Inside The Pearl Online School: Real Talk on Building Trust, Belonging, and Academic Success | ep. 113

Dr. Robin Harwick, founder of The Pearl Online Democratic High School, discusses her journey from a curious child to an educator, emphasizing the importance of challenging gifted students to prevent dropout rates. She highlights that 25% of gifted students drop out due to lack of challenge. The school, which started in 2020, serves over 60% BIPOC and 65% neurodivergent students, with classes capped at 10 for personalized learning. The school offers a sliding scale and scholarships, and accepts students globally. Dr. Harwick stresses the importance of listening to students and fostering a supportive learning environment.

Learn more about The Pearl Remote Democratic High School!

https://thepearlhighschool.org/

https://www.facebook.com/ThePearlHighSchool/

https://www.instagram.com/the_pearl_high_school/

https://substack.com/@drharwick

https://www.linkedin.com/in/harwickr/

https://www.youtube.com/@thepearlaremotedemocratich2710

Highlights of the Episode

00:56 - Dr. Harwick’s Love of Learning & Early Influences
   - Dr. Harwick shares her childhood curiosity, family background in education, and how her early experiences shaped her passion for learning.

02:24 - Challenges of Gifted & Neurodivergent Students
   - Discussion on the unique struggles of gifted and neurodivergent students, the importance of challenge, and the risks of disengagement in traditional schools.

06:06 - Dr. Harwick’s Educational Journey & Research
   - Dr. Harwick recounts her path through higher education, her research focus on transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities, and her work in child welfare.

11:00 - Founding The Pearl: Inspiration & Mission
  - The story behind the creation of The Pearl Remote Democratic High School, including the influence of Dr. Art Perl and the vision for a student-centered, evidence-based online school.
 
0:16:05 - Tiffany’s Tips: Building a Child’s Brain
   - NEW Segment! Tiffany Curry shares practical advice from the book "30 Million Words," emphasizing the power of conversation and vocabulary in early childhood development.

21:42 - The Pearl’s Approach: Differentiation & Community
   - Dr. Harwick explains the school’s commitment to small class sizes, differentiated instruction, and building trust with students, especially those who have felt marginalized.

26:22 - Demographics & Student Experience at The Pearl
   - Insights into the diverse student body, the importance of co-creation, and how The Pearl helps students rediscover their interests and passions.

29:40 - Middle Schoolers & Family Partnerships    
- Discussion on expanding to middle school, supporting families through developmental changes, and fostering independence and advocacy in students.

34:42 - Global Reach & Enrollment Process
    - Overview of The Pearl’s international student bo

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:04

Thank you so much for joining the Falling for Learning Podcast. This episode, we are going to be interviewing Dr Robin Harwick, and she is the founder of a remote school, and we're going to talk about how this could be a good strategy for your child, how you might join her her school, and how she fell in love with the learning. Hi. Thank you so much for joining the Falling for Learning Podcast. We have this podcast to help parents and caregivers with having the resources, strategies and tools needed to make sure that their children are on track for learning and to stay on track for success. Thank you so much. Dr Robin Harwick for joining us. How are you doing?

Dr. Robin Harwick: 0:52

I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. I'm excited for our conversation.

TD Flenaugh: 0:57

Yes, me too. Let's get into what was it as a child that had you fall in love with learning?

Dr. Robin Harwick: 1:06

I always loved learning. I was a nerdy kid. My joke is that I always got so many tattoos later in life, so that people didn't know what a nerd I was, and my friends always said we still knew. We still knew. You know, I just I had a really natural curiosity, and I loved reading. And, you know, I was the kid who always had a book in my hand, and, you know, hiding out in my room to finish the book and everything like that. Interesting, though I never knew that I was going to become an educator, even as much as I loved learning. So I think it is just like following my natural curiosity and my natural passions, and then I would say, by fluke or by fate, here, here I am.

