For the Season 13 finale, we’re not looking back just for the sake of looking back. We’re asking a harder question: After everything we’ve heard this season, what can we no longer afford to ignore?

Over the course of this season, we’ve talked about belonging, curiosity, neurodiversity, identity, artificial intelligence, student agency, dignity, and the systems and practices that can either support human beings or slowly diminish them. We’ve listened to students, educators, and leaders describe the distance that can exist between what schools say they value and what people actually experience inside them. And again and again, our conversations have brought us back to the same place: humanity has to remain at the center of the work.

So this finale isn’t really a recap. It’s a reckoning with what we now know. What stayed with us? What challenged our thinking? What patterns became impossible to ignore? And, perhaps most importantly, what are we responsible for doing differently because we know better?

The Wheelhouse Team comes together one final time this season to reflect on the ideas and voices that have stayed with us and to consider what they require of us moving forward. Because listening matters. Awareness matters. Reflection matters. But eventually, what we hear has to change what we do.

The future of education isn’t somewhere off in the distance. We are creating it right now—in the choices we make, the practices we protect, the systems we challenge, the voices we listen to, and what we are willing to change because we listened.

Takeaways

• There is often a significant gap between what schools intend for students and what students actually experience.
• Listening to students matters, but listening without changing anything is not enough.
• Belonging, dignity, identity, curiosity, and agency are not separate from learning; they are part of the conditions that make meaningful learning possible.
• Many of the challenges we explored this season ultimately come back to whether our schools are designed around the human beings who inhabit them.
• Once we recognize what is getting in the way of students thriving, we have a responsibility to act.
• If students really matter, something should be visibly different because they do.

Follow Students Matter, LLC on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Connect on LinkedIn with each of us individually: Kathy Mohney, Michael Pipa, Dr. Alicia Monroe, and Dr. Grant Chandler.

To learn more about the Students Matter Ecosystem, stop by:

Students Matter

LearnHarbor

We'll see you back here on Tuesday, October 13th for the premier of Season 14.

Until next time, remember: Stay Curious. Stay Human. Stay Oriented.

We've spent this season talking with students, educators, leaders, and people whose experiences force us to look more closely at what schools say they value and what students actually experience.

We've talked about belonging, curiosity, neurodiversity, artificial intelligence, student voice, identity, dignity, and the systems and habits that too often get in the way of all of them.

So for our season 13 finale, we're not introducing another new idea.

We're going to ask a harder question.

After everything we've heard this season, what can we no longer pretend we don't know?

And if we know it, what are we going to do about it?

The wheelhouse team is back together for one final conversation about what stayed with us, what challenged us, and what we believe education can no longer afford to ignore.

A new episode of the Wheelhouse begins right now.

Welcome to the wheelhouse.

Let's get oriented.

This is the final episode of season 13.

And normally this is the point where we might look back at the season, revisit some favorite moments, maybe even talk about what's coming next.

But that doesn't feel quite right this time, because this season has given us something more important than a collection of conversations.

It's given us evidence.

We've heard what happens when students are treated as problems to be managed instead of people to be understood.

We've heard what happens when curiosity gives way to compliance, when innovation outruns humanity, when student voice becomes something we collect rather than something that changes what we do.

We've talked about neurodiversity, belonging, identity, instruction, artificial intelligence agency, dignity.

And again and again, we found ourselves coming back to the same fundamental question.

What does it actually mean to build schools around the human beings who inhabit them?

So today, the wheelhouse team is back together, not to recap the season, but to wrestle with what it has taught us.

What stayed with us, what challenged us, what patterns became impossible to ignore.

And perhaps most importantly, now that we know, what are we responsible for doing differently?

That's where we're headed today.

Let's get into it.

Good morning.

I'm Dr. Grant Chandler, and you are here for another episode of the Wheelhouse.

And you know, this isn't just another episode of the Wheelhouse.

This is the finale of season 13.

Wow.

So first, I want to say thank you very much for continuing to listen to us in 80 some countries around the world.

We're absolutely thrilled to be able to have these conversations and include you in that.

I want to bring in the most amazing, coolest human beings that have ever walked the planet.

Cathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Monroe.

Good morning, wheelhouse team.

Good morning.

There it is.

Oh, my gosh.

There's that three part harmony.

That's right.

So good.

I missed you guys last week.

I know, Kath.

We missed you.

Kathy.

Oh, what an episode.

Wow.

What a. I mean, every time.

Just the human beings, just the authentic human beings that we have the pleasure to sit with.

Yeah.

So well done, team.

Well done.

Sorry I missed it.

