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Is School Too Stressful on Kids? · Millennial Mental Health Channel

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Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:59
Speaker 2: So, Eddie, do you work in schools. How much do
2:03
Speaker 2: you see school as a big stressor for young people?
2:06
Speaker 2: Do you think it impacts their mental health?
2:08
Speaker 3: It's the stressor And if you haven't picked up on it,
2:11
Speaker 3: we're talking about school, school pressure today, school stress And
2:15
Speaker 3: I'm not even trying to be funny. It is it
2:18
Speaker 3: is the pressure for kids. I was just talking to
2:21
Speaker 3: someone earlier this week who had mentioned like right now,
2:23
Speaker 3: the school is the biggest thing stressor in their life.
2:26
Speaker 3: When I worked in community mental health, like as you
2:28
Speaker 3: kind of get into the field and you get you know,
2:30
Speaker 3: years under your belt, you've probably seen this too. There
2:33
Speaker 3: is an ebb and flow of when four specifically for
2:37
Speaker 3: teens and school age children, there's an ebb and flow
2:40
Speaker 3: of like when things are tough and when they get
2:42
Speaker 3: a little easier, and when they come back. For me,
2:45
Speaker 3: when I was in community mental health, I started in September.
2:48
Speaker 3: I actually started on nine to eleven, twenty seventeen. Of
2:51
Speaker 3: course around never forget sorry September twenty seventeen, hella busy,
2:59
Speaker 3: like so like we just jumped straight into it. Like
3:02
Speaker 3: right as I started my my new job. I got
3:05
Speaker 3: to like November, kids started to get to Thanksgiving break,
3:09
Speaker 3: got to winter break. Things slowed down a ton, like
3:11
Speaker 3: you know, we're getting some cancelations. Before that, it was
3:14
Speaker 3: like every assessment that was scheduled, they showed up. There
3:17
Speaker 3: was never a no show. You scheduled kids for therapy,
3:21
Speaker 3: no shows were very limited. So it was busy. You
3:24
Speaker 3: get to January, kids are back from winter break. You
3:27
Speaker 3: give it a few weeks and then it's a you're
3:29
Speaker 3: right back to it. It just spikes again. You go
3:32
Speaker 3: end of January, February kind of into March, until you
3:35
Speaker 3: get spring break. You're back to it and it's busy again.
3:38
Speaker 3: And for you know, big reasons for that is the
3:39
Speaker 3: wintertime's pretty hard. I live still and work in Oregon.
3:42
Speaker 3: A seasonal effective disorder is a real thing, for sure,
3:45
Speaker 3: but that time of the year it can be really
3:47
Speaker 3: difficult for kids. You don't see the sun consistently for
3:50
Speaker 3: a while. Then you hit spring break, then you get
3:52
Speaker 3: to April May, school's ending, We're out for summer. Then
3:56
Speaker 3: it's like a lot of the problems are gone for kids,
3:59
Speaker 3: and again it's it's tired, I think specifically to school.
4:01
Speaker 3: So that's really what I started to pick up on
4:03
Speaker 3: it that this was like the most stressful time. And
4:05
Speaker 3: when I worked in the hospital for about a year,
4:07
Speaker 3: in a few months, I didn't notice it as much.
4:09
Speaker 3: It was COVID, kids were online in school, it's just
4:13
Speaker 3: a different time. But then I started working in a
4:15
Speaker 3: high school and it was it's it. The school is
4:18
Speaker 3: the stressor, and I know it varies school to school
4:21
Speaker 3: depending on requirements and things like that. But school, for sure,
4:25
Speaker 3: I'm very confident in saying can be the stressor for
4:28
Speaker 3: a lot of kids. When you really break it down,
4:30
Speaker 3: I work at a school forty hours a week. These
4:33
Speaker 3: kids are at school forty hours a week, and then
4:35
Speaker 3: they got other stuff to do. I can just go
4:37
Speaker 3: home and do whatever it is that I need to
4:39
Speaker 3: do and that. But these kids will essentially have a
4:41
Speaker 3: full time job in school, and then a lot of
4:44
Speaker 3: them will have extracurriculars, part time jobs, responsibilities that then
4:48
Speaker 3: add up to another part to full time job. So
4:52
Speaker 3: these kids are, you know, like the investment bankers or
4:55
Speaker 3: the lawyers or the emergency room doctors that are working
4:58
Speaker 3: eighty hours a week. Not to say the kids are
5:00
Speaker 3: doing the same thing job wise, but stress wise and workwise,
5:03
Speaker 3: they're putting a lot of hours in. So yeah, all
5:07
Speaker 3: that roundabout way to say, yes, I think is the
5:10
Speaker 3: answer to your original question. School is and can be
5:15
Speaker 3: the main stressor and major stressor for a lot of
5:17
Speaker 3: kids and teens.
5:18
Speaker 1: I'm seeing the exact same thing.
5:20
Speaker 2: We got this idea for the show because I see
5:22
Speaker 2: it ebb and flow throughout the year two and we
5:25
Speaker 2: just got past the Christmas season. We got past the
5:28
Speaker 2: end of semester and my clinic just gets slammed.
5:32
Speaker 1: No one's doing well.
5:33
Speaker 2: Everyone's stressed, anxieties to the roof, depressions through the roof.
5:36
Speaker 2: And so I always ask in my anxiety screener questions,
5:41
Speaker 2: what's the thing in life you worry about the most?
5:44
Speaker 2: And nine times out of ten it's school. Kids are
5:47
Speaker 2: saying it's school, school, school. There's maybe some family stressors,
5:50
Speaker 2: there's lots of trauma in this world, but school is
5:52
Speaker 2: the number one answer I get.
5:55
Speaker 3: So.
5:56
Speaker 2: Also, I just read that book Stolen Focused by Johann
5:59
Speaker 2: har and in that he talks a lot about the
6:02
Speaker 2: school system in our country and other countries. He's mostly
6:05
Speaker 2: talking about through the lens of ADHD medications and how
6:09
Speaker 2: we medicate so many kids in this country and how
6:13
Speaker 2: essentially other countries and other school systems. And I'm going
6:16
Speaker 2: to talk a lot about Finland, So buckle up. If
6:19
Speaker 2: you hate Finland, do nout now.
6:21
Speaker 1: But those going to.
6:23
Speaker 2: The next episode, Yeah, Finland. I don't think I've ever
6:27
Speaker 2: really met anyone who hates Finland, but they're a very
6:31
Speaker 2: neutral place. But places like Finland, other school systems throughout
6:36
Speaker 2: the world, have much less stress on kids, allow for
6:40
Speaker 2: more movement physical movement, allow for more exploration and less memorization,
6:46
Speaker 2: have a lot less standardized tests, a lot less homework,
6:50
Speaker 2: and they have a better school system than us based
6:53
Speaker 2: on actual test results.
