Hi, I’m Rée.
Growing up, I felt like the education system wasn’t built for people like me to succeed. As a student with undiagnosed neurodivergence, learning disabilities, and anxiety, I struggled to learn in the ways my peers learned.
In the decades following, I became an educator and taught in various classrooms around the world. I taught in public schools, private universities, large government funded programs, and even small academies. I designed curriculum, measured student success, and even assessed teacher efficacy.
Then, while teaching a group of English language learners in South Korea, who like me, hadn’t received adequate attention in school, I realized I was using the same methodologies as the ones that had failed me.
homeroom is my attempt to remedy this on an international scale. To speak with as many people from around the world about their own education systems to rethink what schools can be. What it should be, when we design systems and metrics which are inclusive of more diverse types of learners and thinkers with varying levels of family involvement and access to resources.
In this episode, I speak with Tabitha—an educator and entrepreneur—about her earliest memories of attending schools and daycare centers that did not adequately challenge her. We talk about her experience of growing up in the culture and expectations of two homes, the motivations that fueled her desire to pursue education in business and economics, how she discovered her love and talent for teaching English, and what she did to find and nurture love.
Here is our edited conversation.
Accessibility Disclaimer: Below is a computer generated transcript of our conversation. Please note that there are likely very many errors––including the spelling of our names––and may not make sense, especially when taken out of context.
00:00:03:11 – 00:00:29:01 Unknown Hi, I’m Ray. Growing up, I felt like the education system wasn’t built for people like me to succeed as a student with undiagnosed neurodivergent learning disabilities and anxiety, I struggled to learn in the ways my peers learned. In the decades following. I became an educator and taught in various classrooms around the world. I taught in public schools, private universities, large government funded programs, and even small academies.
00:00:29:03 – 00:00:59:03 Unknown I designed curriculum, measured student success, and even assess teacher efficacy. Then, while teaching a group of English language learners in South Korea who like me, hadn’t received adequate attention in school, I realized I was using the same methodologies as the ones that had failed me. Homeroom is my attempt to remedy this on an international scale. To speak with as many people from around the world about their own education systems, to rethink what schools can be, what it should be.
00:00:59:08 – 00:01:40:11 Unknown When we design systems and metrics which are inclusive of more diverse types of learners and thinkers with varying levels of family involvement and access to resources. In this episode, I speak with Tabitha, an educator and entrepreneur, about her earliest memories of attending schools and daycare centers that did not adequately challenge her. We talk about her experiences of growing up in the culture and expectations of two homes the motivations that fueled her desire to pursue education in business, in economics, how she discovered her love and talent for teaching English, and what she did to find and nurture love for herself.
00:01:40:13 – 00:01:47:12 Unknown Here is our edited conversation.
00:01:47:14 – 00:02:31:16 Unknown I was taught everything at home by my mother even before I started school. So I have always been like the bright kid in the class because I kind of knew the material before getting in. Like I knew how to read at a young age. Math was easy for me, and it was just my mom working with me. You know, I also went to a daycare before I went to first grade, so it wasn’t necessarily and it was maybe like a preschool where they worked, like the whole day with the kids.
00:02:31:17 – 00:03:06:19 Unknown Like it was very structured. It was a school setting. It wasn’t a place where you just went and played and screams as a kid. It wasn’t chaotic. It was very structured. So I always enjoyed that structure. And then the funny thing was when I remember we moved or something happened and I was like four or five years old trying to get into kindergarten and I guess you have to apply or something like there’s something.
00:03:06:21 – 00:03:26:17 Unknown And I did it for a few weeks and every day I would complain that it was for babies because I already knew it and all I wanted to do was play with this my Little Pony puzzle. Like, that’s all I wanted to do is just sit in this same puzzle. I’d rather do that, then sit and listen to the teacher, explain this sounds.
00:03:26:17 – 00:04:14:14 Unknown I’m like, You already know that. Like, this is boring. Let me play with this puzzle. And so my mom took me out and put me back in that daycare center for kindergarten. So which I think the laws have changed now in Maryland. So I’m in Maryland, and I think children now have to go to kindergarten. Like, I’m trying to remember the laws, but my kids are in school and I just I always remember the story of like my mom choosing this daycare center to Hoover Public School because it was more structured and was more advanced than what was being provided by the government or like through the public school system.
00:04:14:15 – 00:04:44:02 Unknown And it always amazes me to remember this. The private daycare center was my mom’s preference over public school. I mean, can you kind of remember, like the reasons why it was like, what would the conditions were like? Why was it more preferred or why did why did your mom think it was better quality? So yeah, I can remember her in school.
00:04:44:04 – 00:05:15:17 Unknown Everybody was put together. It was all levels and it was like 20 to 25 kids there. And so in the daycare center, it was smaller groups, three, four children working. And it was I just remember it being more fun. I remember, like, things being more challenging. And I think it’s because they really like they were there to like they wanted us there.
00:05:15:18 – 00:05:40:20 Unknown My mom had to pay for us to be there, so if we didn’t enjoy it and if we didn’t want to be there, they would go somewhere else. And I think daycare now has become incredibly expensive in the United States. I have some friends paying like and I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but like $3,000 a month just for daycare.
00:05:40:22 – 00:06:11:02 Unknown And it’s like the entire like one person salary of the couple is going and like a good portion of the salary, if not all the salary is going to that. So and then so then the government does help. There are vouchers that you can get from the government to pay for daycare. So that people can work. But it’s like, man, it’s really expensive now and I feel really bad.
00:06:11:02 – 00:06:36:06 Unknown But I think the quality is that my mom was looking for was that I was interested in going there like she didn’t like. I know that sounds silly and maybe like, selfish on my blog. I want to go where I enjoy it, but what kid wants to sit and be bored all day? Right. You know, it’s a full day and young kids, like that’s when you’re forming to be who you are as well.
00:06:36:06 – 00:06:57:11 Unknown Like, that’s probably, they say, the most important, like, that defines who you are. And so if you’re complaining every day after school that you’re so bored that there is nothing for you to do. Like, what is the point? You know, like and then you build that up and then you go to a job that you hate and you’re just like, man, what is the point?
00:06:57:12 – 00:07:30:10 Unknown So I think that formed me like, like not being entertained, but just enjoying what you’re doing has been a big part of my life. And I can remember from those beginning moments. Like, I can’t tell you my teacher’s name, can’t even tell you what they look like. I can’t remember that. But I can remember like, some activities. Like I remember reading all the time, like just reading so many books.
00:07:30:12 – 00:07:46:20 Unknown And since I knew how to read at an early age, I had that freedom to sit and read if I like, if we wanted to, if we wanted to just go and read at the daycare center, we could. But at the school, I felt like it was so slow that the teacher was like, All right, everybody, let’s look at this.
