[00:00:00] Jethro Jones: Welcome to Resilient Schools on the B Podcast Network. I'm excited to have Evan Schwartz on the program today. He is the c e o and founder of Beluga, a social learning platform, making education impactful, accessible, and equitable for the youth of the world through interactive digital content aimed at providing a global perspective while aligning to everyday school subject areas and student interests.
He has over 17 years of overseeing business focus on education, social impact, and innovation within the Gen Y and Gen Z demographic. Evan has created and implemented educational programs and cross-cultural initiatives in all 50 states in the US at the K-12 and university levels, along with consultancy work on six continents.
In 2019, he has recognized as one of the meaningful business 100 and award honoring global leaders who are introducing new ways of thinking and acting to address the world's biggest challenges, climate change, pollution, hunger, poverty, education, and health. Evan, welcome to the Resilient Schools Podcast.
Great to have you here. Hey Jeff, I
[00:01:03] Evin Schwartz: appreciate you having me. And I'll tell you after that bio, I'm like, did I really do all this? The last few years seem like 50, but really excited to be here today. Um, you know, and share a little bit about what we have going on, especially during May, how we're supporting educators and students worldwide focus on mental health.
[00:01:21] Jethro Jones: Yeah, and, uh, we'll talk about this in a minute, but we are, uh, partnering on the same here Schools Month, talking about mental health all month long. And you can, uh, check out the same Here Schools podcast that we released this month specifically to cover this mental health issue and, uh, all the Twitter spaces that we're recording collaboratively on that.
So we'll talk about that in a second. But, uh, Evan, what would you say would be. The thing you want people to walk away from, from this conversation, walk away with, from this conversation. Excuse me. No, no doubt
[00:01:54] Evin Schwartz: about it. And I'll tell you the biggest thing probably on our side is that there's better ways to learn today, right?
There's better ways to learn, and it starts with community. So, so I, you know, my every day and my baby is beluga, right? We're a social learning platform, but our same here, mental health initiative started four years ago at this point. Um, and we found that sharing experiences, positives, the negatives, uh, lead to a lot, right?
I think today, more than ever within education, I mean, you are seeing massive. Migration away from the practice last year, I think 300,000 teachers and staff members in the US left this year, it's projected to hit half a million. And we're not alone. Uk, Canada, the exact same thing's taking place. Um, we need something, right?
We need an injection into this industry to realize, hey, everyone's feeling the strain. There's a lot of handcuff that takes place, uh, but we need to remember why we're doing this. As an industry, and I think, you know, that's the biggest thing that we really want to push for this month. And it starts with mental health.
Mm-hmm.
[00:02:59] Jethro Jones: Yeah, I, I think that's so important. I think the, the thing that I took away from this is, um, is recognizing that learning doesn't just happen within school. That learning can happen anywhere. And our challenge as educators is how to recognize and honor that learning and not try to control that learning.
And I think that's what we do too often. And so just kind of a theme through our conversation is really about how to recognize, acknowledge, and uh, And give power to that learning without thinking that we have to be the source of it all. So, uh, good conversation. Looking forward to you listening to it. Uh, we'll get to that conversation with Evan Schwartz in just a moment.
All right, Evan, uh, tell us about this same here, schools month, uh, and the Twitter spaces that you're doing and the podcast on the b podcast network that you're doing. Give us, give us your vision and idea
[00:04:00] Evin Schwartz: behind that. Yeah, Jeff. Absolutely. And I'll tell you this whole concept of same here, schools month, uh, started right at the, really the first few weeks of the pandemic.
So this is our fourth year doing this. Uh, good buddy of mine, Eric Houston, runs an organization called, same Here. Uh, his story is incredible. Big time sports executive, you know, living the dream, right? In so many words and had a full burnout. You know, two and a half years bedridden, pumped with every medication under the sun, a less short shock therapy.
His story's incredible, to say the least. Uh, but really what started to heal him right, and get him on that path back to practicing sound, mental health was having conversation. And Eric, since about five years now, dedicated his life to mental health. There's different alliances, athletes, celebrity musician, writers.
And same here. Schools. So same here. Schools started with that conversation. Um, I lead that organization still today with a few other educators around the country, even globally now. But really, we dated back to April, 2020 and said, people are hurting. Physically and mentally, and we need to start conversation to understand how do we be there for each other?
How do people recognize that everyone's going through something and so many words. Same here, right? That's Eric's whole mess message. So back in 2020, I think three days before May hit, may just so happens to be mental health awareness month, we said, let's throw this month long event. You know what? Sure.
This sounds like a great idea. No big deal. Yeah, May 1st 3:00 AM like, what are we possibly doing? Uh, but that first May was fantastic. We had probably about 30 to 40 conversations, uh, those days. You know, I, I like to say like the high days of Zoom, right? And webinars where everyone and their mother was on one.
It was fun at that point. Mm-hmm. Now a lot of screen time burnout, but, you know, looking at it, we really started seeing some real things. And things from anxiety to depression, um, you know, to what comes next, right? Especially within our education system where, you know, s e l has been a nice word over the last, or term over the last few years, but mental health's been around forever.
And it's not just a nurse and a health teacher anymore. We need to instill this type of conversation in everyone. So since then, this is our fourth installment of Same Here Schools Month. What we do is this is a complete, open event for the community. Uh, we work with different educators, organizations, experts, individuals, athletes, musicians, you name it.
And students from around the world that are having conversations on an everyday basis. Uh, we've curated different lessons within our platform. Beluga, there's different professional development that teachers can take, you know, on demand, a hundred percent free to them as well. Uh, this year is a little bit different, right?
This year we looked at it and all these sessions have been on demand on beluga too, for quite some time too. So people are going back using it as, you know, really their SEL curriculum. But this year me and Eric looked at each other and said, we can have a mental health event and expect people to sit on a webinar for an hour.
That's literally insanity in 2023. So we said, let's start opening this up to the community. Right? Every year we get more community questions on how do I speak with Eric? Or, Hey, that speaker was fantastic, talking about what burnout looks like. How do we actually join the conversation? So we looked at Twitter as a great space.
Twitter to us has really fueled our entire platform, to be honest with you. Like the PLN is more important than ever before. I think, you know, that's probably how unique got connected as well here. Yeah. But in doing so, we launched Twitter spaces. I know it's a little bit new for educators these days, uh, similar to kind of those Twitter chats of the past within education.
Yeah. Uh, but all on demand, all live and real conversations that they could patch into. Um, we're about halfway through the month right now. The conversations have been fantastic, to say the least. Um, all these will be recorded and, you know, thrilled that they're on the B podcast network as well, you know, for listeners to come back to at any point.
And, you know, ideally take something away from these big conversations.
[00:07:52] Jethro Jones: Well, you know, the cool thing about Twitter spaces is that it's low key. It's not like super stressful, like getting all prepared for like a podcast interview, for example. And you can show up and do the thing that you need to do and that's, and that's great.
But then by the beauty that I think of having this as a partnership with you in, in doing this on the B Podcast network is that now these episodes will. Will live forever and people will be able to come back and access them, uh, anytime and, uh, you know, be able to pull things from them as needed and, and really, you know, come back and, and refresh themselves.
