The Peak and the Pit

Welcome back to Season 2. In this episode, we begin to unpack universal human needs and how those are directly correlated to our emotional intelligence. My guest, 11-year-old Maliah, speaks indirectly about the ways in which she deals with her human needs not being met and how she changes the stories she tells herself in her head to increase her emotional intelligence. She is proof of the importance of working to push comparison out of your head to reach the ultimate level of authenticity and self-acceptance. She is proof of the importance of finding a community that helps to build yourself, her self expression, and have a sense of belonging.  We hope you use this episode as a catalyst to begin your journey toward emotional intelligence. 

Making an effort to be aware is something that my next guest talks about quite a bit, stating that the language that he uses, and the choices that he makes in his day to day life as both a educator, an artist, an activist, and a friend of mine, is "not an attack on him but doing a kind act for others." Sandro Murillo is a 6th/7th grade ELA teacher at Sherman School of Excellence in Chicago, IL. He is one of the most intelligent people I think I've ever had the pleasure of communicating with in this moment but also on a day to day basis. He is the type of person you want to be around because they make you want to do better, to be better.

On today's episode, I speak with my Aunt, Barb, a former social worker in our "sister district," district 98 and now mom to two of my favorite boys in the world, my cousins, Luke and Noah. My Auntie Barb is someone who I've admired for my whole life for a multitude of reasons, but I believe the biggest one is her ability to continually grow, improve and educate herself. In this episode, you'll hear us discuss the interworkings of being a mom and raising a family that doesn't "match" as Noah used to call it when he was younger. Luke and Noah were both internationally adopted. Luke came home at the beginning of 2016 from China and Noah came home in 2007 from Guatemala. My aunt and uncle are both white, both of whom were born in the states and both grew up in Berwyn. Together, their family has experienced their fair share of difficulties and struggles in regard to their family looking different than the "average" or "white" family that we touch on in this episode. However, we also talk a lot about how educators, specifically all 82% of us white educators, need to be aware of our own biases and the centralist perspectives that we have when building curriculum, assigning work to the class, or even in the language that we choose to use in our classrooms, buildings, and meetings.

Devynn speaks candidly both of healthy striving and perfectionism and how they can co-exist especially in the mind of a middle schooler. I loved her ability to speak bravely despite the hard topic and hard questioning that I was throwing at her on top of the fact that she has as she so beautiful calls "bumpy speech." Her bravery in sharing the struggles she has with her speech impediment will give the opportunity to her peers to share the challenges that they're facing. If you make it to the end of the episode, I've included Dev's 5th grade farewell speech that we talk about in the episode for you to enjoy. Her first big debut speaking in front of a live audience. I hope you're able to reflect on your own bouts with perfectionism and healthy striving and move away from being other focused to self focused.

In this episode, my next guest, Marissa and I discuss how friends create space for true belonging, the dangers of ignored ignorance, and how much weight your words hold. I hope this podcast is able to open the eyes of every listener to see the "able versus the label" in every single human being.