6:55
Speaker 1: So it's like we.
6:56
Speaker 2: Create an environment for these kids that is not healthy,
7:00
Speaker 2: and we have examples of other systems that we can use,
7:04
Speaker 2: and we're just not doing it. We're putting so much
7:07
Speaker 2: stress on kids.
7:09
Speaker 3: Other places are better at stuff than.
7:11
Speaker 2: Us, what except for except for drug use and addiction,
7:16
Speaker 2: we are number one better.
7:19
Speaker 3: As you talked about your clinic and getting busy, I'm
7:22
Speaker 3: curious on what your take is and what your experience
7:24
Speaker 3: has been like for us. In the school, we see
7:27
Speaker 3: a big increase in families and students wanting to get
7:30
Speaker 3: their kid either involved with special education or with Section
7:34
Speaker 3: five be four if you're familiar. It's like part of
7:36
Speaker 3: the American Disability Act, right, But a lot of the time,
7:40
Speaker 3: not a lot of time for us, And I don't
7:41
Speaker 3: know if it's the same in every school. We need
7:43
Speaker 3: some kind of medical statement that like says, like what
7:46
Speaker 3: the problem is? Do you get a lot of those
7:47
Speaker 3: at the start of the school year, and like at
7:49
Speaker 3: different parts of like trying to get an ADHD diagnose,
7:52
Speaker 3: not trying to get sorry, that's a bad way to
7:54
Speaker 3: say it. Like trying to get documentation of an ADHD diagnosis,
7:58
Speaker 3: trying to get documentation of like depression or anxiety diagnosis.
8:02
Speaker 3: Do you see that specifically? I never. I feel like
8:04
Speaker 3: it's a lot of kids will go to a pediatrician, right,
8:09
Speaker 3: They're not always going to be specialized medical doctor like
8:12
Speaker 3: a psychiatrist. But what's your experience with that? Totally?
8:16
Speaker 2: I get those all the time. I write those letters
8:18
Speaker 2: almost every single day, and it does ebb and flow
8:20
Speaker 2: throughout the year when school starts again and parents are like,
8:23
Speaker 2: we've really struggled with school in the past, We've maybe
8:26
Speaker 2: got this diagnosis of ADHD over the summer, Like I
8:29
Speaker 2: really want them to get off on the right foot.
8:31
Speaker 2: So if we can get that IEP process going the
8:33
Speaker 2: Individualized Education program or a five oh four. So yeah,
8:36
Speaker 2: I'm writing a lot of them because it's it's small
8:39
Speaker 2: amounts of work for me just to write a letter
8:41
Speaker 2: to say like, Hey, I'm the doctor, I've been officially
8:44
Speaker 2: diagnosed to this patient with X, Y and Z. I
8:47
Speaker 2: do think they would benefit from an IEP, please please
8:49
Speaker 2: do that process with it, and so it's easy for
8:52
Speaker 2: me and it gets it could change that kid's life
8:55
Speaker 2: to get them extra resources in school, get them feeling
8:58
Speaker 2: better about school.
9:00
Speaker 1: That is just such.
9:01
Speaker 2: A win win to get kids the help that they need.
9:04
Speaker 1: I love that.
9:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think what's hard too is that, like, and
9:09
Speaker 3: I don't know obviously, I just have one school experience
9:12
Speaker 3: other than my own high school. But to your point, like,
9:14
Speaker 3: it really can change someone's academic life of being able
9:18
Speaker 3: to get them extra support that they need because oftentimes,
9:21
Speaker 3: and I get this too from the teacher side of it,
9:23
Speaker 3: like a lot of teachers are overworked, underappreciated, underpaid. It's
9:27
Speaker 3: hard to give every student additional accommodations, even if they're informal.
9:33
Speaker 3: And so if a student who struggles maybe with ADHD
9:36
Speaker 3: anxiety depression comes to you and is like, can I
9:38
Speaker 3: have extra time on this, it can be really hard
9:41
Speaker 3: for a teacher to say yes without the official documentation.
9:44
Speaker 3: Getting that can really change somebody's life academically and can
9:48
Speaker 3: help them a lot. And to your point, it doesn't
9:50
Speaker 3: take a lot of time on your end, right, you've
9:52
Speaker 3: already done the hard part of the diagnosing and working.
9:56
Speaker 3: That's just I've been curious. I haven't asked you so
9:58
Speaker 3: that I appreciate your insight. I've always wondered.
10:01
Speaker 2: I think the most interesting cases that I see are
10:04
Speaker 2: the kids with a really bad social anxiety, like the
10:07
Speaker 2: kids who are deathly afraid to raise a hand in class,
10:10
Speaker 2: to ask their teacher stuff or separate themselves from anyone else.
10:14
Speaker 2: It's so hard for them to just have basic communication
10:18
Speaker 2: with teachers that if it's written into a five oh
10:21
Speaker 2: four or an IP so that the teachers just do
10:24
Speaker 2: it automatically, like give them extra time so that they
10:27
Speaker 2: don't have to ask for it individually and specifically every
10:30
Speaker 2: single instance, that can be huge.
10:32
Speaker 1: In their academic performance.
10:34
Speaker 2: So that's the one where you don't necessarily think of
10:36
Speaker 2: It's like, obviously people with ADHD and intellectual disabilities, yes
10:40
Speaker 2: they need resources in that extra time. But even the
10:43
Speaker 2: people and young people with severe anxiety, they can really
10:47
Speaker 2: benefit from an IEP or a five all four. It's
10:49
Speaker 2: it's really advantageous.
10:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well, what else we go? I if the
10:54
Speaker 3: US is not the best, who was in front of us?
10:57
Speaker 3: Because I don't I don't believe this.
11:00
Speaker 2: According to US News the countries that have the most
11:03
Speaker 2: quote unquote well developed school systems in the world.
11:06
Speaker 1: And this is based on some standardized testing and.
11:09
Speaker 2: Things and systems that they have done, which we will
11:12
Speaker 2: discuss a little bit more. But number one Denmark, number two, Schweden,
11:16
Speaker 2: number three, the United Kingdom, number four Finland, so Finland's
11:20
Speaker 2: number four. Five is Germany, then Canada, Norway, Japan, Switzerland,
11:25
Speaker 2: Australia that's Australia, not Australia, and Netherlands, and the United
11:30
Speaker 2: States comes in at number twelve.
11:33
Speaker 3: Good old US of a baby, number twelve. Let's recite twelve.
11:38
Speaker 1: Number twelve.
11:39
Speaker 3: Isn't that wild? Did you have to do that? Growing up?