And so, Um, if you go to b podcast.network or b podcast network.com, then you can see the same here. Schools on there, click on that link. It'll take you to the website and you can, you can check that out, um, and be able to, uh, listen to all those again. So, uh, I'm glad that we're doing that. I think that it's really cool.
And I love your comment about, uh, SEL is a nice term, but mental health has been around forever. That's really something that I think is an important thing to recognize and it seems like that has become more important to the masses over the past couple years, which I think is great. Um, but many of us have been involved in that for a long time.
And do you wanna add anything to that?
[00:09:13] Evin Schwartz: Yeah, absolutely. So I'll tell you, and this is, this is my fear always with education and I am just a very positive person. Not even like glass, half full glasses pouring over the side. Otherwise I wouldn't still be in education today. Right? I think that goes for all of us here.
Um, but you know, we don't want it to be just another flavor of the week. And I think that is constantly happening within the industry on this district is doing this or this leader is doing that. And before you know it, it's just a, a flesh and a pen. So we've seen that throughout the years. And to be honest with you, even now, right, we're sitting here in 2023 semester for most is either over or winding down over the next few weeks.
And I don't think SEL has the same effect that it did two years ago. Right. I think SEL in many districts, unfortunately, uh, is a check mark. And we're saying, yeah, we had our speaker, you know, we had our assembly on this big concept of depression, anxiety, suicide prevention, but it's a lot of reactive instead of proactive.
And that's something our team, and especially with practitioners and organizations we always talk to, is we don't have to wait. We don't have to wait until that teacher is burnt out or someone's life is taken. Right. Let's start having these conversations and understanding how everyone in the building is set up for success, not just academically, but as a human.
And that's something, Eric, especially from same heroes discussed as like everyone has a lot on their plate, you know, between jobs, family, you name it. Right? The plate is mental health though. And I think that's one of the most important things for the industry to really look at. 10, 20, 50 years ago it was, Hey, rub some dirt on it and you'll be fine.
Right. Different generation though, today, right? We have more information thrown at us than ever before, like mind blowing to say the least. Our kids are consuming. An outrageous amount of information these days, and no one has really prepared them for it. We're acting as if it's the same old, same old.
Don't get me wrong, some districts are doing amazing things and prioritizing us, but for the most part, we need to be loud. And I think that's one of the biggest things within the industry and you know, why we do mental health awareness month, why there's amazing principles and leaders that are shouting us from the mountain tops is we want everyone to do this, right?
It's mm-hmm. Helping our society. So I think, you know, looking at that term, mental health has been around for a while. Um, health class has been around for a while, the goods and the bads of it. But now we really have to start carving out some more time and resources, you know, for the thing that matters the most.
[00:11:45] Jethro Jones: Yeah. And this is, uh, an interesting point that I often struggle with, that we talk a lot about in, excuse me, we talk a lot about standards and things that kids are supposed to learn in education. And some of those standards, um, or all those standards are not mental health focused standards. Things like believing in yourself and believing that good things will come, or that there is a, a reason to be optimistic.
And those are things that, um, That I think we should be more emphatic about saying this. This is something that we should talk about. You know, when Carol Dweck's book, um, mindset came out, then we talked a lot about fixed and growth mindset. But there's a lot more mindsets than, uh, Just fixed in growth and it's kind of a waste to only talk about those two.
While having a growth mindset is important. Don't get me wrong, it's also important to have an abundance mindset. It's also important to have an open and promotion mindset, and without those things then, then we, we can struggle a lot more with everything that we're dealing with in life. So what would be your advice to someone who's listening to this today to say, Here's how you make sure that mental health becomes something that you're focusing on regularly without it being like another curriculum that you have to teach.
I mean, where's the balance there, Evan? Yeah.
[00:13:09] Evin Schwartz: And you know, that's a hard one, and I don't have all the answers. You know, I, I will be the first one to tell you. I try to surround myself with way smarter people than myself and every single aspect of my life. What I will tell you, and just my personal take, is we need to understand how it personalizes each person, right?
Every single student, and every single teacher. I think looking at standards, comparing it to mental health, the challenge is no one knows how to assess this. Right. So it's really, and that's a whole other ball of wax conversation that we could really dive into. Um, it might take a few different sessions though, between you and me on it.
Yeah. But looking at it, you know, being able to assess why are we spending time on this when there's so little time? And it is so valuable within an everyday classroom setting. It's not the teachers. Challenge. It's not the administrator's challenge, it's society, right? Like we really need to rethink what education can and should be.
And it's not, Hey, John, prepared for the SATs, which, you know, it was two weeks ago. You talk about mental health stress in the us there's nothing bigger. Right. Your entire K to 12 career is led up to this one moment. And unless you get a great score, you're not gonna college and your life's ruined. And it, it's a nonsense.
Right. That's the nice way to say it. The PG way to say it on this podcast. So we'll keep it light, but it, it's really blowing it up and, and starting from scratch. Right. It's understanding what a true learning experience looks like both in and out of the classroom. And Sure. Is it important to know our history and science and math and music and art and reading, of course.
But none of that stuff matters without sound mental health. So this stuff has to be integrated throughout every single curriculum at every single grade level. This isn't just something, Hey, we're signing off in fifth grade and you never need to work on this again. The same way that we have gym class, there should be class for the brain, right?
And what are these practices that we're preparing teachers and students for? What do we need to give them outside of the classroom? What are we celebrating for each individual student? I find today, you know, like we're trying to pigeonhole kids so much. Look at simple kind of comparison classroom to social media, right?
Social media has, its down flows. We know this, but they're creating amazing things. Kids in multiple modalities, image, audio, video, text and drawing. And you bring 'em into the classroom here, turn number two, pencil and sit in row and try to get this done. It's insanity. You're speak another language.
[00:15:35] Jethro Jones: Yeah, and I, I think the only place where I'd, I tweak what you're saying a little bit is the idea of having this be a class.
I think that that is, and I don't really think this is what you meant, but we don't really want to add another class to the required schedule. What we wanna do is we want to embed this in all of the classes and make it something that we are talking about on a regular basis and addressing on a regular basis.
I'm starting my doctoral program, uh, this fall. I don't even know why I'm doing it. I'm so annoyed by the whole education system, but I, I believe there are things that I can learn by going through this process. Um, and one of my outcomes, my goals is to have a program. That I can use to bring this stuff into schools, um, and specifically focus on young men and just be really narrow and say, this is what we're gonna focus on.
And the reason why I wanna focus on young men specifically is because I believe that they have unique challenges that young women don't have. And I think somebody else, Who's more well versed in those things should create a program for young women specifically. And I think there should be a lot of different programs that a school can go and choose from.
Here are these 17 different programs that all are going to help young men and young women in certain ways. And let's think about what our students actually need and and implement the program that actually. Works. And like I said, it, it can't be another class. It can't be an after school activity. It needs to be during the day, throughout the day, plus.
Anything else that you want to do. And one of those things includes, and I, you brought this up earlier so I'm circling back. One of those things includes the ability to talk about these things that you're facing with other people and having mentors outside of the, the people that you're forced to interact with, like your teacher and your parents.