TD Flenaugh: 1:49

Okay. Do you have educators in your family at all? I do

Dr. Robin Harwick: 1:53

my my auntie was a principal, so again, surprised that I didn't know I was going to be an educator, and my great aunt was also a teacher. Yeah,

TD Flenaugh: 2:02

okay, I tend to see there's some kind of educator lineage, even if it's if it's a non, if it's sometimes not formal, right? But, you know, but yeah, okay, and so your curiosity, tell us about your educational journey like, you

Dr. Robin Harwick: 2:24

know, yeah, so, you know, I was labeled gifted and talented in school, which we now are finding out more and more, that really meant that most of us were probably neurodivergent and we didn't have the language for it back then. So the discourse for the young people today talking about this has been really interesting for me, but I was never challenged in school. So I never learned study skills. I never I showed up. I got good grades. Nobody paid much attention to me. I graduated, and when I tried college the first time, I didn't persist. I thought that would work just like high school, and I didn't study, and often didn't go to class and went to take the tests and failed.

TD Flenaugh: 3:10

Oh my. Okay, so that's where you met your first kind of challenge, before that, you just were able to get it, and so you didn't have, like a challenge. Like you didn't really have the study. Wow, that's so interesting. And so that that is something like, as parents we need to think about, right? If our kid is just getting things that we may need to find some challenge for them so that later on, they could be successful. So that's something that maybe we they didn't think about right? But luckily, you know you, you said you tried your first time and wasn't successful at college. Okay, so, yeah, so what? So you were failing? What happened next?

Unknown: 3:52

We'd like to back up a little bit. Oh, back, super important, so about 25% of kids that are identified as gifted and talented end up dropping out of high school. Yeah, and exactly what you picked up on, what happened for me and for many students that I've worked with since, once you figure out like I can only get an A I can't go beyond that, right? And because of classroom sizes and other types of challenges. Teachers might not even realize that this, this student is not being challenged, right? And so we see it in behaviors. Kids start getting in trouble in school. They start, you know, skipping school and all of those kind of things. So for parents, you know, they're listening, it's really important to figure out, Is this like a it's because I can't do it and they need more support, or is it because it is just so easy for them, they are not interested, right?

TD Flenaugh: 4:48

That's, that's something to really Yeah, because, like you were saying, Dr Harwick is like, the teachers might not connect with that issue, but as a parent, you need. To make sure that you are giving them that challenge or helping them to stay motivated. And I think we don't talk about it enough, right, that we do know that that's as an educator myself, I know that that is a statistic that our gifted and talented students will drop out like there's a percentage of them that will and so, you know, just thinking about loving learning, right? And not just getting the learning for the purpose of getting that A and one way it was described to me too was like that growth mindset versus the versus the fixed mindset, right? So once they meet the challenge, sometimes it's like, what? And like, I guess I'm not good at school anymore, rather than like, because they haven't had the challenge. Like, oh, well, maybe I need to keep working on this. Like, they don't have that fixed, they don't have that growth mindset. They're just like, Okay, I'm done being good at school because I failed the test. And it's not that I need to do better or work on it, because they haven't had to before. So thank you so much for highlighting that.

Dr. Robin Harwick: 6:06

Yeah, so going back to my journey. So I dropped out, and I went and did other things, and then I decided to go back when I was 25 and I did my undergraduate. And then, you know, life kind of went and did life things, and then I went back. I've always had a very research brain, and I was working at a research institute, and they said, well, don't you want to get your PhD? And I don't know, maybe I'm, you know, from a working class background. My mom was a factor worker, my dad was mechanic, you know, like, Don't you want a PhD? And I was like, Tell me more. Oh, wow, yeah. And so mentors said that, you know, I really should get one. And so I was the only person in my cohort. I was older in life by this time, right? Kids and and they said, Well, you know, you can take classes during your work day. And I was like, Okay, well, this is sounding more and more interesting. And so I finally decided to go. But I was the only one in my cohort in my doctoral program that hadn't, like wanted a PhD. And I was kind of like, this seems like it's working out and learning. I'm learning things I'm, you know, getting to read. I'm having this, this opportunity to talk with really knowledgeable people about things that I care about, which, you know, we're kids that struggle like I did during my transition into adulthood and and I had seen so many people struggle during that early, you know, young adult period that I wanted to get more information so I could support kids in their transition more and, okay,