And a shout out to Rich, Anya, Betty, Mel King, and Jamar Green for joining us last week for a very powerful, very much needed conversation.

If you haven't listened to it, it dropped on August 31 or September 1, whatever your calendar says, and we would certainly encourage you to listen to that.

So, you guys, this is the last episode of season 13.

First, congratulations on a great season.

How you feeling?

Just insane that it's 10.

Where did the 10 weeks go?

Where.

I mean, Tuesdays can't get any better than.

Than this.

And spending time with.

How did you introduce us?

Most amazing humans that have walked the planet.

I was looking around to think, like, who's showing up today?

You.

Yes, yes.

It's crazy.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

When you organize your life in 10 week increments, which is what happened.

Which is.

Which is kind of what happens when, when you're, when you are, you know, when you're producing, hosting a podcast, everything in your life revolves around 10 week increments.

Is it coincidental that it's like a school year?

I know, it's crazy.

It's fascinating.

Yeah, fascinating.

So there's so much to talk about today as we wrap up this amazing season.

We've listened to a lot of really compelling conversations and we have had some amazing.

Well, you know, every guest on this podcast was amazing.

Every single one of them was amazing.

And so as you think about the last nine episodes and all these incredible people who were gracious enough to join us in the wheelhouse, what did you hear that you just can't shake so.

Much in the silence?

Right?

And I mean, as we, when you pose this question, thankfully you gave it to us, you know, ahead of time just so we could do a little thinking.

It was really difficult.

You know, as I, as I sat in silence, as Alicia really lifted up at the end of last episode, it.

It's difficult to pull out anything because it.

They.

It would.

There were phenomenal conversations, but over and over again, it was the.

The authenticity of the need to be our true selves and see the true selves of the students in which we are entrusted to serve.

That's pretty profound.

Kathy, I would agree.

Yeah.

I try always to be aware of whatever confirmation bias I'm carrying and how I will make things fit into the frame that I believe captures all truth, whatever.

But when I think about the voices that have been a part of this season and the diverse perspectives that those distinct voices have provided us, it does affirm some important truths about the work we do in education.

And it makes me scratch my head why we struggle so with our priorities.

But the voices that we had the privilege of listening to this season reaffirm for me the absolute rightness of prioritizing humanity in every learning context.

So it's a heavy lift.

And what I hear more is as we talked around our pillars of drift and fragmentation, and I can go on.

What I hear is that there is a collision, a really horrible crash of mental models, personal paradigms, and identities.

And the call to action is that our students are crying out for synthesis of perspective, shared values, common goals for their greater good.

That really besets the mission of the adults in the space that are responsible for moving our young people forward to achieve their own potential, to really sit down and check themselves and do that with honesty and clarity.

And Kathy, like you said, to have that moment of to thine own selves be true, and I always sit there because, you know, I love a good Shakespearean piece, right?

But to thine own selves be true, to really sit with that and then change it in the direction of our students being heard.

H E A R D rather than be heard it.

H E R D E D and.

This is why you are.

The three of you are the.

The best humans on the planet.

And as I listen to you, as I listen to you, and as each of you were talking, Derek Shuttleworth came to mind over and over again, right?

This is a man, and certainly I'm paraphrasing, but this is a guy who went into teaching because he loved English literature.

He loved literature and then realized that that wasn't really.

While he still loves literature and he loves teaching literature, there's a higher call that he has in the classroom, and he has discovered that higher call.

And that's what compels him to continue to do the work that he does.

And so as I sit here listening to the three of you and channeling Derek, my question that is rhetorical, right?

Rhetorical, but worth conversation.

Why is this so difficult for teachers and leaders all over the world to understand?

I get the push.

I totally understand the push for test scores and accountability measures and 3% increases I totally get all of that.

I understand the pressure that people are, you know, all of the accountability measures and legislation push on us.

I get it.

I totally get it.

But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, when are we gonna be courageous enough to realize that that isn't working for us, that we are not getting where we need to go and we are not meeting the needs of most of our students?

And they're telling us that.

They're telling us that in so many different ways.

Not everybody has the courage of Madison Middlestead to stand up in a podcast, right, talking to people in 80 countries and say, here's what I needed, here's what I didn't get, here's how life could have been different if I had six Derek Shuttleworths in my corner when I was in high school.

But we've heard this over and over and over again.

So that's my wondering as we, as we approach the end of season 13 and the beginning soon, the beginning of season 14, is what's it going to take?

What's it going to take?

Why are we so hesitant to recognize the power of human centered teaching and learning?

Why is it that schools that are supposed to be the place, the safest place, requires so many people to check so much at the door before they walk in?

