The essence of this podcast episode revolves around the critical inquiry: how often do we genuinely place students at the center of our educational discourse? To culminate Season 12, we have invited four insightful K-12 students—Sasha, Athena, Isiah, and Malaki—to share their unfiltered perspectives on their experiences within the educational system. In this discussion, we eschew scripted dialogue and focus on listening to the authentic voices of these students, thus allowing their narratives to shape the conversation. They articulate a compelling call for greater engagement, collaboration, and recognition of the multifaceted realities that students navigate daily. By placing emphasis on student agency, we explore the vital need for educational structures that not only hear but genuinely incorporate student voices into the framework of learning.

Additional Notes

The podcast culminates its twelfth season by shifting the focus from educators' perspectives to the voices of the students themselves, a move that is both bold and necessary. In this episode, we engage with four high school students—Sasha, Athena, Isiah, and Malaki—whose firsthand experiences within the educational system provide invaluable insights into what it truly means to place students at the center of learning. Through a series of candid discussions, the students articulate their desires for more interactive and collaborative learning environments, emphasizing the need for authentic connection and engagement in the classroom. They express a longing for opportunities that allow them to engage not only academically but socially with their peers, thereby fostering a sense of community and belonging in what can often feel like an isolating experience. This episode serves as a profound reminder that while educators may design systems and strategies with the best intentions, the voices of the students must be integral to shaping those very systems.

Takeaways:

1. The episode underscores the necessity of genuinely placing students at the center of educational discourse, as opposed to merely stating it as a principle.
2. The insights shared by Sasha, Athena, Isiah, and Malaki highlight the importance of active student engagement in their learning environments.
3. Students express a desire for more collaborative and interactive learning experiences, as they find traditional lectures often disengaging and unproductive.
4. The conversation reveals that educational systems must adapt to better accommodate the diverse learning styles and preferences of students in order to enhance their educational experience.
5. Participants emphasize the crucial role of social interactions in fostering a positive school climate, thereby making learning more enjoyable and effective.
6. The podcast calls for a shift from merely discussing what students require to actively listening to their experiences and integrating their input into educational practices.

Follow Students Matter, LLC on Instagram or LinkedIn or find any of us there individually: Kathy Mohney, Michael Pipa, Dr. Alicia Monroe, and Dr. Grant Chandler.

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

Students Matter

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Until next time remember: See every student. Keep your doors open and your hearts even wider.

Every school says students are at the center, but how often do we actually put them there?

To close out season 12, we brought four students into the Sasha, Athena, Isaiah and Malachi.

No filters, no scripts, just their experience inside the system we design every day.

What they said, well, that's the episode.

And a new episode of the Wheelhouse begins right now.

This is the Wheelhouse, a Students matter podcast.

You know, all season long, we've been exploring future ready schools, innovation rooted in humanity, the built through coherent human systems.

We've talked about leadership, we've talked about instruction, we've talked about care.

But today we do something different.

We stop talking about students and we listen to them.

Sasha, Athena, Isaiah, Malachi.

Four students, four perspectives, one shared reality.

School as they actually experience it.

And here's the truth.

We can build systems, write plans, and align our work all we want.

But if the people experiencing the system aren't shaping it, then we're not building coherence, we're building assumptions.

So today, less talking, more listening.

Let's get into it.

Good morning and welcome to the wheelhouse.

I'm Dr. Grant Chandler and wow, this is gonna be a great episode.

So first, let me welcome my amazing team of Michael Pipa and Dr. Alicia Monroe.

Good morning.

Good morning, Good morning.

Cathy Mone isn't able to be with us today, But Michael and Dr. Munro are.

And are you guys as excited as I am?

Absolutely.

Super excited.

Love the students.

So we've been talking in the last several seasons about students.

We've been talking about what we think students need from school, what we want, you know, trying to be the voice of students.

And we've been talking about having students join us.