TD Flenaugh: 7:50

so that's your study, right? Your that was your So, what is like? What do you get your PhD? And I understand what your study was,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 7:57

but yeah, so it's secondary special ed in transition. Okay, so

TD Flenaugh: 8:01

yes, and that's another thing that, I guess, that people may not know, is that Gifted and Talented Students are also part of the special education under the special education umbrella, right? So, yeah, exceptional needs, or, like, maybe disabled, you know, a learning disability, or something like that, they fit under that same umbrella, yes, okay, and so you were able to go back and talk to kids like yourself, yeah.

Dr. Robin Harwick: 8:33

For my dissertation work, it was a little bit unique, because I've worked a lot with kids in the child welfare system, so I really looked at the intersection of child welfare and disability. So my dissertation study was on the transition to adulthood for young adults with disabilities. So you know, again, really looking at understanding what worked well for kiddos that had a lot of circumstances beyond their control.

TD Flenaugh: 8:59

And then can we go, like, because you're saying they some students were gifted. Were you studying gifted students, or students with disabilities, or range of students,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 9:08

just a range of students? Yeah, okay, okay, all right.

TD Flenaugh: 9:12

And where did you study?

Dr. Robin Harwick: 9:15

So at the University of Oregon, I've got my master's and doctorate there in Eugene, Oregon.

TD Flenaugh: 9:21

Nice. Okay, and then those, so what was your like career like after your step? Like? What kind of tell us about your career?

Dr. Robin Harwick: 9:32

So, you know, again, I'm a curious person, and I love learning, so my career takes me in different paths. So I have worked a lot in child welfare. I've worked in substance use disorder, worked in research. I've worked a lot with tribes across the United States. And, you know, I'm always looking for ways that I can help solve systemic problems, and anytime that I think about, you know. Here we have these systemic problems and and we need more supports. We need more services. We need more resources. It always comes back to education for me and this, I love your falling for learning. I love the name of your podcast because Thank you. I was like, Yes, this is what we need. We need well educated people to help think through some of the challenges that we're facing in our society today, and we need people who have been strategically marginalized by the systems to have the education they need to help overcome some of the strategic barriers that have been placed in front of us.

TD Flenaugh: 10:39

Yeah. So thank you so much. Yeah, we it's all about that, falling in love with learning, making it a pursuit, a lifelong passion, things that you care about, and also about being able to elevate, elevate your community. So all of those things. Okay, so tell us about you have the school that you founded. How did that come about?

Dr. Robin Harwick: 11:00

Yeah, so the pearl was born in 2020 so I had tried a lot of different things. I've worked at system level, doing teacher prep programs. I've done professional development with teachers, and all of these kind of things. And teachers have come back and they say, Dr Harwick, we're mad at you. And I said, and they said, Well, we've tried some of these things that you've talked about in our schools, and our admin said we can't do it. And I said, okay, yeah, sure, right. And so here we've got this structure again. And, you know, again, I'm a research scientist. I have a PhD in education, and so, you know, what we're learning about is evidence based practices. And you know, so what my teaching is about is how to deliver evidence based practices in school settings. Yes, there's bears saying you can't do that. You can't do that. We also know that there's a gap between research and practice of about 1315, years. Yes. So long story short, I was teaching at an in person school. As the pandemic hit, my kiddo was going there as well, and I wasn't trying to say too much about the experience I was having in the school, because we weren't using best practices. Pedagogy was behind the times, because I seemed like my kid was having a pretty good experience. But then when we went into lockdown, he said, I'm done. I'm going back to homeschooling. I'm not doing this anymore. And so he doesn't remember this, because it was 16, you know, early in the morning for him, and he was making a quesadilla and and I started ranting about the school, because I was still working there. I was determined to finish the year, even though we were online. And he's like, You should just start your own school. What did you say?

TD Flenaugh: 12:49

Oh, from the mouths of babes, right?

