Study Hall from School News Network
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Study Hall from School News Network
Couple shares ‘a calling’ to make a difference for students in urban schools
Whitley and Dan Morse met as new teachers in Grand Rapids Public Schools. Fifteen years later, the married couple are still there, Whitley as a teacher at Ottawa Hills High School and Dan as principal of North Park Montessori Academy. Their shared commitment to serving students in urban schools was recently honored as alumni of Davenport University’s College of Urban Education. They talk to SNN about why they’ve devoted their careers to helping GRPS students grow into their best selves and to giving back to the community.
For more great stories about the changes and challenges of school districts in West Michigan, check out our website, School News Network.org. And if you have ideas for future programs, feel free to send them to us at SNN@kentisd.org. Thanks for listening, and happy studying!
Hello everyone, and welcome to Study Hall from School News Network, your window into the public schools of Kent County, Michigan. I'm your host, Charles Honey, and today we're at Ottawa Hills High School, one of the major historic high schools of Grand Rapids Public Schools. And we're here to talk about the unique challenges and plentiful rewards of educating students in urban settings. Here to shed light on those challenges and rewards are two highly respected veteran educators and GRPS. Dan and Whitley Morse are a married couple who serve students in complementary roles. Dan as principal of North Park Montessori Academy, and Whitley as a social studies teacher here at Ottawa Hills High. They've been working in public education since 2011 when they met as teachers at the former Creston High School. Since then, they have taught and administered at several schools in GRPS. Whitley also served as an assistant principal in Forest Hills and Wyoming public schools for five years before deciding to return to the classroom at Ottawa. Her excellent teaching last year was honored as a GRPS Gene Hamilton Cope Teacher of the Year. Because of their firm commitment to urban schools, Dan and Whitley both earned master's degrees from Davenport University's College of Urban Education. It's the only uh university in Michigan to offer degrees from a college dedicated entirely to urban education. Now, Dan and Whitley were recently honored by Davenport with its College of Urban Education Alumni Award for their outstanding professional accomplishments, leadership, and dedication to the profession, and their commitment to public service. Not incidentally, their commitment to urban schools continues with their daughter, Geneva Grace, who's a kindergartner at North Park, Montessori, where her dad can keep a close eye on her. So welcome, Diana Whitley, and congratulations on your shared alumni award. Hey, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thank you for having us. Good to see you again.
SPEAKER_02:I understand you were formally honored at homecoming, is that correct?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was certainly good to get back onto an on-campus environment and uh our daughter enjoyed the bounce house at the tailgate.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_00:What was really nice is we hadn't we didn't take any of our classes at Davenport's official campus. And so we'd not spent a lot of time there and hadn't been at all to the football stadium and and get to experience that sort of college work at Davenport.
SPEAKER_02:Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Did you get to wear like the king and queen crowns or anything like that for homecoming?
SPEAKER_00:Fortunately not. No sashes. Yeah, no sashes. A lot of Davenport swag, though. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. What's it mean to you to get this award? It's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell It was pretty humbling uh not only to um receive it along with other alumni in the other colleges there at the university, but uh to know that uh we were actually nominated by another alumna uh that we had gone through our classes with. So to reconnect with uh some folks that we had done the program with was really special. Now it's uh it's been almost 10 years since we graduated. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There was that moment though when we both got the separate emails of like, wait, is this gonna be awkward? Did did we both get the award? Did I get the award? Yeah. No, but it it I think it made it that much more special, right? Because we had done the program together and and worked so closely in education over the course of our entire careers. Right. So to get that award together, it meant even more.
SPEAKER_02:A joint award, that's pretty cool. So you've both been teaching about 15, I think you're in your 15th year in public schools. Uh let's talk for a minute about the work you've each done. Um I'm curious, Whitley, what brought you back to the classroom at Ottawa, I think it was three years ago, was it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so my time in admin, invaluable, right? You I've learned so much as an administrator. I got to witness some fantastic teachers across the county. My heart was being called back to the classroom. I think there were beautiful, wonderful parts of being an administrator, but then there are some really hard, tough spaces in admin. And and in those moments, I had to reflect on is this what I want to be doing forever? I knew I didn't want to leave education, but I admin wasn't quite for me. I miss the classroom. I miss that that personal relationship with the kids that you don't always get as an administrator.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you've been a teacher all the way through, correct? Apart from the assistant principal.