How do we help kids have other trustworthy, good adults that they can talk with and be able to talk about the challenges and, and whatever in life. And, um, what are your thoughts on, on making it possible for kids to be able to talk and access, um, other people so they can have somebody else to go to?
[00:18:01] Evin Schwartz: Yes.
I mean, listen, this is, um, what we built beluga on this concept, uh, and we're seeing really good use cases, and I know we'll get into that in a second, but you bring up an interesting point on it, right? Is like the programming side of this and you coming in and saying, Hey, I want this for young men. It's a fair point, right?
How do we personalize this within communities? So I know a lot of organizations and individuals are doing the other side of the fence right now. We're looking at this for young women or looking at this for minority groups or high poverty communities, or affluent communities, I think that is a very key aspect in understanding.
This is not a one size fits all model. Every single community is dealing with completely different challenges. So for, you know, a department of education to say, Hey, we're mandating mental health. I'm based in Toronto. Uh, the Ministry of Education here in Ontario just came out last week and said, we are going to put in a mandatory mental health curriculum for grade seven and eight.
Now who creates it? What that looks like yet to be seen. But what I'll tell you is there are a lot of different colors, races, religions, ideologies within the province that need completely different things. Now there's a foundation Sure, that, you know, we'll build tools on, but I think one of the biggest challenges, especially today, And you know, Esser exposed this for sure, and schools are over-resourced now.
I think there is a major, major reality check coming over the next 16 months where Esser funding runs out and, oh shoot, are we gonna keep resources in the building or are we gonna keep staff members? And that's a big conversation. But I think the other challenge is how are administrators and decision makers that are holding the pocketbook, how are they aware of these programs?
And not just because I'm buddy, buddy with you, or I worked in your building and started a consulting agency, or you know, we got connected at an event, right? Like that's what you're seeing for the most part. Within districts, it's, again, it's not the administrator's fault, is how do you make programs more accessible to others and parlaying that type of concept.
How do you make individuals more accessible to others? Right, both in person and globally. So at Beluga, I'll, I'll do like a little plug on us right now, but like we are a global organization. I believes students and teachers should learn about the world with the world. So just because I'm geographically born within a city at the exact same time, within 12 month calendars, other kids.
That should not be my learning network for 12 years. That's crazy, right? Like this is the one room schoolhouse. And we're way past that type of environment these days. And even if there are one room school houses, which we work with still, they probably have the internet, right? Yeah. And students are probably gonna collaborate in the future with people that are not sitting right next to them.
So how do we start creating those learning communities, teachers, students, and parents, as the nucleus of this, which it should be, but then how do you provide that mentorship externally? And I find. This is a challenge we face every day. If you are able to provide that, it levels the playing field completely, right?
We know, you know, the big 1% universities and the big industries that people wanna go into, mentorship and connections probably make up more than your academic resume on getting there. Not probably. Definitely. Right. How do we get that type of opportunity out to the masses? And it's not just, Hey, we're gonna give this to our own kids because they're in our community.
It's wrong. Right? These kids from across the nation, across the world, they're our bosses in 20 years, right? They're voting in six years. Like, we need to start empowering them with these skills and these communities. So, you know, again, a lot to unpack within this, but on that side of it, you know, trying to figure out like, how do we make these connections again in a safe, secure environment?
Which you start going into, you know, all the privacy and policies and acronyms cope with this sopa, that gdpr, that, you know, it, it's a lot to take on. And the other aspect of this is principals and administrators, they're not trained in this, right? They're, they're just not, A lot of them are coming from the classroom.
And they're, if anything, may be a crash course, here's a PD for 10 days. We're not setting 10 days,
[00:22:11] Jethro Jones: 20 minutes. Come on. Yeah. Let's be realistic here.
[00:22:13] Evin Schwartz: We're just, we're not setting people up for success and we're expecting different results. It's the definition of insanity.
[00:22:19] Jethro Jones: Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about, about that idea of, uh, social learning that we should learn with the world.
Tell me what, what that means to you and how that helps. Schools be more resilient because I think there's such a powerful connection. I'll give my thoughts after you
[00:22:37] Evin Schwartz: answer that. Yeah, I would love to hear your thoughts too, cuz this is, this is why we're here, right? This is why we got into education. Um, I'll give you my backstory on it, completely on really where Beluga came from.
So, throughout my life I've been fortunate to have some global networks and travel and really be exposed to the world. And in doing so, realize that, hey, where I'm from, I'm from New York, so. It's a big city, right? Like, but it's not the only city. And how do we appreciate other people? How do we walk a mile in their shoes and understand what they're going through?
So about at this point, about eight years ago, uh, had a buddy down in Australia that messaged me and said, Hey, what the hell is going on in the us? Right? You could imagine what he has seen at the time. We don't have to get into politics on this side. We live in a free country. It's great, right? Everyone is entitled with their opinion.
But the media is dousing it with gasoline. Totally. And that's today too. That's every country around the world, right? We are so separated and divided. It's scary. And what's going out are headlines that our kids are consuming again, at a rapid pace. And there's no filter and we're not setting them up for success.
Again, there's a lot of common, you know, terms I'll use always throughout my spiel because it's what I believe in, right? 24 7 on it. So we really looked and said, how do we expose students not only to different people around the world, but how do we do so with different stories and content and context? So instead of them reading, you know, and there's no way this will even be in a textbook anytime soon.
You know, the war in Ukraine and Russia. What does that mean for the individual that had to leave their home or that person that's walking, you know, a thousand miles in Sudan right now? Right. Or you know, the business owner, right. In Australia, you name it. So what really social learning means to me is when, how do you take those big concepts that people are exposed to locally?
How do you bring that global? And then how do you pair it with individuals that could actually say, yeah, this is correct. And this is how we feel about it, whether right or wrong, it's okay. And I think that's one of the things that got lost in translation over the last decade is it's okay to disagree.
There's no problem with that whatsoever. If we all agreed we would not be in the same situation we are today. Agreeing and having conversation or disagreeing, have conversation. Is no different. Like we need to empower students to do this. So from social learning, it's not just, Hey, here's a great video, or here's a great activity or podcast or text or blog article, you know that will fulfill your standard or your curriculum or your soft skill, right?
Whatever we're talking about there, here's a network of people that could do it as well, but we're empowering and we're planting a seed in that learner that knows buddy, friend or connection. I understand what people are going through in that country. And I got a real taste of it as opposed to someone dictating my opinion.
And I think if we could really start wrapping our mind around that type of concept within education, you know, you're looking at, you're probably looking at a different future, right? Not only for us, but for our kids and the entire industry as a whole. Yeah,
[00:25:41] Jethro Jones: I, I agree. So a couple things that I'd, that I'd like to.
Call to that one. One of the ways I describe middle school, which is my favorite place to work, is that middle schoolers want to be fiercely independent, but also desperately need connection and community. And so they will, they will do things like, um, wear a really like strong statement outfit, but only if their friends do it too.
