was fun. It was fun to be able to kind of articulate all these pieces of my life, my story, the business, kind of all putting it in one.
- [02:20]
Jason Tyler
So what are some things that we're going to learn about you in your Legacy Makers episode? What can the viewers look forward to?
- [02:26]
Dr. Christy Bach
Well, they can look forward to the fact that this is truly missional for me. It's a part of who I am. Not really just it started as a business to make money, but it's turned into kind of who I am. Starting as a learning disabled student with dyslexia and turning into that's the population we serve. We serve the students with disabilities. So it's. It's been a very cool evolution.
- [02:56]
Jason Tyler
Got you. Got you. And so I heard in just in the name of your company, you're in the education space.
- [03:01]
Dr. Christy Bach
We are.
- [03:02]
Jason Tyler
So talk to me a little bit about, you know, some of the ups and downs in that space. What are. What are some of the things that you're dealing with on a daily basis, man?
- [03:10]
Dr. Christy Bach
You know, in the education space right now, it's the. It's crazy how much anxiety, how. I've been a psych for 28 years, and so I have watched it go from, you know, where autism was never even discussed, and now we're diagnosing autism constantly. And I would say since COVID we have seen such an elevation in the anxiety that students experience. It's insane, and it's real, and there's just not a lot of support for them because it's kind of new to a lot of the pieces of education where we haven't really had to deal with it that much in the past. So, you know, kind of re equipping ourselves to be able to deal with this rise of anxiety, depression, social. Emotional concerns in general has been a bit of a challenge, but it's rewarding because underneath all of that anxiety are kids who really, you know, they're amazing kids, and we just need to kind of get past a lot of this.
- [04:14]
Jason Tyler
So there's a. We. There's a. There's this strange dichotomy of, you know, in the past, you wouldn't see as many diagnoses of autism, of, you know, these social disorders or mental disorders or whatever, what have you. Now we see a lot more of them. And the first thing that people jump to is, oh, there's a rise in, you know, autism. There's a rise in all of these things. Something must be wrong. But is it just a rise? Because we're now. We. Now we know what to look for, and so we're actually properly diagnosing what before may have been overlooked.
- [04:50]
Dr. Christy Bach
Yeah, that's actually a really great question. And it's something that I think a lot of people have had to kind of struggle with. And so being in this space for the last 28 years, you absolutely are seeing a rise in everything. Everything is going up. And, you know, I think back to when I was a kid, we didn't have kids who were, you know, labeled as much. And I think it's more. There's a bit of this that is. We're now. We now know what to look for. And we now are giving it a name. So adhd, you know, there was just the hyper K, you know, and there was back. If you, if you go back to the one room school houses back in the day, the teacher always had a pot of coffee in the back of the room and she. And because ADHD kids, stimulants actually calm them down, it's the opposite of what it would be if you weren't. So if you drank a big cup of coffee, you're kind of buzzed while ADHD kid would be calmed down. So that back in those days they, they would give the kids coffee. So back in our. My day when I was young, you know, it was just the hyper kids. It was just those kids that would like run around and needed to run constantly. So I think part of it is we are naming it more. But there has absolutely been a massive increase in autism. That is just one of those things that. And anxiety since COVID those things have seen significantly increased and those are due to environmental. There's a lot of different things that have kind of created that issue right now.
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Jason Tyler
I think you may have inadvertently just helped me self diagnose myself with adhd because I'm just now realizing I'm like, so that's why coffee doesn't affect me, right?
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Dr. Christy Bach
Yes. Or do you ever drink an energy drink and you're like, I don't get
- [06:45]
Jason Tyler
energy from it or the only, the only energy. You know what, I don't even know if I want to shout them out because they're not a sponsor of this podcast. But the only energy drink that I do notice gives me like a boost in energy is Celsius, but that's because it's like a billion grams of caffeine.