SPEAKER_00:Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah. So I've been in education over the course of 15 years. It's some admin work, but otherwise social studies teaching, and that's mostly been here. Mostly been here.
SPEAKER_02:Middle school for a minute, right?
SPEAKER_00:Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, one year. One year at the middle school level and back to high school I went.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Ross Powell And Dan, you've you've kind of climbed a certain kind of ladder. Um tell tell us briefly your teaching administering career.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. So um so Whitley and I both met uh teaching social studies at Creston High School. It was like a mentor to both of us who kind of uh introduced us to each other over mentoring lunches, I would say, in 2011, 2012. And then um back then a lot of folks were getting laid off at the end of every school year, and so we got laid off the end of that year, both of us, and then both uh hired at the same middle school. So then got to continue um seeing. So Whitley talked about seeing great teachers uh do their thing. There's nothing more invaluable than watching great teachers, and so that was a a really um powerful year for me because I got to see sixth, seventh, and eighth grade across all three uh grade levels at Ford. Um after that um Gerald R. Ford. Gerald R. Ford back then was a middle school at six, seventh, and eighth. So then it changed. Uh that school changed its format to like a pre-K through um five or six, I think what it is. And so I'm secondary certified. So then at that time, I believe Whitley, you went to Ottawa, that was when you started here, and then um I applied and um got the job at Innovation Central when it first opened up. And so taught social studies there for a number of years. Um we did open up a teaching academy, the Academy of Teaching and Learning, former name, now it's um uh the Academy of Uh Teaching, Learning, and Social Justice, I think named after the first um uh African-American teacher as well. Her name's escaping me right now. Hattie Beverly. Hattie Beverly, exactly. So um, that was a really cool project. But um in that teaching academy year, I got to make a partnership with Grand Rapids Montessori Elementary School, where we had our freshman teaching students going over to do some observations, help with recess duty, and get some of that hands-on uh training. Um, and that was when uh position opened up as assistant principal uh in that same program. And so we shared a space with them and the current innovation central space where I worked and um jumped in because Montessori has always been close to me. I went to a Montessori school from pre-K through sixth grade, and so that was kind of like the universe uh speaking to me about when to move. Um now I'm in my fourth year as head principal at North Park, which is Grand Rapids Montessori's sister school, um, has just been an amazing thing to um I don't know, see the different styles of teaching um throughout, both in a traditional education setting and then now in a Montessori um elementary. Um as somebody with a secondary background, I can't say enough how much respect I have for the elementary teachers who, you know, we do one subject, social studies all day. And I know it's you know different subjects within it and you have different kids throughout it that change, but um doing it all, math, science, um, social studies it all um all day with the same group is uh is a big task, and I can't I can't say enough about those folks.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, their energy amazes me. Although yours yours does too. Um so um tell us a little bit about your personal backgrounds and your backgrounds in schooling that uh eventually brought you into these careers. Your mothers were both teachers, correct?
SPEAKER_00:So my mom didn't actually become a teacher. She studied to be a teacher. She was a young mom, had me at 19. Um, and so I went along to classes with her. Her professors were so kind down in Kalamzu at the community college. And I really think that's where my love of education started. They included me in activities. I had my polypockets, but I was still helping and doing research and being included in those classes. And so it started my love. I was that typical nerdy kid, right? Like giving their cousin spelling tests and forcing everybody to play school. And so for me, it was it was always an option. I got heavy into athletics growing up, thought potentially going down that lane, but knew even down the line, hopeful to coach, hopefully to still be a part of kids and be a part of learning and growing students. Um, so education was always in in my mind.
