SEL in EDU
SELinEDU Podcast is stories and insights from outstanding teachers, administrators, leaders, and students on all things Social Emotional Learning in education. These 30-40-minute podcasts are perfect for a commute, a nice cup of joe, or a self-care walk.
SEL in EDU
056: Harnessing the Power of Connection, Courage, and Compassion with Thom Stecher
When you meet a mentor like Thom Stecher, who shapes your world through social and emotional learning, you can't help but share their wisdom far and wide. That's precisely what we're doing in this heartwarming episode, as Thom joins us to discuss the profound effects of nurturing the whole child and fostering a compassionate atmosphere in schools. We explore the landscape of education, where courage intertwines with kindness, and delve into how these virtues impact the lives we touch and our personal growth.
Our conversation delves into the power of self-awareness, the significance of disconnecting from the chaos of life to nurture our inner value, and the potency of small acts of kindness. Thom's insights prompt us to reconsider the true significance of self-worth in the age of social media. As we ponder on the necessity of self-compassion and the inherent worth of every individual, we also underscore the bravery needed for advocacy and community building, making each listener feel valued and appreciated.
Finally, we celebrate love's role in creating and sustaining relationships. Thom shares personal stories from his 45-year partnership, reminding us that the superpower of love drives change and fosters connections, especially within educational environments. Join our enriching discussion, savoring the nuggets of wisdom and encouraging you to keep the flame of curiosity alight in your heart. Together, let's celebrate the profound influence of connection over metrics in our schools and lives.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
- Connect with Thom via his website.
Welcome to SEL in EDU where we discuss all things social and emotional in education. I'm Krista and I'm Craig and we are your hosts on this journey. Hello, hello, hello, SEL and EDU family, it is a great day and time to be in community with you. We're so glad that you joined us again for another wonderful podcast. Krista, how are you doing? How's your heart today?
Speaker 1:My heart is totally full, and not just because I have an amazing cup of lemonade lavender tea, which I'm really looking forward to. So I know you love candles and they help center you and I'm like you know what it's feeling like a cup of tea afternoon. But I know we have a guest here who has been. You know you just meet those people who are change the trajectory of your life. The person that we have for a guest today is that for me, he has been my mentor. He has helped introduce me to the world of SEL and really helped build helped me build a foundation for the direction that I am going professionally, how I've raised my boys, and I am excited to share him with the world. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Good, gracious. That is that that really warms my heart. Uh, when we have the opportunity to welcome folks who are, who have been a compass for us, um, and have uh been a hearth that we could come to, uh, when the shadows of the world do what they do they do, I'm glad that we have this opportunity to commune in great company, so I'm excited about that. For me, today is like an up and down day, so I think that what I carry with me is the world. There are so many things that are happening now. So, as we're recording, it's February. We've had like two weeks of just gray days. We finally are experiencing some sun, so I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:But in the midst of that, like you know, we're still dealing with a war. We're still dealing with like affirmative action and the political climate that feels very charged. There's been some deaths and passings and transitions of folks who've been in my circle and village, so that's been something. And outside of that, just trying to wake up and be a decent human being feels tough. But having this opportunity to be with you and be in community with our guests, that we have the opportunity and also our audience, it is what empowers me to put that battery in my back and get up and keep going anyway. So I know today we're going to talk about courage a little bit, and just how do you still, you know, empower yourself, enlighten yourself, how do you activate yourself to be courageous, even when you might be managing anxiety or fear or just whatever the world is throwing at you? So I'm I'm feeling good about that.
Speaker 1:And thank you, craig, for sharing that, because I think it's important for people to know like when they see you or when they hear us, a lot of times, especially with you, it's always kind of upbeat and like going and you know, but we're humans and we have a whole range of emotions and I think people also need to see us kind of grappling with some of those harder pieces in life as well, how we navigate them in community and with one another, and then keep our focus on the work and what motivates us and keeps us moving forward. And so with that I would like to introduce our speaker today and thinking about like motivating us to continue to do the work personally and professionally. This is a gentleman. I've shared my highest highs and my lowest lows. I've had dirty ugly cries on his shoulder. We have known each other for over 17 years. I met him when I was working as a high school teacher, starting a student leadership organization. So I am thrilled to introduce Mr Tom Stacker. He is a nationally recognized motivational speaker and educational consultant. He specializes in self-esteem which I needed my lot wellness and student assistance programs.