You know, like, I wanna show my individuality by being this different person, but I'm only gonna do it if so and so does it with me. And I feel like that is the, the key to what you're talking about with the social learning, that everybody feels so alone and yet if they connect with anyone else, that feeling of being alone changes to a feeling of connection and it's incredibly powerful.
So in 2000. Seven, 2008 when, uh, we were doing the presidential election, I did a wiki with schools from all over the world with my students. I was a teacher at the time and it was a, uh, historic, um, election because Barack Obama became the first African-American president of the United States and we were working with, um, students in other countries.
Where they'd already had, um, people of different minorities become leaders of their, of their countries. And it was really fascinating how my kids started to see, oh, this has already happened someplace else, or This isn't new, that this already happens regularly in some other places. And it was really cool for them to start seeing.
Some connection to these students in different, in different countries. And we had France and the Netherlands in Australia and, and then some kids were speaking a different language to. To collaborate with us and we're bringing in, uh, news sources from other languages as well. And so my kids were then, you know, they didn't speak, most of them didn't speak any other languages, but they were then getting exposure and seeing how the news was portrayed in different places.
And it was just an incredibly powerful. Experience and was my first real experience as an adult, seeing how these kids could interact and learn with other people. Now, I like you, was fortunate and had some international connections when I was younger as well, and in high school, befriended someone in Australia.
And talked about our lives in different places. And you know, this was a long time ago and it was on a, like an alt vista chat room or something like that. And um, and it was really neat to be able to see my students doing that, but in a place where I could actually monitor them, uh, as opposed to my parents who had no idea that I was doing that stuff.
And, um, and I think about the way that we have this connection with people, that when that happens, then it becomes incredibly. Powerful for us to learn and see new things, and we look at how things work in a different way in our community here. My daughter has a girl who just moved into her class who is from Ukraine and left because of the war, and she's been able to talk to her and learn a little bit about her.
She also speaks Russian and I speak Russian, so I've been able to communicate with her in Russian, which has been a cool thing as well. And these connections, they really do matter. And when you look at the things that happen differently, when you have context, and a lot of our kids are lacking context, and a lot of our curriculum lacks context as well, because we're so focused on getting the information across without actually.
Requiring a lot of analysis about what's going on now. What are your thoughts there, Evan?
[00:29:37] Evin Schwartz: Yeah, you nailed it. The context is so important, and it's not only our kids, it's our teachers too. I love teachers. I love how you said middle school. Shout out to my mom, middle school teacher for 30 plus years. So love that special place in my heart on that side, middle school is an magical place.
It's probably the weirdest time in one's life as well. You know, the looks, the smells, you name it, right on that end. But really, I mean, if you really start thinking about what this type of concept of social learning is, This has been going on for decades. It's when you and me were kids. We're standing by the mailbox waiting for our pen pal from Japan, right.
To write a letter back. It took three freaking months to get that letter back because our teacher sends it out and you know, maybe we got it, but we were fired up when we got that. Technology's expedited that to the nth degree, where that waiting by the mailbox is three seconds instead of three months.
So it's just to me, we're not doing anyone justice. By saying learning only takes place within the four walls of the classroom. And I know that is a bold statement that a lot of people might not love and that's okay, right? Like having these hard conversations today is what we need to do with the current state of education.
Um, I think one of the biggest challenges from a context perspective and understanding why this social learning matters is. People letting go of the reins a little bit, right? And that goes for administration and educators. You know, jumping topics a little bit here, but it's understanding that I don't have to be the stage on the stage and dictate 24 7 to my students from the textbook.
Let's bring fun back to learning, right? Like let's bring excitement back to the classroom instead of saying, Hey, it's Monday morning. Turn to page 56 today. Right. Checked out immediately and the teacher checked out at that point too. Let's be real. Right? They're there to audit it, they're there to babysit.
They're not there for what they signed up for. Mm-hmm. So if we're able to understand why these experiences matter and it doesn't have to be on the other side of the world, we get that all the time at Beluga, Hey, I wanna connect with someone in China or Australia. My answer is why. Right? Like we understand, yeah.
They look different, speak different, act different. But like, why do you really want to do this as opposed to your own community? We work in now, some really large school districts, urban school districts, specifically, that one side of the tracks is very affluent. And you know, I, I'll say it openly, I'm just mostly white.
And on the other side, minority, you know, we'll call it lower income, and those conversations need to happen immediately. Right on. How do we coexist within our communities? Why is one school getting resources as opposed to the other school? I mean, we work with one district, I, I won't name 'em on this one, but that other side of the tracks, the minority side, there's food deserts, right?
Like how do you expect kids to learn when they're not even having proper nutrition? Or one parent is home, and that goes from both sides, right? Affluent or um, high poverty. I think creating those conversations and understanding why it's important, why it's important is once you leave the four walls of the classroom, that's when reality hits, right?
So like we're, we're containing and trying to shield people within a classroom to learn a curriculum and go get a job and have the white picket fence and golden retriever. And once they leave that classroom, they're. Wow, this is not what I was prepared for at all. Right. There's every color under the sun that I'm gonna interact with.
Some fantastic, some, eh, I don't need to see 'em again too. That's perfectly fine. Right. But having that context and understanding everyone is equal. Right. I think that's a really big thing these days is quality, access and impact. You know, that's why it's important. It's not, you're not just connecting or your daughter's not just meeting someone from Ukraine.
They're understanding the pains. That that person went through to get to your community, which hopefully a completely better life now, but that's gonna stay with them for a very long time where they're watching the news or they're hearing from someone you know, or even a negative comment about it. And they have an opinion in educated opinion, not just because someone pumped, you know, a comment on Facebook or Twitter or this newscast or that one.
That's why it's important is this is what our life is about. Right.
[00:33:55] Jethro Jones: Yeah, for sure. Um, so as, as we close, if you could just give a, a shout out to how people can get involved with and connected with Beluga and what you're doing. Um, we probably need to do another episode that just talks about Beluga itself, but, but let's start there.
Give us a little, uh, description of what we need to do to get connected with
[00:34:15] Evin Schwartz: Beluga. Yeah, a hundred percent. And we would love to have conversations with anyone. So the website is www.beluga.org. B e l o u g A. Uh, we spell it wrong. We know it's for SEO purposes. We don't want a white whale coming up instead of a technology company.
Yeah. Uh, we're very active on social media, not only the company account, but my personal one. Um, our mission again is to learn about the world with the world. So we work with different content creators worldwide to source really engaging material. That is brought into the classroom. That feels like probably your favorite streaming platform.
It's aligned to curriculum standards, age appropriateness creates a smart library for individual learners as young as six, all the way up to 20, uh, for teachers as well where they're able to create, learn, and then get connected. With peers, both locally and globally. So that's beluga a nutshell. We're a hundred percent free platform to register for.
I encourage everyone to check it out. And you know, now more than ever, what we're seeing is how do we reignite passion within education and for teachers and students. So as much of an ed tech company as we are in a hate that term, ed tech, uh, it's just, I think it has terrible branding associated with it within the industry.
Um, we really are a mission driven organization, and I, I truly mean that. Yeah. And I, I
[00:35:33] Jethro Jones: think that's really important and I, I, I love our partnership with you on the b Podcast network. Um, about same here, and look forward to other partnerships in the future because you guys are doing really great stuff and thanks for being part of Resilient Schools today.