00:07:46:20 – 00:08:11:11 Unknown And all right, let’s read this word. I’m like, What’s the next part? What’s you know? Or that the book was so simple because they were teaching how to read. There was just only one sentence on the page. Yeah. In kindergarten, where I was already used to reading more complex stories. Yeah. So it kind of sounds like you weren’t challenged enough.
00:08:11:13 – 00:08:42:05 Unknown And I think that kind of happens like when there’s so much mess instruction and like everybody, it’s so standardized that everybody has to learn the same exact thing at the same time. And it didn’t seem like there was much differentiation in that your teachers were providing for you, even though you needed like a little bit more. So first grade was a lot better for me because that’s when they do start to divide the kids, so they don’t do that anymore.
00:08:42:07 – 00:09:03:15 Unknown I found out there’s still so I figure what the teachers call it In the past they said if I like advanced middle and lower right and then if the child needed extra help they would go to a classroom that was called special needs. That’s what it was called. And I know that because my sister would go to those classes.
00:09:03:15 – 00:09:29:12 Unknown So I’ve always been aware of my intelligence from being compared and always being in the advanced student classes with the students there, and then helping my sister with her homework and just understanding how she needed help to be successful at school. And I remember just that comparison then of like, Tabitha, you’re lucky because this comes easy to you.
00:09:29:14 – 00:09:53:04 Unknown And then helping my sister. And then that was the reason I would help her. And, you know, just, hey, you need to help your sister with this. And I did. It was fine. But I think which also led me to be a teacher, right? If I didn’t have those experiences, then I wouldn’t have created that patience. And to be able to explain what I know to somebody that needed that extra help.
00:09:53:06 – 00:10:28:17 Unknown So I think it’s a very interesting thing, right? It’s very interesting because, you know, what’s what strikes me is that I was the opposite of you. Like I never knew what was going on in school. I couldn’t pay attention. I had, like undiagnosed learning disabilities and anxiety and just the entire gamut of challenges I struggled with. And I think looking back, I had really poor executive functioning skills.
00:10:28:19 – 00:11:04:00 Unknown And that’s, I think, prevalent in a lot of neurodivergent things like, you know, ADHD or autism and things like that. And still I became a teacher not because I became really good at explaining things to other people, but because I had pushed myself so hard to try and compensate for my lack that I enjoyed just always studying and I was always at the bottom.
00:11:04:01 – 00:11:34:12 Unknown And for some reason I got used to that role of being inferior, I guess. I don’t know. So, you know, when you say like, that’s kind of what led you to teaching, I’m like, the opposite is what led me to teaching. So I find that really fascinating. But I want to know, like after first grade and then like sort of, you know, the rest of elementary school and like middle school and high school.
00:11:34:14 – 00:12:05:10 Unknown Did anything change, like whether it was your interest or your abilities or. Yeah, I’m curious. Like, were there certain subjects that you enjoyed more than others? Yeah, definitely. So it’s something that was a hard for me. I did move a lot as a kid, so I grew up poor and so we just went to where we could afford it was my mom and my sister and I, so the three of us.
00:12:05:10 – 00:12:36:06 Unknown And it was because of a divorce between my parents. And so I headed that economic struggle where I couldn’t just focus on school. So that was definitely hard. And then so just always finding your self again, always figuring out like I think I went to, to elementary school, to first grade, to first grades, and then in second grade I also moved again.
00:12:36:06 – 00:13:10:18 Unknown So to different classes. Luckily in second grade I did stay throughout. So that was until six grades. That was pretty consistent. But then I moved again in seventh grade, moved again between eighth and ninth grade. So I was always redefining who I was to people or just defining who I was to people. And I went through a phase of just being like this, very imaginative, I am this, and I’m like, yeah, I went to California over the weekend.
00:13:10:19 – 00:13:37:02 Unknown Just elaborate stories that everybody knew wasn’t true, but nobody knew me. So I would just make up these ridiculous stories as a kid. But also my mom thought it was funny and she would just kind of like lean into it like, Yeah, sure, if that’s what you think. Like she would, you know, whatever. Like, let’s just have fun and use our imaginations.
00:13:37:04 – 00:14:03:16 Unknown But it really like, I would not recommend that at all. Like it’s a reality. Stick to what’s real. But I think when people are struggling, they do like to create this alternative, right. Of what what it is. So that’s one thing that was hard and challenging. And then the things that were consistent, the most consistent in school was math.
00:14:03:18 – 00:14:32:01 Unknown So no matter what school I went to, math was always the same literature, not so much, you know, because we would be reading one book and then I would change and then we’d have to, you know, like it’s a different structure. So I actually didn’t I knew how to read, but I didn’t enjoy reading out loud until I was 26 when I when I needed to read out loud to teach English in Brazil.
00:14:32:03 – 00:14:54:12 Unknown So like, I would struggle, I would stutter and something that like I could read but I couldn’t read out loud because I maybe I wasn’t comfortable with my voice, which sounds silly because I get so many compliments on my voice. I’m trying to figure out why, you know, And maybe it was the pressure of reading in front of a classroom.
00:14:54:14 – 00:15:16:12 Unknown Another thing is I always so dealing with these social things, I always went with comedy. So it’s kind of a prankster. I was kind of like the class clown, and I was also like the advocate of classes too, because I didn’t see an injustice. Like, if I saw an injustice, I would always stand up and I thought homework was the worst.
00:15:16:14 – 00:15:39:06 Unknown So I create like a again, going to imagination. I would create these elaborate, like questions when the teacher is supposed to be giving us their homework. And then it was like, no, we ran out of time to go over this homework. But Tabitha, at least you understand this better. But it was such a joke, like I was making it up so that we didn’t get homework.
00:15:39:07 – 00:16:13:09 Unknown It was bad, but yeah, and my friends, like we were all in it and, and I was, you know, like, again, very imaginative, very creative. And like, all throughout elementary school, all throughout elementary schools, like, Hey, Tabitha, we don’t want homework. Like, can you ask a question? And we had like, I can’t remember what the code was, but like people would say something like, like we would say something so that I could create this problem.
00:16:13:11 – 00:16:43:04 Unknown Like, so the teacher would have to answer it. I guess I’m saying like, and we grew up, we were in a suburb of Baltimore, so it’s not like it’s people that needed homework, you know, It was like people that needed the extra help. And yeah, looking back, I only know one person from my elementary school because it just it wasn’t a good environment.
00:16:43:06 – 00:17:13:07 Unknown I don’t want to get too much into that. But just imagine like a suburb of Baltimore. So yeah, you’re familiar with Baltimore being from the East Coast. And then the other stuff I really enjoyed was art and music. So my mom was an artist. She still is an artist. And so again, I found it very, very fun in art class.