High school students, K12 students, join us in the Wheelhouse.

And today it actually happens.

So I'm incredibly grateful and super excited to welcome three high school students to the Wheelhouse.

So I'm going to first welcome Sasha and Isaiah, who are seniors, and Athena, who's a junior, our new friends.

Welcome to the Wheelhouse.

Thank you.

Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

We are delighted that you are here and we're going to jump right in because we had five really powerful questions and we want to see how you're going to answer those questions.

So we're just going to get started.

And the first one is we're speaking to a large number of teachers and leaders from all over the world today in this podcast.

What would you like to say to them, to teachers all over the world, about what it is you would like to experience in school?

I know Two of you are getting ready to wrap up your high school career.

One of you has another year.

As you're looking back and thinking about this whole thing called school, what do you want to tell teachers about what it is you would like to experience or would like to have experienced in school?

I definitely think having more, like, connective activities, like, with your classmates, because a lot of people just don't have connections with all their classmates.

They don't know all their names.

So I feel like having those activities where I know a lot of people hate it, where you're just grouped up with random people and not your friends.

But I do think having that connections with people that you don't really get to see every day is really important to student life.

And, like, kind of you get to see people every single day and how they're different.

And you could even find similarities and even make new friends with that.

So when you talk about connecting connection activities, what do you.

What do you.

What do you.

What's in your head when you say that?

Sasha?

Like.

Like group activities where they're assigned into a group or maybe even duo and they just do work.

Or it could even, like, be an actual activity, like a fun activity.

So I know I've done like, a few where I have, like, marshmallows and, like, spaghetti sticks, and you kind of bond them together and it's like, I don't know, it's just like those activities like that.

It's really fun to work with other people.

But even just classwork in general, too, it's really fun to work with other people, especially with people who you don't know.

Just because you get to see how other people react and how they, like, think in certain situations.

Yeah, like, group work and stuff like that.

I always found that, like, really fun.

Athena, why.

Why is group work fun?

Mostly because you're not.

Just a lot of teachers will give out, like, a Google Slides and, okay, take notes and you're just doing the notes on your own.

But it's a lot more encouraging when you're working together in a group, especially when it's hands on.

When it's hands on, like, it actually makes me want to do the work and not fall asleep.

Because when I'm doing, taking notes, like, I'm getting tired and especially after lunch and I just want to go to bed.

But there's other people, like your peers around you.

You actually get into it and, like, you have more fun.

Isaiah, what would you add to that question, sir?

Well, to add on that, like, my freshman year I had a teacher that had us do activities of.

We had to get into groups, like, first day of school.

We had to get into groups of by our birthdays.

And she didn't help us.

She didn't give us any, like, rules.

She just wrote on the board and had us group up together.

And that was pretty interesting because someone had to take kind of initiative and, like, have us lined up sort of.

And that kind of showed us not like the leader of the class, but someone that we can, like, rely on if we ever need anything.

And it also helped us, like, show, like, if someone's in, like, they have your birthday month, so it's kind of.

You can, like, not hang out with them, but you know they have something similar, so you have something to talk to.

And it also helped us, like, realize our teacher, she's not going to just have us do solo work all day, which is definitely not as fun as working together as a group.

So that's how you knew, like, that class was gonna be something.

Was gonna.

Something fun's gonna be happening in that class almost all the time or every day.

So when I listen to you guys, what I take away from that is you don't wanna be isolated.

Right?

You don't.

You don't wanna sit there all by yourself doing things on your own.

You want opportunities to engage with your peers and you want to do things that you think are interesting.

Did I.

Is that a fair synthesis?

I don't want to put words in your mind.

Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, pretty much.

Could I just so grant?

What I also hear is they want to have relationship with one another, and that's really important as we build community, especially in the educational settings.

Absolutely.

Michael, I was just gonna ask, of the three of you, it sounds a little like the more common experience isn't group work.

It's mostly lecture.

Yeah.