[00:35:47] Evin Schwartz: Yeah, I appreciate it.
He has over 17 years of overseeing business focus on education, social impact, and innovation within the Gen Y and Gen Z demographic. Evan has created and implemented educational programs and cross-cultural initiatives in all 50 states in the US at the K-12 and university levels, along with consultancy work on six continents.
In 2019, he has recognized as one of the meaningful business 100 and award honoring global leaders who are introducing new ways of thinking and acting to address the world's biggest challenges, climate change, pollution, hunger, poverty, education, and health. Evan, welcome to the Resilient Schools Podcast.
Great to have you here. Hey Jeff, I
[00:01:03] Evin Schwartz: appreciate you having me. And I'll tell you after that bio, I'm like, did I really do all this? The last few years seem like 50, but really excited to be here today. Um, you know, and share a little bit about what we have going on, especially during May, how we're supporting educators and students worldwide focus on mental health.
[00:01:21] Jethro Jones: Yeah, and, uh, we'll talk about this in a minute, but we are, uh, partnering on the same here Schools Month, talking about mental health all month long. And you can, uh, check out the same Here Schools podcast that we released this month specifically to cover this mental health issue and, uh, all the Twitter spaces that we're recording collaboratively on that.
So we'll talk about that in a second. But, uh, Evan, what would you say would be. The thing you want people to walk away from, from this conversation, walk away with, from this conversation. Excuse me. No, no doubt
[00:01:54] Evin Schwartz: about it. And I'll tell you the biggest thing probably on our side is that there's better ways to learn today, right?
There's better ways to learn, and it starts with community. So, so I, you know, my every day and my baby is beluga, right? We're a social learning platform, but our same here, mental health initiative started four years ago at this point. Um, and we found that sharing experiences, positives, the negatives, uh, lead to a lot, right?
I think today, more than ever within education, I mean, you are seeing massive. Migration away from the practice last year, I think 300,000 teachers and staff members in the US left this year, it's projected to hit half a million. And we're not alone. Uk, Canada, the exact same thing's taking place. Um, we need something, right?
We need an injection into this industry to realize, hey, everyone's feeling the strain. There's a lot of handcuff that takes place, uh, but we need to remember why we're doing this. As an industry, and I think, you know, that's the biggest thing that we really want to push for this month. And it starts with mental health.
Mm-hmm.
[00:02:59] Jethro Jones: Yeah, I, I think that's so important. I think the, the thing that I took away from this is, um, is recognizing that learning doesn't just happen within school. That learning can happen anywhere. And our challenge as educators is how to recognize and honor that learning and not try to control that learning.
And I think that's what we do too often. And so just kind of a theme through our conversation is really about how to recognize, acknowledge, and uh, And give power to that learning without thinking that we have to be the source of it all. So, uh, good conversation. Looking forward to you listening to it. Uh, we'll get to that conversation with Evan Schwartz in just a moment.
All right, Evan, uh, tell us about this same here, schools month, uh, and the Twitter spaces that you're doing and the podcast on the b podcast network that you're doing. Give us, give us your vision and idea
[00:04:00] Evin Schwartz: behind that. Yeah, Jeff. Absolutely. And I'll tell you this whole concept of same here, schools month, uh, started right at the, really the first few weeks of the pandemic.
So this is our fourth year doing this. Uh, good buddy of mine, Eric Houston, runs an organization called, same Here. Uh, his story is incredible. Big time sports executive, you know, living the dream, right? In so many words and had a full burnout. You know, two and a half years bedridden, pumped with every medication under the sun, a less short shock therapy.
His story's incredible, to say the least. Uh, but really what started to heal him right, and get him on that path back to practicing sound, mental health was having conversation. And Eric, since about five years now, dedicated his life to mental health. There's different alliances, athletes, celebrity musician, writers.
And same here. Schools. So same here. Schools started with that conversation. Um, I lead that organization still today with a few other educators around the country, even globally now. But really, we dated back to April, 2020 and said, people are hurting. Physically and mentally, and we need to start conversation to understand how do we be there for each other?
How do people recognize that everyone's going through something and so many words. Same here, right? That's Eric's whole mess message. So back in 2020, I think three days before May hit, may just so happens to be mental health awareness month, we said, let's throw this month long event. You know what? Sure.
This sounds like a great idea. No big deal. Yeah, May 1st 3:00 AM like, what are we possibly doing? Uh, but that first May was fantastic. We had probably about 30 to 40 conversations, uh, those days. You know, I, I like to say like the high days of Zoom, right? And webinars where everyone and their mother was on one.
It was fun at that point. Mm-hmm. Now a lot of screen time burnout, but, you know, looking at it, we really started seeing some real things. And things from anxiety to depression, um, you know, to what comes next, right? Especially within our education system where, you know, s e l has been a nice word over the last, or term over the last few years, but mental health's been around forever.
And it's not just a nurse and a health teacher anymore. We need to instill this type of conversation in everyone. So since then, this is our fourth installment of Same Here Schools Month. What we do is this is a complete, open event for the community. Uh, we work with different educators, organizations, experts, individuals, athletes, musicians, you name it.
And students from around the world that are having conversations on an everyday basis. Uh, we've curated different lessons within our platform. Beluga, there's different professional development that teachers can take, you know, on demand, a hundred percent free to them as well. Uh, this year is a little bit different, right?
This year we looked at it and all these sessions have been on demand on beluga too, for quite some time too. So people are going back using it as, you know, really their SEL curriculum. But this year me and Eric looked at each other and said, we can have a mental health event and expect people to sit on a webinar for an hour.
That's literally insanity in 2023. So we said, let's start opening this up to the community. Right? Every year we get more community questions on how do I speak with Eric? Or, Hey, that speaker was fantastic, talking about what burnout looks like. How do we actually join the conversation? So we looked at Twitter as a great space.
Twitter to us has really fueled our entire platform, to be honest with you. Like the PLN is more important than ever before. I think, you know, that's probably how unique got connected as well here. Yeah. But in doing so, we launched Twitter spaces. I know it's a little bit new for educators these days, uh, similar to kind of those Twitter chats of the past within education.
Yeah. Uh, but all on demand, all live and real conversations that they could patch into. Um, we're about halfway through the month right now. The conversations have been fantastic, to say the least. Um, all these will be recorded and, you know, thrilled that they're on the B podcast network as well, you know, for listeners to come back to at any point.
And, you know, ideally take something away from these big conversations.
[00:07:52] Jethro Jones: Well, you know, the cool thing about Twitter spaces is that it's low key. It's not like super stressful, like getting all prepared for like a podcast interview, for example. And you can show up and do the thing that you need to do and that's, and that's great.
But then by the beauty that I think of having this as a partnership with you in, in doing this on the B Podcast network is that now these episodes will. Will live forever and people will be able to come back and access them, uh, anytime and, uh, you know, be able to pull things from them as needed and, and really, you know, come back and, and refresh themselves.
