[00:01] Announcer:
Welcome to Principal Center Radio, helping you build capacity for instructional leadership. Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center, Dr. Justin Bader. Welcome, everyone, to Principal Center Radio.
[00:13] SPEAKER_00:
I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to welcome to the program Hedrick Nichols. Hedrick is an author and educational consultant helping teachers and districts amplify the voices of all students. She hosts a YouTube series and podcast called Small Bites, and you can follow her on various platforms at her first name, Hedrick, H-E-D-R-E-I-C-H. And we're here today to talk about her book, Finding Your Blind Spots, teaching.
[00:42] Announcer:
And now, our feature presentation.
[00:45] SPEAKER_00:
Hedrick, welcome to Principal Center Radio.
[00:46] SPEAKER_01:
Thank you so much, Justin. I appreciate it.
[00:48] SPEAKER_00:
Well, I'm excited to get into some of the guiding principles you have in this book. Let's start by talking about what implicit bias is, because often people bristle when they hear that term. They feel insulted or accused of something that they know is kind of bad, but we're not really sure quite how to distinguish implicit bias from maybe similar concepts. So what's your definition of implicit bias?
[01:12] SPEAKER_01:
Well, first of all, I'm so glad you mentioned that, that the B word has become an attack. And I'm glad that you mentioned that because when we think of it, we think of bias, prejudice, white supremacy, and those kinds of words all kind of melt together in our minds. And the thing that I remind us of is that cognitive bias is the way that we don't die every day from decision fatigue, right? Imagine, as a matter of fact, there's a great part of the book that has these shadow figures. And one is a bear, one's a toddler, one's a wolf or dog, and one is, oh, something else, I can't remember. But whenever I use those when I'm doing workshops, we always look at them.
[01:52]
Everybody knows that they can say that the boy is a toddler, that he has on knickerbockers, that he's not older than five, just by looking at a shadow outline of it. It's just completely gray. But that's what we do. That's what cognitive bias is. It allows us to look at things and make immediate decisions when it's important. You're on a field trip, you're hiking with your kids, and all of a sudden you see a four-legged creature.
[02:18]
If it's a toddler, you know automatically this is a lost child. Let me help. If it is a bear, you know to do whatever you do when there's a bear on the trail.
[02:26] SPEAKER_00:
Run faster than the other person you're hiking with, right?
[02:28] SPEAKER_01:
Exactly. So those are the kinds of things that we need to be able to make snap judgments about. That same bias can go all hyper vigilant. And we see every person in every male in a hoodie as a threat. And I think there's not a human being in America where we don't see if a guy is there's a big guy who has a hoodie up and it doesn't even matter what color he is. We're all that is not.
[02:50]
Oh, let me pull my purse a little closer. And so those are those kinds of biases that automatically happen because of the images we see, because of information we read, because of archetypes that we see and know. And in a lot of ways, they help us to do our job and to live our lives without, again, just suffering under an enormous decision fatigue that would literally, could literally be lethal, just the exhaustion. And What we do is we tend to then take some of those things and put them into places that weren't. Like, for example, the person in the hoodie is a 20-year-old man with a gun or the person in the hoodie is a 16-year-old on his way to his prep school. We don't know.
[03:34]
But when we when we have certain kinds of biases, for example, there's a story that you hear over and over about the AP math teacher who sees the basketball player, the black guy coming in and she says, oh, the regulars math is down the hall. And that's an example of a bias, because we don't think we do think of athletes as being the AP students when, in fact, many of them are. But our thought is the dumb jock. It is a stereotype that we all have kind of swinging somewhere back in the background. So that's what implicit bias is. It's the natural cognitive biases that help us to survive every day, growing out of control like, oh, yeast.
[04:14] SPEAKER_00:
And if I understand what you're saying correctly, it's the case that these biases are not something that are just, you know, a matter of culture or, you know, our upbringing, but are in, you know, that we have the wiring for bias as a survival mechanism. Like it's something that's part of our wiring and has been for thousands of years.
[04:33] SPEAKER_01:
It's the way that we recognize danger or not at its very core. It's how we recognize danger. It's why babies don't often wanna go to strangers or sometimes they don't even wanna deal with dad because mom is the safe space and everybody else could be danger. And that's, again, where we're hardwired to evaluate safety and danger. And from that, all other biases grow.