11:41
Speaker 3: Everyone just stood up and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
11:44
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, every morning?
11:45
Speaker 3: Yeah. Why.
11:46
Speaker 2: We also used to have to do like the Christian
11:48
Speaker 2: Pledge too, because I went to a Christian school and
11:51
Speaker 2: so I can't even remember what it was at this point.
11:53
Speaker 2: You know, it was, yeah, we had to pledge allegiance
11:56
Speaker 2: to the Christian flag.
11:59
Speaker 1: So yeah, we got to do all that kind of
12:01
Speaker 1: stuff growing up.
12:01
Speaker 2: But it's changed a lot now, it's a lot different.
12:06
Speaker 1: All right, I'm going to google.
12:08
Speaker 3: It, pump into the next points while you google, so
12:13
Speaker 3: a lot of people do argue even though in this
12:15
Speaker 3: list's number four, a lot of people argue that that
12:18
Speaker 3: Finland actually has the best kind of school system in
12:20
Speaker 3: the world. So according to the World Economic Forum, here's
12:23
Speaker 3: how Finland schools are different from the US, and there's
12:25
Speaker 3: some very key points. Number one is that Finnish teachers
12:28
Speaker 3: are highly trained and respected professionals. Not that ours aren't
12:31
Speaker 3: highly trained, but I would argue that our teachers are
12:34
Speaker 3: not as respected as they should be. And a lot
12:36
Speaker 3: of the Finnish teachers hold a master's degree in education,
12:38
Speaker 3: which a lot of ours do to, but again the
12:40
Speaker 3: respect in the pay is definitely not there that the
12:42
Speaker 3: teachers deserve. Number two is that Finland's education system emphasizes
12:47
Speaker 3: equity over excellence, of providing equal opportunities to all students
12:51
Speaker 3: of their background or abilities. I think in the US
12:54
Speaker 3: schools we preach and talk about equity. It's a it's
12:56
Speaker 3: a good buzzword, but do we do it. I don't
12:59
Speaker 3: know school long enough. And the final point that I'll
13:02
Speaker 3: make is that there is no standardized testing in Finland.
13:05
Speaker 3: Students are graded individually by their teachers, and overall progress
13:08
Speaker 3: is mapped by sampling groups of schools. Big difference from US.
13:12
Speaker 3: I don't know what it was like. I know you
13:13
Speaker 3: were in California for a good junk, so we both
13:15
Speaker 3: did like the California Star testing. I don't know what
13:18
Speaker 3: Wyoming stay testing was like, but I know here in Oregon,
13:20
Speaker 3: I think it's called the Oak Test or whatever. A
13:23
Speaker 3: lot of standardized tests, a lot of that stuff going around.
13:26
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, here in Wyoming it was paused proficiency assessment
13:31
Speaker 2: for Wyoming students growing up. And now it's the why
13:33
Speaker 2: TOP And I know they change it all the time.
13:37
Speaker 2: And I have kids talking to me all the time.
13:39
Speaker 2: They're like, well, wh why TOP testing is coming up?
13:42
Speaker 1: So more stress.
13:44
Speaker 2: They talk about it all the time. It's like a
13:46
Speaker 2: major issue.
13:48
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, they think of it like this. You're getting
13:52
Speaker 3: a day of school taken away, which is maybe not
13:54
Speaker 3: the worst. And then you got to sit in a
13:55
Speaker 3: room and just bubble think how much Yeah, school has
13:59
Speaker 3: changed where like we're like more you know, kids are
14:02
Speaker 3: walking around with their laptops, they're writing things, they're collaborating
14:05
Speaker 3: all these like cool technological better ways, technologically better ways
14:10
Speaker 3: to do school. And then you got to sit down
14:12
Speaker 3: and bubble that's okay, that's old old school.
14:17
Speaker 2: That's it's too old these bubble t's.
14:21
Speaker 3: That's number two on the list. You don't want to
14:23
Speaker 3: hear number one.
14:24
Speaker 2: Well, now I'm curious. Well it's number one.
14:27
Speaker 3: I'll say it for later. To go back to Finland
14:31
Speaker 3: the list.
14:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, tell us, Finland routinely outperforms the United States and
14:37
Speaker 2: Eastern Asian countries and measures of academic outcomes such as
14:41
Speaker 2: the Program for International Student Assessment. So this is the
14:45
Speaker 2: measure that they actually use for math and science. The
14:48
Speaker 2: USA is usually middle or bottom of the pack every
14:51
Speaker 2: year in this too.
14:54
Speaker 3: The article in World Economic Forum argues that many too
14:57
Speaker 3: many standardized tests just teach us a kid to cram
15:00
Speaker 3: for tests, which is I think kind of how a
15:02
Speaker 3: lot of education has seen for a lot of kids
15:05
Speaker 3: and learn for that test specifically, instead of actually finding
15:08
Speaker 3: something interesting and learning on your own. There is a
15:10
Speaker 3: lot of just cram, regurgitate, forget that happens so often.
15:16
Speaker 1: Totally.
15:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, Finland's got a very holistic approach to school. In
15:20
Speaker 2: that book I mentioned earlier, Stolen Focus, Johan Hari also
15:23
Speaker 2: explains that learning in Finland involves a lot shorter school days.
15:28
Speaker 2: There's usually fifteen minutes of exercise and movement for every
15:31
Speaker 2: forty five minutes of learning.
15:33
Speaker 1: There's no homework.
15:35
Speaker 2: They want you to have a good life, and that
15:38
Speaker 2: usually makes you a better student too.
15:41
Speaker 1: It's that holistic.
15:42
Speaker 3: Approach, man, so much better. Already sounds great, right, yeah?
15:48
Speaker 3: Others If it didn't sound great yet, here's a few
15:51
Speaker 3: more things. All students also get free meals regardless of
15:54
Speaker 3: their social situation. There's access to counseling, access to free healthcare.
15:58
Speaker 3: They also emphasize non college options, which I think for
16:01
Speaker 3: a lot of kids in the US can be really hard.
16:03
Speaker 3: I think, you know, college always ends up being like this,
16:06
Speaker 3: like number one on a pedestal type situation. But it's
16:10
Speaker 3: really not all that is cut out to be for everybody.
16:12
Speaker 3: So it's important that kids have as many options as
16:14
Speaker 3: possible because there's a lot of great Bible and successful
16:18
Speaker 3: options available. Some of the things are that school starts
16:20
Speaker 3: later around nine to nine forty five, which, man, if
16:23
Speaker 3: we started like nine to nine forty five, we got
16:25
Speaker 3: a lot less kids yawning and exhausted, and just think
16:29
Speaker 3: of it this way. Let me just here, I'm gonna
16:32
Speaker 3: give you a sample schedule for a child. This is
16:36
Speaker 3: probably just a combination of kids that I've known over
16:38
Speaker 3: the years. Say that you're in the a cappella choir.