And so, Um, if you go to b podcast.network or b podcast network.com, then you can see the same here. Schools on there, click on that link. It'll take you to the website and you can, you can check that out, um, and be able to, uh, listen to all those again. So, uh, I'm glad that we're doing that. I think that it's really cool.
And I love your comment about, uh, SEL is a nice term, but mental health has been around forever. That's really something that I think is an important thing to recognize and it seems like that has become more important to the masses over the past couple years, which I think is great. Um, but many of us have been involved in that for a long time.
And do you wanna add anything to that?
[00:09:13] Evin Schwartz: Yeah, absolutely. So I'll tell you, and this is, this is my fear always with education and I am just a very positive person. Not even like glass, half full glasses pouring over the side. Otherwise I wouldn't still be in education today. Right? I think that goes for all of us here.
Um, but you know, we don't want it to be just another flavor of the week. And I think that is constantly happening within the industry on this district is doing this or this leader is doing that. And before you know it, it's just a, a flesh and a pen. So we've seen that throughout the years. And to be honest with you, even now, right, we're sitting here in 2023 semester for most is either over or winding down over the next few weeks.
And I don't think SEL has the same effect that it did two years ago. Right. I think SEL in many districts, unfortunately, uh, is a check mark. And we're saying, yeah, we had our speaker, you know, we had our assembly on this big concept of depression, anxiety, suicide prevention, but it's a lot of reactive instead of proactive.
And that's something our team, and especially with practitioners and organizations we always talk to, is we don't have to wait. We don't have to wait until that teacher is burnt out or someone's life is taken. Right. Let's start having these conversations and understanding how everyone in the building is set up for success, not just academically, but as a human.
And that's something, Eric, especially from same heroes discussed as like everyone has a lot on their plate, you know, between jobs, family, you name it. Right? The plate is mental health though. And I think that's one of the most important things for the industry to really look at. 10, 20, 50 years ago it was, Hey, rub some dirt on it and you'll be fine.
Right. Different generation though, today, right? We have more information thrown at us than ever before, like mind blowing to say the least. Our kids are consuming. An outrageous amount of information these days, and no one has really prepared them for it. We're acting as if it's the same old, same old.
Don't get me wrong, some districts are doing amazing things and prioritizing us, but for the most part, we need to be loud. And I think that's one of the biggest things within the industry and you know, why we do mental health awareness month, why there's amazing principles and leaders that are shouting us from the mountain tops is we want everyone to do this, right?
It's mm-hmm. Helping our society. So I think, you know, looking at that term, mental health has been around for a while. Um, health class has been around for a while, the goods and the bads of it. But now we really have to start carving out some more time and resources, you know, for the thing that matters the most.
[00:11:45] Jethro Jones: Yeah. And this is, uh, an interesting point that I often struggle with, that we talk a lot about in, excuse me, we talk a lot about standards and things that kids are supposed to learn in education. And some of those standards, um, or all those standards are not mental health focused standards. Things like believing in yourself and believing that good things will come, or that there is a, a reason to be optimistic.
And those are things that, um, That I think we should be more emphatic about saying this. This is something that we should talk about. You know, when Carol Dweck's book, um, mindset came out, then we talked a lot about fixed and growth mindset. But there's a lot more mindsets than, uh, Just fixed in growth and it's kind of a waste to only talk about those two.
While having a growth mindset is important. Don't get me wrong, it's also important to have an abundance mindset. It's also important to have an open and promotion mindset, and without those things then, then we, we can struggle a lot more with everything that we're dealing with in life. So what would be your advice to someone who's listening to this today to say, Here's how you make sure that mental health becomes something that you're focusing on regularly without it being like another curriculum that you have to teach.
I mean, where's the balance there, Evan? Yeah.
[00:13:09] Evin Schwartz: And you know, that's a hard one, and I don't have all the answers. You know, I, I will be the first one to tell you. I try to surround myself with way smarter people than myself and every single aspect of my life. What I will tell you, and just my personal take, is we need to understand how it personalizes each person, right?
Every single student, and every single teacher. I think looking at standards, comparing it to mental health, the challenge is no one knows how to assess this. Right. So it's really, and that's a whole other ball of wax conversation that we could really dive into. Um, it might take a few different sessions though, between you and me on it.
Yeah. But looking at it, you know, being able to assess why are we spending time on this when there's so little time? And it is so valuable within an everyday classroom setting. It's not the teachers. Challenge. It's not the administrator's challenge, it's society, right? Like we really need to rethink what education can and should be.
And it's not, Hey, John, prepared for the SATs, which, you know, it was two weeks ago. You talk about mental health stress in the us there's nothing bigger. Right. Your entire K to 12 career is led up to this one moment. And unless you get a great score, you're not gonna college and your life's ruined. And it, it's a nonsense.
Right. That's the nice way to say it. The PG way to say it on this podcast. So we'll keep it light, but it, it's really blowing it up and, and starting from scratch. Right. It's understanding what a true learning experience looks like both in and out of the classroom. And Sure. Is it important to know our history and science and math and music and art and reading, of course.
But none of that stuff matters without sound mental health. So this stuff has to be integrated throughout every single curriculum at every single grade level. This isn't just something, Hey, we're signing off in fifth grade and you never need to work on this again. The same way that we have gym class, there should be class for the brain, right?
And what are these practices that we're preparing teachers and students for? What do we need to give them outside of the classroom? What are we celebrating for each individual student? I find today, you know, like we're trying to pigeonhole kids so much. Look at simple kind of comparison classroom to social media, right?
Social media has, its down flows. We know this, but they're creating amazing things. Kids in multiple modalities, image, audio, video, text and drawing. And you bring 'em into the classroom here, turn number two, pencil and sit in row and try to get this done. It's insanity. You're speak another language.
[00:15:35] Jethro Jones: Yeah, and I, I think the only place where I'd, I tweak what you're saying a little bit is the idea of having this be a class.
I think that that is, and I don't really think this is what you meant, but we don't really want to add another class to the required schedule. What we wanna do is we want to embed this in all of the classes and make it something that we are talking about on a regular basis and addressing on a regular basis.
I'm starting my doctoral program, uh, this fall. I don't even know why I'm doing it. I'm so annoyed by the whole education system, but I, I believe there are things that I can learn by going through this process. Um, and one of my outcomes, my goals is to have a program. That I can use to bring this stuff into schools, um, and specifically focus on young men and just be really narrow and say, this is what we're gonna focus on.
And the reason why I wanna focus on young men specifically is because I believe that they have unique challenges that young women don't have. And I think somebody else, Who's more well versed in those things should create a program for young women specifically. And I think there should be a lot of different programs that a school can go and choose from.
Here are these 17 different programs that all are going to help young men and young women in certain ways. And let's think about what our students actually need and and implement the program that actually. Works. And like I said, it, it can't be another class. It can't be an after school activity. It needs to be during the day, throughout the day, plus.
Anything else that you want to do. And one of those things includes, and I, you brought this up earlier so I'm circling back. One of those things includes the ability to talk about these things that you're facing with other people and having mentors outside of the, the people that you're forced to interact with, like your teacher and your parents.
How do we help kids have other trustworthy, good adults that they can talk with and be able to talk about the challenges and, and whatever in life. And, um, what are your thoughts on, on making it possible for kids to be able to talk and access, um, other people so they can have somebody else to go to?
