Latest / SkyTalkDoc / E273 Is the Education System Going to Crumble?
Transcript
- Kohila Sivas: Kohila. Kohila is yes, Kohila. Dr. Michaela: Kohila. Okay. Okay. Kohila, welcome to the Sky Talk Doc podcast. So excited to have you today. We are going to talk about child development. And I have four boys, one biological, three that are bonus. And so this is a a great topic in my household. you know, kind of always looking at the way in which we're approaching the dynamics of childhood and development. So I would love for you to share with the listeners a little bit about what you're doing in this sphere and what we're gonna talk about today. Kohila Sivas: Yes, thank you for having me and thank you for listening. So I have been an educator for over twenty-six years now. So I've left the education system about fifteen years ago and started my own coaching methodology that and now I have certified over 400 plus educators and coaches who use the methodology all around the world. So my understanding really started from my own childhood and how I learned and how I was stuck. Unable to learn and how there was no help for people like me when we get stuck and blocked with daily and living situations or anything that we're going through. There's nothing that's taken it into account when we're in school, right? We show up, they think we're ready, and they present us the curriculum and we we are expected to start learning, right? That's kind of how our system is set up. Dr. Michaela: Have so many thoughts on this. I mean, I'll just I'll just start by, you know, my my bio kiddo, he was in public school, then he was homeschooled, and then he went to a private school and he re-entered the public school system as a sophomore this year, which w you know came with a lot of trepidation and also a lot of excitement because of the accessibility to different recreational things and extracurriculars as well as AP classes. But you know, one of the things that I found most exciting, at least in the public school systems on the West Coast is that after COVID, this is something I didn't know until this year. After COVID, they gave access to all students for the lunch program. And I thought that was so fantastic because it always bothered me that kids were at different levels with that. Some kids had no lunch and some kids did. So, you know, I've seen the ways in which having awareness about these These different things and these different dynamics that play in the household system impact the learning environment. That's just one example of that. And I've been so impressed to see how somebody took the initiative to bring it up to the state level, the senate level, whatever, and make that change where all students were having access to healthy meals that they can, you know, g keep their brain juices flowing during the day when they're learning because who knows what they have going on at home if mom didn't get her paycheck that week or or wasn't able to make the rent or whatever. They they shouldn't everyone should have equal access. And, you know, this also extends into the learning environment. We don't know what's going on at home. I worked as a as a counselor in the psychotherapy field on site at the schools for quite a few years. And, you know, what what is happening behind closed doors before the buses ever arrive has a great impact on the kiddos. and how they're learning. You know, if we are in a fight or flight state with our cortisol, you know, being activated at home, being yelled at right before we're leaving to come to school, our brain isn't in the right mindset to even be able to handle the input of data that's coming in. So regardless of how good the quality of care, of education, of availability or access is at school, what's happening behind the scenes is just as important. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Kohila Sivas: Yes, you just said everything I wanted to say because because no, because we we assume readiness, right? We assume that this human body is ready to learn. That was the assumption the school system made when they created the system. And then there was no space for to even ask, is the system ready? As you mentioned, food is one of them because we are a biological living system. This is a body that's operated by many different systems. So how can you just expect Me or other kids just to show up and be ready to just receive and start performing and then grade me on it and then give me a report card on it and then make me feel bad, right? 'Cause sort of like it's a it's a failing system, you think about it. Dr. Michaela: Or or test me on a day where I've just come from a a a night of no sleep because of something that played out in my household or whatever, or that my little brother was in the hospital for something that's out of my control and now I'm expected to, you know, be judged on this ability to function the next day without consideration. Yeah. Readiness, right. Kohila Sivas: Yes. That's why I always say is it is are we testing the ability or the availability, right? Sometimes we're not available, right? And that that means Dr. Michaela: So good. So true. Kohila Sivas: that in that on those days, you're gonna test me or you're gonna ask me to perform and I will be showing no ability. So then I will be labeled and then I will