[04:56] SPEAKER_00:
And what's frustrating when we're thinking about bias today is we're hardly ever actually in danger. We're in danger from car accidents and things, but the is that a bear kind of danger is almost completely non-existent in modern life for most of us. So how does this show up in the classroom, in the hallway, on school campuses, in ways that are far less helpful than survival?
[05:21] SPEAKER_01:
Okay, I'll give you an example. I am generation X. I am the first generation of post Jim Crow babies. That means that everyone who is Gen X or younger was raised by a parent who was probably raised in a segregated society and who believed that that segregated society protected them from some kind of harm. Now, that means that we all came up being suspicious of one another. So if I am a teacher and I'm in a classroom, then I'm going to be suspicious of students who don't look like me.
[05:58]
An example of the math example that I use is one way that it comes up. The other way I've seen it, I've had kids come up and say, Ms. Nichols, can I sit in your class? That white lady put me out. She doesn't understand me. And they're talking about my co-teachers.
[06:13]
But there is a disconnect because there is suspicion, generational suspicion, that we have that it's just a part of our upbringing. It's a part of our culture in the country. And even across the world, there is an anti-Blackness movement. that is common to see or an anti-immigrant part that's common to see. And so we just kind of grow up with these preconceived notions that we see through really media, social media, not just news media, but all of those different platforms. And they shape our very, very unknowingly, they shape our thoughts on people who are less familiar to us.
[06:51]
And when I say less familiar, I call it our others. And that's the term I use in Finding Your Blind Spots. there's the us, us's and the them's. And so the people who are most familiar to us are us's and then the others are Those immigrants are bad actors. They're the reason that there are drugs here. And, oh, those, oh, the Muslims, they're terrorists.
[07:13]
You know, ever since 9-11, there's been a very large anti-Muslim thing. With COVID came a very anti-Asian bias. So all of those biases are shaped by media. And when we're aware of what we're consuming, we can deconstruct it and confront who our us's and who our them's are in a different way. And especially on campuses, you know, if you have a Muslim student and you have in your mind that 9-11 was about Muslim terrorism and Muslims are terrorists, you're going to be able, you're going to react differently to that Muslim student. You may not think you are, but children are incredibly perceptive and they'll know.
[07:52]
they'll know another time another way that bias shows up is right now for example during the holidays everybody decorates for christmas because we decorate for christmas because that's this is in america we decorate for christmas and there are people who celebrate other holidays that's been kind of demonized oh people don't say merry christmas what's all this happy holidays that's not right It's like, well, it's not right for you, but other people need to have space because it's a public school. And so what other holidays do we need? You know, do we need to just do some Christmas, some Kwanzaa, some Hanukkah, some other, you know, some Festival of Lights? Do we need to just have a, hey, we don't celebrate anything kind of corner where, you know, just put up regular winter decorations? A lot of teachers are going to winter decorations only because they want to make sure that everyone feels it's a safe space and they feel reflected and at home.
[08:44]
So those are the kinds of ways it shows up in classrooms and the kind of ways that we can mitigate some of those biases we confront.
[08:50] SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, you talk in the book about the impact on belonging and just what it feels like to get some of those messages that maybe this place is designed for everybody else, not me. And I also wanted to ask academically, what are some implicit messages that we may be sending? And I think I just want to recap here that often this is completely unintentional and People are unaware that they're doing this, but as you said, kids are very perceptive. They pick up on things, even if they are unintentional, in terms of just messages about how they relate, whether they belong. Let's talk about academics a little bit. What kinds of messages do kids get that we need to be aware of, that we need to be thinking about on the academic front?
[09:32] SPEAKER_01:
OK, I'm glad that you mentioned that, because we always think of belonging and socio-emotional learning as some kind of fluffy stuff to do on top of academics. But did you know that studies have shown that students who feel a deep sense of belonging score higher on their science and math exams? Did you know that, for example, they are more likely to go to and complete their college studies? Those are community trajectory changing things. And that's not nothing. That's not SEL fluff.
[10:05]
And that's not a little free time during advisory kind of stuff. These are actual studies that show when kids feel like they belong... They, it makes an academic difference. So that's the, I think the big message I want to take away when it comes to, I want you to take away when it comes to belonging as a concept, as a part of a framework to ensure academic success for all students.