SPEAKER_02:And this was in Kalamazoo initially, correct, in elementary school. Yeah. And then um, remind you moved to Bloomingdale, was it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so Bloomingdale, it was it was a real culture shock, right? Because I was Kalamazoo public, urban school setting. Yeah. Um, and then we moved out to Van Buren County, right? Where kids were like driving their tractors to school, and it it was such a culture shock. My grandparents had lived out in Van Buren County, so I had had that experience of like running in corn mazes and not corn mazes, cornfields, I should say. Um, but so I had some of that exposure and experience, but it's one thing to visit a rural setting and then to to live in one. Um so it it provided me, though, I think, with a lot of insight for what schools can be and the differences within schools, because even as a third grader, when they made that transition, it it was clear to me that schools were doing things differently.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and uh Dan, you your mom taught uh Oral Deaf, the Oral Deaf program, correct? Nancy Morse was it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. So she worked for about 30 years uh when it was housed at Shawnee Park Oral Deaf School right over on Burton. And yeah, I have very early memories of of going and helping. I have two older brothers, and we would always go and help set up and tear down you know the classroom to start the year. Um I remember one year my mom tells a story, I think, that uh she did summer school with the um with the caveat that one of her kids could come along to because like childcare was so hard to find, right? And it still is. Uh but so yeah, always both between her and then uh my dad who worked in town at the Home for Veterans, I think um have kind of created for me like not only this importance for school, but also like the power that what our community can do to invest in each other and and um how how important it is for us as as educators in our community to serve the kids and serve the families um that are right here, you know, and meeting them where they are. So um, yeah, so earliest memories though, going and into a school setting and especially like um for me now as a professional, reflecting back on the importance of um inclusion and thinking of like advocating for all kids, you know. I think that uh my mom working with kids with special needs with hearing impairments really showed me the importance of like every kid has the potential to be great no matter what, and what can we do as educators to to kind of help bring that out, you know, and and support them on their journey until they find what their passion might be.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. You know, and she was a union grad, I think is that correct. Um and then your own education schooling journey came up through you said Montessori, and then um you graduated from Central, was it Central High School?
SPEAKER_01:Uh actually City High High. But I I was a Central Ram. I played sports football and baseball for him too. So I'm a huge uh yeah, still Central Rams fan to this day.
SPEAKER_00:Central Ram a parallel. Yeah. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:So graduated in 2006 from the uh building at the city that was on college and fountain right over there by Central. Yeah. Um and yeah, so I remember early on, uh particularly with football, we would have a different dismissal time. And so um from Central. So I would do a lot of my schoolwork um like right off the bat, and then we would have study table after the fact, right? And so I remember working with some of my teammates, working with some of my friends, and like kind of thinking in my head, like, hey, this is kind of fun to like go through and and like learn together uh with some things. So I kind of credit that a little bit to my earliest experience working with uh students and those kind of peers. Um but yeah, I remember my uh mom when I graduated high school at my at my um senior party or whatever, uh saying, Hey, what are you gonna? I want to study history. What are you gonna do with a degree in history? And I said, I want to be a history teacher at Central High School. So I got to check that off my list a few years later. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You knew that you knew that early on. Yeah, it was awesome. Um so talk about what drew you to urban schools specifically. It sounds like this is a real passion that you both have. Um, Whitley.
SPEAKER_00:I think for me, uh, growing up and having that experience in early elementary in the urban setting, it was clear to me that my teacher needed additional supports, right? Like she was trying to differentiate, not knowing that terminology then, but looking back on it now, right, and what she was trying to do with what she had. And I could, I could feel her, and especially like my kindergarten teacher, like really working hard and trying to not only help us academically, but all aspects of life. And so for me, I could see this happening, and I knew I early on, right, as we get older, learn you learn your strengths, you learn your weaknesses. Like, okay, I'm pretty good with people, good with kids. And how can I give back, right? Because I knew I was never going to be this person who worked in silo, right, on their own. I knew I needed people to interact with and had always loved coaching growing up and loved babysitting. And so it it was a natural shift for me. Um, and I knew through my experiences, through the experiences that my family gave me, that I knew I could give back in a way that others may not be willing to, may not be drawn to in an urban setting. Like I knew I could bring experiences that I could relate to the kids and and relationships that I could build and grow based on my own. And so for me, I did my teacher assisting in fruit port, loved it, it was great, but I knew at the end of the day that that's not where I wanted to be long term. I knew I had more to offer, more to give, and really wanted to be able to put in that all and grow kids the way that teachers loved on me growing up.
SPEAKER_02:And I and I have to remark on the amazing uh environment of your classroom here. And you've got you know pictures up, you know, of Barack and MLK and and you know, um, who else do we have here? Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt. But tell me about the sign right above your your desk.
