a full moon seen through the clouds in the night sky
a full moon seen through the clouds in the night sky

team
TST

Hey guys.

You may be in trouble & I'll tell you why. I have spoken to enough students to feel confident enough to say this. Your most basic needs are not being met. Many of you are struggling with anxiety & other things that you're not so quick to talk about. You're too young. But if you're old enough to have these emotions, you're old enough to learn how to manage them. I'm not a doctor. I cannot legally tell you what to do. However, I can share my experiences & some of the things I've learned.

Fact, school is not teaching you everything you need to know. Most of you will never dissect a frog or use equations with letters in them. It's something we all have to learn, 99% of us will never use it. Another fact, we normalize things that are FAR from normal. This is the culture bad guys are creating but most of you don't know anything different. You know what I'm talking about. It's not normal to be killed in school or eat food on the internet for obnoxious amounts of money while teachers and firefighters can barely pay their bills. Let's get really real.

You gotta watch what you learn on the internet. It may be entertaining but education is key regardless of the content you choose to consume. You have to determine what is good for you and what's not. I enjoy high-level profanity in some of my music too but there's a time and a place. Because I also know that it's important for me to pay attention to what is happening in the world. I recognize that local elections are just as important if not more important than presidential ones. I understand that not caring is destroying the world around us and you don't even know it. Some of the most important lessons you learn happen outside of the classroom and being intelligent is what makes you cool.

So, let's get into it. Let me tell you about some things that are affecting you in the worst ways possible, but you won't know it until it's too late. Then I'll show you how you (young people) have to be the ones to fix it. Period.

Every student needs a mentor.

how do we make this happen?

a crescent moon in the sky
a crescent moon in the sky

It's the natural order of things. You are supposed to learn from those who came before you. However, many of you are teaching us. Ideally, we should be learning from each other, but every student should have a mentor.

"Mentors can be critical for students’ success. Yet not every student who needs a mentor has one, and not every educator knows how to be a mentor.

That’s why it’s important for schools to be intentional in facilitating opportunities for school staff to develop mentorship relationships with students, experts say—especially now, amid the academic and social-emotional fallout of the pandemic and the youth mental health crisis.

While some students and educators form strong connections organically, that doesn’t always happen. And students from marginalized groups—who often benefit the most from having a trusted, supportive relationship with an adult at school—are less likely to report having a mentor, research has found."

-via Education Week (edweek.org)

education is a
marathon, not a sprint...

All of the best stories begin with the underdog.

black hoodie
black hoodie

good habits formed at youth make all the difference.