- [06:59]
Dr. Christy Bach
You know, my sons were drinking that the other day and we're in the kitchen and both of my sons are adhd and like coffee does not even begin to affect them. They. It actually calms them down. And, and they were commenting that about the Celsius. There's got to be something in that, that kind of.
- [07:15]
Jason Tyler
There's. So there's a, there's a. I can't remember the name of the chemical, but there's a chemical in Celsius. It might be L. Theanine, something that, that causes you. So it's the same, it's the same thing that's found in pre workout that I don't know if you're. I mean, if you know anybody that works out and they take pre workout, certain pre workouts will make you feel itchy and that's a reaction to L. Theanine. Something to do with your nerve endings. Interesting sparking up. I don't know the science behind this. Don't. Don't nobody crucify me. I'm not a scientist, but I do know that that is found in Celsius as well. So I think maybe that's the thing that gives you that sort of whatever
- [07:54]
Dr. Christy Bach
it was they both were saying, and both of them like ADHD big time. And they both were saying that that's something that works for them. So who knows? But yeah, it is the opposite of what you think. A lot of our ADHD kids, you know, you can address a lot of it, especially if it's not impacting them that much in, like, the classroom or anything.
- [08:13]
Jason Tyler
Yeah.
- [08:13]
Dr. Christy Bach
A lot of times you could just address it by, you know, either caffeine or, you know, accommodations, you know, have breaks and those kinds of things.
- [08:22]
Jason Tyler
Got you. Got you. So what are some. What are some things that you are doing in your business to, you know, expand and help these kids? You know, you're an educator.
- [08:33]
Dr. Christy Bach
Yeah.
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Jason Tyler
You're also a doctor. So talk to me a little bit about the, you know, your doctor program. My dad's a psychologist as well. He's. He's the IOC representative for Jamaica, so he does sports psychology. Super, super cool job.
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Dr. Christy Bach
Really neat.
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Jason Tyler
But talk to me a little bit about the education piece and what you're doing in the community.
- [08:53]
Dr. Christy Bach
Yeah, we're definitely so cornerstone is educational psychologists. We also have speech paths and OTs. So we're evaluation. So we're really into the. The diagnostic side of it. And it's. It's very different than traditional psychology. Most people think you just sit here on it, you know, and that it's regular psychology, but it is very, very different. And what I love about what we do is, you know, so when it's your kid, it's hard to watch them struggle. What do they say? You're never happier than your saddest child. And that's true. It is absolutely true.
- [09:32]
Jason Tyler
Wow, that's an amazing quote. That's my first time hearing that.
- [09:36]
Dr. Christy Bach
If one of my kids I know is struggling, it's always weighing on your mind. So imagine you have a child who has something going on and you do not know what it is and you do not have the answers. Well, we come into the picture either through the school districts or private evaluations, and we give them the answers. And not only do we give them the answers, but we give them path forward. We give them that roadmap that they need to be able to support their child. And so it's a huge deal to what we're serving the parents, but the community in general because we're helping out school districts that are down staff or they have a psych on leave and we're able to then step in and partner alongside of them to be able to support these kids and to be able to get them the evaluations they need in order to know where to go.
- [10:26]
Jason Tyler
You touched on school districts there. I want to get your opinion on just kind of the state of schooling as it is right now. I know, you know, I have plenty of friends that are teachers and they're like, man, these kids are uncontrollable these days. You know, the, the kids, they don't, they can't learn, they can't read. What's your, what's your kind of general prognosis of what's going on in schooling nowadays?
- [10:49]
Dr. Christy Bach
It's, you know, it was interesting when we were doing the, the show, I. The education tends to be same old, same old. You. It. They. There's not a lot of change.
- [11:00]
Jason Tyler
There's not a lot of innovation, right?