16:42
Speaker 3: That's a zero period class. That shit starts at seven thirty,
16:44
Speaker 3: so you're at school seven to twenty. You're getting to
16:48
Speaker 3: school around the same time I'm getting at school and
16:49
Speaker 3: I worked there seven twenty eight thirty, you got your
16:53
Speaker 3: first class or seven thirty to eight thirty, first class,
16:56
Speaker 3: You go through your full day, you get out at
16:58
Speaker 3: three twenty. You're in the capella choir, so you naturally
17:02
Speaker 3: are also in the musical. Musical rehearsal is from you
17:05
Speaker 3: get a break, but then you rehearse from five o'clock
17:08
Speaker 3: to seven thirty. You get home, you eat dinner, and
17:11
Speaker 3: then by the time you're done eating dinner winding down
17:13
Speaker 3: for the day, it's eight thirty. Now you got homework
17:16
Speaker 3: to do. You got homwerk to do. You don't go
17:18
Speaker 3: to sleep until midnight one o'clock, and you're back at
17:21
Speaker 3: it right after that. Like that, that's tough, and the
17:24
Speaker 3: time we start is way too early. I know we
17:26
Speaker 3: started to push it back, at least in our school district.
17:28
Speaker 3: From what I've heard, historically we've pushed it back, but
17:32
Speaker 3: now our school start time, it's still really early for
17:34
Speaker 3: a lot of our kids for sure.
17:36
Speaker 1: And Eddie, how much do you love it when old
17:38
Speaker 1: people say it.
17:38
Speaker 2: These young kids are lazy, these.
17:42
Speaker 3: I fucking hate that shit. Here's what I'll tell you. Look,
17:44
Speaker 3: here's here's the thing that I've thought about. God damn it,
17:46
Speaker 3: justin you got you fucking all right. I get it,
17:51
Speaker 3: you got me. I can like understand from someone's perspective,
17:55
Speaker 3: an older person or even even people our age, are
17:57
Speaker 3: people who've been out of high school for for a
17:59
Speaker 3: decent a time. I get it when people are like, oh,
18:02
Speaker 3: every year, every year when we get to high school
18:04
Speaker 3: graduation time, there's people always joking like, oh, high school,
18:07
Speaker 3: it's the bare minimal blah blah blah. Congrats on doing
18:10
Speaker 3: something that ninety percent of people do. Fuck you, man,
18:13
Speaker 3: high school can be really hard. High school is already difficult.
18:16
Speaker 3: That's a weird fucking time in your life. Think about
18:19
Speaker 3: when you're fourteen fifteen, Every day was weird. Every day
18:22
Speaker 3: was hard because all these things are changing, You're going
18:24
Speaker 3: through a bunch of shit, and it's just a weird time.
18:26
Speaker 3: You got acne everywhere, you got chest hair. Now for
18:30
Speaker 3: the first time, I'm just talking about me. You know,
18:32
Speaker 3: you're doing all these things, are changing in your body,
18:34
Speaker 3: You're learning new things about yourself, You've getting different interest
18:37
Speaker 3: in things. All that shit is happening, and then you
18:40
Speaker 3: got to go play football at the end of the day,
18:42
Speaker 3: or then you got to go do your homeworker, then
18:44
Speaker 3: you got to go talk to people. And it's just
18:46
Speaker 3: a weird ass time in your life. And then you're
18:48
Speaker 3: supposed to pass your classes and get through it. And
18:50
Speaker 3: that's just typical. Now you're throwing someone that has a
18:53
Speaker 3: mental health disorder, or they lost someone in their family,
18:56
Speaker 3: or there's financial stress, or they've been through a traumatic event,
18:59
Speaker 3: or they just move because their parents are in the military.
19:01
Speaker 3: Now you've really fuck things up because they have just
19:04
Speaker 3: gotten ten times harder. Right, So this thing that ninety
19:07
Speaker 3: percent of kids do, and congrats, I'm doing the same
19:09
Speaker 3: thing that everyone else did. Yeah, congrats because you just
19:12
Speaker 3: did something that was fucking hard. Because this is like
19:15
Speaker 3: probably the hardest thing you've done in your life up
19:17
Speaker 3: until this point. So I can get their perspective when
19:21
Speaker 3: people are like, oh, everybody does it. Yes, everybody does it,
19:23
Speaker 3: but everyone does able to do it at differing levels
19:27
Speaker 3: of difficulty. So we need to stop with the bullshit
19:29
Speaker 3: of like it's the easiest thing. This is the bare minimum. No,
19:32
Speaker 3: it's not there. The bare minimum is to be supportive
19:35
Speaker 3: to these kids and to be supportive of the teenagers
19:37
Speaker 3: and not to be an asshole about it. I yield
19:40
Speaker 3: my time.
19:43
Speaker 2: I concur I know some hard working kids who are
19:49
Speaker 2: really long days because it's not just school, it's sports,
19:52
Speaker 2: it's extra tutoring, it's all the stuff, it's your therapy,
19:56
Speaker 2: it's work. My god, man, there are Yeah, this generation
20:00
Speaker 2: is not lazy, and they've could have been built kind of
20:02
Speaker 2: a crappy.
20:02
Speaker 3: Hand, a real shit sandwich.
20:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, that they've got to choke down and they've got
20:08
Speaker 2: to go to school and also be afraid of the
20:10
Speaker 2: threat of violence and stool shooting.
20:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's like, it's not it's really it's not easy.
20:16
Speaker 3: Yeah. I get real upset when I don't know you.
20:20
Speaker 3: I don't know, man, It's just one of those things
20:23
Speaker 3: where like I get it, like I you know, did
20:25
Speaker 3: I always work super hard in high school? No? Like
20:28
Speaker 3: was it super difficult for me in high school? No?
20:30
Speaker 3: But that's just for me. There was definitely people next
20:33
Speaker 3: to me that were having the hardest time of all time,
20:36
Speaker 3: battling a lot of things that I had no idea about.
20:39
Speaker 3: So to just like compare every single kid to the
20:41
Speaker 3: same exact thing, it's just not fair. There's so much
20:43
Speaker 3: more stuff going on. And if I just gave the
20:46
Speaker 3: health class presentation today about social media, internet and technology use,
20:52
Speaker 3: that's just not things that people had to worry about
20:54
Speaker 3: when our age at that time, right, Like, there's so
20:57
Speaker 3: many things that people got to worry about. You got
20:59
Speaker 3: random people that know your information that didn't know this
21:03
Speaker 3: kind of stuff, things that we didn't have to worry about. What, Yeah,
21:06
Speaker 3: these are new stressors. There's a lot of new stressors
21:08
Speaker 3: that kids have to worry about that a lot of
21:10
Speaker 3: people that are our age and older had no clue
21:13
Speaker 3: about and have no idea how to navigate. So they
21:16
Speaker 3: really do not have any kind of lake to stand
21:18
Speaker 3: on when they try to put down kids and shit
21:21
Speaker 3: on them for being in high school and having a
21:23
Speaker 3: hard time.
21:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've mentioned on the podcasts in the past, but
21:27
Speaker 2: imagine being a young woman and your nudes get leaked
21:30
Speaker 2: to the whole school and you have to go to
21:32
Speaker 2: school the next.
21:33
Speaker 1: Day, right, Like, what the hell? That would be awful?
21:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, And how many young boys fall into sextortion instances
21:43
Speaker 3: where they think they're talking to someone their age, someone
21:45
Speaker 3: that they think has an interest in them, maybe they've
21:47
Speaker 3: never really talked to a girl before, and like, wow,
21:49
Speaker 3: someone thinks highly of me, and then they send pictures
21:52
Speaker 3: they shouldn't and now they're being extorted for money, or
21:55
Speaker 3: now they're being told that same thing it's going to
21:57
Speaker 3: be leaked, and just all these things. Man, there's there's
22:00
Speaker 3: so much more we could We could go on and on.
22:02
Speaker 3: But Finland, right, Finland number four.
22:05
Speaker 2: They get out of school at two to two forty
22:08
Speaker 2: five every day, so later start earlier letout times. So
22:11
Speaker 2: that's pretty awesome. All these things sound a whole lot
22:14
Speaker 2: less stressful, right, So they think so they do have
22:18
Speaker 2: a higher tax rate than in the United States, and
22:20
Speaker 2: that's I think the conservative argument there. It's like they
22:22
Speaker 2: play a lot more on taxes and yes, that is true,
22:25
Speaker 2: but look how much they get out of that they
22:28
Speaker 2: take care of their kids, and so what are the
22:32
Speaker 2: actual studies say about school and stress? Because we are
22:35
Speaker 2: evidence based on this show here right. There are a
22:39
Speaker 2: few papers that I found on this. Perhaps the most
22:41
Speaker 2: cited one that I found that was particularly good was
22:44
Speaker 2: by dang at All from twenty twenty two.
22:47
Speaker 1: He is his name.
22:49
Speaker 2: To sum up this paper, academic and family stress did
22:52
Speaker 2: increase the risk for depression among students. Depression tended to
22:56
Speaker 2: negatively impact school performance and learning outcomes.
22:59
Speaker 1: So that's that's a.
23:00
Speaker 2: Bad cycle, right. Usually school stress leads to depression, depression
23:05
Speaker 2: leads to more school stress, so it just it can
23:07
Speaker 2: really pile up on these kids when things get out
23:10
Speaker 2: of hand. And then wang at All in twenty twenty one,
23:14
Speaker 2: I don't know why I said it like that found
23:17
Speaker 2: that higher academic stress is linked to a larger level
23:21
Speaker 2: of school burnout, which leads to a higher degree of depression. So,
23:24
Speaker 2: like it makes sense, right, more stress, more depression, more
23:28
Speaker 2: mental health issues.
23:30
Speaker 3: And imagine too, how many kids just like white knuckle it,
23:33
Speaker 3: like they're just so stressed all the time. They're pushing through.
23:36
Speaker 3: They get to the finish line. They set themselves up
23:38
Speaker 3: to be college bound, or to go to a trade school,
23:41
Speaker 3: or to go to the military, and then everything ends.
23:43
Speaker 3: They go to the next step in their life and
23:45
Speaker 3: they're just burnt out, like they can't do what's next.
23:48
Speaker 3: The school counselors that I work with have told me
23:50
Speaker 3: about this phenomenon called the I think it's the summer melt,
23:53
Speaker 3: basically where kids who are college bound will apply to school,
23:56
Speaker 3: they'll get in, they'll set up their deposit, and then
23:59
Speaker 3: they just never I can't I haven't been told what
24:01
Speaker 3: the exact reasons are, but I can imagine school burnout
24:05
Speaker 3: might be part of it, and just overall stress of like, oh,
24:07
Speaker 3: I don't know if I can do this again for
24:09
Speaker 3: another four plus years.
24:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, and yeah, I don't blame them once you've done
24:15
Speaker 2: but thirteen years of school and then they're like, oh no,
24:17
Speaker 2: you got to pay to do more school. It's yeah,
24:20
Speaker 2: a lot of people were probably like heck.
24:21
Speaker 3: No, no, heck no, we won't go Yeah exactly.
24:26
Speaker 2: I notice, especially my ADHD kids, it's like they become
24:30
Speaker 2: different kids in the summer when they can do what
24:33
Speaker 2: they want, set their schedules, they're happy, they're fine, and
24:37
Speaker 2: then school hits again and they just go straight back downwards.
24:41
Speaker 2: They just they just go off a cliff because school
24:44
Speaker 2: is slow and unusual cruel torture for kids with ADHD
24:49
Speaker 2: because that's why we've set up our school system.
24:51
Speaker 3: That's exactly. Yeah, And I think the thing is that,
24:54
Speaker 3: like we're not here to say that like school needs
24:57
Speaker 3: to go away or kids shouldn't have some kind of structure.
25:00
Speaker 3: For sure, when we get to summer break, we gotta
25:02
Speaker 3: have a little bit of structure, Like we gotta we
25:04
Speaker 3: should not be staying up till one in the morning
25:06
Speaker 3: every day, sleeping in until two o'clock in the afternoon.
25:09
Speaker 3: Like we gotta have some structure, and some freedom goes
25:12
Speaker 3: a long way with a lot of our kids really
25:13
Speaker 3: makes them feel better, just as adults too. I feel
25:16
Speaker 3: get on my day off when I don't got to
25:18
Speaker 3: do a whole lot. Got some structure, But if I
25:20
Speaker 3: don't got to do a whole lot, it's pretty nice.
25:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.
25:23
Speaker 2: I'm the kind of person.
25:24
Speaker 1: I need a down day.
25:25
Speaker 2: I need a chill day where I'm not doing much
25:27
Speaker 2: and if i'm if I don't get that, then I'm
25:29
Speaker 2: more irritable and cranky, and so yeah, I feel it.
25:32
Speaker 2: What are some of the biggest worries specifically that you
25:35
Speaker 2: hear about students about school?
25:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, not an exhaustive list, but just the list off
25:41
Speaker 3: the top of my head. Stress at home. This could
25:44
Speaker 3: be related to struggles with like parent relationships, similar relationships.