[10:28] SPEAKER_00:
To what extent does that take intentional effort versus just happening as a result of trying not to be biased? If someone says, well, I'm welcoming to everybody. I'm kind to everyone. I have high expectations for everyone. I don't think I'm biased. Is there more that we have to do to really be intentional about creating a sense of belonging for everybody?
[10:52] SPEAKER_01:
Absolutely. There are, especially as an educator, we deal with so much data. And the data says socioeconomics plays a role in whether our kids will achieve or underachieve. There are numerous studies that talk about how much money your parents earn, whether they went to college, and how many words you are likely to read before kindergarten. So there are some really granular studies out there. And if you're reading those, then you are...
[11:18]
almost sure almost assuredly likely to see someone who may have one parent at home as less academically capable or someone who may be so you may have free lunch as less capable and those are kinds of things that you know we say all the time and you hear it in classes all the time The low kids, the bubble kids. And so part of it is not again, it's it's we're hardwired to be able to make some academic some decisions that need to be made. And that means when you have 30 kids, 25 to 32 kids, 25 to 35 kids, you do have to look at what you have and try to give it some kind of context. So a part of that is going to happen. It's going to be positive. Sometimes, however, you see a lot less representation, for example, with black and brown kids in AP classes.
[12:13]
And that's something that you want to be, yes, being welcoming. Being biased is just not a bad thing. If we realize that we all have our biases, that we are all fed certain information, and that all tends to shape our context for things, then we can be intentional. And that intentionality is crucial for the success of all students.
[12:33] SPEAKER_00:
So, Hedrick, you have the book organized around eight guiding principles or pillars. Take us through those now, if you would.
[12:40] SPEAKER_01:
Oh, I would love to. The number one, actually, it's a great graphic in the book. It has inclusivity at the center. And I think that belonging and inclusivity is where we're striving. We talk about DEI work, and I like DEIB because it's diversity, equity, inclusivity, and belonging. And that I and that B are really what we're striving for.
[13:02]
And when we look at it like that, I think it takes some of the sting out of words like bias and justice and some of those things that people have a difficult time relating to. So first, the first one would be belonging, simply how to ensure that kids feel represented and they feel a sense of belonging. The second one is about guilt and accountability. And I like that one because you kind of get to either you get people who automatically have a knee jerk reaction because it's kind of I feel attacked. And so whenever you feel attacked, you feel guilty, even if you're not guilty, you just feel. So there's a pushback or there's a place where you're just so overwhelmed.
[13:43]
I remember when some things were happening. I want to say it was maybe George Floyd's death. It might have been something else. And I had some of my white my white friends call me and say, oh, my God. white people are awful I'm so sorry and while I appreciate them just you know coming to some kind of realization and making making a headway in their own journeys and knowing that that was something that the two of us could share I do know that that kind of guilt can also be so overwhelming and paralyzing and so knowing that hey some stuff's gone wrong what can I do is way better than feeling guilty or feeling bad or feeling attacked or feeling like you are less than who you've thought yourself to be all of this time. And doing, you know, having an accountability partner and just, you know, working through some things wherever you are on your journey is okay.
[14:32]
And that's the big thing I say in that particular chapter. The next one is actually labels and language. And that's huge. A lot of things that we have said traditionally, like, for example, in my life, I have been colored, which my great grandmother would only use because she said we weren't black, that she thought that black, we're all different colors. And she thought that was awful. She was born in 1892.
[14:55]
And so I've been colored, black little B, African-American, black big B, BIPOC, all of those things in one lifetime so that language is always evolving. And so being aware that certain labels 10, 20 years ago may no longer be correct. then that's important. You know, I remember when I was in college, I knew that my great grandma born in another century, I knew that she said colored, but when I was in college, I had a little girl say, oh, wow, I never met a colored before. I was so shocked because I'd literally never been called colored by someone my own age. But that was what she knew.
[15:33]
She was raised in a rural town in North Carolina. So knowing those kinds of, just being aware. And Purdue OWL is a great resource for keeping up with the common labels that are no longer, that are not tainted.