All season long on the Wheelhouse, we've been talking about the conditions that get in the way of the schools we say we want drift, fragmentation, dehumanization, instructional erosion, future confusion, and the lack of alignment.

But naming the problem isn't enough.

The Students Matter ecosystem was built to help schools do something about it.

Through tactical leadership, powerful student care, instructional excellence, future ready schools, and guided learning.

Through Learn Hard Work harbor, we help educators create greater coherence, strengthen the human experience of school, and keep the work centered where it belongs, on students.

Because meaningful change doesn't come from adding one more initiative.

It comes from getting the important things working together.

The conversation it starts in the wheelhouse.

The work it continues through Students Matter.

Explore the Students Matter ecosystem and learn [email protected] we'd love to help you turn what matters into what happens.

I think you got to look at the other frames that move schools, right?

So who's benefiting economically and financially?

So we have to talk about that, right?

Standardized tests costs a lot of money and someone's making a big buck from that.

So I'm just saying there are not.

It's not only we're in it for the humanity of it the human resource frame.

But there are so many other frames that are swirling, that influence the innocence of pure education that it gets tainted.

And for us to ignore that is for us not to be focused on what is really happening in the spaces that we want to occupy with our full identities.

You gotta think about all of those frames.

You gotta think about the political frame.

And that's why mandates shift every four to eight years, because it depends on who's sitting in the seat.

I mean, let's.

Let's be real.

I mean, this is the finale.

So, you know, during the finale, I'm wide open.

So we gonna.

You're gonna get some.

All right, so we gonna call it out.

I have been revived and re.

Energized from the brilliant guests that we've had over the past 10 to 12 sessions.

So you don't know what you're going to get from me today.

But let's really call it as it is, right?

If we were educators, true educators in educational spaces, doing what we were called to do and how to serve without influences of the outliers that have no clue on what education is all about, right?

I was appalled to Hear that an AI conference was called an A1 conference at the beginning of this political administration.

I mean, let's get real.

This is our current state, in our current reality.

It is.

I completely, completely agree.

And those competing factors are even more intense right now, I think, than I've.

In 25 years in education, than I've experienced.

There's absolutely no doubt about that.

I go back to our conversation earlier in the season to I have control over how I show up.

And so thinking about conversation that I had recently with some friends and that I met when I was superintendent and thinking about my number one responsibility as superintendent, I believe, and I believe it's the responsibility of every superintendent and every educator are always the students, right?

So knowing them and just absolutely baffling people because I knew students names like that.

Low bar.

Low bar.

To be connected and know who the students are that we serve, knowing the staff that we serve, knowing that my responsibility is to.

To make sure that I'm shielding the staff, that I'm leading them and how I'm showing up and doing those things.

And I've always argued that when I lay my head on my pillow at the end of the day, I have to be.

I. I have to be good with myself.

And so I have to.

I get to make that decision.

I get to choose how I care about the humans that I'm entrusted with, regardless of all this other stuff, I.

Love how those two perspectives are right next to each other.

Dr. Munro, Dr. Monroe, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for acknowledging those other frames that are drivers that have undue influence on the project of learning.

And, Cath, when you say at the end of the day, when I lay my head on my pillow, I feel like that is.

That is ultimately our orientation as learners, that we don't believe in the race as metaphor, the trophy chasing as metaphor to guide the learning project.

What we believe is our duty is to pass on everything we know about what it means to live well.

And so I feel that calling.

I feel that calling from all of our guests this season and in previous seasons, that we exist within a culture and within cultures that are chasing things that are not ultimately going to help us feel like we have lived well.

When we finally lay our head on that pillow.

I'm reminded again and again, for those of us who've experienced a loved one going through hospice, that beautiful, beautiful reckoning of a life puts into perspective everything that we hold dear, day to day, month to month, year to year.

And it dwarfs all of these other trophies we might.

These shiny things, these golden rings we might be chasing.

So I just love both of those takes right next to each other because it just.

It elevates what I feel is such a beautiful, simple human orientation that is at the heart of learning.

If you remember back at the very beginning of the season and Grant introduced the six pieces that we are focused on this.

Get a focus on this season with lack of alignment, fragmentation, dehumanization, instructional erosion, future confusion, and drift.

You said, which one stands out to you immediately?

You know, know.

And we.

We had those pieces and thinking about dehumanization and how to me, that is absolutely that the core of all decisions that we make.

So when I think about it, and I'm glad you reminded us, Kathy, you know, of all of them, I just referred to drift and fragmentation because that's what I see.