Speaker 1:Raised in a family of educators, tom believes that education is a lifelong process and that we all teach best what we most need to learn. Therefore, it is imperative that we teach each other. He has spent over 40 years educating and mentoring students, teachers, administrators and board members. He is one of the original developers of the nationally recognized and acclaimed Masonic Model Student Assistance Program, which helps students who are experiencing barriers to learning. He has expanded the model to developmentally appropriate elementary, middle and high school programs, and the program is in use in over 30 states and in Canada. Tom's current passion is providing school board and administrative retreats and professional learning opportunities for K-12 staff. The primary focus of his work is integrating social-emotional learning with academic achievement and helping school districts transform into whole child-centered environments. He believes that budgets and test scores must be subordinate to people. Caring for students and staff must be at our highest priority and that connection, compassion and courage are the future of education. Tom, my dear friend, welcome to our SEL and EDU family.
Speaker 3:Hi Krista, Hi Craig, it's so nice to be with both of you. I've already heard immense amounts of courage. You used that word work, and I happen to love that word. I grew up in a family of work. I grew up on an extended family farm extended family farm and work to me was family, Work to me was love, and at that time, being a young man, it was work with a small W and I relished that. And it was a corn farm. It was a Silver Queen corn farm and I confess to being a corn snob, I'll be polite, but Silver Queen corn is really the only corn worth eating.
Speaker 3:But the other idea of work is when we find our love, when we find our passion, we find our calling, we find that thing that we'll do without money because we must do it. It's in our heart and if we don't do it it backs up on us and we become uncomfortable and we become ill. So we know that we have been given this gift and it is our work and this gift is supposed to be shared. It's supposed to be given away in some way, shape or form. So in your initial conversation I heard that word work and it means so much to me. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I learned it from you. That's where I get that from and it's something that I've internalized because I remember back in oh goodness, I don't even remember what the year was but you would come in to help us set up an organization for empowering our students. And I remember saying to you for empowering our students. And I remember saying to you this is it Like? I like social studies but I love working with our youth. And I said to you how do I get to do this? I don't have a degree. And you said to me you don't need a degree to do this work. You need to have the passion and the work ethic and want to continue to put good work out there to support our young folks. And that just always stuck with me and I'm like, yeah, I can do this and I want to do this. And you were calling it SEL way before most people got even a real understanding of what it was that we were doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's so much I want to talk about. I want to talk about that, I want to talk about the history, but again, you just said something that's so important. That moment, that moment when we met, that moment when we interacted and when I shared with you my core belief, acted, and when I shared with you my core belief, you don't need a degree to do this. It's lovely and, please, I honor both of you with your doctoral degrees. But I come back to something Martin Luther King Jr said. He said all you need is a soul generated by love. All you need is a soul generated by love.
Speaker 3:And today, this morning, I spend almost every morning on the physical therapy table and today, on the physical therapy table, the woman who runs the organization was working on me and moving my hips and and and you know, asking me does this hurt? Does that hurt? And and one of her younger colleagues, a man with a doctorate, probably 30 years old, in physical therapy, who who works on me a lot, you know, was making some comments across the table about, about, you know what, what we need to to help each other. And I just said, all we need to do is be kind, and I know that sounds easy and I know that for folks like you and Craig, that is part of your mission. And we also know, because the mission is needed, that many folks don't know how to do that, or maybe some small percentage of us humans, our biology or our chemistry is so different that we're not able to do that. And you know all of that concerns me. Which brings us back to our conversation, our topic today courage. You know those of us on this mission, the oh, my goodness gracious the millions, millions upon millions of educators in the world, and I don't believe you need an educational degree to be an educator. Education happens when any two human beings are gathered together.