- [11:02]
Dr. Christy Bach
No, there's not. And that's why I say we disrupt. I mean, what we do with the way we do evaluations. We're disruptors. We are the way evaluations are being done and kind of the format that most of the schools are used to. And that's important for us to be able to have places that come in and do disruption. Because education is firmly rooted in tradition and it's just the way it is. But it doesn't have to be that way. It's not better for kids. I mean, if you think about like the whole language and the. It's just a debate within education for reading. It's the phonics or whole language? Well, there's a lot of us who were raised on a certain type and struggle with reading. And it's just this pendulum goes back and forth and, and it always stays within that. Well, what about. If it's something different, why aren't we trying other things? And so, you know, all of these behavior issues and man, and the anxiety and the depression and all of these school avoidance issues that we're seeing now. It really, it's, it's. I think a lot of it is schools not necessarily giving the students what they need because the schools don't have the knowledge of what they need. And so, you know, we create these big bureaucratic systems that are supposed to come in and like you know, speak into everything that you're supposed to do, but it doesn't always work that way.
- [12:24]
Jason Tyler
And it doesn't always. It's not really a one size fits all kind of situation. It's. It's very tailored like. Like the ideal situation for me. Like, I did. I did great in school. I was, you know, I was two GPA points under the valedictorian of my high school.
- [12:39]
Dr. Christy Bach
Impressive.
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Jason Tyler
Top 2% in math in my SATs. Like, I was. I was. I was great at school.
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Dr. Christy Bach
Okay.
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Jason Tyler
And then I got into college where I had a lot more freedom.
- [12:47]
Dr. Christy Bach
Yes.
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Jason Tyler
And I was like, oh, I don't actually like doing any of this at all. I was doing it for survival back in school, because it's just what I had to do. But now I'm in college and I have autonomy and freedom.
- [12:59]
Dr. Christy Bach
Yeah.
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Jason Tyler
Talk to me a little bit about, like, the structure of schooling as it is. Right. Why aren't we, as a society thinking about ways to restructure? We have all of this new technology. I mean, in the year of our Lord 2025, there's.
- [13:17]
Dr. Christy Bach
It's crazy.
- [13:18]
Jason Tyler
So many systems that we could build that could be a better thing. Why aren't we taking more of a nuanced approach to schooling?
- [13:27]
Dr. Christy Bach
I think that there are some innovators. There's a. In California, where we're predominantly charter schools, so they're kind of, like, able to be a little bit more innovative. But education in general, and when you get these big districts that, you know, there isn't really any. I mean, they'll try and there'll be some funding for something. It all comes back to money and. But we're not teaching kids. I laugh because you said you did so well. And the whole time I'm thinking, I'm like, well, I graduated high school with a 1.6 grade point average. Average. Heck, yeah, man. But I did. I hated school. And I'm, you know, I was undiagnosed dyslexic. And so it's one of those things that we train kids to have that structure. You, You. You go to school at 7:45, you do this, you do that, and they're never able to. Able to be free thinkers. They're never able to think outside of the box to be able to go. So then they get to college and they're like, holy crud, I can sleep in. Well, I'm gonna sleep in and miss my class. Or I could do this. And so, unfortunately, we're not really preparing kids for that next step in their Lives, even though we think we are. You know, I have a daughter who. It's her freshman year in college right now, and she did extremely well in school, like national law, all of these things that she's supposed to do. Well, that's great for high school, but, like, in college, it's like, well, okay, I have to be able to think outside of the box. I need to be able to problem solve, and we're not giving kids those skills. So there's a lot of charter schools and a lot of schools that are trying to kind of move through that, where, you know, there's even entrepreneur type or high schools now where they're. Where they're championing students who want to be entrepreneurs, trying to cater to those students who do think outside of the box. Because I'm an entrepreneur and I was never, oh, let's stay within my nice little box. Point A to point B. I was the one that went from here to here to here to here to here. And I got in trouble for it. So in school, I got in trouble for kind of giving into the way my brain works because it's not the normal. But yet in real life, the way my brain works is awesome because it allows, like, me to problem solve. And I've been able to disrupt education and be able to do things that I've been able to do because I think so differently. So it's. It's just, we need to encourage that in schools so. So that our students can get out there and do things with the way their brain truly works as opposed to being kind of kept in this little space that's not beneficial for them.