[15:48] SPEAKER_00:
I know that website. I think we've all spent many hours on that website writing papers, right? Because that's the MLA and APA style format website. So they actually have language guidelines now.
[15:58] SPEAKER_01:
Yes.
[15:58] SPEAKER_00:
To be able to use, you know, currently accepted terms. Yeah.
[16:01] SPEAKER_01:
And if you know them, then you know, oh, you know, the name you can trust, Purdue Owl.
[16:06] SPEAKER_00:
If we can use it to figure out where to put the periods and the abbreviations and the citations, we love it.
[16:11] SPEAKER_01:
Exactly. Let's see. Then there's curriculum and I hate to say, this is always a hard thing to say or to phrase correctly because it bristles with so many people. But for example, Thanksgiving is a holiday that we've all celebrated in our minds. We see the Indians and the pilgrims. and everybody's having a great time.
[16:34]
And when you talk about the real Thanksgiving and the massacres that happened during that time and what the history of the Powhatan was after the Europeans came to that region, it looks very different. So looking at curriculum from other perspectives is a huge part of making sure that everyone's represented. And also of learning to love our country, not just because of, but in spite of. And I say that because it's like your parents. When you're little, they're heroes. And then when you're older, you see their human frailty, but you don't stop loving them.
[17:07]
And so as adults, we also need to be able to look at our history objectively and see that some of our favorite stories may not have given us the whole truth about things. And I say that as a serious patriot. And it's just important that, like I said, we love in spite of, not just because of. So learning the other stories in curriculum and being able to share different stories is huge. Knowing people, like, for example, we know only pretty much in school we learn White mathematicians, white artists, white literature greats. And when you look at people like, oh gosh, Randall T. Woods, the Black Edison, you know, we might know Carver, but we don't know him.
[17:47]
There was Tulsa Burning, but did we know that there were also Black Centers of Wealth authors? all over the country, actually. Did we know about Ed Dwight, for example? Elena Koa and Ed Dwight are, she was an astronaut and he was going to be the first Black man in space. And that got derailed, I think, after Kennedy was shot. But he's on Twitter, you know what I mean?
[18:09]
And so these are science and STEM heroes that we might not have ever heard of because we generally hear Neil Armstrong. You know, we have those same names that we learn over and over. So knowing more about other kinds of curriculum and curriculum heroes, I say.
[18:25] SPEAKER_00:
You actually have a couple other books that people can check out to learn more about some of those topics, right?
[18:29] SPEAKER_01:
Yeah, absolutely. There is one on excellence in STEM that talks about four different characters, characters, four different historic and current heroes in math. For example, today, what's her name? Ty, Ty Denae Bradley. She's adorable. She looks like more like an Instagram influencer than a mathematician, but she talks about all these cool concepts in math.
[18:52]
And I love showing her to young people because that's not somebody they're used to seeing as a mathematician. And there's even a website called Not Just Old White Dudes that has all of these kinds of collections of math stories from all different kinds of people. So knowing those, algebra, for example, came out of the Muslim culture. You know, my Muslim kids needed to know that. You know, I think his name was Al-Jabir. I'm terrible at remembering names.
[19:19]
But knowing those kinds of things is so neat. Onesimus was the slave that actually showed smallpox technology, vaccine technology, in the first huge small bites pandemic. So that came out of Africa. How many of my kids from the African diaspora need to know that? So those are the kinds of things that when I say curriculum, there's just so much great stuff out there. Cultural expression is huge, allowing, for example, If you have a large, I had a large Hispanic population.
[19:50]
Do you turn and talks in Spanish? That's a good that, you know, using both languages is a good thing. Kids who, some kids actually need to breathe. Some kids need to move or dance to relax and reset. Knowing what cultural expressions are important to your kids makes a big difference for them as opposed to thinking, this is what does me good. That'll do you good.
[20:11]
Find out what kinds of things, or I always say black girls are known for having an extra dash of sass. And often there is a, there's a little more spice. There's a little more sass and it's not disrespectful, but it is a cultural expression that we need to be aware of. And it helps us to navigate relationships much differently when we know that when a kid goes, Oh my God, it's not this horrible, disrespectful thing. It's just like, really basically a teenage cultural expression. You know, you can move on from it.
