What was your school like? How similar or different is it from how your kids’ school functions now?


Like pretty much everything, the way we experienced school as kids –– the systems, the power dynamics, the methods –– informs our expectations when our own kids enter school. But if we never question our internalized templates and whether or not they were harmful to us or others, we can perpetuate models that cause unnecessary hardship or pain. It sucked for us, so why wouldn’t it still suck? 


But if we want schools to do better by kids, we have to interrogate “that’s just the way it is.”


Today we’re talking with Rhiannon Kim about how to make school systems work better. Rhiannon has been a para educator, interventionist, and Speech Language Pathologist in public schools, and now works with school systems and organizations as an educator and consultant, and has recently published a book about how mindfulness can transform educational systems. We talk about the importance of recognizing the inequitable impacts of focusing on keeping schools nice, neat, and predictable and she shares some tools and ways of thinking to help  expand our options.


Listen to the full episode to hear:

  • How so many educational systems are based on tradition and compliance rather than support skill and knowledge development
  • Why it’s so difficult for us to let go of our expectations for what education should be, even when we know better
  • How demographic homogeneity and groupthink among educators ends up hurting students, families, and teachers
  • Why Rhiannon’s work almost always starts with getting educators to acknowledge their feelings and recognize their discomfort
  • How witnessing radically different teaching modes outside of traditional academic settings helped Rhiannon break the repetition compulsion of her education
  • How mindfulness, self-compassion, accountability, and awareness of power dynamics can reshape schools


Learn more about Rhiannon Kim:


Learn more about I Hate You. What’s For Dinner?


Learn more about Gillian Boudreau, PhD.:


Learn more about Rob Galligan, PhD.:


Resources:

Rss
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör Gillian Boudreau & Rob Galligan. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Gillian Boudreau & Rob Galligan och inte av, eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.