A lot of lack of alignment.

All of that is there.

As I sit with you and I'm hearing Kathy, and I'm thinking about my own journey and the sharing of our journeys.

Kathy, you and I should not, in our perspectives be juxtaposed.

If the education system was healthy.

Ooh, say that again.

The political frame and the economic frame and the accountability frame and our personal truths to serving, because we're called.

Michael, just putting it all together, it should be harmonious, not disconnected.

It should be cohesive and not a cacophony of sound.

But this is what we are.

And then now we're trying to orchestrate all of this.

And Kathy, your schoolhouse may be great, and my schoolhouse is great, and Grant's schoolhouse is great, and Michael's schoolhouse is great.

But our four school houses is part of a system that is heavily influenced by those other factors.

So when that one student has that rich experience with us, then where do they go?

We have to think about it as we always do, as part of a continuum of learning.

And what does that student experience?

What is our product and what kind of student experience do we want our students to claim they had?

You know, I listen to Madison.

Oh, boy.

I've listened to Jamar.

Oh, boy.

I've listened to Carrie.

Oh, boy.

So what it is, what is it to bring the piece that I lifted and the one that Kathy, you beautifully elevated together?

I think that's the question.

And this is what we've been prodding at for all the seasons that we've been together.

So I was working with the district yesterday, and the leadership team was examining norms and thinking about what behaviors were aligned to the norms and what behaviors were in contrast to the norms.

And the big idea that came away from that conversation, I hope, was that all of those behaviors that we make in the moment, small, small choices every single day, they're all our choices.

We choose.

We choose whether we are going to behave in a way that is aligned to a norm or not.

We choose how we do this work.

And I didn't want to say it during the episode because I didn't want to put anybody on the spot.

But here's what's been percolating in my head when I asked Madison Middlestead what her experience would have been like had she had six Derek Shuttleworths as a teacher.

And she talked about it, and she talked about it brutally.

Honestly, my question that I was thinking about was, okay, if I'm one of those other five teachers that had Madison Middlestead, and I didn't do that for her, how am I thinking about myself now as a teacher?

And I wondered.

I thought, oh, boy, Derek's going to share this episode in his district, and people are going to hear that.

And I was like, oh, I'm not going to say a word.

I'm not going to say a word.

But now, several episodes later, those people are probably not Listening.

Wondered.

Right.

Because if I were one of those people, one of those other five, listening to Madison now, I would be heartbroken.

I would be heartbroken if a student of mine ever said that about what their experience had been like.

Like that in my classroom.

And I'm sure there are some, because I'm not perfect.

I would be heartbroken.

I would be heartbroken to know that I failed that human being.

Right.

You would be heartbroken if you were in education for the true business of education.

Thank you.

Because we get our hearts broken like that a lot.

When you're in it for the right reasons.

When you are in it for the right reasons, you accept that sometimes we fail, and that's not good enough, and we are going to have to explore and rummage and dive into the wreck of that.

You know, I just wanted to put that qualifier on there.

Because everyone isn't in it for the same reasons.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So some individuals, like us as educators, would feel heartbroken, but that wouldn't be Madison's story with us.

Let's be real.

But for others who are either.

Just.

Sitting down and waiting for that year to come, when they can.

They can ring the bell and say, okay, I'm retired.

Right.

Or for others that are coming in because, you know, it's something they can do as they search and seek for something else that.

That may or may not be their story.

And.

And that's.

That's really part of our equation around fragmentation and drift.

You know, when I first came into education, part one of our assignments was to develop our educational philosophy.

I very rarely hear that now.

You know, I'm like, what is your philosophy of education?

And I say, I go through districts across the country.

Sometimes individuals will clearly articulate that, and you could see them walk that out beautifully.

But other times, someone is looking at me like, what?

I don't even know the strand I'm working on right now.

So I'm just.

I'm just being for real.

You know, it's the finale.

I'm just telling it like that.

So, you know, this is what the wheelhouse is for.

Right?

This is.

We are going to have these conversations, and we know.

We know there are great people out there that are doing great work.

Absolutely.

And we applaud you.

Right?

We applaud you.

You know, reach out.

We'll have you as a guest on the wheelhouse because we'd love to hear about the work that you're doing.

We also know that you're doing it sometimes in places that you have to really fight really hard to do that work.

But we also know that the reality is too many of our students and too many of our teachers are not living and thriving in the type of educational environment that we espouse here in the wheelhouse.

And so we're going to stay.

Wheelhouse ain't going anywhere.

We're going to stay.

We're going to keep talking about this.