SPEAKER_00:I think it's so important for kids to see themselves into space, right? And to be welcomed into a space and and to feel like they have what it is that they need. And then as much as we can bring in ourselves, right, and and share our own experiences, all of us are coming with stories that are so powerful, right? And we we ask kids to share those, but then we have to be vulnerable ourselves. And so I have a sign, my Will Branscombe sign um street in Benton Harbor, named after my grandfather. He is truly a pioneer to me, marked marched with Dr. King, led the NAACP for years down in Benton Harbor with the race relations between Benton Harbor and St. Joe. And he kept pushing throughout house being firebombed and cross-burned in the yard. And so for me, growing up and hearing those stories, it it made me want to be like him, right? And to give back in ways that, yes, I can't march with Dr. King, right? But I can represent him in this story and march for whatever we need to march about today. But I think it's so important to share those stories, especially as we get into the history aspect. Yes, the personal part, but we also have to remind our students that history is not this forever old thing that we're tucked away in books. Like we're living through that now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. In a profile I did on you in 2016, you said as a woman of color, I feel almost a calling. It what it's what I was meant to do. These are my kids. It sounds like that comes from deep inside.
SPEAKER_00:It does. It's just I know the impact great teachers can have, right? Coming from a single mom who poured into me what everything that she could, it takes a village. And it it really does. And if I can be that person for one or two kids right a year, and I know that I'm not turning lives around fully, right? But we all know, we've all had teachers and educators who have made that impact. And I think it doesn't always have to be these big grand gestures. It's it's the little things, it's being there, it's following up, it's asking those questions that allow kids to be themselves and to grow and and hopefully be those those global citizens and productive members of society.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. If I come back to school, I want you as a teacher in social studies. You can join us anytime. So, Dan, as a as a white uh male, your experience is obviously a little bit different from from Whitley's. Sure. But you grew up in an urban setting, Grand Rapids, went to those schools. So tell me about what led you to urban education, how how you see your your role in these students' lives.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, I never saw myself uh working anywhere else but GRPS, specifically too growing up here. It just um kind of speaking to what I mentioned earlier, it's a calling to give back to the community that uh I feel did pour into me. Um, you know, I feel like I was lucky to attend schools and have a lot of great teachers that put me in a great position to be uh where I am. And so it's it's a calling, a responsibility, whatever you want to call that, to provide the same, if not better. Because, you know, there's also a little bit of it where I can think back to some teachers where, okay, that's not what I want to be like, uh, you know, an educator, and and kind of I've heard teachers say that before. I want to be the educator that I didn't have. Um, I was lucky to have a lot of good ones. And so to replicate that and to pour that back into the kids in our community that, you know, there's um, I'm gonna paraphrase this. There's some, and I'm gonna, you know, I'm a Montessori educator, so I'm gonna bring Montessori into this. That's just what we do. And so I uh there's a quote where she talks about um you see the great potential future leader in this child in front of you, right? And you know, it's our job to to open the doors and see what great is this child gonna be a doctor, is this child gonna be the next president? Is this child going to um do a task for us that may save humanity? Now that's dramatic, right? As Whitley said, like we're only with them for a certain amount of time every day, but um, providing the opportunity for any kid, no matter what their background is or no matter where they live, um, to be a productive member of our society and to follow the path that they want. Um that's that's what I'm trying to do. That's what we're trying to do.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So you both made the decision to go into the College of Urban Education at Davenport, graduating in 2016. A couple facts about that college. It was founded in 2013 to address some increasing demand for educators in urban settings. Uh currently 300 students are enrolled in its undergrad and graduate programs. 524 have received graduate certifications or master's degrees. Uh they have teachers at 359 different schools around the state. Every county in Michigan has at least one uh College of Urban Education student or graduate working in their schools. And they have partnerships with GRPS and Detroit Public Schools. Uh, we also have teachers in Kentwood and Muskegon Heights uh Public School Academy, among many, many others. And uh the the uh the the program also offers um financial support, scholarships of 12,000 per academic year for bachelor's in urban STEM, up to 7,000 per year in uh master's in urban education or urban education graduate certificate. So in your experience, uh Dan and Wetley, tell me about how this program works, how it how did it help you to become better educators, Dan?