00:17:13:07 – 00:17:39:03 Unknown I remember drawing all the time, all the time drawing. I don’t draw anymore, but as a kid, like I would say, I was an artist. I like my my art would be selected to go to the local libraries. You know how they do that. So that was fun. And then from music, I played violin, but I hated it.
00:17:39:05 – 00:18:04:00 Unknown It was like my mom wanted me to play violin and then I. I mean, I did it. But do you remember in second grade we could start playing instruments, and then in third grade, let’s eat and play an instrument. I mean, I played piano, but not in school. Okay, So in third grade, everybody switches to, like, flute or clarinet or saxophone.
00:18:04:00 – 00:18:34:10 Unknown And I was on Maryland. I think this is maybe a maryland thing. So second grade, you’re allowed to do strings, string instruments. And in the past it was a violin. Like we could do cool instruments like the cello, which is what I really love. So when I got to so I had to stick to that same instrument. And I remember being in sixth grade, being the only sixth grader playing violin, and I’m like, Mom, I really want to change to a different instrument.
00:18:34:12 – 00:19:10:23 Unknown And when I was in seventh grade, I actually did. I switched over to cello and I really enjoyed it. Got pretty good, but not know what to. My mom wasn’t so happy because she was so in love with the violin. And so I stuck with it all throughout high school, in college with cello, and really enjoyed it. And I think that’s another thing that helps me with moving so much was that there was that consistent of music as well?
00:19:11:00 – 00:19:41:10 Unknown Well, something I wanted to go back to is you said that when you were younger, you know, your mother really did a lot of activities with you and, you know, like read with you. And and so you were really prepared to read when you started going to school and daycare and, you know, like I am similar in that it was a single mom situation in my household as well.
00:19:41:12 – 00:20:15:07 Unknown But my mother was really busy like, you know, working multiple jobs to make ends meet, that she didn’t really have a lot of time to give me to work on any kind of like at home learning. And so I wanted to know a little bit about the kinds of activities that your mother did with you or those kinds of learning tasks that she might have done.
00:20:15:07 – 00:20:48:20 Unknown And I’m curious, like, how did she find that time? Or Yeah, yeah. So like, I’m trying to think like, who remembers learning when they’re three years old? I don’t, but I do know. So my parents were divorced. My dad, I did get to see him on the weekends and my dad was also very interested in our education. So I think with my dad and maybe it was my dad, that’s how I mean, I think the both of them taught me equally.
00:20:48:22 – 00:21:23:12 Unknown But I do remember reading Dr. Seuss books on a couch older. So like reading memories with my dad. He would sit in the middle, have the book open, and my stepbrother on one side, me on the other side. And we would read together one page and one page. And I think that, like, I remember those. And then my dad had an incentive for us that we would read.
00:21:23:13 – 00:21:47:22 Unknown And then like however many minutes of of reading we had, we could have that equivalent in television time. wow. So we had this log and so we would just read and read. And I remember being like, in second and third grade reading chapter books, we would go to the library frequently and that was a really great habit.
00:21:48:00 – 00:22:13:10 Unknown And we would go like every two weeks to the library, pick out new books, and then read them so that we could watch TV. But I think people who are like forcing their kids to read with no incentive, like read because you’re going to need it kind of stuff. I think kids kind of developed this hatred towards reading like, especially if they’re struggling.
00:22:13:12 – 00:22:40:04 Unknown And so if you create a fun environment with it and say, yeah, if you get to read, you get to do this, then it doesn’t really become this like chore, like, yeah, I get to do this. My bonus is this, this is my work for this. And I actually did that with my daughters. My daughter learned how to read and she’s getting chapter books like huge books.
00:22:40:06 – 00:23:02:23 Unknown She’s only in the third grade. So I know that. I know we’re going to talk about this later, but we so I’m assuming that’s what my parents did to me, just always reading with me. And I do remember like my mom sitting at night. We had this big book of like sorry of Mother Goose stories, and she was just read it to us.
00:23:02:23 – 00:23:34:22 Unknown And I remember just all of these like storybooks for children. I’m trying to remember like Alice in Wonderland, like we had this Alice in Wonderland book. It was beautiful. We had like, there’s children’s Bibles, stuff like that. So just like reading stories from the Bible and then talking about it too. And I think that’s what I didn’t like about school was that you only read and there was zero discussion.
00:23:35:00 – 00:23:58:18 Unknown You know, you had to sit quietly and do whatever activity it was. And I got into this habit of talking about what we read at home, and that was completely cut off. And so at the daycare there was a lot of dialog like, what did you think about this? And then that was fun for me. So I think that’s a big thing, that there was no discussion at school.
00:23:58:20 – 00:24:43:01 Unknown And I see that when I work with parents helping their kids learn English. The kids that struggle are the parents who are disconnected from their children’s learning. So the more there is interest in that activity on both sides, the parent and the child, the more successful a child is. So it’s it’s a very interesting thing. And then when when families so I when I had my school in Brazil, families would enroll and study together and we would do family activities like I would give them a homework assignment where they would have to interview each other and recorded and send it to me on WhatsApp.
00:24:43:03 – 00:25:14:11 Unknown Those families that were learning and they were learning because they were like going to Walt Disney World or something. They were traveling to the United States and they all collectively needed to learn English. Yeah, they were the most successful families, you know. So I think that incentive really does help. Yeah, and that’s something that I do want to talk to you about, is like that the role of like extrinsic motivation, right?
00:25:14:11 – 00:25:49:11 Unknown And how it like parallels or works with or works against, you know, intrinsic motivation. But before we get there, I kind of wanted to ask you a little bit about I know that you’re really good at math and you studied accounting, right? And yeah, financial economics, right? Or economics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I did accounting. Yeah. And so I remember like, thinking that was really interesting because when I had first met you, I knew that you were an English teacher.
00:25:49:11 – 00:26:20:12 Unknown And then that was kind of like your thing. So I’m curious what how the pivot happened, right? I know you were talking about like reading and like, you really enjoyed math because that was what was consistent like through all of those moves. And so, you know, I’m curious like about like what happened in high school or when you went to college, like how you decided to pursue numbers, How I pursued numbers.
00:26:20:12 – 00:26:50:20 Unknown Yes, money. So I wanted to make money. I didn’t want to be poor. So, I mean, I know that sounds so silly and so basic, but if you understand, like, my logic was if I understood money, then I would be successful. And I worked at a bank for two years, but I didn’t want to be in accounting or work with money when I was younger.
00:26:50:22 – 00:27:14:13 Unknown So when I was very young, my mom told me I was going to be the first woman president, which is like so silly. And I would go again. Imagination, right? I would go around telling people that I would be the first woman presidents and then now I’m realizing and looking at our politics today, you’re basically just deciding where money goes for war.