And you'd like that to be very different, is what I'm hearing you say.

Well, for me, I feel like I actually learned better because I can sit there and listen to a lecture and be writing down notes, but I'm not actually taking in the information.

And I'm just like.

It's passing through my brain and going to my hand and that's it.

Like, it's not staying in there.

But.

But what I have noticed is when I go to tutoring after school and I'm sitting with my friend and he's like, how do I do this?

And I'm actually showing him how to do it, that's when it sticks in my brain more and that's what helps me learn, especially for math.

So what Athena is saying again, Athena, don't let me put words in your mouth.

You jump in and tell me when I'm wrong.

But what I'm hearing Athena say to educators around the world is, stop talking at me and give me opportunities to engage both socially and intellectually with what it is that you want me to learn.

Yes, exactly.

I just want to say that's, like, about 20 years of cognitive learning, science, tightly bundled up right there.

Beautifully, Athena.

That, you know, when we lecture at students, they're happy to take down the notes, or they at least look like they're happy while they quietly stew.

But we've not provided students an opportunity to chew on that information, to apply it, to use it.

Yeah.

And then I just feel like it just goes in one year and out the other, how people say.

Oh, and also, we wanted to add Malachi's ear now.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Hi, Malachi.

How are you, sir?

I'm good.

How are you?

Awesome.

So thank you for joining us.

Welcome.

We're just talking about kind of getting ready to move to a different question, but we'll give you an opportunity to answer this one.

Malachi, as you think about your audience today, you're talking to a bunch of teachers and principals and superintendents from all over the world.

What would you like to say to them about what you would like to experience in school?

I think I would like to experience, like, more like.

Like, free, like, ability.

Like, more work.

Like, independent.

What does that mean?

Could you explain that a little further?

Like, more independent work, like, where the teachers, like.

Like, they give us a paper, and then they give us, like, class time to do it instead of, like.

Like, homework.

Okay, so you want to.

You want to do a lot of the work that.

That they are asking you to do in school?

Yeah.

Why is that important to you?

I just think it's, like, it'll help, like, students learn more and do better, like, actually learn than, like, having do it at home.

Why is it difficult to do it at home?

Because I play sports and stuff, so it's kind of hard to have a lot of free time when I get home.

So, again, don't let me put words in your mouth.

But what I hear you tell, the underlying message here isn't just about the work.

It's about you want teachers to recognize that you have many other commitments outside of school when you get home.

And so your time, like everybody else's, is limited, and you'd like to be able.

You'd like them to help you by doing some more of that work at school rather than adding that to what you have to do when you're at home.

Is that right?

Yeah.

To add onto like what he said, I also find it easier for me to retain information when I'm physically doing the work in class.

Like I know for me personally, math is easier for me to conceptualize when I'm doing it by myself and in my own head.

Just because I feel like if I'm mixing in other people's.

Because math is, it's like something that other people can interpret it in different ways.

So you.

Everyone has their own ways of doing, solving different problems.

I know I do.

Especially I feel like I have very different ways of solving anything.

So I feel like when I work by myself and I have time to do it, which I also have, have a lot of time, like a lot of things to do after school.

So it's easier for me to do my work in class and not have to deal with homework.

And when I do like my work by myself, it's easier for me to understand the concepts and make it easier for me to even teach other people.

Because like Athena said, it's easier when I'm teaching other people.

It also makes me retain information as well.

So it's kind of interesting because you're really wanting teachers to balance.

You're really asking teachers to balance.

There's moments where you need to be able to think on your own.

Right.

And to be able to process things on your own.

But you're also.

There are times when you need to engage and talk about that content with teachers, with other students.

So it's a mixture of.

It's not all one way and another, but there's a mixture of sometimes I need to think on my own and sometimes I need to engage intellectually and socially with other people.

Is that fair?

Yeah, I actually, I think it's more on like teenage and you know how like teenagers are always like growing up and they're having like different moods and all that stuff.