Speaker 3:You know there's scripture about that and it's so important we understand that that is a significant responsibility when we're sitting down together and conversing, as we are right now, to have the courage to speak our truth, to equally have the courage to listen to someone else's truth. And that is as a 72-year-old who now has been doing this work for 50 years, I confess I'm getting a little afraid. I'm getting a little afraid that I won't leave this world a better place than when I walked into it. That's just a fear. It doesn't immobilize me, but that's where I'm at today. So our courage and the word I love the word.
Speaker 3:You know I geek out about words. I love the word. The two derivations that I'm familiar with are either core, which comes from the Latin, or coer, c-o-u-e-r, which comes from the French, and it means to be one with your heart, to be one with your heart, and that's just an exquisite place to be. I love human beings that are one with their heart. And then you know Craig was mentioning something earlier when we're in that place where we're having a challenging day, we're in that place like, like it has been here. I'm in suburban philadelphia where we had a. We had like I thought we had an endless array of gray days and I need a little sun. Today. Thank god it's, it's sunny and it's 52. It's like whoo 52. So I'm overjoyed and you will forgive me Krista knows this, craig I'm a rambler, so every once in a while, if I ramble down a road and I can't find my way back, just call me back.
Speaker 2:You are in great company.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. So that courage that is us, that's who we are, that courage is our kindness, that courage is our compassion, that courage is our empathy, that courage is getting out of bed on those days we'd rather put the covers up over our head. That courage are those days when that person you love did something that just bugs the hell out of you and you remember the greater good. You remember the greater good. There's this. Krista knows this book, craig, you may know it. Dr Dacre Keltner, out of Berkeley, the book Born to be Good. It's one of my favorites. I was talking about it in physical therapy. I talk about it wherever I go. So, craig, you'll remember this. Krista, you'll remember this. When we were children, we were taught a little bit about Darwin, huh, charles Darwin and theories of how human beings evolve. And what's that famous line you remember? I know you remember it.
Speaker 1:The one about the strongest evolve.
Speaker 3:Amen, there it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the strongest survive. That's a lie and in fact Charles Darwin never said those words. Those words are written by jealous competitors. Darwin wrote, and now I quote survival of the sympathetic, survival of the sympathetic. That was Darwin writing back then about all his studies of various species on planet Earth that he studied for years and years and years who survives? The caring, the kind, the compassionate, the other-oriented. So I feel like part of my mission is to remind people who they are. An old old friend of mine, kristen, knows Dr Yvonne Kay. I just had tea with she's British. I just had tea with her and that's, that's a big deal. Last week and she just turned 90. Still still fiery and passionate and wonderful. Yvonne says her whole life has been introducing people to themselves, introducing people to themselves. So that, my friends, is our work, to help people know who they are and in that is that courageous, kind, compassionate, loving human being well, it definitely there's a lot to you know, to reflect on and for many of us to consider.
Speaker 2:We are in an environment where it's for me hard to unplug from the world at large because in the work that we do as educators, as humans, we're trying to stay up on all of the latest science or news. Some of us find ourselves going to TikTok or IG versus, you know, to find our inspiration, find ourselves. But I think that, you know, starting with kindness with yourself was part of, like what happened between when Chris and I did our last podcast and now, which happens to be, like you know, within an hour and a half of each other, and I was telling my husband, who had walked through just to check in and see whether or not we were doing lunch, like, hey, you know, he had just shared about his doctor visit and I said, look, I'm trying to do my best to be kind to myself and forgive myself for just the thoughts that may have permeated in my brain over the day, because it didn't start out the way I was hoping it would. The anxiousness that I feel and sense, whether or not it's my own, and sometimes we forget that sometimes the level of kindness and care that we have for others who are going through things like that's in the ether that energy is present and that we have to account for that. Sometimes we can't even name it and say like I don't know why I feel this way because five minutes ago I was having lunch it was the greatest you know cup of lavender and lime tea and all the greens did what they were supposed to do and be greeny, and I feel like all that deliciousness was happening because it was green goddess, which is my favorite hot dog. And then all of a sudden you move from one room to the next and then all of a sudden you're like what is that Like? Why is this like? What is going on in my ether, in my world, that all of a sudden it shifts on a dime.