Dr. Robin Harwick: 12:52

Remember? Because he was like, early in the morning, and 16, you know? And so I pitch it online and said, You know, I'm thinking about starting a remote democratic school, and within 24 hours, I had 100 Do it, do it, do it. And so that was April 16 of 2020 we launched in the fall of 2020

TD Flenaugh: 13:10

Okay, so who did you? Who did you send this out to,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 13:15

just on Facebook? You know, it was just like one of those Facebook posts. And, you know, I carefully craft Facebook post, which I think are going to be so insightful, and crickets, but this was just like a flip it, like I'm going to start this school. And I was like, Do it, do it. Do it. And so I did love

TD Flenaugh: 13:30

that. Okay, wow. So tell me about this name. Okay, so

Dr. Robin Harwick: 13:39

there's a couple reasons for the name one as a child, I love pearls. I love that you had to go through the muck to get them, okay, and and then it was hard for to find them. And I was always really attracted to them. And I was never attracted to like diamonds or anything like that, but pearls were always really special to me. I also had the honor and privilege of studying with Dr art Perl at the University of Oregon. And he and his partner, you know, research partner, wrote the democratic classroom theory to inform practice. So literally, the book, when I was in grad school and I was so upset about like, things I was seeing in the education system, everybody said, You need to go talk to Dr pearl. He was probably 85 or 86 at that time, and had been retired for years. So they said, You're gonna love him, because he can say whatever he wants

TD Flenaugh: 14:31

forever, right? Like, what are you gonna

Dr. Robin Harwick: 14:34

do? What are they gonna do? So I met with him. We bonded immediately. I started reading the book, which was written in 1999 and there was this roadmap of how we could do education better. And I was like, we don't need another study, another intervention. Like, it's right here. Somebody just needs to do this.

TD Flenaugh: 14:59

I. The rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook are your go to resource for helping kids to learn to fall in love with writing. It has the tips, tools, resources, strategies and skill building activities to help kids fall out of writing Hoot and into loving to write. Get your book set today. You TD, this episode is going to include Tiffany's tips. She is a homeschooling mom. She's been on our show before, and she's going to give us some tips about what she does. She's a mom of three, and we're going to get some tips from her on how to get our children the competitive advantage. What have you been thinking about?

Tiffany Curry: 16:05

One thing that comes to mind is this book that is called 30 million words building a child's brain. Oh, that's good, yeah, it goes into how much words help the brain development. And it's talks about how, when you start from before they can even talk, when they're just babies babbling. You know how babies babble? And I often see people going, Oh, really, what happened baby, you know, engaging with the baby's babbles and maybe copying what they're doing. If they're going, bah, bah, bah, bah, you go, bah, bah, bah, bah, you know to that's also communicating and helping develop their brain, and it just talks about how the more words they know, the more that they'll have, like you said, that competitive advantage and the more their brains will develop and help them as they grow up. And, yeah, I liked how they kind of broke down this point of how to go about doing this. And they called it tune in, talk more and take turns. Okay, the tune in aspect is, let's say you have a child that's like building blocks, right? And you notice that they're, it's getting tall, and you just go over and you kind of notice what they're doing and seem excited about it and interested, yeah, oh, wow. I see you have red and green and blue. Wow. This is really tall. How tall is it going to be just kind of tuning in and observing what they're doing? But the talk more aspect of it is about how you can just respond to them when you, let's say, you want them to do something like put your shoes on instead of just sparking orders, get your shoes on, we gotta go, maybe saying, hey, we need to get our shoes on so that our feet aren't closed when we go outside, or so that our toes don't get wet because it's raining out. So we got to get our shoes on. So you're going to put one foot in and another footing you have two feet, you know, engaging in conversation, okay, narrating what's going on. You know, I love to take my son, who's three, to the grocery store, and we have a ball because I'm in there talking about everything that we see, everything that I pick up. We're going over colors, we're going over numbers. We're noticing the letters in the store, you know, it's a whole learning experience, but we're just shopping for groceries, you know?