have other sorts of, you know, things that will be thrown on me, right? So this is what I noticed as well, 25 years of in the system. And as a person who tried to end my life during the age of twelve, I decided that there has to be something missing here, right? Like there's something missing here. Like I I wasn't like you you could have put the world's best expert beside me. or best teacher even in my when I was 12 year old, I wasn't there to learn. I was deciding how to end my life. Like I was thinking about how to end my life. So I took all of that into consideration and I said, you know what, my our students need a phase of readiness. There has to be prerequisite to us asking them to perform. There has to be a space where we have to give them to get ready to perform. So then when we give them that space and time, Anyone can perform. There's no like you have the best genes or you're the smartest person. There's nothing like that. Everybody has the capacity to do it, but we need to make sure they're ready. So that is what my Dr. Michaela: You know. Kohila Sivas: methodology is all about, is getting k kids or adults or anyone to get ready to perform. Go ahead. Sorry. Dr. Michaela: I love that. And you know, one of the things that I noticed too with the, you know, like I said, my my bio kiddo has been kind of sheltered from the public school system. And so as an active involved mother, him coming into that, I wasn't taking it lightly, right? Like I'm I'm researching and investigating and learning about all of these different things so that I can best support him at home when he's walking into this new environment. which is notably a lot larger, et cetera. And one of the things I I had a meeting with the school counselors before he entered. Actually I had a couple of meetings with the school counselors. And one of the things I was really impressed with is the switch to culture and you know, creating a sense of community at the school level on the public school system. Now I knew the private school did this, right? There's there's a very tight knit culture at the private school level. But I was really impressed to find the first two days of school, they were gonna be doing a school rally. The teachers just do a get-to-know, students are introducing themselves to one another, nobody's bringing backpacks, there's no expectation for homework. It's a let's just get to know one another and learn this environment. And that alone can set a child up to feel welcome, to feel safe, to feel like they have a support structure in place if things go off the rails or sideways. And I was so impressed to hear that there was that major shift in the way that the public education system was f was kind of navigating back to school and navigating all the anxiety that goes along with that. Especially Kohila Sivas: Yeah, yeah. Dr. Michaela: because these kids have just come off of three months with their home system. And no school intervention, sometimes no friendships that they were able to maintain over the summer. And so this is a really nice way that they're bridging that gap. And that definitely did not exist when I was in the public school system. And we moved around a lot when I was a kid. So I I was thrown into a brand new school every couple of years and having to make new friends and go through all of that. So I thought that that was, you know, really fascinating and and quite a good positive shift. The other thing that I wanted to touch on, and I know we're kind of like rapid-firing this podcast today because we had some technical difficulties, but the other thing I wanted to touch on is the fact that the education system, in my opinion, has kind of failed to consider some of the biology of the way the human body works. we're not intended to sit for hours on end. We've created that world for ourselves, but children especially. Are not structured enough mentally to be able to sit and do that. I was really disappointed to hear, even when my son was in public school at a young age, they had 20 minutes to eat. I mean, looking at the way obesity levels have risen, right, in our nation, and knowing scientifically there is a one-to-one from your brain not having time to process the fact that you have now consumed food. And your brain is working on what it needs to do to process that food to signal that you're full, right? In 20 minutes, if kids are cramming food down, they don't even have time to let their body digest. And then we're gonna turn around and give you 10 minutes to run around, which is absolutely, completely backwards. They should run around first and then eat. Not the other way around. Not eat first, then go run around. That is completely backwards from a from a s you know, not not only just a psychological standpoint, but also from a physical standpoint. And and then we say, okay, now you run around, your your gut is full, you've now pumped your adrenaline. Now go sit still for an hour in your classroom. I'm still really shocked that that is something that we are asking kids to do because I don't know many adults that could handle that exact dynamic. If I told anybody sitting at a cubicle right now, anybody In America, this is what you're gonna do. You're gonna go cram down 20 minutes worth of you're gonna cram down food, a chicken, chicken nuggets, a