SPEAKER_01:Um for me, the most impactful part of the program, well, it was very relevant. Like that was the reason why I wanted to join the program. Like at the time, I'm not sure right now what how they're doing this, but at the time we took our classes at Central High School. So like I finished teaching for the day, I did some grading for like an hour, we would maybe go get McDonald's for dinner of a day, depending on what it was, and then like the classes would be right down the hall. Um and so it was done in a school setting, in an urban school setting. Uh, but the other piece of it was um we had observers come into our classroom uh non-evaluatively. So we it's always a thing, especially at this time of year right now in public schools for principals, administrators to come in, uh clipboards, suits on, watching teachers do their thing, and it's seen as high stakes, right? It's only two or three times a year that you're being evaluated for your job. Uh these coaches were coming in from Davenport and watching us, I think it was on a weekly basis, if not. And um and giving us real feedback that was not like tied to our job uh like evaluation necessarily. So it was very, very, very relevant. It was immediate feedback that was tied to what we were doing and was personalized to each of our classrooms. So like for me, um, the relevancy of the program and that immediate feedback was like the most powerful piece of the Davenport program, probably the most valuable uh topic.
SPEAKER_02:So they were observing you as you were teaching?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, they would come into the classrooms and sit for a classroom or two classes at a time to give that feedback.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, yeah. So that was really helpful for you because you said it wasn't like you were being evaluated like in a financial sense or whatever. You were just trying to give you some constructive feedback. How about you, what was it like?
SPEAKER_00:I think the the most impactful thing to me was being in a space of all educators doing the same work. I think having left GRPS and coming back, I schools all have their challenges, right? Like everybody has their problems, everybody has their skeletons, but it's different depending on the district and depending on the makeup of the people and the dynamics and all of that. So oftentimes, undergrad it felt like they were trying to cover everything all at once, and it felt very surface level, like, okay, here's what you might find in suburban schools versus urban schools. Um, but Davenport, it was this is what we need. I knew that everybody was in GRPS, so it almost felt a little bit safer. Like we're all in this together. It was a safe space to ask questions, to have those conversations, to be like, well, that lesson was terrible. What are you doing? And without the judgment, without any of that, it just felt like a safe space, people doing the work day in and day out that have the same passion, that want to love and grow these same kids, all while giving us curriculum that fits what we're doing. I do also appreciate that it felt meaningful. I think there are certain different classes, I imagine, in every career where you take classes that are like, why am I doing this? I did not often feel that way in Davenport. Like it was relevant to the work that we were doing. Um, and I'm so grateful for the friends and relationships we've made from that program. And there are people I can call any time to be like, this is what I need. And it really was like a family of us, that first group that went through together as that first cohort, a little bit of guinea pigs, maybe too. But it it really was helpful and profound.
SPEAKER_02:So here we are in GRPS in in one of the, as I said, historic high schools. Uh GRPS, a district of nearly 14,000 students, about 70% of them are considered uh economically disadvantaged. You guys are exactly where you want to be in an urban setting, in GRPS specifically. Um, you know, it comes to my mind, well, what's the difference? I mean, you've got urban schools, suburban schools, rural schools, students are students, but you guys work in a setting where you can see what the differences are in these schools. So so what are some of the different dynamics that you see uh in your students that you work with, uh Whitley?
SPEAKER_00:I think while all students are bringing outside lives with them, I think oftentimes within Ottawa specifically, within GRPS, there are times when when other students are able to kind of leave those at the door and check that at the door. And I think we are responsible, and and that's part of why I love what we do, but we are we are educating the whole child, right? Like we have to meet their basic needs before we can get into the academic piece, right? I have a whole shelf in my room that is just filled with basic necessities. Do you need deodorant? Do you need a snack? How can I make sure that your brain is where you need to be and you feel like you are taken care of so that we can get into industrialization, right? Like it it is so hard. And I think in different spaces I've been in, teachers did not have to necessarily educate that whole child or did not have to think about some of these other challenges that that students are bringing. And while they can be viewed as challenges, I often view them as opportunities to make connections with kids, right? Because I'm growing that relationship. You need chapstick, I got you. Let's have that conversation. And so it's often leading to, at least in my experience, deeper, more meaningful relationships, where I think that that is what I was missing when I left Grand Rapids Public, is it felt very surface level in in other districts and other spaces I was in, and I missed really getting to know kids and really not necessarily feeling like you're making a difference, but feeling like you're helping and make I guess, yeah, making a difference.