TD Flenaugh: 18:51

And that really, really highlights, like, one of the things like this book is called 30 million words. And for those of you who don't know out there that many kids come to school behind, right? And this shoe, this show, is all about giving kids the competitive advantage and to the way to not have them behind is actually talking having that vocabulary. And so, you know what Tiffany is saying is the opposite of barking orders, put your shoes on, sit down, be quiet, instead having conversations and talking more and more about why we're doing things, what we see how to do things, and that really helps grow the child's vocabulary, because when we only bark orders at kids really don't engage with them in conversation. They have limited vocabulary and limited understanding about why they're doing things, and so that 30 million word at. Believe that's a 30 million word gap or something, right? Or yeah, that the kids have because you've just said, sit down. Be quiet. Stop, don't instead of like she's saying, we need to put our shoes on, because we our feet might get dirty. Our feet might get hurt if we don't have any shoes on, it's time for us to go, and this is how we get ready. We put three things on, we put on shoes, we put on our coat, we put on our hat or something, you know, and it keeps our ears warm and our head warm and all of those words is like, Oh, that's a lot of talking, but that's what our kids need to have that competitive advantage rather than the opposite side of that is a disadvantage, with not understanding, not having the words, not having the reasoning.

Tiffany Curry: 20:51

Yes, and I do want to add that the book is called 30 million words building a child's brain by Dr Dana suskin You, skin

Dr. Robin Harwick: 21:04

art was very dedicated to public schools, and so when I decided I wanted to do this and I wanted to call the pearl, I reached out to his family and said, because he had passed a few years before, and I said, I have this idea. I know your dad wouldn't be thrilled if it wasn't in public school, but I think this is the time to do this differently, and we'll become a nonprofit and have sliding scale so that we can make sure that we live in the spirit of Dr Pearl and his his daughter said, I'm in what do we need to do? And then his granddaughter was one of our first students.

TD Flenaugh: 21:42

Oh, my goodness, yeah, that is amazing. I just want to say, like, one thing that is a big issue with education is a lot of people have opinions about it and affect policy. You know, there's researchers that may not have been classroom teachers. May not have worked at a school, but they may have their doctoral degree in education, but there are people who make policies, laws and everything, and, you know, put it in on a school, right? But they don't really have information from classroom practitioners, right? Maybe they talk to a researcher or something. So there's this huge gap, like you said, between research policy and actually the practice that's going on in schools. And you know, that is a huge issue. And I make it akin to, like, if you know, it doesn't matter the design. Designer, if I come and design your house, you could be a world renowned designer if I never talk to you about your house, how you use it, the functionality, how you use your space, what you would you like to use your space? You have this great design, but it just doesn't work for you, right? Because you didn't, I didn't. You know, you didn't tell me that. Oh, I like this space for reading, and I need a space here to do yoga, and I need to do, you know, so somebody else, like they may need a workout room that has weights in it, or it's just different ways that people use space and that's practical for your family. And you know, the same thing with teaching. They're coming in designing our classrooms or our policies, and they don't even know what we need. And then it's so different, depending on the class for that year, right? Because the last year's class could be totally different, same subject, same age, but different group of kids need something a little different. And you know, even then, different classes, different school settings, different, you know, cultures, there's just so many things that you know really are specific that policies don't always fit to and again, they're not even talking to any teacher, a lot of them, let alone, like a specific teacher, you know, so it's so I'm glad that there's someone out there that's actually putting those boots on the ground and putting that research into practice. So thank you so much for doing

Dr. Robin Harwick: 24:15

that. And to your point, I also teach at the school, because I never wanted to be one of those academics or admins that you're like. When was the last time you talked to a kid? 1982

TD Flenaugh: 24:29

but I've got my PhD.

Dr. Robin Harwick: 24:33

I mean, the language, the, you know, the slang, the music, all of those, yes, right. Hero in admins and professors that haven't been around kids, because the stories they tell are not relevant for today's youth, right? So, like, I have to learn about what video games are into and all of these kind of things. But the other thing for my for my teachers, when they say, Well, I don't know if we can, I say, Well, you can, because. Is right and I'm doing this, and would you like to hear different ways that I incorporate differentiated instruction? So differentiated instruction is mandatory for every single kid. So for parents that aren't aware of that kind of language, that means that we have class, classes capped at 10 students, and teachers need to change the way that they're giving instruction to make sure that every kiddo in that classroom gets the information they need to be successful.