00:27:14:13 – 00:27:43:18 Unknown And I want nothing to do with that. So like, that’s how I interpret the president’s job today. That’s I mean, of course, there are other things involved. But I think the biggest decision is where the next war is going to be for the United States president anyways. And the first career path that I decided I wanted to do was based off of Jurassic Park.
00:27:43:18 – 00:28:21:15 Unknown I wanted to be a paleontologist. And I think that’s why I started enjoying culture is because through learning about dinosaurs and regions, you learn about people and like the Indiana Jones movies, like, you know, like the nineties movies that we grew up on, like what did I enjoy from them? Those movies define your careers, right? I know so many people that became a journalist because of a movie or whatever their profession is like, was because I watched this movie and that was just so impactful and that’s what I want to be.
00:28:21:17 – 00:28:52:02 Unknown And then when I went to a community college, I had to decide what my profession was like, what my major would be. And I actually picked says Shia, says Shia. So theology, well, sociology, because I wanted to help people. I was very active in church. My dad is a minister and I spent a lot of time in youth groups and volunteering for the homeless.
00:28:52:04 – 00:29:19:22 Unknown Just a lot of programs throughout high school to help people. I was in study groups. I was helping lead. I helped. So I think one thing that helped with English was I was in a foreign exchange program, like at the school to help Ford Exchange students learn English. And I also did that at UBC. I was part of their program to help welcome foreign students struggling with English.
00:29:19:22 – 00:29:45:20 Unknown And we would just sit and talk and have fun talking. So I did sociology for a semester and absolutely hated it. It was so sad because you learn of all the problems with society and it just I don’t know, I like I don’t want to solve the world’s problems. I just want to help, you know, like tell me where to be.
00:29:45:20 – 00:30:16:16 Unknown Just like, I’ll volunteer. Just tell me how I can help. I don’t want to make those decisions of how to help because I guess I didn’t want the guilt if it didn’t work out. And then I went into music. So I played cello in in college as well. And I was like, That’s all I’m going to do. I’m going to and I had like a side gig where I would play with some friends at weddings and we would make money on the weekends and I would drive.
00:30:16:18 – 00:30:38:00 Unknown I was always like the leader in my group of friends and I would find gigs for us, collect the money, pay my friends, and it was just so much fun. And it was also helpful with like the music scene, like a lot, you know, like all of our friends had bands in high school and so not quite a groupie.
00:30:38:00 – 00:31:01:23 Unknown I wasn’t that, but I was definitely part I was like the street team. I was communications. I was the one spreading the word to all of our friends. I did it just for the fun of music, you know, I absolutely enjoyed it and I love seeing my friends on stage and being successful. And it was just like a huge party that we would like tour all over Baltimore.
00:31:02:00 – 00:31:38:01 Unknown Like we also saw a hole in the walls, but it was so much fun, definitely fun. And yeah, so then the third thing, so I had to decide on business. So I the community college. so for that second semester my dad was like, How are you going to survive on this? So like the entire semester I studied and I found us gigs and I think we made like $600 in six months.
00:31:38:01 – 00:32:00:03 Unknown Six months, which is good. Like if you can make a dollar performing like they say, like, that’s good. Like, just keep going and you’ll get better. And I think people really don’t become famous as performers until like ten, 15 years go by. Like, you really need to build up your reputation. You really need to get out there unless if you’re like an overnight success.
00:32:00:03 – 00:32:27:12 Unknown But then even those overnight successes are like, No, it took me ten years to be this overnight success. And I and I realized that I didn’t want to be that struggling artist, right, Because I didn’t want to suffer. And so I decided to go into business. And then I went to another universe after I graduated from that community college.
00:32:27:12 – 00:32:56:14 Unknown It’s only two years. I went to a college. It’s not College Park. It’s called UMC, University of Maryland, University College, which was like one of those first, like remote universities. You could do some classes online. It was based at University of Maryland College Park, but I hated it. It was dangerous. Like you would park your car and you had to walk like two miles to your car or something.
00:32:56:16 – 00:33:21:23 Unknown And it was just dangerous. As a young woman at College Park, like at that campus. So I took and I also took some remote classes, online classes, and I did really well at those. But I was like, No, I can’t do this for two years because you had to go to the university to take your exams, and I just didn’t.
00:33:22:01 – 00:33:52:00 Unknown So I transferred to UBC, which is a smaller campus. It was also an honors university, so it was a different type of students. I felt like College Park is like a party school. Where you B.C. right. Like this. Are you familiar with College Park? No. Okay. At all. Okay. It’s totally a party school. Like, it’s fun, but that’s not where I wanted to be.
00:33:52:02 – 00:34:23:09 Unknown And so going to UBC was more my style. It was harder because it wasn’t. I feel like College Park was just a bunch of people from Maryland, and you and B.C. was an international college, so I had classes where I was the only white American. I’m like all the American. Not that I needed to be white, but just say like the only person born in the United States.
00:34:23:11 – 00:35:03:15 Unknown And these were because of those economic classes. And I’m so fortunate to have had those experiences because it really opened my eyes to what the world is. Whereas if you’re stuck in the Maryland school system, you don’t really see that well, you didn’t in the eighties and nineties and 2000s, you know, it’s just everybody’s the same. Yeah. So I went there and they didn’t I so I started at u you see in a like a business degree or whatever it is working on like an MBA program and then B.C didn’t have that, but they did have economics.
00:35:03:15 – 00:35:39:05 Unknown And then the harder one, the more challenging one, which was financial economics. And I loved it. Teachers, fantastic professors were fantastic. But I took economics at the community college, actually did horribly. I got a C, I could not understand anything the teacher was saying. So that was a that was hard, you know, going, transferring and saying, okay, we have economics, which is similar to business.
00:35:39:07 – 00:36:00:05 Unknown And I was kind of like, No, I don’t like economics because of that one. Bad. I don’t say bad teacher, but the teacher that I didn’t understand very well. Right, Right. Actually, I dropped out of that class because I’m trying to remember because I was getting a C or A D in the class. And luckily the teacher is nice.
00:36:00:05 – 00:36:20:06 Unknown She was like, Hey, you know, we’re at this cutoff date. You should withdraw from this class because it’s really going to mess up your GPA. You can try it again in the spring. And I was just like, No, I’m not going to even try. I’m going to do something else because you just needed to pick business classes. And so I didn’t even need to take economics.
00:36:20:06 – 00:36:50:09 Unknown I could have taken whatever equivalent was, which, you know, that’s a big thing. I know that you’re in Korea, and I don’t know how flexible the universities are, but I know in Brazil it’s like you pick a degree and all of your classes are based on that degree. Yeah, it Is that how it is in Korea? Well, like you don’t have the fine arts or not fine arts.