25:49
Speaker 3: School work. For sure, I just spent eight hours at
25:51
Speaker 3: school and now I have to do another three hours
25:53
Speaker 3: of homework. That fucking sucks. Yeah, financial stress. Kids are
25:57
Speaker 3: moving into their teenage years. They're at a lesser years.
26:00
Speaker 3: They're more attuned to what might be happening at home,
26:03
Speaker 3: and this is kind of the first time where a
26:05
Speaker 3: lot of kids understand and realize there's some money issues
26:08
Speaker 3: that are happening at home, and that's really stressful work.
26:10
Speaker 3: A lot of our kids work. A lot of teenagers
26:12
Speaker 3: work like money. I've heard students tell me they make,
26:16
Speaker 3: like with tips, twenty three bucks an hour at their job,
26:20
Speaker 3: and so they work more. And I don't blame at all.
26:22
Speaker 3: That's good ass money for a seventeen eighteen year old,
26:25
Speaker 3: so I get it. Extracurriculars is another thing for a
26:28
Speaker 3: lot of kids. High school sports can be the first
26:30
Speaker 3: time that you're really doing something competitive. High school sports
26:34
Speaker 3: could get pretty competitive, so it's competitive stressful. You don't
26:37
Speaker 3: want to mess things up. So that could be the
26:38
Speaker 3: first time for a lot of kids, and that's really hard.
26:40
Speaker 3: Relationships a romantic relationships, friendships. Those kinds of things are hard.
26:45
Speaker 3: You're managing your own emotions. You're already having a hard
26:47
Speaker 3: time being a teenager, and now you got to manage
26:49
Speaker 3: another teenager's emotions. That could be pretty stressful. And I
26:53
Speaker 3: think the biggest one after kids get to a certain
26:55
Speaker 3: age freshman, sophomore year, we're not thinking too far ahead, junior,
26:58
Speaker 3: senior year, when you're getting of those questions, the future
27:01
Speaker 3: is really stressful, Yeah, especially if you don't know what
27:04
Speaker 3: you want to do, especially if you don't fit into
27:06
Speaker 3: this box of like I'm gonna go to college, I'm
27:09
Speaker 3: gonna go to a community college, I'm gonna go into
27:10
Speaker 3: the military, I'm gonna go to a trade school. If
27:13
Speaker 3: you don't fit in one of those, it gets really
27:15
Speaker 3: stressful and you start to have certain feelings about yourself.
27:17
Speaker 3: You start to feel some type of way if you
27:20
Speaker 3: don't fit in those boxes, and it's just as stressful.
27:24
Speaker 2: You make such a good point that I keep talking
27:26
Speaker 2: about kids with ADHD, but so many of the kids
27:29
Speaker 2: that I talked to with ADHD who just don't like school.
27:33
Speaker 2: Society tells young people, either directly or subconsciously, that if
27:38
Speaker 2: you're not good in school, that if you can't do
27:40
Speaker 2: it there, then you're kind of a screw up, like
27:43
Speaker 2: you're you're not as valuable as other people, which just stinks.
27:48
Speaker 2: How much does that hurt the self worth of young
27:51
Speaker 2: people who aren't good at school? They get this automatic
27:54
Speaker 2: mentality of well, if I'm not good at this, what
27:57
Speaker 2: am I good? I'm supposed to be good at this.
27:59
Speaker 2: People are host to graduate high school. So if I'm
28:02
Speaker 2: really struggling, what does that mean about me? Maybe I'm
28:05
Speaker 2: not good enough. It's just so all that stress is
28:08
Speaker 2: really hard on kids psychologically.
28:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you do every single day, for one
28:15
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty days a year, you're getting the same
28:17
Speaker 3: kind of message. You're yeah, walking in you've been getting
28:20
Speaker 3: beat up by the bully that is school, and you
28:24
Speaker 3: walk back in every day and you try and give
28:26
Speaker 3: it a shot. It's hard. It's taxing on kids, for sure,
28:30
Speaker 3: it is.
28:30
Speaker 2: And you know, I usually when I ask kids about
28:33
Speaker 2: what's stressful about life, they say anxiety and school. And
28:38
Speaker 2: I ask what specifically about school, and most of the
28:41
Speaker 2: time they say, it's just the work.
28:42
Speaker 1: It's just it's so much work.
28:43
Speaker 2: It's overwhelming for me.
28:45
Speaker 3: And the pressure too. Like I can only speak for
28:47
Speaker 3: my school, but you know, we have a crazy high
28:51
Speaker 3: graduation rate and a lot of our kids are college
28:54
Speaker 3: bound and there's a lot of pressure to have to
28:56
Speaker 3: be excellent, and that's really hard for a lot of kids.
29:00
Speaker 3: We got a lot of kids in our office crying,
29:02
Speaker 3: upset just get their first be or because the school
29:05
Speaker 3: is just really hard, or things that used to come
29:07
Speaker 3: naturally aren't coming so naturally anymore. And that's a hard
29:11
Speaker 3: thing to manage as a seventeen year old.
29:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, it's really tough. Do kids ever talk
29:16
Speaker 2: about that threat of violence with you? Like, with everything
29:20
Speaker 2: that's going on in this world, it's.
29:22
Speaker 3: Come up, for sure. It's typically following like an incident
29:25
Speaker 3: that's happened somewhere else. Mm hm. Sometimes it's falling doing
29:30
Speaker 3: like the lockdown drills. Like kids get worried about it.
29:32
Speaker 3: Kids get worried. I mean right now, I mean, we'll
29:34
Speaker 3: call it like it is. We have essentially these ice
29:37
Speaker 3: agents that are acting as fucking Gestapo and just walking
29:41
Speaker 3: around fucking trying to just pull people from their homes
29:44
Speaker 3: and being and kidnapping people and being real pieces of
29:47
Speaker 3: shit about it and that's a threat of violence that
29:50
Speaker 3: a lot of kids are worried about and they think about,
29:52
Speaker 3: really are concerned about their family members and their friends
29:55
Speaker 3: and their friends family members, And so I think maybe
29:57
Speaker 3: even right now, more than in school shootings like that,
30:00
Speaker 3: that's a threat of violence that a lot of kids
30:01
Speaker 3: are worried about. Yeah, I think we talked about it
30:04
Speaker 3: today in our health class presentation about social media and technology.
30:09
Speaker 3: Kids know the news a lot more than you and
30:11
Speaker 3: I probably did when we're in high school. They just
30:13
Speaker 3: know what's going on, and they know when big significant
30:16
Speaker 3: events happen. The kids are watching it as it's happening,
30:20
Speaker 3: right after it's happened. So these kids know about what's
30:23
Speaker 3: going on. These kids have an idea. They're pretty attuned
30:25
Speaker 3: to the world and what's happening in our country, and
30:28
Speaker 3: so I think they have very real and very real
30:32
Speaker 3: fears that are understandable because they understand what's happening.