chocolate milk, and a big thing of apples. You're gonna cram that down. I'm gonna make you run circles or do some jump ropes, and then I'm gonna make you go sit back at your desk. Very few adults could even handle that. Your thoughts Kohila Sivas: Yes. Dr. Michaela: on that? Kohila Sivas: Yes, absolutely. So the design is not not designed for a human being, right? It's it's it's it's actually it's by You know, when they decided to create a system, they were not looking at it to have humans come out as humans. They wanted workers and they wanted obedient work workers. So it it served the purpose, but we're not we're not there anymore. We have more consciousness now. So it's about time to redesign stuff, right? And then that's why I always say the foundation is missing. Foundation is the prerequisite which is getting getting anyone ready in the state to learn. Because learning is a state, right? We don't just We don't just snap our finger and say, okay, let's go. It is a state. This is a biological system, as you said. So we have a biological system working for us, working against us, and then there are variables that are bombarding the system. So we need to take into consideration all of that before we ask somebody to perform and demand output from that. system, right? So that's why I'm putting this in the front and it has worked with any of the people that we work with. It works so so amazing because even teachers, right? We go take them through programs. Right now I have two schools, one in the US and one in Canada, piloting our program as a prerequisite. Even the teachers see a big shift in the way that they are interacting with their students because nobody needs a stress system in front of them, right? Like system meaning this body. You don't need you don't want me to be in front of you all stressed out. Because that then induces onto you all of my stress. Right? Dr. Michaela: Well, you brought up two very important points. I think the the first one that I'll touch on it because I want to spend more time on the second one. The first one is, you know, we also don't need teachers that are thrown into these environments to have to deal with the fallout of the home systems that are not maybe not as healthy as they could be. And that definitely is a point. I've seen some recent studies coming out on some shifts that have been made in this and how it is positively impacting classroom dynamics, behavioral health concerns, et cetera. You know, even teachers that have been accused of being aggressive or angry or strict or blowing up or having emotional dysregulation, you know, coming into check because their environment is also more peaceful and more calm. But the second point that you touch on that I think is so critical is the consciousness, right? We are recognizing the system was structured in an industrial revolution to pump kids out by the bell. We are learning now that that is not acceptable to us, that we are sovereign beings who deserve to have. a beautiful quality of life, whatever that might look like. And we're not settling for the status quo. We're not settling for the narrative. We're not settling for the books that were produced in the eight late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds to, you know, kind of create workers, as you put it. And I think that's the even bigger part of this. I feel like finally, I mean, I've been Like I told you before we came on, eight years doing this podcast, I remember having a pediatrician on and having a similar conversation to this eight years ago, and it received so much backlash that episode. And now, you know, in a short amount of time, eight years later, people are ready. They're ready to receive this information. And and I think there was a cognitive dissonance that's like, this is how my my parents did it and how my grandparents did it, and this is how it goes. People started to push back and go, but why? you know, let let's look at the reason for which we created this situation. And you know, I learned about these various programs in the European Union and I feel like they are, you know, kind of quicker to to test run, to pilot these things. and, you know, they have the kids rather than just doing a lunch, they actually have a a cooking and learning class and then they eat in it. And that requires a lot more work, but they found that the kids that were coming out from that small sect that was studied are much better prepared to navigate life. They, because they're learning how to cook, they also were less obese. So, you know, there's there's just so many ways to approach this. And I love that you are f you are tackling this because I feel like when we're looking at a systemic situation, right? We We have these micro perspectives and these macro perspectives and how do you tackle something this big, you know? So I love that you've created a foundation that starts with the educators. That's so powerful. what are you what are you seeing in terms of people that are willing to kind of embrace this? Are are they are they open-minded or are you getting a lot of pushback? Kohila Sivas: No, the people I talk to are ready because also school systems are ready because they are failing, even though they have brilliant ideas. I always say everything we have is beautiful. Like we are so experts