00:36:50:09 – 00:37:25:03 Unknown What is it called? Like liberal arts? Liberal arts. Yes. Thank you. Like where. Yeah. You learn these different subjects and zero flexibility. Yeah, I think that is kind of similar here. I only have I was never a student here, so I’m not sure how difficult it is for actual students, but from like, from being a professor, I remember, like, wondering why students would be so upset when they were placed in certain classes and you know, there isn’t a lot of wiggle room.
00:37:25:03 – 00:37:50:19 Unknown So I do think it is similar with your experience in Brazil, but I want to also know so okay, so that’s what led you to economics and yeah, and then I’m curious, you said you did work at a bank for a couple of years after college and things like that. I’m curious what led you to Brazil and then teaching English love.
00:37:50:21 – 00:38:24:15 Unknown So I fell in love with the Brazilian and we dated here for four years. And when I finished, B.C, when I graduated in nine, we were dating, I think at that point was two years like my whole time at U and B.C.. I was really spoiled by him and which is why we got married. But I was working and then like my first semester I was working and I was going to visit him on the weekends.
00:38:24:15 – 00:38:53:03 Unknown He lived over, like in Ocean City. Like in that area was like two hour drive every weekend. My parents thought I was crazy. I was in love, but I was 31 B.C. and this was when the recession, like 2007 was hard for everybody. And I realized in order to do well at school, I needed to move back home with my parents, save some money, which I did.
00:38:53:04 – 00:39:28:05 Unknown I moved in with them. And so my dad’s house and it was close to the university. So I was a commuter. I never lived on campus, which I’m kind of like looking back. I’m like probably really happy that I didn’t because yeah, and that’s like another nother podcast. But yeah, like just I needed to focus on school and it was such a demanding school is much harder than the community college and much harder than you.
00:39:28:09 – 00:40:13:22 Unknown you see, you and B.C., it was, was quite demanding and I was always at the library. I was always studying and Eduardo and I kept losing my job. So nothing that I was doing, just the recession, like I would be hired and then the company would let go. 30% and new hires are in that 30%. And then and I worked at good companies, and then I finally just was like, I can’t keep going through this emotional stress of finding a job, getting fired, fighting it, like looking for another job and be successful at school, you know?
00:40:13:22 – 00:40:40:19 Unknown And I didn’t want to drop out to focus on working. So I, you know, talked to my parents, moved back home so I didn’t have to worry about bills or anything like that. And luckily, like, my dad has always been well, well off. And he was like, Yeah, sure, no problem. Come home, stay, finish college. And he also paid for college as well.
00:40:40:19 – 00:41:07:21 Unknown Like, I’m so thankful for that experience like that. I had that, you know, that that financial freedom of not having to worry about my undergraduate degree and then came like gas money and food and stuff. And so basically the only reason I needed to work was like to go out. And Eduardo was like, you know, I’ll pay for that.
00:41:07:23 – 00:41:32:12 Unknown Like, and I should pay for that. I’m the guy. And I’m like, Yes, because the other people that I dated were not like that. Like or maybe I put myself in that position where I was like, No, let’s be equal. We’ll equally pay for these things. I don’t know. Who knows if, if the real reason why my other relationships were like that.
00:41:32:13 – 00:42:01:12 Unknown But yeah, he was like, If you need money, just let me know. You need gas. Sure. Fill it up. Whatever. And that was interesting. Like to have somebody that you’re dating support you without asking, you know, for anything in return. I mean, we were dating, but it was it was very nice to be spoiled and just to focus.
00:42:01:12 – 00:42:36:14 Unknown And I’m saying spoiled, but I don’t think that’s normal. Was that you date people? Was that I’m thinking it. Yeah. Yeah, it totally is. The total is because I mean, I don’t want to say anything bad. I’m sure that there are American men who support their women, but I think it’s more of like they pay for beauty things like they’ll pay for getting nails done, they’ll pay for hair and stuff like that because they want to treat their lady, which is good is fine.
00:42:36:16 – 00:43:18:08 Unknown But I don’t see many people dating and then say, Yeah, you focus on school and I’ll pay when we go out. It’s not I don’t think it’s normal, which is why I say it’s I was spoiled. And then so when I graduated, I was working at a bank and I stopped working at a bank and got into like the back scenes, like the accounting offices and just I worked at an a customs brokerage, which was great.
00:43:18:12 – 00:43:46:14 Unknown But then 2009 layoffs. So I got laid off again and then I just kept working. I worked for an architecture firm and did really well there. That was like my favorite job ever. It was in Fell’s Point. It’s just beautiful. My favorite job. But that’s when I decided that I was going to leave and move to Brazil, the dream job that got away.
00:43:46:18 – 00:44:11:23 Unknown But at least like it all worked out for me, right? No regrets about that. And yeah, we moved to Brazil in 2011. When did you get married? Was it before you met? I mean, I’m sorry, before you left for Brazil or while you were there? Yeah. No. So my parents didn’t want me to move to Brazil at all.
00:44:12:01 – 00:44:43:05 Unknown And I, like, I had zero support from them. Like you’re going to, you know, you just got you just graduated. You’ve got this great job. Like I was doing well and I was happy. Then I looked at it. Eduardo wanted to move back home, you know, he wanted to go to college and just have a different experience, have a different life.
00:44:43:07 – 00:45:20:20 Unknown And I was like, Yeah, let’s figure this out. And I thought he supported me for me to get my degree. What’s two years whatever, for him to get his degree. So I went there. I stayed for three months on a tourist visa to test that. I didn’t want to just buy a one way ticket. I came back home for two months, told my dream job and I and for that three months, like they liked me so much, they wanted to hire me on for something.
00:45:20:20 – 00:45:44:00 Unknown What did they want to hire me like, for, like, project manager or something? Account manager, maybe. And I should have just taken the money and then just said like, All right, bye. But I’m very honest. And I said, Hey, I can’t take this raise like this promotion because. I’m actually planning to move to Brazil. And it was a disaster.
00:45:44:00 – 00:46:03:13 Unknown Like, well, we wouldn’t even have hired you if we had known. And I’m like, Yeah I needed a job, but I’m not going to take this. It was just like a regular, like, input accounting job. It was like at a temp agency. Like it was nothing. I was working through a temp agency, but then they wanted to, like, actual, like, hire me on.
00:46:03:13 – 00:46:31:17 Unknown And, you know, it’s temp agencies you have the company has to pay the temp agency a lot of money to break that contract. And who knows if in the future, like, who knows what I’m going to do, but I don’t want to ruin my relationship with my dream job because of not being honest with them. Right. I think they’ve got to pay like 20% of your salary because you imagine they paid that out.