Speaker 2:I understand that, as much work that I do to try to be a decent human being, every day that I wake up and try to do the things that I know will help to not only help me to thrive but others to thrive, including my family. But sometimes I also have to recognize that I have to be kind of myself when I'm like, oh, that's a judgment about that. Oh, I should have been doing that but that didn't happen, or being able to say I can still be present and be here with you all while all the other things of the world are going on and we sometimes think that we have to get things done. We have to show up in these ways, that we have to continue to produce and do all this stuff, because if we don't, we're not going to be seen. Because it comes down to do we feel worthy, right, and it's hard to know whether or not you feel worthy, because we've shifted what worthy should look like.
Speaker 2:Because I think when you talk about Darwin, darwin was really talking about community and just your relationship from one person to the next.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's just about you.
Speaker 2:But when I think about the greater world we're in I'll speak for Craig, I'm not going to speak for anybody else I'm still on this hamster wheel of thinking like I need to show up in these ways in this world, because that's what worthiness looks like, that's what it looks like that I'm making an impact.
Speaker 2:But I then take away each of the small moments that I've had with a friend who just called me for five minutes about something, or my smiling and talking with Krista right before we start a podcast. I have taken value away from those conversations and experiences because I think that it's not worthy if it's not only in the public square. And so I just as you talk about that, like that's surfacing for me and something I'm wrestling with. So as we talk about courage and we're talking about kindness and I'm just like putting myself in the public square, that, for those who may think you have to have it all together or because we're out here, that there are not down moments or there are not moments where I'm human and imperfect and flawed and moody- yeah, you shared so many important things and again, words, key words resonate with me.
Speaker 3:One of the first key words you shared was unplug, and I think that is essential, that we do literally unplug on a regular basis. So Kristen knows this I don't have an iPhone, I don't have a Apple Watch, I have an old flip phone and it stays in the car and I use it twice. I use it to say honey, I'm here, wherever that might be, and I use it to say honey I'm on my way home. That's all I use it for, and I don't know my number.
Speaker 1:I know it.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:Oh, and you use it to say Krista, I'm here and I'm like yes, so I get to be on that call every once in a while.
Speaker 3:But then you know not to call me because I don't know how to answer it. So so I say that and that's. That's true. But I also say that somewhat jokingly, I hope to to to remind myself what am I going to unplug from? Because if I'm plugged into everything, it's going to make me nuts. I mean literally, it's going to drive me crazy. No human being can withstand all that's out there 24-7. It's too much. We must unplug. So, whatever your practice might be, whether your practice is called prayer or meditation or contemplation, or your practice is called dance or singing or art, or whatever your practice is, we need to do it.
Speaker 3:And again, another key concept you shared, craig to be kind to ourselves. To be kind to ourselves. I am still learning at 72. If I am not kind to me, then I will fall short on being kind to you. This beautiful reciprocity that happens with us human beings as I fill my glass. That happens with us human beings as I fill my glass, your glass is also filled. There is no separation between us, except the separation we choose to put there. Our energies flow together. We are right now breathing the same air in Massachusetts and in Pennsylvania. We're breathing the same air that King breathed and Gandhi breathed and Hitler breathed. We're breathing the same air. It's just recycled.
Speaker 3:So again, a key word you shared forgiveness. Oh my goodness, forgiveness is an absolute must within courage. See, in the faith I grew up in, I learned I was taught literally and emphatically how to forgive others who had hurt me. At 72, I'm still working on how to forgive myself and it is so important and including to allow myself my mistakes, including to allow my frailties, because that's what makes me fully human. I've, you know, I've earned this bad back. I've earned this bald head. This is me, this is me, this is all of me. So the forgiveness piece is so essential. You also mentioned worth and our value, and I think this is probably why I'm still doing this work at 72.