TD Flenaugh: 25:31

Say that again, 10 kids, that's amazing. I love that.

Dr. Robin Harwick: 25:36

You know, we're online, and so 10 is kind of the magic number. And I've, I've taught graduate students at, you know, 1215, and and I really like 10, because nobody can fade away. And so for the shy kids, I say, you know, there's only eight of you in the class today, and when you were in the class of 30, I know you could fade to the back and nobody noticed you. But if you're not talking, there's eight of you, I can, I can notice that you're not

TD Flenaugh: 26:07

talking with us. Yeah, that's amazing. Okay, can you tell us about the makeup of like, your demographics that are in your school? What kind what is the demographic? What type of demographics do you have in

Dr. Robin Harwick: 26:21

your school? So about over 60% of our students identify as bipoc. About 65% of our students identify as neurodivergent. That's the category that they prefer. It can look like autism, ADHD, learning disabilities. So that's kind of their blanket they chose, and this is part of what we do, is we co create with them. We co created the demographics form with them, and neuro divergent is what they prefer. So many of our students who have come to us have been bullied in and had experienced microaggressions in public school settings and some in private school settings, as well as your listeners may know, oftentimes the demographics of the teachers don't match the demographics of the students, and so our students come to us, and many of them have really shut down, and they've lost that love of learning. And when they come into our school, I say to them, to our teachers, I was like, so, so, so, gentle, gentle, gentle. And I tell the parents, you're not going to see a flurry of activity right away with, you know, some of the kiddos, because we have to build our trust and our relationship with them. And you know, I tell the teachers, too, they're not going to trust you, and they shouldn't, because they have learned in other systems that they can't trust that teacher see Adam. So we build that relationship first, then we dig in. But a key piece of what we do is reigniting that spark, helping them find out, what do they love. And many kids who have been in kind of mainstream settings, when I say like so, part of what you get to do with the pearl is you get to study stuff that you're into. What are you into? And they say, so what do you mean? That's amazing. Yeah. They say, I don't know. I don't know what I'm into. Like, nobody's ever asked me that before. No, yeah, we have a lot of you know, again, from it aligns with the data, 10th graders, right? 10th graders who come to us and they say, I'm done, I'm just done with school. So they come to us and I'm like, but what do you want to learn? And they're like, I have no idea, because I've tried, and my day was so full, and I was just trying to check off boxes and do what need to be done. So I don't know what I like. And so we help them explore and find what they're passionate about. And this is like early career exploration without being explicitly telling, yes, we're going to let you think about your career. We're not even there yet. We're just like, What do you like? What do you enjoy? What are you interested in? And they get to try different things out. And then our job as a teacher, and this is the democratic part. If I know a kid who's really into music, but really afraid of math, then the math teacher's role is like, Well, how do I incorporate music? Yes, absolutely interest to get them excited. And in my classes, like, we're we're doing geography, and we're doing geography through the lens of music. So we're going to be looking at migration patterns and how music changes when groups of people, you know, come together and and so that'll be our, our kind of lens as we move through the Americas in in the fall,

TD Flenaugh: 29:33

oh, you said Fall 2020. Is when you started. Okay? And is it a, it's a high school, correct? So nine to 12, um,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 29:40

but we actually, we have to change our name, because we do offer educational choices to middle schoolers as well. So I have had three now middle schoolers that have come to me, set up a meeting to meet me by zoom and say, I don't want to wait. I want to be in your school now. And if. A 13 year old is willing to meet with a stranger and say, I need to be in your school. Now I said, Well, let's, let's try. It works beautifully, because Middle School, as you know, as an educator, is such a pivotal moment, and that's when the tension so if the family was homeschooling, yeah, it was a beautiful relationship. And now all of a sudden, you know, mom is like but they love doing this with me, and it's natural part of their development. And so it's really helpful to partner with other programs so that you maintain your relationship, and you're not fighting about algebra, right? Because that's your parenting experience to be

TD Flenaugh: 30:41

absolutely I think it's notable that you brought that up, because, yes, that's also why filing for learning is here, because there are changes that our kids go through. Like everything's great in second grade, third grade, or whatever. They might be great in high school, but middle school, but, you know, whatever like it may take partners. It may take, like, just knowing certain strategies or different things. It depends on your kid, what they need, but being aware that that is normal, that they're going to go through changes, and what they thought was wonderful before, they may not even care about or maybe embarrassed that you brought it up now.