00:46:31:19 – 00:46:56:21 Unknown And then like a month later, I was like, Please go into Brazil, you know? So I didn’t do that to them, but I was able to work for them as a temp while I was figuring out if I was going to live in Brazil or not. So I went to Brazil for like three months. I think you’re allowed there for like 90 days.
00:46:56:21 – 00:47:27:22 Unknown And I max that out, came back home for two months, extended my visa, live there, and then I got married in Brazil. We didn’t have a wedding. We just do like a courthouse kind of thing. It’s called equatorial. I was in jeans, like I didn’t even dress up for Europe. Best friends. no, no. You know, I mean, at this point, like, they like Eduardo a lot.
00:47:27:22 – 00:47:54:11 Unknown Like, they love him. It’s it’s it’s a good thing. And then they did come to visit us, but not that first year. No. And I think one thing that I do admire about my parents is they live my they let me live my life. You know, they’re not so overbearing on things like when I became an adult, I really could be who I wanted to be as a child was different, you know?
00:47:54:12 – 00:48:10:20 Unknown But once I turned 18, it was like, Yeah, if that’s what you want to do, why do you want to do it? How are you going to do it? Like when I wanted to be this musician, they were like, Yeah, sure, how are you going to do it? Let’s figure it out. And then I realized that that wasn’t the life I wanted.
00:48:10:22 – 00:48:37:00 Unknown They let me, you know, learn that way. And I think that experience of going to all of those gigs and the experience of spending three months in Brazil and seeing how life would actually be without being stuck in that position right? Imagine if I bought a one way ticket and I absolutely hated it. You know, it was a culture shock.
00:48:37:01 – 00:49:07:08 Unknown I lost a lot of weight when I first moved there. I didn’t speak the language or anything, but luckily, you know, Eduardo made it really fun, Like we had so many cool adventures there. This family, fantastic. You know, like we bought our first house in Brazil. We had children in Brazil, you know, just the best people ever. You know, everything.
00:49:07:08 – 00:49:39:22 Unknown Like, it’s just so good. So. Yeah, yeah. No, that that sounds really awesome. We’re there for like, 11 years, right? Yeah, almost 12 years. Years. Yeah. And the border was there a little bit longer, right? so you came back first? We came back together, but he went before me. So he went at the end of 2010 and I came in like March of 2011.
00:49:40:00 – 00:50:03:00 Unknown Got it. And so you said there was culture shock. And when you first moved, you did say you moved for love, but did you have an idea of like you were planning to do for your career, or were you figuring that out, or did you know that you would be teaching English before you had moved? Did you have a plan?
00:50:03:02 – 00:50:26:07 Unknown So I had some savings, so I didn’t really have to work for like the first like two years. Remember the cost of living in. Brazil is like nothing, you know? I mean, I would say it’s like nothing. I mean, it is something that’s pretty arrogant to say, but like per month to live in Brazil for like food and everything.
00:50:26:07 – 00:50:56:21 Unknown We were spending maybe $200. So I planned to be able to travel to just take it easy for two years. And again, I didn’t think I was going to be there for like nearly 12 years. I thought it was just going to be while my husband was in school. But we really did fall in love with the country, with the city, with with everything.
00:50:56:23 – 00:51:36:13 Unknown It really was fantastic. So we just went with the flow of things and yeah, just figured things out. We had opportunities. We just went with it and I think the other thing in Brazil, the reason we stayed excuse me, stayed so long was because it was so different from the rush here in the United States. You know, I feel like I was always tired here and I feel like I’m always tired now that I’m back in the United States.
00:51:36:15 – 00:52:09:14 Unknown I feel like there are so many like there’s too much going on right there. Not there aren’t enough hours in the day. Whereas in Brazil we would go kayaking and there was no cellphone reception and we would just like go and it was just wilderness and we would just really escape. And so I’m really missing that idea of just that escape from technology and an escape from like the busy life.
00:52:09:16 – 00:52:38:07 Unknown And yeah, so that’s one thing that’s very different. And then if you think about it, nature doesn’t cost anything like just to get there and like this is going to sound so, so silly, but we would go fishing. my husband would go fishing, catch fish, we would eat the fish, we would bring. Like we could survive with a little bit of money.
00:52:38:09 – 00:53:01:10 Unknown And I know that sounds so silly, but if we would go to a family or friends farm, we would just eat the food at the farm, like we would go pick apples or we would go get like a mango, like from the mango tree, like the the the way of life it really provided for you like it gave to you so much.
00:53:01:12 – 00:53:48:05 Unknown Whereas here you can’t just go and pick some apples if you want to papaya or like whatever fruits. You pay a lot of money for produce in the United States. Yeah. So and living in the city is so different than living in the country, it’s just different priorities for people, different ideas of fun. And yeah, again, I love both, but it’s just different things cost a lot less in Brazil, not in all parts of Brazil, I’d imagine if I lived in Rio or San Paolo it would be very expensive, but we lose it also.
00:53:48:07 – 00:54:30:16 Unknown Is it also like, I see what you’re saying. Yeah. So I’m kind of curious like how you got into teaching and like having your own school and yeah, it was really destiny. So right in front of my in-laws house was a very quaint English school. It was like one room, maybe two rooms. The woman lived in the United States and because of that experience, she opened up an English school and she invited me to teach there.
00:54:30:16 – 00:55:08:02 Unknown Once in a while. And I spent the first two months or three months. I forget how the first chunk that I was in Brazil, I would happen. I would I would work for her a little bit. And I tried working at a bank in Brazil. I tried working in my field in Brazil, but I didn’t speak Portuguese. And in order to work at a nice job, you needed to pass exams, which is unheard of to me.
00:55:08:04 – 00:55:39:17 Unknown So yeah, like so in order to work at a bank in the United States, you just do an interview with like the manager and then you start working. It’s so simple. You have to do training and they pay you to train. No, in Brazil, you have to pass an exam, which is very lengthy, and there are hundreds, if not thousands of people trying to get that same job as you because it’s a good salary.
00:55:39:19 – 00:56:06:15 Unknown Benefits. And so I didn’t I wasn’t able to do that, even though it’s just math, even though as qualified, I didn’t have the language skills to do it. But I did have the language skills to teach English and but it was horrible. So when I worked for this woman, she didn’t like my accent. She learned English in California.
00:56:06:17 – 00:56:44:21 Unknown I was from the East Coast. Apparently I said everything wrong and I did probably or whatever it was to California. I okay. There were other things she didn’t like My methods. The way that I taught English In Brazil, things are very competitive and I didn’t like that style. Everything was like a spelling bee. So every day I would read the same list of 200 words to the students so that they could prepare for the spelling bee at the end of the year.