Speaker 3:I remember vivid moments in my life. Here I am, I'm an old man talking to two beautiful human beings, and I can still remember that moment when I met as a freshman in high school with my counselor and they had some early assessments there, and he looked at me, didn't know me yet we had no relationship. Underline that where we can come back there. And he looked at me from some paper and he said you know, tom, college isn't for you. I'm in ninth grade. College isn't for you. You should really think about getting a job working with your hands. Now, he doesn't understand. I have no working with hands ability at all.
Speaker 3:My father was a great person working with his hands, my youngest son's great worker with his hands, and I admire everybody in the trades because I'll pay you anything to fix anything that's broken because I can't fix it. But here, in a little nutshell, this man told me what my future is going to be. Now, thank goodness there's enough of a revolutionary in me. I quietly in my mind said bullshit, no way. And I continue to work from there. But how about those young people that don't have the resources? That don't have the resources? How about those young people that may not be blessed, as I was with a mother and father said yeah, you work hard enough, you can go to college, we'll make it happen. How about those young people who and this breaks my heart in early elementary school are already feeling less than someone else? That, for me, is one of the most heartbreaking things in humanity when somebody feels less than someone else. Krista, I had a sense you might want to say something might want to say something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that when I'm hearing you speak, what is also coming up and I know this from other conversations that you and I've had that part of being courageous is also the courage to advocate for people and to be an ally, to be an accomplice, to support people, like you've just said, that you know have been told something that is taking away their sense of worth and their value. Or somebody making a comment without having that relationship and not really knowing, like somebody making those assumptions. And when I think about the courage to teach and the courage to lead, I also feel that there's a courage to advocate in there, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Again, we're here, as Craig mentioned. We are here in community. We are designed to be part of community. If we're all alone, we dissipate and die of community. If we're all alone, we dissipate and die. We are here.
Speaker 3:Connection, as Brene Brown reminds us, we're hardwired for connection. So this idea of advocating for the other, whomever the other may be, whatever needs the other may have, this idea of advocating for me is one of my chosen responsibilities. That's kind of who I was raised to be. I understood that early in my life and that you know I love that word again response ability, the ability to respond in whatever life throws at us. And you know one of my mentors, Viktor Frankl oh, my gosh, he talked about. So here I still.
Speaker 3:I try to wrap my head around this. Here is Frankl in his third concentration camp. He's in Auschwitz. That's the place you're going to die. Everyone knows you're going to die. And he thinks to himself.
Speaker 3:Courage, he dares to think to himself. He says the last of all human freedom is to choose one's response in any set of circumstances. I, I, I, I, oh, in my, in my most challenging moments, I still pull that book off the shelf and I reread, and I reread and I reread, I still how does this man dare to summon up the courage to think that of course he has nothing to write with at that point in time? Tommy writes it later to think that how does Harriet Tubman have the courage to go back again and again and again to take on that responsibility to save, to save. I think it is.
Speaker 3:I don't know where the story comes from, it might be a Buddhist story, I'm not sure, but it's this holy man sitting on the bank of a river and he sees a spider out on this little fragile branch, out over the river. And he knows the, he knows, he knows the spider is going to drop in the water and the spider is going to die. And the holy man does, he reaches his hand out and he cups the spider in his hand as the spider falls and, sure enough, the spider stings him and he puts the spider on the ground and the spider says why? Why did you save me? You knew I was going to sting you. And the holy man said just because it's your nature to sting should not stop my nature to save. And yes, yes, we need boundaries, boundaries. Yes, we need to understand that some days we go too far. But this is our nature and and when we hold back courage to teach and I'll I'll be teaching that graduate course in our program, probably about a month from now.
Speaker 3:And, craig, you mentioned early in our gathering here today, it's hard out there and the challenge of an educator to show up every day just to show up, and I don't mean physically show up, I mean showing up with your heart and your soul and giving your best every day kindergarten, 12th grade, beyond, when the politics are as ugly as I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 3:There are exquisite school districts that I work with, who you know. This side of the school board is bashing you and this side of the school board is bashing the other side, and you know what about educating children. So, yeah, it's a painful time, it's a challenging time, and then I look at myself and I say what can I do? I can do what I can do. I can get up and, as I did last week, talk to a bunch of counselors from Berks County, pennsylvania, and bring them some love. I can get up and research and pass it on to my colleagues who are speaking in some school district today. I can get up and talk to two beautiful human beings, and you know, then I can go to bed.