Dr. Robin Harwick: 31:21

And so, you know, we are a partnership, and we work with kiddos and with families to help them navigate this very difficult time in development. And you know, for some of our students with ADHD, they really want to do it on their own. They don't want their parents involved in their schooling anymore. And so we say, oh, let's, let's try it out. Let's, you know, I can show you some different tools that may work for you. Are you willing to try these? Do you want to try it your own way? And then we help them learn how to advocate. And sometimes, you know, depending on kind of what's going on with them and where they are, and learning about themselves and how their brain works, sometimes they go, You know what? It would be really helpful if my mom reminds me, I said, Okay, would you like me to contact her? Would you like to talk with her yourself? And it really depends. It can go both ways. But now it's not a power dynamic between the kiddo and the parent. Now it's the kiddo saying, You know what? I think I've identified some help that I need. Yeah, would like to ask my mom. And moms are so excited, they're like, I get to check Google Classroom, right? And we give a little coaching of like, how, how could that look so that it doesn't feel like, you know, you're all in my business. It's more about, you know, I'm here to support you. And remember, this is something that you identified, that you could use for now. And then when you don't need it anymore, I can fade

TD Flenaugh: 32:44

away. Yes, that's such a tough balance for some parents, because I think sometimes that hands off approach, the kids may not do any work, or, you know, I've heard of some that they didn't realize they were doing no work. And then, of course, you don't want to do too much, because you want them to gain the independence, and you know, so you're trying to find that happy medium. So that's, that's great,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 33:07

yeah. So, you know, we find that our kids learn to be better self advocates. They learn what they need, they they feel safe to be their beautiful, authentic selves. Yeah, and then parents share with us that, you know, things are just better at home now too, when we're not constantly fighting about school, constantly fighting to get them up, constantly fighting to get them to school, constantly fighting about the homework and fighting and fighting and fighting and you know, I always remind parents like all of that is communication, and kiddos don't often have all the words to describe what's going on with school and and what's happening there, and how they're feeling about it. And so, you know, you ask, well, you know, how was it today? It was fine, but the behavior saying it's not fine because they're not succeeding and they're they're not doing their homework, and we can't get them out the door and all of these things. So you have to look at that behavior like, what is, what is the need that that child is communicating with their behavior? And this is something that, you know, we bring into the classroom too. We want to make sure that the the kiddos learning needs are met so they don't get frustrated, they don't struggle. And also, for those people that are really sailing. And you know, they're so accelerated that they're still getting those challenges to help prepare them for college as well, so that they they know how to navigate when they're given an educational challenge.

TD Flenaugh: 34:33

Okay, so can you tell me like you take people from around the the country, around the United States, other countries as well,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 34:42

and it changes. So I love when you were talking about the cohorts, because each cohort kind of has a personality. We had one cohort. Most of them have gone on and graduated and are doing other things, but at one time, we had students from seven countries, and that was really fantastic, because it. Is truly a multicultural experience for all of our kiddos. Yeah, we do accept students from all over the United States. We kind of focus on the Americas because it just works better with the time zone. Through the school choice programs, we can receive direct funding from the state of Utah, Arizona, West Virginia and New Hampshire. So if you have listeners in those states, the state will help cover tuition. Like I said, we do have limited sliding scale scholarships for those kids who really say, like, this is where I need to be. We want to not turn, you know, teens away that say we're the right school for them. So we always try to make it work. Yeah, and, you know, we welcome sixth