00:56:44:23 – 00:57:12:15 Unknown And I didn’t like that. So I applied to different universities in the city, different schools, and I actually was offered some positions, but it was like nothing like $2 an hour. And at this point I decided, okay, I need to get a job if I’m going to live here, I need to make money. I also need to make enough money to fly back home.
00:57:12:19 – 00:57:45:23 Unknown So I would try to go back every year. And we like traveling too. So like we would do international trips as well. So traveling was the reason that I wanted to have a successful job. And I worked. I decided in 2012 to open my own school and I worked at a university teaching English and I worked at a private like grade school.
00:57:46:01 – 00:58:08:20 Unknown And I taught English to children. I stayed there for one year. It was horrible, worst experience of my life. But also I learned so much. It was like the best experience of my life. I learned Portuguese from teaching those children, right? So in order for me to do my job, I needed to be able to communicate with them.
00:58:08:23 – 00:58:30:22 Unknown And I think children are the best language teachers. Yeah, Father like way better than I will ever be. So much patience and they make it so much fun and they’re just brutally honest. So, like, I can’t understand you. It has to be like this. And this is teachers that never talk to each other like or students like that.
00:58:31:00 – 00:58:58:10 Unknown So they’re just brutally honest. So I learned Portuguese that year, 2012 was the year I became fluent and I studied so hard and I started in my house in my living room. We got at this apartment. It was two stories upstairs. We lived. We have this dog. We still have him. His name is Joe Beano. He was like our mascot.
00:58:58:12 – 00:59:25:00 Unknown It started with friends of my husband that wanted to study with me. I remember telling my price. I remember people laughing at me and saying, Hey, I’m not paying that classes with me. We’re so cheap. When I look back, I was charging like $3 a month, $4 a month for people to come study with me twice a week.
00:59:25:01 – 00:59:55:11 Unknown I raised my prices, just continued to raise my prices, build my reputation. I had a lot of support because there weren’t any English teachers that taught how to speak English. There was a school that taught you how to spell, which is kind of funny. There was this school. There were some franchises that taught more like for exams, but not conversation.
00:59:55:13 – 01:00:29:18 Unknown So then I realized what I was good at. I realized that people can learn from me and I just kept upgrading. So I moved to a location, I think after like six months or something I can remember exactly I should have this written down. But every so often I kept moving. So in the ten, 11 years that I had my school in Brazil, we moved around two, three, four, four times five.
01:00:29:18 – 01:01:11:11 Unknown I had it in five locations, started in my house, and then four different locations and each time getting bigger. And I actually made a really big mistake that I didn’t realize people were coming to me to learn English from me. So when I ended my English school, I had nine people working with me. Okay, some of them volunteered, but it was like freelance contract work, trying to remember the best way to describe it to have an English school in Brazil.
01:01:11:11 – 01:01:49:08 Unknown It’s a business I didn’t have. I don’t have a degree in education, you know, but I could open a school in Brazil because it’s a moneymaker. Okay? Most businesses in Brazil fail, like 90% of businesses fail in Brazil in the first two years. So I had a business, the successful business. And then the mistake that I made was that my costs were too high, like rent, the salaries, the compensation that I paid to this, to the teachers.
01:01:49:10 – 01:02:25:01 Unknown The price was so low because I wanted it to be available in affordable for everybody. I wanted to help. So even though I had this successful school, it wasn’t making money. And so the pandemic is the best and worst thing to have happened. I had a lot of time. I think we all had a lot of time on our hands, and I was forced to close my school and go online.
01:02:25:03 – 01:02:56:08 Unknown So it was like March what, 20th or something? 2020. The world shut down. The United States and Brazil closed down. The same time I tried to have those groups. The classes go online, but the people that were working for me did not want to teach online. So they just like said goodbye. The ones that did want to help, they were like the receptionists, like the helpers.
01:02:56:10 – 01:03:24:01 Unknown They couldn’t teach English. So I tried contracting. Other people, but at the end of the day, people wanted to study English with me because they wanted it. It wasn’t just about the language, it was about how to use English, right? And understand, if I travel to the United States, how is that going to be? And it was again, it wasn’t grammar.
01:03:24:02 – 01:03:54:18 Unknown It was again like, how do you sound yourself in English? And the people that I hired weren’t I mean, some of them, yeah, sure could have. But the majority of English teachers in our city taught in Portuguese. They wouldn’t actually use English. So that was a huge struggle for me and my students, was to find people who would practice English with them.
01:03:54:20 – 01:04:42:12 Unknown Yeah, yeah. Huge, huge struggle. And the other really funny kind of ironic part is in 2020, I had students online through Skype. And looking back, maybe should have stuck with Skype. So instead of having business students like from Sao Paulo on Skype, I shifted to having students face to face at my school and they were mostly children. So and the reason I did that was because parents pay, you know, their more reliable payers.
01:04:42:14 – 01:05:09:13 Unknown Right? And then if people people studying, once they meet their needs, they stop children if a kid starts with you. So I was very successful at helping children learn how to read and that’s how you learn how to read faster in English than in Portuguese. They would start with me like a four or five years old and then they would continue until they graduated.
01:05:09:18 – 01:05:45:05 Unknown So I’ve had students that like just completely stayed with me throughout and the parents really trusted me and they were very successful and they travel and and parents, like I still get messages from these like little kids, like from the parents like, Hey, look, I’m in France and or and I’m like, speaking in English because I don’t have friends or families that, like, move like, I had this couple put their daughter and they moved to Ireland and she learned English so fast.
01:05:45:05 – 01:06:05:13 Unknown And like you still, because the Internet, you check in on these people and they check in with you and like, Hey, look at us. The one girl, she’s now a woman, graduated from high school recently, and they’re like, Hey, we’re so successful because they studied with you and they were just able to adapt so fast here in Ireland.
01:06:05:13 – 01:06:36:08 Unknown So I think that is the reason I kept teaching English even after the pandemic, even after like all the mistakes. And then now I’m back in the United States, I can do anything right. I could go back into accounting. I’ve had some job offers from some family members in banking. And what keeps me teaching is that I can work at home and take care of my young kids.
01:06:36:10 – 01:07:04:15 Unknown We talked about how expensive child care is, and I think the other thing is like intense, right? So if I children, I would want to see them and be with them. And and I think about how like how my life was as a kid. Like you come home from school, like my mom, she was working like we were home.