SPEAKER_02:Well, well um so you've got the socioeconomic factors, right? The family factors. You're trying to make sure that they've got what they need that day in order to be in a good space to learn. Listen, uh, you mentioned differentiation earlier. Are you talking about like some students are way up here and some students are down here, and you're trying to teach them the both at the same time? Is is that more characteristic of some of the urban settings, do you think?
SPEAKER_00:I think for sure. I think from in in my ninth grade U.S. history class, I have ninth graders, I have twelfth graders, I have kids who have been in America their whole lives and kids who have been here for six months, and I'm still teaching them the same skills and the same content, but it looks different, right? I for my students who are just now learning English for the first time, that's gonna look different than my senior who may be taking this class again for the second time or didn't quite meet in their schedule the first time. But so there's a wide variety of ranges and abilities and needs that we are we are meeting. And while it sometimes feels like you're spinning a little bit, um once I feel like once you're doing it and in the space, you can start to think ahead on some of those things that kids are going to need.
SPEAKER_02:So then even though Montessori is a different educational model, you're still dealing with a student population that kind of comes from uh a lot of different places, right? Economically, racially, or versus a more probably homogeneous student population, maybe in a urban, uh suburban or rural setting. Uh what are some of the skills that you've apply and and some of the understandings you feel like you have to as a as a principal to work with these students and their families to help uh ensure their best educational outcome?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think um one thing when I think about like the content knowledge that we learned in classrooms at Davenport and other places since then is like just the importance of looking and and digging deep into different uh studies of like all those, like what Whitley spoke about is the the differences in different communities that make up our schools. And just like if you really think about it and back up like all the different schools within GRPS, there's like 40 different schools, and they have 40 different school communities too, right, that come into play. But I think an important um takeaway that I have really um been reflecting on about the Davenport program is the importance of um really approaching different groups and even different individual families individualistically and and and talking to them one-on-one and getting to know them on that um on that basic. Because at the end of the day, um I think your question of what makes urban schools different than suburban or rural schools, like you're right to say like all the kids are still kids in there and their needs are going to be different, but they're going to also have those same basic needs that every person has, right? I think unfortunately what our um society has kind of done is kind of um dehumanize urban education settings where uh we talk about those kids that go there, right? Or we talk about those schools, those teachers, and we don't think of them as ours. And I just think that um for me, that was even coming from here, a takeaway in the Davenport program that like I could let it go and I could join this community, I can include myself in this community to help be a part of the solution to build it to where it needs to be. I don't know if that's interesting.
SPEAKER_00:How do we bring and how do we highlight those differences and those different experiences? And all of our kids bring so much and have unique stories and and different experiences. And how do we highlight those and how do we lift those up? Because so many of our kids have been through things. I mean, I laugh with you about it oftentimes, right? Like many of my kids have had harder lives than than say you have had, right? And and at their tender ages of fourteen, fifteen years old, right? And so how do we lean in and and use those as the growth edges and and to empower those students and and to share those experiences with one another as well?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Dan, you mentioned those kids of popular perception and you know, having My two kids both went through GRPS. They both graduated from union. Yeah, there were some discipline problems, behavior problems at union. But you know what? But my kids both got really good educations and they both ended up in really good places and they had some great teachers. What do you see as you know, what do you what would you like um the listeners to know about these students that you work with and and the things that you love about them?
SPEAKER_01:I I for me it's kind of what I was just saying, that like they're just like anybody else's kids, right? And and they're going through it and they have the same fears that we all did when we were in high school. I think that's a hard thing. The older we get too is like the more removed we are from what it was like to be in high school, right? Or middle school uh or element, whatever. It's that that is a crazy time as a young person to be developing, right? Like we say we know now the brain doesn't develop till 26. But I don't think that we really, unless you are really immersed in a school setting, um, the the challenges, not just for the adults that the kids are going through. And so what I would encourage listeners to do is um call your school principal and say, Hey, can I volunteer to help out with some recess duty? Or is there anything that I can do to come see? Because the more that we get our communities into our schools, the more um I think support the communities will lend to our schools and the better off that everybody will be.