[20:43]
Middle school thing too. It's a middle school thing. It does not need you to extend them to the office. You know what I mean? Let's take it down a notch. So those kinds of things.
[20:52]
The chapter on the filler of gender and sexuality is huge. Right now we are so divided. I was sad to hear last week about Ted Cruz's daughter who tried to commit suicide. And I bring that up because I cannot imagine what it must be like to be a 14-year-old coming into my sexuality and finding that my father is completely against who I am. That must be heartbreaking. And what I say to people, and I say this in Christian circles especially, do you want to be the person that makes a kid happy?
[21:27]
less mentally healthy that makes a kid drop out of school? You know, is your opinion about who they are that important? Is that even your job? Is it even your business? So those are the kinds of things that we talk about in that particular chapter. And I address, I also, I also address adult staff members who are navigating those spaces and how to, how to just kind of be intentional about when to educate and when to just let it go.
[21:54]
Because I have a friend, for example, she is in her eighties and she also taught what I used to, I do some singing and stuff and she talks about the Negro spirituals and she loves it when we do the Negro spirituals. And I just, she's darn near 80 years old. I'm just not going to correct her. She means me no harm. I'm going to let it go. And so that kind of thing.
[22:21]
And then there's of course representation and that is Everything doesn't have to be girly and swirly in your class. For example, a lot of teachers do a lot of girls and swirl stuff. We can have all different kinds of books with all different kinds of heroines. Did you know that you can even buy crayons that have colors of the world? And they're like 24 skin colors. And now I think there's even a 64 pack.
[22:45]
And there are all these different skin colors so that your kids don't have to look for the peach or try to mix a peach with the right brown to get different shades of skin. So things like that, making sure that those tools are band-aids now that have different colors. So finding, if you teach a, what do you call it, a... A drill team, knowing where to get hosiery that comes in different skin tones.
[23:10]
Those kinds of things are hugely important. Realizing that, you know, the kid in the afro might not be able to pull her hair back in the same way that the kid with long blonde hair might. So what can we do that works for everybody? Just those kinds of things, making sure that kids are represented. And then finally, action. And that is where you decide which small bite you're going to bite off.
[23:33]
You know, those eight pillars are huge. That's kind of like everything that you should be intentional about. But there's no way that you can just get all of that knowledge and then do something with it. So find out what's going to make the biggest impact in your circle. You know, is it your family that you want to start with? Is it your classroom?
[23:53]
Is it your staff? Is it your campus? Is it your teacher next door? Is it one student who you realize that you could build a better relationship with? And wherever that is, then start. Maybe it's just with you being reflective and thinking about how your bias doesn't always serve your students best.
[24:13]
And so wherever it is, it leads you always back to belonging. So it's a circle.
[24:18] SPEAKER_00:
Yeah. Tell us a little bit more about your other books and how they can help people round out their classroom libraries, learn more about representation and so on.
[24:25] SPEAKER_01:
Oh, yeah, there's some really great ones. I am a research nerd. And I actually had a conversation with my son a couple of years ago. He said, gee, mom, you know so much. I didn't learn any of that in school. How'd you learn so much in school?
[24:37]
I said, no, honey, that is not school. That's all me. And there's some great resources out there. One of them I love is from Black Wall Street to Allensworth. Again, we know the Tulsa burning story, but we don't know about Centers of Black Wealth. For example, my grandmom actually worked at Afro-American life insurance because at that time, Blacks were not, white companies would not insure Black citizens.
[25:04]
So there were Black banks, Black insurance companies, and there were all these centers of Black wealth. And so you can learn a little bit about those in Black Wall Street to Allensworth. There's one all about the Harlem Renaissance, which has some excellent connections and some activities. And one of my favorites is actually Excellence in STEM. And I love it because it talks a lot about...
[25:29]
It talks about just... people who are doing math now who may not look like the mathematicians and the scientists that we normally see. You know, when we think of science, we automatically think of Edison or we think of Einstein and those kinds of people. But we don't often think of somebody like a Granville T. Woods, who was actually considered the Black Edison, who Edison sued him three times and actually lost, which was huge in that time for a Black man to have actually come out on top in court.
[25:59]
with a white person who was trying to get his patents. So there's some neat connections in that particular one. And yeah, they're great additions to class libraries. So I would definitely recommend them.