30:35
Speaker 1: They know what's happening for sure.
30:37
Speaker 2: Because knicks are kids canigs.
30:41
Speaker 1: Kids are more.
30:42
Speaker 2: Connected to social media and YouTube, and that gives them
30:46
Speaker 2: all the news that they ever need. Right It's just constant,
30:51
Speaker 2: NonStop bad news, and that's what kind of dominates social media.
30:56
Speaker 1: In Cheyenne, where I work and where.
30:57
Speaker 2: I grew up, there were three lockdowns for legitimate like
31:02
Speaker 2: violence threats last year at our high school, and the
31:06
Speaker 2: junior high campus is actually on the high school too.
31:08
Speaker 2: It's like all connected, and so both schools, the junior high,
31:12
Speaker 2: one of the junior highs and one of the high
31:13
Speaker 2: schools had to shut down. And I had a lot
31:15
Speaker 2: of people come in talking about that event. I had
31:17
Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of patients coming in, plus
31:20
Speaker 2: a lot of the kids who already had trauma and PTSD.
31:23
Speaker 2: This was a huge trigger for them. And they you know,
31:27
Speaker 2: they're like, I just ever since that happened and we
31:29
Speaker 2: went to the lockdown, you know, I just cannot get
31:32
Speaker 2: my anxiety under control. I've been having more panic attacks,
31:35
Speaker 2: and it just really impacts these kids. You can't learn.
31:39
Speaker 1: If you're in fight or flight mode.
31:41
Speaker 2: We know that that is science, that psychology one O one, right,
31:45
Speaker 2: and if there is a threat of violence in school,
31:49
Speaker 2: it's hard to extinguish that response.
31:52
Speaker 1: It's so man.
31:53
Speaker 2: It just we grew up in the Columbine era, right,
31:57
Speaker 2: so like there was a remote threat, but it always
32:00
Speaker 2: kind of felt like in the back of my mind.
32:03
Speaker 2: I was like, well, this is never going to happen here,
32:06
Speaker 2: But it seems like these days it has become so commonplace,
32:09
Speaker 2: kids feel it so much more.
32:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, think of it too. And again I don't want
32:15
Speaker 3: to toot my own horn and keep referencing my presentation
32:18
Speaker 3: I gave today. But we talk about how back in
32:21
Speaker 3: the day when nine to eleven happened, we would have
32:24
Speaker 3: had no idea. If the TV wasn't on in front
32:26
Speaker 3: of us. Who knows how long it would have took
32:28
Speaker 3: for us to know what happened. Right unless someone told
32:31
Speaker 3: us directly or we saw it on the TV. We
32:33
Speaker 3: would have been happy, go lucky, whimsical not knowing what happened.
32:38
Speaker 3: But now we know right away. And so I think
32:40
Speaker 3: when things like this happen constantly, it makes it feel
32:44
Speaker 3: like that circle of like, oh, we're fine, We're in
32:46
Speaker 3: our little bubble. It makes the bubble a lot smaller
32:48
Speaker 3: when we keep yeah it happen.
32:50
Speaker 2: You get the entire world's bad news in your pocket
32:54
Speaker 2: all the time, and it's just constantly weighing on you.
32:57
Speaker 2: It's a lot for young people.
32:59
Speaker 3: Which are we on now? Is it?
33:03
Speaker 2: Yes?
33:04
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this one I'm curious what you think.
33:06
Speaker 3: Do you think that our school systems mangle is to
33:09
Speaker 3: prepare our youth for a toxic work culture or where
33:12
Speaker 3: how do we end up here? How do we end
33:14
Speaker 3: up with this structure?
33:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's a big reason why our schools
33:18
Speaker 2: were structured. The way they are structured is that, you know,
33:22
Speaker 2: kids have to go to school all day and then
33:24
Speaker 2: they usually have to go home and do extra work homework.
33:27
Speaker 2: On top of it, they've got to meet all the
33:30
Speaker 2: demands of the teachers. The teachers have all the power.
33:33
Speaker 2: It really does kind of prepare them for a toxic
33:35
Speaker 2: work culture where they need to review or hold their
33:39
Speaker 2: bosses in regards like a teacher with full and complete power.
33:44
Speaker 2: We're speaking out against things are highly discouraged, and I
33:47
Speaker 2: know that's where a lot of Gen z ers are
33:49
Speaker 2: struggling with transitioning into the workforce.
33:52
Speaker 1: They're like, this work culture sucks.
33:54
Speaker 2: You've guys been doing this like for.
33:55
Speaker 1: Forever and there is here.
34:00
Speaker 3: What are we doing?
34:02
Speaker 1: It's like what is going on here?
34:04
Speaker 2: And they're like, you millennials just bent over and took
34:06
Speaker 2: it here, Like that's crazy, right, And we did, Millennials,
34:10
Speaker 2: did we just bought right into the work culture because
34:12
Speaker 2: that's the way it's always been. But I think now
34:15
Speaker 2: gen zers are able to actually communicate more about it
34:18
Speaker 2: because of social media one of the positive things to it,
34:20
Speaker 2: and realize like, hey, this sucks, this is toxic, and
34:24
Speaker 2: we are expected to sacrifice ourselves and our well being
34:27
Speaker 2: for a company that doesn't give a shit about me.
34:30
Speaker 3: No, you died tomorrow, They're posting your job two days later.
34:33
Speaker 3: Like that's what it's come down to. Okay, for the
34:37
Speaker 3: next one. You've talked about it a little bit, But
34:41
Speaker 3: why do you think, like what are some key pieces
34:43
Speaker 3: of like why school can be so hard for someone
34:45
Speaker 3: with ADHD?
34:47
Speaker 1: Two part answer.