01:07:04:17 – 01:07:51:01 Unknown She would come home, make dinner. She was exhausted. We would watch TV and go to bed like we didn’t do stuff on the weekends. Yeah, sure, we would have fun on the weekends. But Monday through Friday, you know, parents are just exhausted and so one of the cool things, like one of the things I’m so grateful for and and yeah, I don’t know, but I’m home when my kids are home, you know, I help them and I’m able to to spend more time with them and the more I talk to moms, like in activities that my parent that that we do together and the parents all talk a lot of like my circle of friends,
01:07:51:03 – 01:08:24:23 Unknown one of the parents stays home with the kids or like they’ll have like a part time job or they’ll work at home. And the other works. It’s just how things are. Like the priority is with the kids. Yeah. So it’s it’s very interesting to see. Not everybody is like that. Just my circle of friends. I’ve noticed that somebody is home with the kids just because we can’t afford and most I think is because we can’t afford the alternative.
01:08:25:01 – 01:09:20:06 Unknown And then we think like, why do we have these kids if we’re just going to keep sending them off everywhere? Right? Right. I think that’s what you’ve asked. Right. More questions. Go ahead. Well, yeah. So I just want to be mindful of your time and also, I think think at an hour and a little bit over. So I guess I do kind of want to talk about this last and maybe that piece might need to be a little bit briefer, but I kind of wanted to ask you about like based on all of your education journey and looking at what kind of student you are, what kind of classes enjoyed, how you preferred to learn,
01:09:20:08 – 01:09:55:22 Unknown what skills you excelled at, what you ultimately majored in, and then you know how you spent the majority of your career, you know, operating this really successful language school, English school. You know, I’m wondering, as you look back on this journey, is there anything that you wish you could have learned in school as part of the compulsory education that could have better prepared you for that career that you pursued and then?
01:09:56:00 – 01:10:30:07 Unknown You know, like the last question. So I don’t know if you want to combine it or if it’s two different answers, but like how would you want the curriculum to change to better prepare your children for, you know, right, like the future that we’re headed in? Yeah, I wish that I had known that I could be an teacher maybe when I was younger because I always showed interest in speaking.
01:10:30:09 – 01:11:10:07 Unknown I love talking to people and I think that schools could definitely have more like I think we call it career days, but let kids explore what careers they could be successful in. I remember when I was in seventh or eighth grade, we had to go to this like career trailer through an essay and here in Maryland. And so they were trying to see basically which of these kids are geniuses so we can contract them when they’re older and you take this you take this test to see what you’re good at.
01:11:10:07 – 01:11:36:09 Unknown And I was told that I would be good in accounting. So in the back, my mind, like since seventh grade, I knew I would be successful with money because this test told me I would be successful with money. And I wonder if that test had told me something else, would I have, you know, underlined like would I have chosen a different career path?
01:11:36:11 – 01:12:00:03 Unknown But I was always reminded, this test told you that you were going to be good in this. So one thing that I would definitely change, I don’t think the test should tell you what you’re good or bad at in like a very specific career. I Think that when I was 18 I took another exam. It was a career.
01:12:00:05 – 01:12:29:04 Unknown I forget what it was like a home kit. You pay like 200 bucks and you take this test and they tell you what careers are good for you. And again, accounting was on there, and this is when I was trying to decide my major. But it gave a lot of other like I remember teaching was in there. I don’t know where that paper is, but you’d like take all of these exams like this book of, like timed exams.
01:12:29:06 – 01:12:51:19 Unknown I wish I could remember what this test is called, but yeah, like, think that would have been more helpful to me in seventh grade if I had this test that said, You’re good at these things. Based on this test, but follow your dreams, like follow what you want to do and then learn what opportunities are in the world.
01:12:51:21 – 01:13:14:08 Unknown And I don’t think schools that at all for children like I don’t remember any class in high school or any assembly where we learn like I learned about joining the military, you know, like we had a lot of assemblies like twice a year. They would come in and try to recruit kids into the military, like the different branches and such.
01:13:14:10 – 01:13:46:04 Unknown But even like tech stuff, I know that a lot of people could be more successful if they could figure out what they’re good at instead of being in classes and maybe being good at something or not. And I think a lot of people. So what I would change is giving more opportunities to test even like test different jobs.
01:13:46:04 – 01:14:11:04 Unknown You know, like I remember my dad saying when he was a kid, he would go to his dad’s job. There was like this career day where you could shadow your parents at work. And I think it was more for sons and fathers so that they could see their trade. And I think that’s how like businesses like the father and then passes on the skills to the son.
01:14:11:04 – 01:14:38:06 Unknown And you see this with like different practices and stuff, but you don’t see that with women at all. And the mother has to take care of the kids. And if she’s so lucky to have a job, she has to do that job. She can’t be distracted by bringing her daughter in, you know, like that just wouldn’t fly. So I think that also needs to change.
01:14:38:08 – 01:15:06:18 Unknown That’s like. Right. And that’s kind of what I’m doing with my English classes. So we talk a lot about social social topics yesterday in my class with my teenagers who are like in their last year of high school preparing to go to United States. They know English well enough. I don’t help them with the exams. They have that at their school.
01:15:06:20 – 01:15:28:18 Unknown We talked about preparing for college like this one girl. She’s terrified of leaving home. She’s like, I don’t even know if I’m going to remember anything. Like, I can’t function. And she wants I forget what she wants to be like. I should remember these things. But she’s one of the smartest people I know. Like she’s way smarter than I am.
01:15:28:18 – 01:16:00:14 Unknown She just knows so much, but she’s afraid she’s not going to be successful away from home. And we talked about that. Right. And yeah, so I think being able to help your students figure out these social things. And when I look back at the teachers that I loved, I had this teacher at MBC. She shared so much with us that had nothing to do with economics.
01:16:00:15 – 01:16:27:21 Unknown You know, she was human to us. I remember her sharing tips on how to save money. Or maybe it was because she ate pasta at school at the university. She told us like, Hey, my first two years all we ate was pasta, because that’s we could afford. So yeah, connecting to the universe, to the class. But, you know, it was more personal.
01:16:27:23 – 01:16:58:12 Unknown She told us about her dance classes, you know, so she definitely made sure that we understood that college was more than that class, that it was about the experiences. And I think that looking at what my kids are going through, I think that the teachers are so worried about all have to do exams are a big deal so much we, you and I both know.
01:16:58:14 – 01:17:26:01 Unknown But I think that if they just had this human moments, just open conversations, even when I was a kid, like I wanted to talk about those books, but we had to just read the book and go directly to the paper about the book. We couldn’t just have these open dialogs. And I think we just need to relax, like forget about all the exams and just worry on those like, experiences.
01:17:26:02 – 01:17:46:00 Unknown Yeah, and explore those experiences. And I think that’s that’s a way that could change and better education. Thank you so much for listening. If any part of this episode resonated with you, please connect with us on social media at the links in the show notes. Until next time.