in so many ways, right? We have thousands and thousands of strategies. Everything will work if the system is ready. Nothing will work if this system is not ready. And we have many, many, many students and teachers are not ready at the moment. Right? So bless you. So so we Dr. Michaela: Yeah. Kohila Sivas: have a problem and as soon as we can all say, you know what? We have ignored that this is a human being, especially now we can understand because AI is coming in. You have something for speed. You don't need to create this human into a speed machine. You don't need to do that. Right. Dr. Michaela: Mm. Kohila Sivas: So we have two worlds colliding right now. This is the perfect chance to fix the system where it doesn't have the foundation, which is the readiness. When we put in the readiness, I've seen it already proven it. And by December, I will have two districts fully proven out this readiness inside of the school system. If we implement that, everybody breathes. Everything should start to flow. You know, the state of flow is the state of learning. So go ahead. Dr. Michaela: I was just gonna say I love your point. It's a unique perspective which I have not heard before, that it is the perfect foundation that AI is here because we don't need to recreate the speed. We can add the humanity back into the dynamic. And I love that. I hadn't heard Kohila Sivas: Yes. I was waiting for it. I was waiting for a period like this. So people can say, What about the speed? Well, we do have a machine now, so we don't need to make me a machine, right? Dr. Michaela: Right. I love that perspective. There's one other thing I want to touch on before we go, and it's a hot topic. I've I've stood my ground on this since my son was in kindergarten, and that is homework. And let me Kohila Sivas: Yes. Dr. Michaela: let me present my backstory for why. I s I un very unhappily sent my child into the public school system when he was five years old into kindergarten. After being a very active mom, taking him to every museum within a hundred miles, every, you know, art, art program, every everything that I could get him into and get him involved in. I am asked to work from eight to five, and then I get my free time. But we ask a seven-year-old who's in the third grade or in the second grade to work from eight to three thirty and then come home and continue to work. We don't say go enjoy your family, go enjoy being out in the garden with your mom, go enjoy being in the garage with your dad, go enjoy laying on the couch and petting your animals. We tell them work more, stress out, be afraid you're gonna get bad docket points if you don't have your homework complete, if everything is not done. Why has the system not figured out how to use the eight hours a day, which is all we demand for adults? To be on, why are we demanding young children to do their eight hours and then go do more? I feel like that is fundamentally completely wrong. And I can tell you, in Central America, not only does school end after, and granted, we could argue that they don't have the advanced education systems and that they're, you know, less intelligent on the IQ scales or whatever, but they they go to school, they get a two-hour break. To go home and have lunch with their families. And then when they go home, they're done. There's no homework. And I cannot get my head around this dynamic where we are demanding children sit at a dinner table, scarfing down food while trying to do math problems after having spent eight hours. If you have my kid for 40 hours a week, figure it out. You don't get any more of their time. That's my time. What's your thoughts on that? Kohila Sivas: So I'm gonna go back to the readiness, right? So we have systems that are not ready. So that means there is going to be a whole bunch of that eight hours regulating everyone else. Even if your child is regulated and if they want to learn, there's a whole bunch of people who are not ready to learn. So we're dealing with that, number one. Number two, we have a curriculum that we need to push through no matter what. No matter what. So on the other side, the teachers have this curriculum that they need to check off, check off, right? So they're being told to push it. So if something got delayed, then they need to send that somewhere else. So that comes to your home, right? As homework. So Dr. Michaela: Wow. Kohila Sivas: so so the change is first is the foundation needs to change. Until the foundation changes, we don't care what else changes up here. Because a lot of people change a lot of things up here. Who cares? The foundation is still not right. It's laid wrong. It's broken. So anything you build up top is just a crumbling. crumbling building, right? And that's exactly what's happening to the education system right now. It's it's crumbling and they don't know. And as soon as they admit that we are crumbling, we can fix it. There is a fix. And especially at this time, as I said, the AI is here. It can do a lot of the administrative, lot of the manpower that it uses human time, and then really focus on human the way it needs to be focused on and get the humans ready first. Why are you forcing curriculum onto people you know they're not ready. Dr. Michaela: Wow, a house of cards built on sand. You know, that was kind of the the Kohila