[26:10] SPEAKER_00:
Well, Hendrick, one thing that I'm hearing a lot from numerous administrators, especially people who are kind of on suburban boundaries, maybe between an urban and a rural area where they might have different enrollment areas, people of very differing political beliefs might be a part of their school district. And we're starting to see more kind of interest slash interference slash involvement slash criticism of what's in school libraries, what topics students are exposed to. And there's even been a lot of pushback against the idea of equity or the idea of representation in curriculum. What are you seeing and what are some of your recommendations for school administrators who are feeling like they're kind of caught in the
[26:58] SPEAKER_01:
That saddens me. I always said to my son, and I was divorced when he was six, and I remember him asking me some very pointed questions that I didn't think I would want to have a discussion with a 60-year-old about, but I have always said that if he was old enough to ask, that he was old enough to get an age-appropriate answer. So I understand parents wanting to have control over what their kids are exposed to, but I always kind of wonder, well, do they have a phone and Discord in their room? But okay, because kids find things out anyway. But what I would say, what I say to administrators is change your words. I absolutely talk about kindness and belonging because when everything is said and done, we can talk about...
[27:46]
woke, woke, or wokest. We can talk about equity. We can talk about diversity, inclusion, justice. We can talk about all of those concepts. But what it comes down to is, are we treating others like we're treating, you know, like we want to be treated? And, you know, if you approach as administrators, be proactive.
[28:03]
If you're going to be doing some belonging, some inclusion activities, then put it in a newsletter. Let your parents know. Give them the opportunity to opt out. But don't use the hot buzzwords. Use words like belonging, like kindness, like, you know, building together, hashtag better together. And The message doesn't change.
[28:27]
You are still making sure that kids are represented, that kids have a lunchroom chair swap. That's a great thing to do where everybody sits next to someone else and learn something new and offer prizes for the person who comes up with the most fun fact, you get actual ice cream from your favorite ice cream place for dessert. Those kinds of things really make it, if you build out from a place of love, and I know that that sounds so wishy-washy, but if you build from a place of love and kindness, then people can't really fight against that. Whereas if you say bias, it sounds like, oh, you're trying to get my kids, you're indoctrinating my kids. But if you say we're really pushing kindness, there's not a lot to say. Oh, well, we noticed that, you know, there's some missing stories.
[29:12]
So we've asked our students whose stories might be missing and they have done research and they came up with these ideas. I think a big part of it is also that these things are student, these things are teacher led and admin led. And then it is indoctrination or it can be considered indoctrination. Not is, couldn't be considered. But if we ask our students, who else was there? Hey, I was just looking at Thanksgiving.
[29:43]
Who else do you think was there? Hey, we talk about the Indians. Where are they from? We talk about the pilgrims. What is a pilgrim? Where'd they come from?
[29:51]
Oh, neat. What year was that? What happened that year? What was going on in India that year? Just literally ask your kids to open their minds to other stories. You know, on any given day, there are different headlines in different newspapers.
[30:06]
And that's really how history was. You know what I mean? During World War II on the frontier, they were not experiencing World War II. Not in the way that they were. Well, more like, well, let's go back to World War I. World War I on the frontier was not being experienced in the way that it was being experienced in Europe.
[30:24]
Two very different experiences. Big headline, little headline. You know, maybe the Pony Express let somebody on a farm know out in Arizona that there was something going on and they said, oh yeah, okay, great. I'm still, you know, I'm doing my Buffalo thing. So ask your students and ask them what they are missing and let them lead affinity groups and let them come up with ideas Hey, what do we need to make? I feel like the same group sit together and some kids don't have any.
[30:48]
They're sitting alone. What can we do to change that? So let your students be change agents. And then again, be proactive, letting your parents know. And, you know, here's here's an email in case you feel uncomfortable or have questions. Please do.
[31:03]
And guess what? Let your students man that as well. Have a nice little student, especially middle school and high school. You would be surprised at how well they are at explaining the concepts. You know what I mean? My friend, I've had kids say, my friend wanted to, she wanted to kill herself because she thought that her parents didn't want her to be gay.