TD Flenaugh: 35:43

through 12th grade. So let's say I have a child that wants to attend your school or is interested, because we're not sure. Like, how would I, like, you know, with a in person school, I could do a school tour. Like, how do I how would a parent navigate being adjoining part of your school or just even checking it out to see if it's a viable option? Maybe,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 36:07

yeah. So parents go to our website. It's the pearl high school.org There is a button on there that says, meet with the director. That's me. And so you can schedule an appointment directly on my calendar and we can talk. I love it when the interested student comes to that meeting. Sometimes they don't, sometimes it's the parents kind of check me out. First talk about the school and, you know, see whether or not it seems like a good match. And then the student will meet with me. The students always welcome to meet with me, independently or with a family, whatever they want. I say I work with teens all day, and so I'm totally fine with the students grilling me and asking me tons of questions and being suspicious and not Yeah, this sounds too good to be true. Is this for real? So, yeah. So then we work to see whether or not it seems like it's a good fit, and then the students enroll if they choose to be with us. We also, you know, sometimes students want to talk to another student, and so we can arrange that, you know, if they want to meet a couple of the other teachers, if there's one particular class that they say, Well, I'm looking at this school because it's the only school that I can find that has Japanese, you know, and they want to teacher, they can meet the teacher as well.

TD Flenaugh: 37:21

That's amazing. So we are, you know, I'm definitely all that's in the show notes, please, you know, get in contact with Dr Robin Harwick and tell us the name of the school, again, the whole name,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 37:35

yeah, it's the pearl remote democratic High School. Okay?

TD Flenaugh: 37:39

And so give us your contact information, you know. So how are they getting contact with you that? Yeah,

Dr. Robin Harwick: 37:48

you can send me an email at Dr Harwick at the pearl high school.org

TD Flenaugh: 37:53

Okay, and is there anything that you can tell the audience, like any last kind of things tips for them as they're navigating the schooling for their child.

Dr. Robin Harwick: 38:07

I think one of the most important things is, and this is so hard if you have multiple children, or you know, you're busy with work and everything, but especially for tweens and teens, when they want to talk to you, you need to just drop everything and listen, and oftentimes for teenagers and I, like I said, I was a foster parent before, it was always, like, at 1030 after I brushed my teeth and already have my pajamas on, Mom, it's really, really important, because that's the time where they are saying, like, I feel open right now, right and especially if you're having a difficult time getting your child to talk. You have to listen to when they're ready, and you also have to listen to them talk about things that might not be super interesting to you, but they're really interesting to them. Yeah, and those are those things where you're saying like, I'm here and I'm present and I'm here for you, and that's the way that we demonstrate that to tweens and teens, and, you know, just by being there when they're ready. And then when you have these other challenges that you need to talk about, you know, like, tell me about and so asking those questions, tell me about what's going on in math right now, instead of, you know, I noticed that you have a F F and F, and you're you haven't turned anything in, right? Like, yeah, about, tell me about what's going on, and listen to see what's going you know, their perception is their reality. If the teacher is saying one thing and saying that's not true, that's not happening, that's the way it feels to the I see nice thing, and that's really important, because that's their experience. It feels like that teachers bullying me. It feels like I'm being pushed to the side. It feels like I'm stupid, right? So those are, those are all feeling real. And so the more that we can say, like, Okay, I hear you. How can we work through this together and build that collaboration? And.

TD Flenaugh: 40:00

That's such a great you know, like, such sage advice, right? Like, because it is easy to say, like, no, the teacher's not bullying you. You actually didn't do this. Didn't do that, you know. But just accepting, like, listening like I'm listening to you, and knowing like, that's their perception. And we know that our teenagers can have skewed perception, but we don't have to point that out, just helping to help them work through it and think through it. I think that's so great. So thanks again for joining us. Dr Robin Harwick, and all the information is in the show notes, and for our audience and our listeners and our viewers out there, do something today that's going to give your child the competitive advantage. Have a great week. Thanks again. Thank you. Thanks again for supporting the falling for learning podcast. New Episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm you can watch us on youtube.com at falling for learning, or listen on all major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify and much more for more resources, visit falling in love with learning.com we really appreciate you. Have a wonderful week.