- [16:01]
Jason Tyler
I'm a firm believer in people taking the time like college. I believe it's such a formative time. We talk about high school and grade school as formative years. I'm a firm believer that college is a time for you to know yourself, know what works for you and learn. But for some people, it's very difficult to figure out, oh, all right. I'm, you know, I'm an adult now, or I'm just becoming an adult. I'm a young adult, and I. I don't really know what works for me. Like, this is what worked in high school. But that's not going to carry over to the real world.
- [16:34]
Dr. Christy Bach
Yeah.
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Jason Tyler
In most scenarios, I'm a believer that most kids should actually take a gap between high school.
- [16:41]
Dr. Christy Bach
I love that.
- [16:41]
Jason Tyler
College.
- [16:42]
Dr. Christy Bach
Yep.
- [16:42]
Jason Tyler
Because in that gap time, maybe work a job, you know, go out there, try some stuff, figure out what's working for you and Then go into college with that knowledge, know yourself first, and then learn whatever it is that's going to take career.
- [16:59]
Dr. Christy Bach
Absolutely.
- [17:00]
Jason Tyler
What's your take on that?
- [17:01]
Dr. Christy Bach
I completely agree. I think that we, you know, you take kids from high school and then you send them away to school and.
- [17:10]
Jason Tyler
First time. First time out of the nest.
- [17:11]
Dr. Christy Bach
Oh, yeah. First time out of the nest. And, you know, do you know that most people who get their first job in life, like, as, like post college, have never worked a day in their life? Like, most kids don't have jobs. A lot of kids don't have driver's license anymore. So it's. It's one of those things that I personally think we're coddling way too much. And we're. We're, you know, kind of clearing the path. The path so kids don't have adversity so that they'll do their best well. Then they get into life and life smacks them. And it's like, good luck with that. How. I mean, they're not. They don't have the problem solving or the experience to know what do I do when this happens? Or what do I do? Because they've never done it. And so I agree. I think it's a very, you know, we're trying to figure out who we are in college, but if we aren't giving them the opportunities to be able to really have true life experience, we're kind of shortchanging the kids in many
- [18:08]
Jason Tyler
ways, because college is kind of like a manufactured autonomy.
- [18:13]
Dr. Christy Bach
I like, that's a really good way to say it.
- [18:15]
Jason Tyler
You're. You have autonomy. Kind of like you're. But you're. There's still the insulation of like, you know, you might be staying in the dorms and you're. You're in the world, but you're like, kind of in a bubble that is in the world. Y. I think most kids should, like, right after high school, you should probably just, hey, here's an introduction. This is the real world. This is a job. This is what that's like. Oh, this is.
- [18:39]
Dr. Christy Bach
Get a job. Like, work for the first time in your life.
- [18:42]
Jason Tyler
When I got out of high school, my first job out of high school, I was a mechanic for like five years before I. Before I ever touched a camera. And my dad got me, you know, a job working as a porter at an Acura dealership. And then they needed a technician, so I. They said, super cool. They put me through the schooling to do that, and then I got my master certifications and all that stuff. But then I Looked around and I was like, all the master techs are in their 60s and they have carpal tunnel in their hands and I want to be able to play catch with my kids. So I'm going to switch careers. But like that, that life experience is so valuable, unbelievably valuable.