We're going to keep shining examples, we're going to keep bringing powerful people into the conversation until this becomes a reality for more and more of our students.

And we're going to keep listening to our students and we're going to keep telling you what they say and we're going to keep sharing with you what they need and what they want from us because that's really, really important.

As we think about as we think about wrapping up this season in the next few minutes.

And I will just say first, it is an honor and I'm absolutely honored and privileged to do this work with the three of you.

I'm honored and privileged to welcome the incredible guests that we bring every week.

And we will continue to do that for you.

And we're not going anywhere.

What are you carrying forward from this season?

What do we carry forward into?

I hate to say it, Kathy, but.

Into fall as the school tick time away the bird.

I know pretty soon every school in the country will be back in session, right?

What do we carry forward?

What are each of you gonna carry forward from this season as we think about and we'll all go behind the closed doors and start talking about season 14 soon.

But as we think about wrapping this season up, what is it that you're gonna carry forward?

What should we car into future conversations?

I'm gonna carry forward a truth that was shared with me many years ago when I transitioned from my work in the classroom as a teacher to my work as an administrator.

And I had a wonderful colleague, Gary Janirup, who chatted with me during some found time one school day and asked me about how I was feeling.

Then I told him I had a lot of trepidation after 18 years in the classroom moving toward leadership in the way that I was.

And he turned to me full faced and smiled and said, michael, you would.

You will do great work as you've always done great work.

You'll do it one interaction at a time, one conversation at a time.

Those brown eyes will land on the person that you're regarding and they will feel your presence and your attention and that's how you will do it.

The way you've always done it and you'll be wonderful.

It was exactly what I needed to hear, that vote of confidence and in how I did my work.

But it also was a truth about how he did his work, how I thrived as a professional, how I thrived as a learner.

And that's what I'm going to carry forward into this next season, where I get to work with three people who are brand new to the profession as they start their journey and find their way.

For me, it actually was something Rich said during this week's or last week's, I guess when this drops episode and he I wrote.

I wrote it down.

Sometimes when I listen or re listen to our conversations, I just like there's.

There are truths that are said and they're just so important and so vital.

And he said that life gets really good when you can be who you are.

And thinking about that in so many ways of knowing for our students, for every layer of educators, knowing that if this is the profession that we are compelled to be a part of, then do that and be that true self to care deeply about what it is that you do.

If this is the profession that you aren't compelled to be that person for every human that we're entrusted with, then be your true self somewhere else and know that we have just a great and immense responsibility and we can never ever take that lightly.

So it's wonderful, Kathy, that you refer to our last episode because as I reposted the lovely post that you organized for that, I was really thoughtful as I was sharing with Grant on how that was worded.

So what I take from this past seasons and the previous seasons is the question that I really clinched and closed my repost with.

What are we asking people to leave at the door in exchange for belonging?

What are we asking people to leave at the door in exchange for belonging?

The last time I checked out what educational service is is that everyone brings their whole selves into the space.

They are acknowledged, they are accepted, they are affirmed.

And as educators with empathic hearts and spirits, we embrace them and that we help them achieve their full potential.

So I say onwards and upwards because not only am I looking at students, I've been spending a lot of time with educators, educational leaders and district administrators, because I'm starting to ask them that question as well.

And this is why you all are such amazing humans, right?

And this is why the wheelhouse is so successful, because of the three of you.

My big takeaway is the same takeaway that I take away after every single season and it is the driving force behind the compelling reason why this podcast exists.

Students matter.

Each student matters today.

Not once they're ready, and certainly not when the system has time.

They matter right now.

We'll see you in season 14.

Stay oriented.

As we bring season 13 to a close, I keep coming back to one thing.

We know more now.

We know more about what students need.

We know more about what gets in their way.

We know more about the ways our systems can unintentionally diminish curiosity, belonging, dignity, agency, and humanity.

And we know that listening, while absolutely necessary, is not enough.

At some point, what we hear has to change what we do.

Maybe that's the real challenge coming out of this season.

Not whether we can name the problems, not whether we can design another initiative, not whether we can talk about what students need, but whether we are willing to make different choices because of what they told us.

The future of education isn't waiting somewhere out ahead of us.

We're creating it right now in the decisions we make, the practices we protect, the systems we challenge, the voices we elevate, and the things we finally decide when we can no longer ignore.

Season 14 will give us the chance to keep building from there.

But for now, I'll leave you with the question that has followed us throughout this entire season.

If students really matter, what should be visibly different?

Because they do.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for spending another season with us.

Stay curious, stay human, and as always, stay oriented.

We'll see you for season 14 starting on Tuesday, October 13th.