[00:18:01] Evin Schwartz: Yes.
I mean, listen, this is, um, what we built beluga on this concept, uh, and we're seeing really good use cases, and I know we'll get into that in a second, but you bring up an interesting point on it, right? Is like the programming side of this and you coming in and saying, Hey, I want this for young men. It's a fair point, right?
How do we personalize this within communities? So I know a lot of organizations and individuals are doing the other side of the fence right now. We're looking at this for young women or looking at this for minority groups or high poverty communities, or affluent communities, I think that is a very key aspect in understanding.
This is not a one size fits all model. Every single community is dealing with completely different challenges. So for, you know, a department of education to say, Hey, we're mandating mental health. I'm based in Toronto. Uh, the Ministry of Education here in Ontario just came out last week and said, we are going to put in a mandatory mental health curriculum for grade seven and eight.
Now who creates it? What that looks like yet to be seen. But what I'll tell you is there are a lot of different colors, races, religions, ideologies within the province that need completely different things. Now there's a foundation Sure, that, you know, we'll build tools on, but I think one of the biggest challenges, especially today, And you know, Esser exposed this for sure, and schools are over-resourced now.
I think there is a major, major reality check coming over the next 16 months where Esser funding runs out and, oh shoot, are we gonna keep resources in the building or are we gonna keep staff members? And that's a big conversation. But I think the other challenge is how are administrators and decision makers that are holding the pocketbook, how are they aware of these programs?
And not just because I'm buddy, buddy with you, or I worked in your building and started a consulting agency, or you know, we got connected at an event, right? Like that's what you're seeing for the most part. Within districts, it's, again, it's not the administrator's fault, is how do you make programs more accessible to others and parlaying that type of concept.
How do you make individuals more accessible to others? Right, both in person and globally. So at Beluga, I'll, I'll do like a little plug on us right now, but like we are a global organization. I believes students and teachers should learn about the world with the world. So just because I'm geographically born within a city at the exact same time, within 12 month calendars, other kids.
That should not be my learning network for 12 years. That's crazy, right? Like this is the one room schoolhouse. And we're way past that type of environment these days. And even if there are one room school houses, which we work with still, they probably have the internet, right? Yeah. And students are probably gonna collaborate in the future with people that are not sitting right next to them.
So how do we start creating those learning communities, teachers, students, and parents, as the nucleus of this, which it should be, but then how do you provide that mentorship externally? And I find. This is a challenge we face every day. If you are able to provide that, it levels the playing field completely, right?
We know, you know, the big 1% universities and the big industries that people wanna go into, mentorship and connections probably make up more than your academic resume on getting there. Not probably. Definitely. Right. How do we get that type of opportunity out to the masses? And it's not just, Hey, we're gonna give this to our own kids because they're in our community.
It's wrong. Right? These kids from across the nation, across the world, they're our bosses in 20 years, right? They're voting in six years. Like, we need to start empowering them with these skills and these communities. So, you know, again, a lot to unpack within this, but on that side of it, you know, trying to figure out like, how do we make these connections again in a safe, secure environment?
Which you start going into, you know, all the privacy and policies and acronyms cope with this sopa, that gdpr, that, you know, it, it's a lot to take on. And the other aspect of this is principals and administrators, they're not trained in this, right? They're, they're just not, A lot of them are coming from the classroom.
And they're, if anything, may be a crash course, here's a PD for 10 days. We're not setting 10 days,
[00:22:11] Jethro Jones: 20 minutes. Come on. Yeah. Let's be realistic here.
[00:22:13] Evin Schwartz: We're just, we're not setting people up for success and we're expecting different results. It's the definition of insanity.
[00:22:19] Jethro Jones: Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about, about that idea of, uh, social learning that we should learn with the world.
Tell me what, what that means to you and how that helps. Schools be more resilient because I think there's such a powerful connection. I'll give my thoughts after you
[00:22:37] Evin Schwartz: answer that. Yeah, I would love to hear your thoughts too, cuz this is, this is why we're here, right? This is why we got into education. Um, I'll give you my backstory on it, completely on really where Beluga came from.
So, throughout my life I've been fortunate to have some global networks and travel and really be exposed to the world. And in doing so, realize that, hey, where I'm from, I'm from New York, so. It's a big city, right? Like, but it's not the only city. And how do we appreciate other people? How do we walk a mile in their shoes and understand what they're going through?
So about at this point, about eight years ago, uh, had a buddy down in Australia that messaged me and said, Hey, what the hell is going on in the us? Right? You could imagine what he has seen at the time. We don't have to get into politics on this side. We live in a free country. It's great, right? Everyone is entitled with their opinion.
But the media is dousing it with gasoline. Totally. And that's today too. That's every country around the world, right? We are so separated and divided. It's scary. And what's going out are headlines that our kids are consuming again, at a rapid pace. And there's no filter and we're not setting them up for success.
Again, there's a lot of common, you know, terms I'll use always throughout my spiel because it's what I believe in, right? 24 7 on it. So we really looked and said, how do we expose students not only to different people around the world, but how do we do so with different stories and content and context? So instead of them reading, you know, and there's no way this will even be in a textbook anytime soon.
You know, the war in Ukraine and Russia. What does that mean for the individual that had to leave their home or that person that's walking, you know, a thousand miles in Sudan right now? Right. Or you know, the business owner, right. In Australia, you name it. So what really social learning means to me is when, how do you take those big concepts that people are exposed to locally?
How do you bring that global? And then how do you pair it with individuals that could actually say, yeah, this is correct. And this is how we feel about it, whether right or wrong, it's okay. And I think that's one of the things that got lost in translation over the last decade is it's okay to disagree.
There's no problem with that whatsoever. If we all agreed we would not be in the same situation we are today. Agreeing and having conversation or disagreeing, have conversation. Is no different. Like we need to empower students to do this. So from social learning, it's not just, Hey, here's a great video, or here's a great activity or podcast or text or blog article, you know that will fulfill your standard or your curriculum or your soft skill, right?
Whatever we're talking about there, here's a network of people that could do it as well, but we're empowering and we're planting a seed in that learner that knows buddy, friend or connection. I understand what people are going through in that country. And I got a real taste of it as opposed to someone dictating my opinion.
And I think if we could really start wrapping our mind around that type of concept within education, you know, you're looking at, you're probably looking at a different future, right? Not only for us, but for our kids and the entire industry as a whole. Yeah,
[00:25:41] Jethro Jones: I, I agree. So a couple things that I'd, that I'd like to.
Call to that one. One of the ways I describe middle school, which is my favorite place to work, is that middle schoolers want to be fiercely independent, but also desperately need connection and community. And so they will, they will do things like, um, wear a really like strong statement outfit, but only if their friends do it too.
You know, like, I wanna show my individuality by being this different person, but I'm only gonna do it if so and so does it with me. And I feel like that is the, the key to what you're talking about with the social learning, that everybody feels so alone and yet if they connect with anyone else, that feeling of being alone changes to a feeling of connection and it's incredibly powerful.