Speaker 2:I love what you, how we brought back the educator of today that is having to make decisions every moment about showing up, which feels very tough to do in today's environment. You have some educators in some communities, because I recognize that some folks may not have the same levels of pressures or level of regulation that is involved in their ability to teach in whatever ways will reach the young people that are in front of them and won't be. They won't create additional barriers to connection and relationship building and kids actually being nourished through SEL and more. And what I think about in today's environment, about me as a teacher, a a consummate teacher who is like, ok, if I were to go back into today's classrooms in the environment we're in, for me, I have to teach the truth. Yes, regardless of positive, negative, indifferent, my job is to foster curiosity and have young people think and ask good questions about not just the world that we are focusing on in that moment, but the greater worlds that they will be, that they are citizens of at this time and it is tough to be courageous, and I was just reading this article and Forbes I think Forbes Black is talking about powering optimism.
Speaker 2:Barbara Johnson, with educators, some of the work you're doing to help shape their leadership, or how they're standing stronger in today's classrooms.
Speaker 2:How do you continue to be courageous, even in small ways or great ways? Because some folks think I don't know if I can go out and be at the front of the movement and move things, but I can have these ripple moments that can actually be revolutionary in its own right, and stay optimistic in the midst of all the messes that are going on in the world. And you want to do right, to still be a light for young people. You want to be a light for you and your colleagues who are grinding in the trenches every day. You keep showing up in whatever ways, no matter what, but it's hard to stay optimistic in today's environment and also be honorable as well as kind, as well as being focused on being brave. How do we help to move people beyond the right now to what could be in the future? If they continue to be kind to themselves, extend kindness to others and they walk in a sense of bravery that is required today in so many you know, spaces and spheres.
Speaker 3:Thank you, you shared it beautifully, craig. For me it's three relationships. It is, first and foremost, a deep and loving relationship with yourself, that you are committed to your growth. You are committed to doing the hard lifetime work of growing and being the best you can be every day, of growing and being the best you can be every day. It is the next relationship who is in your intimate circle? Who are those that love you despite all your frailties and faults? Who are those that will speak truth to you? Who are those that will say, in my case, tom, you've hold on to that much too long, it's time to make peace with a friend, or what have you. So for me, that's my wife for 45 years, sandra.
Speaker 3:And then the other relationship who is in that work relationship? Work with a capital W, that understand the mission, that understand the soul of the work, not the dollar signs of the work. And although, of course, I want teachers to be paid well, I started my career 50 years ago at a salary of $7,500. That's truth. That's truth, anyway. So we've made some progress. We've made some progress, but that relationship, so I love to help schools create again Craig, community. Yes, I appreciate the curriculum. Yes, I love what my friend Krista does with curriculum and integrating the social, emotional with the content. That blows my mind. She's a genius at that work and one of the things I love about her work.
Speaker 3:And for me, how do I get people to be able to sit down and breathe together? How do I get people to be able to sit down and share their heart, to share their soul, to say, oh my God, it's only Wednesday. How am I going to make it to Friday? And then including in that work relationship? So maybe this is relationship four, I don't know. Administrators, we really need to help our friends understand that the test scores will take care of themselves. There's enough data now telling us that if I empower my people, if I care for my people, if I love my people and I do the same thing with children, the test scores will take care of themselves. Teaching to the test is an aberration. That's not human. Nothing human about that, nothing human about asking counselors to take care of the doggone standardized test. So for me, it's all about those relationships. It's all about building those relationships, but again, it's got to begin with the individual. It's got to begin with the individual. It's got to begin with me saying I value myself.
Speaker 1:I am worthy to do the work of being human. I feel like no matter how many times and for how many years we've talked, I can always continue to listen and to learn and to internalize.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Well, you know, I love you, I love you.