SPEAKER_02:Once they get in there and see what they're really like as opposed to what they have heard that they're like.
SPEAKER_01:And and they can contribute some of their own skills to it because the schools need the community too, right? It's like like Whitley said, no school is perfect, no school district has everything together yet. Um and that's a reciprocal relationship, I think, that would benefit both the community members and the school itself.
SPEAKER_00:I have been really fortunate to have this partnership with the Grand Rapids Bar, in which lawyers and judges come into my classroom to teach kids about the Constitution. And we always have an orientation at the beginning of the year with these folks, and which I feel a little like I'm teaching judges and lawyers things, right? But here we go. Um, but it's it's these misconceptions that they're bringing, and then by the end of it, the relationships that they've built with the kids and and their misconceptions and them having to like address those misconceptions of like, I thought this is what this was going to be like. And I'm always like, invite, tell your colleagues. And we've had folks join because they they think it's one thing, but kids are kids, they want to learn, they want to grow, and and come on in, volunteer at uh your local school, and and come meet these kids, and they're gonna be so excited to get to know you.
SPEAKER_02:Uh just to to not to neglect uh Geneva Grace, she's a kindergartner. Yeah, what do you see her future being like? Do you see her going all the way through the public schools here? And and what do you hope her experience uh proves to be like in the long run as part of that education?
SPEAKER_01:Well, she'll tell us. She'll tell us what she wants. So so Yeah, if she were here right now, where where is she going to high school? She's already said that she's gonna be in her mom's ninth grade classroom as a freshman, so she'll have her mom as a teacher as a ninth grader. Um our school, North Park, goes up through eighth grade, so that's extremely convenient timing as well. But to be honest with you, um, I mean, once again, I'll I'll end this will be the last Montessori reference I make uh during the podcast. But another famous quote that she says is right to follow the child. And so I think I mean both of us, I don't know if we'll have much of a choice. She's pretty strong-willed as well on this, but we'll certainly be following her. I cannot imagine um I cannot imagine anywhere else besides the public school setting for her because once again, she needs her community, and that's that's our community.
SPEAKER_02:Well, what is she what what do you see that besides just taking being in your school and taking your classes with where do you see the the pluses of that being for her?
SPEAKER_00:I think what's been really nice is she just was up here on Friday during the half day, and to get to experience a high school and to experience kids, and it is a much different makeup of the student population here versus North Park. And so I've been we've been very intentional of exposing her to the student body here and getting her out to sporting events, and so that that is why she loves it, right? Because there are teachers who don't on her and students who she thinks are celebrities, right?
SPEAKER_03:I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00:But at the end of the day, I mean, it was very interesting when I worked in a um suburban neighboring school district and I was pregnant with Geneva, and they're like, Oh yes, she'll she'll come to school here, and I was like, Oh no. And that was a little mind-blowing for some folks of why would I not choose this neighboring suburban school versus sending her to Grand Rapids Public. And I think in in talking with Dan and I, it was it was kind of a no-brainer. Like, we want her exposed to different people and to different walks of life. And as a biracial woman myself, raising a biracial daughter, that comes with a whole host of identity challenges and issues. And as much as we can expose her to a variety of people and backgrounds, I think is going to set her up for success and in having a better idea of who she is, even before I could have that understanding. Um, so that is the hope. And with Ottawa's early middle college program, save mom and dad a few bucks as well. Sure. It's not bad. It's not bad. Not bad.
SPEAKER_02:And you live in the neighborhood, do you? Or nearly. Yeah, this this would be our neighborhood school as well.
SPEAKER_00:So she will be playing her sports at Ottawa regardless. It will just be a matter of where she attends. School Bengals. There it is.
SPEAKER_02:Great talking to you guys. Thank you so much. And um uh excited to see uh how Geneva does in the future. We'll look for her in the headlines.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, future teacher coming down.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks, Joe. Well, thanks for so much for talking with me, and thanks for listeners for coming to Study Hall today. Hope you enjoyed the conversation, and I look forward to joining you again soon on the School News Network webpage, schoolnewsnetwork.org or wherever you get your podcast. So see you next time and happy study.