[31:22]
Well, if I have a student writing me back, hi, Mrs. Parent, I'm so thankful that I understand that you're upset. This is why we're doing that. This is what happened to my friend last year, and we got some kids here that we just want to support. Thank you for your time. Push that out.
[31:40]
So student-led, proactive, and drop the buzzwords.
[31:44] SPEAKER_00:
That's really interesting to think about because, you know, so much of the, you know, the kind of cutting edge discourse happens with language that is going to feel very strange to people, you know, say who are in a more rural area and can, you know, set off alarm bells and you're saying, you know, we don't necessarily have to use that exact language if there is a more straightforward term like kindness, acceptance, you know, everybody belongs, that kind of thing. So I think a lot to think about there. And is this something that you help school leaders navigate in your coaching and consulting also?
[32:16] SPEAKER_01:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I work in the space between educators, classroom educators and district leaders, which gives me a lot of leeway to kind of help shape correspondence, do diversity and materials edits, and really give people the words and conversational tools to be able to talk, especially... Let's see.
[32:40]
How can I say this? I grew up in Port Arthur, Texas. I graduated high school in Port Arthur, Texas. That is one of the last bastions of very, very. They were known in the 90s for having drug a guy behind lynched a guy in the 90s. You know, so that's that's where I grew up.
[32:53]
And they burned a cross at halftime when the band went to, you know, to the black school, went to Vida to play basketball at Vida. They burned a football and they burned a cross. So that's where I grew up. So I've been mudding in a truck with my friends who got a Confederate flag in the back. So I can navigate both sides of the story. I have my personal pain and then I have how I can talk to people who have no idea what my personal pain is like or what my historical trauma is like or any of those big buzzwords.
[33:21]
And when you talk to people, you have to, when you talk to them, you have to talk to them from, empathy belongs on both sides. You have to understand what it's like to feel displaced And what it's like to feel like this is something new. And what it's like to feel threatened. And when you realize that, then you use a different conversational tone than you would if you were talking to somebody who is also eager to make sure the kids belong and that there's diversity and equity and justice. And when you are one of those eager people and you're talking to someone who's not eager, who is even reluctant, you forget. And you have to change your tone for your audience.
[33:57]
It's important because other than that, the message won't get through. And the bottom line is we want our kids to succeed. We want our educators to be successful. We want our campuses to be places where kids are not suffering mental health issues because of us. And whatever we need to do to make sure that the message is heard and that we can move to a place of action, That's what we got to do. And if it's kindness as opposed to inclusivity, wonderful.
[34:21]
I can go there.
[34:22] SPEAKER_00:
And I think even when you have the support of senior leadership, you know, being careful about that language is, I think, worth the effort. Like we're even seeing, you know, superintendents, we're even seeing like school board members get defeated in elections and then superintendents get replaced. And then suddenly the whole climate changes. And, you know, what was once a very supportive climate becomes a lot more hostile. So, yeah. Yeah, definitely something to think about and do your homework on.
[34:51]
And of course, Hedrick's books are a great place to start. So as we mentioned, you have a number of books on Amazon if people are interested in learning more about any of the historical figures and contemporary scientists and mathematicians and other examples that you gave. But the book that we've been specifically discussing today is Finding Your Blind Spots, Eight Guiding Principles for Overcoming Implicit Bias in Teaching. And Hedrick, if people want to get in touch with you, learn more about your work, follow you various places, where should they go online?
[35:20] SPEAKER_01:
Well, the easiest place, of course, of course, is my website, Hedrick.com, H-E-D-R-E-I-C-H.com. And there you can find the books. You can find guides to my courses. If you want to register for a coaching session or something for your school or district, all of that information is there, how to contact me.
[35:37]
You can also contact me at 5smallbytes at gmail.com. And then Hedrick at every major platform. So you can catch up with me on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on Twitter. If you really want the educational stuff, check out Twitter. Instagram might have something like a picture where Jesse Williams actually liked a tweet of mine or something or coffee.
[35:59]
There could be coffee pictures. So for the most up to date, TikTok and Twitter are the places that I really, really engage. And then the rest of those, you can also reach me through LinkedIn, of course.
[36:11] SPEAKER_00:
All right. Thank you so much.
[36:13] SPEAKER_01:
Thanks a lot, Justin. Bye-bye.
[36:15] Announcer:
Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.