Speaker 1:You and it just. I'm just sitting here like yes, yes, and I know, as we work to closing this up, we often say to people so how can people get a hold of you? So I'm going to, if you don't mind, I'm going to fill this in for you.
Speaker 3:You might know better than I do.
Speaker 1:I'm going to help out. I know that you are on Facebook and you have a. Facebook page, so I'm going to link that to these notes to these notes. But I also know that if people want to get ahold of you, they can go to your website, tomstechercom T-H-O-M-S-T-E-C-H-E-R. They can email you, tom, at tomstecher T-H-O-M, at T-H-O-M-S-T-E-C-H-E-Rcom, and I know you've got an answering machine to that phone downstairs so you can pick up the phone and call Tom. Yes, yes yes, at 610-640-9983.
Speaker 3:I know that number, that number I know.
Speaker 1:And as we work on wrapping up one of Craig's famous questions and it's interesting and a little, I'm not thinking of the right word right now, but we were talking about being human. I'm going to ask you what your superpower is as we wrap up today.
Speaker 3:So the superpower comes in two forms. Again, you know I've done a lot of assessment work with myself, through many tools, on my core values and my core values are love and commitment. In that order, I am a person. Love is the top and again, I know both of you know this, but I feel the need to clarify for anybody. I'm not talking about Hollywood love. I'm not talking about Netflix love.
Speaker 3:I'm talking about the love of holding your wife's hand as you watch your daughter pass away. I'm talking about the love of 39 years of watching my wife care for our special needs daughter. I'm talking about the love of a human being who changes diapers for 39 years. I'm talking about that love that does all the hard work and still can smile and still can wrap their arms around you Now that I'm 72 and I'm cold at night. That's the love that moves me. That's the love that moves me and that's the love that I want to share with school districts. We need to find the courage to speak the truth about love. You know, every time we find that snack for the child to have a snack, that's love. Every time we find a coat for that child to have a coat, that's love. Every time we spend an extra half hour for that staff member who's had a hell of a week. That's love, and call it what it is, call it what it is Call it what it is.
Speaker 3:That, if I have any superpower.
Speaker 1:That's it, thank you, thank you, I appreciate it. You know I appreciate and love you and I am so happy we were able to find some time so we could share your genius.
Speaker 3:Thank you and I you know I love you and Craig, I your genius. Well, thank you and you know I love you and Craig, I'm overjoyed to meet you. I look forward to a time I can wrap my arms around you and give you a hug.
Speaker 2:Feeling is mutual. I am going to come on down to Pennsylvania so I can get it, but what I can promise you?
Speaker 3:I can promise you a tremendous Italian dinner.
Speaker 2:If you're interested, I'll be sitting up on here teasing me. What a good time I'll come down, like this weekend, like I'm here, hello.
Speaker 3:Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you, friends, appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, all right, sel and EDU family. If you don't feel all the feels, I don't know what's going on it. Thank you, alright, sel and EDU family. If you don't feel all the feels, I don't know what's going on. You need to go outside, you need to run around and just barefoot, with the grass I don't care if it's 20 degrees Let your toe just hit the blade of the grass and just run back up. Do that for you, because something's going on. Baby, we love you. Time has been phenomenal. This is one of those podcasts like I honestly believe you have to hear five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times. You might start to gleam some of the gems, and there's layers upon layers, like a good lasagna. Hey, because you talked about Italian hot dog, all right, so I'm hungry, you know, and all that.
Speaker 1:I'm hungry too, but I want all that, but I'm hungry too.
Speaker 2:But I want y'all to keep this hunger alive because we will have another great podcast. You know, this one right here is high bar for me. I think it's just high bar for us, you know. But I'm supposed to close out, so until we meet again, SEL and EDU family, we want to wish you and all of yours all of the love, all of the fears, all of the love, all of the fears, all of the things that make you you. And until we come back again, we are going to ask you to hold all of your folks dear inside and continue to stand in the SEL light. We love you.