34:49
Speaker 2: We have so many kids being diagnosed with ADHD, and
34:52
Speaker 2: I think, yes, there is a natural genetic PREDISSI predisposition
34:56
Speaker 2: for ADHD. But I also think that the way our
35:00
Speaker 2: technology is impacting kids. There are a couple of studies
35:03
Speaker 2: on this where attention spans are getting shorter. So I
35:06
Speaker 2: think a lot of kids are struggling with focus and
35:09
Speaker 2: attention in school, whether it be from genetics or from
35:12
Speaker 2: just the way our entire society is set up. But
35:15
Speaker 2: if you cannot focus, if you are a really inattentive
35:19
Speaker 2: ADHD type of person think about school. School tells you
35:24
Speaker 2: you need to sit down, be quiet, not bother other people,
35:28
Speaker 2: focus on your work, learn things that you're not interested in,
35:31
Speaker 2: not move at all. We're going to take away more
35:34
Speaker 2: and more recess. And it's all of the things that
35:37
Speaker 2: your brain does not want to do. Naturally, you have
35:41
Speaker 2: to constantly fight your brain all day, every day, and
35:46
Speaker 2: kids with ADHD are constantly being told sit down, be quiet,
35:50
Speaker 2: stop bothering other people, stop talking, you're not trying hard enough,
35:53
Speaker 2: you're not good enough. And over time, kids with ADHD
35:57
Speaker 2: learn to hate school, learn to loathe school because it's
36:02
Speaker 2: constant negative reinforcement. So it makes sense why kids with
36:06
Speaker 2: ADHD hate school because it's years of that.
36:10
Speaker 3: I just I just get the picture of my head
36:12
Speaker 3: of like a student sitting at their desk, just like
36:14
Speaker 3: on edge, heart racing, like this sucks. Get me out of.
36:18
Speaker 2: Here, Yeah, get me out. It's just this torture for them.
36:24
Speaker 2: Any opinions on charter schools, I don't.
36:27
Speaker 3: Know if I have enough information about charter schools. I
36:31
Speaker 3: don't want to answer. I don't know. I don't want
36:33
Speaker 3: to misspeak, but I think they're kind of like a
36:36
Speaker 3: because I know we in our school district we have
36:38
Speaker 3: a charter school. So from my understanding, charter schools are
36:42
Speaker 3: kind of the in between of like a private school
36:45
Speaker 3: and a public school, where they oftentimes can be publicly funded,
36:50
Speaker 3: but they also get kind of the discretion that maybe
36:53
Speaker 3: private schools also get in terms of like practices and
36:57
Speaker 3: things that they do. So I don't have enough information
36:59
Speaker 3: on it. I know they're out there. I also know
37:03
Speaker 3: there's just kind of like an attack on public education
37:05
Speaker 3: as a whole. There's been a number of times in
37:07
Speaker 3: Oregon where there's been a push to try to basically
37:11
Speaker 3: either stop taxes on people for schools and basically let
37:16
Speaker 3: kid let families choose where they go to school. That
37:19
Speaker 3: takes money away from the public school. It's a whole thing.
37:21
Speaker 3: And so I will say there's definitely been an attack
37:23
Speaker 3: on public school. The hard part is when you get
37:25
Speaker 3: things like school vouchers and that conversation comes up, well, well,
37:28
Speaker 3: just give me my seven grand a year back and
37:31
Speaker 3: then I can use it to go pay for private school.
37:33
Speaker 3: It's not that easy. The problem is one you gotta
37:35
Speaker 3: get your kids got to get into the private school.
37:37
Speaker 3: That's part of it. Right, the private school does not
37:39
Speaker 3: just have six thousand open seats, right, that's probably too many.
37:42
Speaker 3: But private schools not just have a bunch of open
37:44
Speaker 3: seats ready, So you got to get in two. What's
37:47
Speaker 3: to say the private school doesn't just raise the price
37:49
Speaker 3: another seven thousand dollars, So now you've got seven thousand dollars.
37:52
Speaker 3: And then instead of the private school costing fourteen grand
37:54
Speaker 3: a year, now it's twenty one grand a year. You
37:56
Speaker 3: didn't have the fourteen grand to forget to begin with.
37:58
Speaker 3: So what are you gonna do now? So I don't know,
38:00
Speaker 3: it's yeah, I guess I use that as an opportunity
38:03
Speaker 3: to talk about that, But I don't know if I
38:05
Speaker 3: know enough about charts.
38:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think my main qualm with it too is, yeah, sure,
38:09
Speaker 2: it can be a great option for people, and there's
38:11
Speaker 2: some great charter schools out there, But what about all
38:14
Speaker 2: the people who can't afford to go to charter schools?
38:16
Speaker 2: What about all the people who need to go to
38:17
Speaker 2: the public system. It usually depletes a lot of the
38:20
Speaker 2: resources going into the public school system, so it doesn't
38:22
Speaker 2: seem like a good sustainable option or very equitable option.
38:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, remember the buzzword of equity. It's out there,
38:30
Speaker 3: but whether schools do it or not is different. Okay,
38:34
Speaker 3: you're at the podium, you're giving ten seconds, fifteen seconds
38:38
Speaker 3: to say, how we fix this? How do we fix this?
38:42
Speaker 3: Give you a little more than fifteen the.
38:44
Speaker 2: Answers out there right, Like if we structured our school
38:47
Speaker 2: more for the kids, like in Finland, I think we
38:52
Speaker 2: could have a lot of huge improvements if we funded
38:55
Speaker 2: the schools, if we paid the teachers, also implemented some
38:59
Speaker 2: real easy changes like no homework, later start times, less
39:04
Speaker 2: or no standardized tests, higher pay, higher education for teachers,
39:08
Speaker 2: more activity and breaks, more emphasis on learning what they
39:12
Speaker 2: want and not just standardized teaching to one specific thing.
39:17
Speaker 2: Kids tend to thrive in that. If you're constantly forcing
39:20
Speaker 2: them to learn stuff that they don't care about, they're
39:23
Speaker 2: not going to retain anything anyway. So yeah, you might
39:25
Speaker 2: be learning it, but for what. So there's a model
39:28
Speaker 2: out there, there are other people that do this well,
39:31
Speaker 2: and it's not that difficult. We could do it if
39:35
Speaker 2: we really wanted to do it and we really tried.
39:38
Speaker 3: Bam, doctor Ramano, twenty twenty six.
39:41
Speaker 2: You heard it here first, And I really do think
39:44
Speaker 2: if we changed our school system, we could probably get
39:47
Speaker 2: a ton of kids off ADHD meds a ton ooh.
39:51
Speaker 3: Even if we started like those school dishris that do
39:53
Speaker 3: like the four day school weeks. I think there's been
39:56
Speaker 3: some pretty positive things that have come out of that.
39:58
Speaker 3: So anyway, that's a call verstation for another day. Thank
40:01
Speaker 3: you all for listening. School pressure, it sucks, it's out there,
40:03
Speaker 3: it's real. And when a kid graduates high school, congratulate
40:07
Speaker 3: them because they did work hard and they do deserve it,
40:09
Speaker 3: Like we talked about it in the beginning episode. Do
40:11
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40:13
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40:15
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40:18
Speaker 3: and our website millennialimahc dot com. Thank you all again.
40:22
Speaker 3: We'll see you in a couple of weeks, and remember
40:24
Speaker 3: take care of y'all mentals.
40:26
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