- [19:17]
Dr. Christy Bach
And unfortunately parents think they're doing kids a favor by not making. We're gonna focus on our studies. Do you know that there are so many studies that kids who work during college have way higher grade point averages because they learn how to manage their time. They learn that okay, I have to wake up and do this and have a test the next morning. I probably, oh, and I have to work after that. I probably shouldn't stay up drinking all night long. So I mean it's just one of those things that we're trying to insulate them and let them focus on what they need to focus on. But it's the worst thing you could do. That life experience you got by being a mechanic, being able to do those kinds of things that prepared you so much more for life. And we don't think like even college sports. I laugh because my son played D1 hockey. I laugh at how much parents are like they're going to go and they're going to, you know, we're gonna, they're gonna get a scholarship and they're gonna do. We focus so much on that with all these parents who put a hundred percent into their kids sports and live vicariously through their kids. But yet their kids, when they get to college, most of my son's friends from his hockey team, they didn't graduate because it is so hard to manage your time to be able to play a high level sport, to be able to go to practices at 6am to be able, I mean there's so many things. Oh, oh yeah. And you gotta keep your grades up. Oh yeah. And if you're not doing well, you need to then go to a mandatory which when, where? And we just, it's, it's funny because we expect so much of these kids but yet we're not giving them the tools they need to be able to succeed.
- [20:55]
Jason Tyler
So that's exactly what happened to my sister. My sister, my sister played soccer in high school. She won nationals. She was widely recruited from across the country. She could go to any school she wanted to, to get, she was getting scholarship offers from all over the country. And as soon as it came time to go to college she was like, I, I, I can't do this. Like I'm not gonna. And Meanwhile, my parents. My dad is a huge soccer fan, so my parents were like, jd, you have to do this. You have to do that. Soccer should be the only thing that you're focusing on. And then as soon as it was time for her to autonomy, she's like, I don't want to play soccer anymore.
- [21:29]
Dr. Christy Bach
Well, because they're so burnt out. Yeah, they're so burnt. I mean, I remember these kids that had so, like, way better talent than my son did. They're like, I don't want to play. They're like, I'm done. And so it is definitely one of those things that, you know, we do burn our own kids out, and we're not giving them the tools they need to be able to succeed.
- [21:46]
Jason Tyler
We are not. Well, you are giving the kids.
- [21:49]
Dr. Christy Bach
We're trying.
- [21:50]
Jason Tyler
We're trying the tools that they need to succeed. Dr. Christie, one more time for the audience. Can you let us know where we can find you, where we can follow you, all your socials, things like that?
- [22:02]
Dr. Christy Bach
Sure. I'm Dr. Christie on Instagram and I think also Facebook, but I don't pay attention. I am.
- [22:11]
Jason Tyler
Who pays attention to Facebook?
- [22:12]
Dr. Christy Bach
I know it's core. I know my kids always say, mom, you're old.
- [22:15]
Jason Tyler
When I go on business, I just use it. I just use it for ads. I know.
- [22:18]
Dr. Christy Bach
Well, that's exactly the only thing. It's to have good groups.
- [22:20]
Jason Tyler
That's true.
- [22:21]
Dr. Christy Bach
Marketplace. But then I'm on. I have Dr. Christy, YouTube. I have cornerstoneducationalsolutions.com. you can go on our website. There's. So for parents who aren't sure what to do, please go on our website. There's so much free content on there about every sort of disability, every. Anything you can think of. And we also have digital courses on there. So when I always say one, the most important thing is for parents to be educated, to be able to walk into these meetings equipped with the right weapon, you know, no knowledge. And so there's some digital courses on there that are definitely able to kind of cut through all the noise and focus on what needs to be learned. So that's all on my website.
- [23:06]
Jason Tyler
You know, it's. It might sound cliche, but knowledge is power.
- [23:10]
Dr. Christy Bach
It's true.
- [23:11]
Jason Tyler
Such a true statement.
- [23:12]
Dr. Christy Bach
It's true 100%.
- [23:15]
Jason Tyler
Guys, make sure that you go and check out Dr. Christie's episode on Legacy Makers. And with that, that is another episode of the Living, your legacy podcast. I will catch you guys in the next one.