So in 2000. Seven, 2008 when, uh, we were doing the presidential election, I did a wiki with schools from all over the world with my students. I was a teacher at the time and it was a, uh, historic, um, election because Barack Obama became the first African-American president of the United States and we were working with, um, students in other countries.
Where they'd already had, um, people of different minorities become leaders of their, of their countries. And it was really fascinating how my kids started to see, oh, this has already happened someplace else, or This isn't new, that this already happens regularly in some other places. And it was really cool for them to start seeing.
Some connection to these students in different, in different countries. And we had France and the Netherlands in Australia and, and then some kids were speaking a different language to. To collaborate with us and we're bringing in, uh, news sources from other languages as well. And so my kids were then, you know, they didn't speak, most of them didn't speak any other languages, but they were then getting exposure and seeing how the news was portrayed in different places.
And it was just an incredibly powerful. Experience and was my first real experience as an adult, seeing how these kids could interact and learn with other people. Now, I like you, was fortunate and had some international connections when I was younger as well, and in high school, befriended someone in Australia.
And talked about our lives in different places. And you know, this was a long time ago and it was on a, like an alt vista chat room or something like that. And um, and it was really neat to be able to see my students doing that, but in a place where I could actually monitor them, uh, as opposed to my parents who had no idea that I was doing that stuff.
And, um, and I think about the way that we have this connection with people, that when that happens, then it becomes incredibly. Powerful for us to learn and see new things, and we look at how things work in a different way in our community here. My daughter has a girl who just moved into her class who is from Ukraine and left because of the war, and she's been able to talk to her and learn a little bit about her.
She also speaks Russian and I speak Russian, so I've been able to communicate with her in Russian, which has been a cool thing as well. And these connections, they really do matter. And when you look at the things that happen differently, when you have context, and a lot of our kids are lacking context, and a lot of our curriculum lacks context as well, because we're so focused on getting the information across without actually.
Requiring a lot of analysis about what's going on now. What are your thoughts there, Evan?
[00:29:37] Evin Schwartz: Yeah, you nailed it. The context is so important, and it's not only our kids, it's our teachers too. I love teachers. I love how you said middle school. Shout out to my mom, middle school teacher for 30 plus years. So love that special place in my heart on that side, middle school is an magical place.
It's probably the weirdest time in one's life as well. You know, the looks, the smells, you name it, right on that end. But really, I mean, if you really start thinking about what this type of concept of social learning is, This has been going on for decades. It's when you and me were kids. We're standing by the mailbox waiting for our pen pal from Japan, right.
To write a letter back. It took three freaking months to get that letter back because our teacher sends it out and you know, maybe we got it, but we were fired up when we got that. Technology's expedited that to the nth degree, where that waiting by the mailbox is three seconds instead of three months.
So it's just to me, we're not doing anyone justice. By saying learning only takes place within the four walls of the classroom. And I know that is a bold statement that a lot of people might not love and that's okay, right? Like having these hard conversations today is what we need to do with the current state of education.
Um, I think one of the biggest challenges from a context perspective and understanding why this social learning matters is. People letting go of the reins a little bit, right? And that goes for administration and educators. You know, jumping topics a little bit here, but it's understanding that I don't have to be the stage on the stage and dictate 24 7 to my students from the textbook.
Let's bring fun back to learning, right? Like let's bring excitement back to the classroom instead of saying, Hey, it's Monday morning. Turn to page 56 today. Right. Checked out immediately and the teacher checked out at that point too. Let's be real. Right? They're there to audit it, they're there to babysit.
They're not there for what they signed up for. Mm-hmm. So if we're able to understand why these experiences matter and it doesn't have to be on the other side of the world, we get that all the time at Beluga, Hey, I wanna connect with someone in China or Australia. My answer is why. Right? Like we understand, yeah.
They look different, speak different, act different. But like, why do you really want to do this as opposed to your own community? We work in now, some really large school districts, urban school districts, specifically, that one side of the tracks is very affluent. And you know, I, I'll say it openly, I'm just mostly white.
And on the other side, minority, you know, we'll call it lower income, and those conversations need to happen immediately. Right on. How do we coexist within our communities? Why is one school getting resources as opposed to the other school? I mean, we work with one district, I, I won't name 'em on this one, but that other side of the tracks, the minority side, there's food deserts, right?
Like how do you expect kids to learn when they're not even having proper nutrition? Or one parent is home, and that goes from both sides, right? Affluent or um, high poverty. I think creating those conversations and understanding why it's important, why it's important is once you leave the four walls of the classroom, that's when reality hits, right?
So like we're, we're containing and trying to shield people within a classroom to learn a curriculum and go get a job and have the white picket fence and golden retriever. And once they leave that classroom, they're. Wow, this is not what I was prepared for at all. Right. There's every color under the sun that I'm gonna interact with.
Some fantastic, some, eh, I don't need to see 'em again too. That's perfectly fine. Right. But having that context and understanding everyone is equal. Right. I think that's a really big thing these days is quality, access and impact. You know, that's why it's important. It's not, you're not just connecting or your daughter's not just meeting someone from Ukraine.
They're understanding the pains. That that person went through to get to your community, which hopefully a completely better life now, but that's gonna stay with them for a very long time where they're watching the news or they're hearing from someone you know, or even a negative comment about it. And they have an opinion in educated opinion, not just because someone pumped, you know, a comment on Facebook or Twitter or this newscast or that one.
That's why it's important is this is what our life is about. Right.
[00:33:55] Jethro Jones: Yeah, for sure. Um, so as, as we close, if you could just give a, a shout out to how people can get involved with and connected with Beluga and what you're doing. Um, we probably need to do another episode that just talks about Beluga itself, but, but let's start there.
Give us a little, uh, description of what we need to do to get connected with
[00:34:15] Evin Schwartz: Beluga. Yeah, a hundred percent. And we would love to have conversations with anyone. So the website is www.beluga.org. B e l o u g A. Uh, we spell it wrong. We know it's for SEO purposes. We don't want a white whale coming up instead of a technology company.
Yeah. Uh, we're very active on social media, not only the company account, but my personal one. Um, our mission again is to learn about the world with the world. So we work with different content creators worldwide to source really engaging material. That is brought into the classroom. That feels like probably your favorite streaming platform.
It's aligned to curriculum standards, age appropriateness creates a smart library for individual learners as young as six, all the way up to 20, uh, for teachers as well where they're able to create, learn, and then get connected. With peers, both locally and globally. So that's beluga a nutshell. We're a hundred percent free platform to register for.
I encourage everyone to check it out. And you know, now more than ever, what we're seeing is how do we reignite passion within education and for teachers and students. So as much of an ed tech company as we are in a hate that term, ed tech, uh, it's just, I think it has terrible branding associated with it within the industry.
Um, we really are a mission driven organization, and I, I truly mean that. Yeah. And I, I
[00:35:33] Jethro Jones: think that's really important and I, I, I love our partnership with you on the b Podcast network. Um, about same here, and look forward to other partnerships in the future because you guys are doing really great stuff and thanks for being part of Resilient Schools today.
[00:35:47] Evin Schwartz: Yeah, I appreciate it.