Sivas: Yeah. Dr. Michaela: imagery that I was getting as you were talking. And I think that's such a good point. And and then as you're speaking, I'm feeling like the hopelessness, right? Like, wow, this is a big dynamic that needs to be shifted. let me ask you, let me Kohila Sivas: It's not working. Dr. Michaela: ask you a maybe a hopeful question and and on a little bit of a positive note. Is there a system, a school, a program that you see working in process? primo fashion to address all of the different things we've kind of talked about today. Is there is there any pilot school that you're seeing it work well? Kohila Sivas: There are, but they're still missing the foundation. And when I say it's the foundation, they think it's just breathing in the morning, right? I'm not talking about just simple breathing. You know, just we all breathe in the morning, we have a breathing exercise, we all meditate, we all do yoga. I'm not talking about that. We need to really know how the system gets ready, and we need to start looking at it as individual people rather than a crowd of 30 kids or 20 kids. It doesn't work that way. Humans don't work that way, right? Dr. Michaela: Yeah. Kohila Sivas: So there are people who are doing these new schools where they're like letting the child lead, where they could to gig they get to pick what they wanna learn. The curriculum is not rigid, they can design it according to their you know what they are interested in, what they love, where they wanna go, which is great because the curriculum is starting to come apart, which I like. That's one thing. We've been rigid, right? We gotta learn this, we gotta learn this for what? Many students ask us, why am I learning this? And then we just say, because I have to finish my curriculum. Dr. Michaela: Yeah, but we're not gonna teach you how to do your taxes though. Nope, not that part. You know, it's Kohila Sivas: That listen. No. Dr. Michaela: funny because I watch these we w we see these movies sometimes that are, you know, set in the like 1400s or whatever, right? The depiction of how it was and the kids are just running around in the field tending to the sheep and and picking blackberries or whatever they're doing. And you think about how simple that life really was. How you know, they learned what they needed to learn to live in the environment in which they lived in. And it seems like we've kind of created our own trap, right? We built our own trap. We created a material world that requires high education to function, survive, and succeed. And then we said, Okay, and a lot of you are not gonna cut it. And so here you go. You know, now you don't have the fundamentals and the foundation that you need to be able to feed yourself because we created a system where only so many people are gonna make it. And then Kohila Sivas: Yes. Dr. Michaela: that ties into the drug problem among every other thing and all the mental health issues that we see. What a fantastic episode that we had today. I really wish we had more time because there's so many other things I still want to talk about. but I feel like we covered the basis and we'll have you back on when we have a little more time. How can people find more about your program, maybe an educator that's listening to this? Where can they learn about what you're doing? What's the best place for them to go? Kohila Sivas: Yeah, my website is a very good place. LinkedIn with my name, just like spelt here, is a good place. I always publish a lot of things. I'm gonna be talking on the TEDx stage on January ninth, twenty twenty seven in Italy. Dr. Michaela: Congratulations. Kohila Sivas: So watch that on YouTube when they do put it on. other than that, I'm Cohila Civis across everywhere. I'm a global public figure, so you can find me anywhere. And we are starting to put our program into two schools that are piloting. So you will see a lot of the readiness coming into your school too, because it is the missing link to education, and it has to be part of it. Otherwise, we do have a crumbling system that's not going to survive the next generations to come. So, and my website is holistic success codes with the W. But I will have it in the show notes. I'll give you all of my website. But if you search Kohila Sivas, I'm all over the internet. Dr. Michaela: I love that you took a potential end-of-life story and turned it into what it is. I'm I'm a big lemons to lemonade person. I actually say lemons to lemon tart, lemons to lemon cake, lemons to whatever you might make, but you have done a fantastic job. And I feel like, you know, in this earth school that we're in, we've all been given these hardships and these dynamics that really funnel us into our life purpose and meaning and for whatever we signed up to do in this journey this time. So thank you for for your efforts in, you know, tackling a really global problem. It's it's fantastic to see people standing up for what they know from their own lived experience, which I think is so much more powerful than anything that you could read in a book. So thank you so much for coming on. Kohila Folks, you can always find everything about our guest by checking the show notes. Please do follow up with her and check out that TED Talk coming out in January. Congratulations. Kohila Sivas: Thank you. Thank you.