I think it's just like a day to day basis, like what students want day to day.

So like I could say, I could say all this right now and then tomorrow I might think another thing.

So I just feel like we're trying to grasp what other students want too.

But I think we're all getting like.

A broad.

Like interpretation of what we want to see from teachers.

Sure.

And you know, it's important for us to remember that you are only talking for yourself and that we are not, you know, we're not going to say that every student in the country, this is what they want.

This is a conversation between the four of you and what you want from school.

Right.

And we won't try to generalize that, but you also just raised a really interesting point, Sasha, which is, hey, you know what?

Moods change from day to day and it would be really, really nice if things were responsive to how we're feeling on a particular day.

Yeah.

So I'd like to put some of the pieces of the puzzle, just connect some of those dots.

Yeah, go ahead, Dr. Monroe.

What I'm hearing, and I heard the strain, the string come through, initiated by Malachi, picked up by Sasha.

Right.

Is that we really need to understand the multiple modalities of learning.

Right.

So one thing is we sit in a classroom and we are stimulated in some way through the content.

However, what we need to understand are the skill competencies that come from engaging in extracurriculars.

I heard sports, I heard extracurricular activities and what have you.

You as a, as a college professor now and a former high school principal, it's how do we translate the academic portions of your day and extracurricular portions of your day and truly make that a healthy student experience?

And then when you add the modalities of just being human, emotional ups and downs, that's what we get as part of the schoolhouse, so to speak.

So it's good to hear students talk about their needs and their interests.

And what would actually stimulate them to become more engaged in the teaching and learning process is if we honor that student learning experience.

And each component of that I'm also.

Hearing in Malachi's and Sasha's remarks that a one size model doesn't work, work doesn't fit for everybody, and it doesn't matter what our age is.

It really doesn't.

I don't know too many adults who enjoy homework and I don't know too many adults who enjoy adjusting what they prefer as learners to some lecturers model.

And I don't know any adults who work in schools who enjoy that.

So it sounds like having some options on how you're going to engage with the work in class helps and some recognition that time outside of school, there are claims on that that have everything to do with the lives you lead and the people you are outside of school.

And that sounds like a human thing.

It doesn't.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It just sounds like what we need is people.

So I want to shift just a little bit because I got a couple other questions that I think are really important.

And I want to make sure we capture them in this episode while we have these amazing students who are with us today.

So just a slight little shift.

When school starts to feel or when you start to feel disconnected or even frustrated at school, where does that break down?

First, why do you think when that happens, when you get frustrated or when you feel disconnected from school, where do you think that comes from?

What's happening that causes you to feel frustrated or disconnected from school?

I think it's when I'm overwhelmed with all the activities and homework that I have to do.

We all have our own responsibilities, whether it's like at school, athletics, or even at home.

And when you notice all the things that you have piled on you for that day, I feel like that's when you start to get unmotivated because you feel that you can't, like, do everything that you can at once.

And it just kind of unmotivates, especially me.

Like, I have.

Everyone has a lot of stuff to do every day to day, but it just really feels frustrating when you're trying to do things and sometimes you just can't.

And then you kind of have like a block in your head that is.

Just doesn't allow you to complete the things that you want to complete.

Yeah.

So you get.

When you get overwhelmed, you get frustrated.

Yeah, I think it's mostly stress.

Stress.

Where does that come from?

Because I already have the stress from being in school and having to make sure I do all my work.

And especially math is the main thing that stresses me out the most.

And then I have a plan of what I have to do after school, whether it be playing tennis in a sport or going to go help out my mom, something, or go pick up my little sister from her.

From her school, or even just like going at home and doing more work to study for math because I still didn't understand what I learned at school.

And then if something goes out of order in that day, like, I start, I just.

I break down.

Like, there was this one day at school, I got to school, I already had my plan for the entire day because I had to go take photos after school because I'm also a photographer.

I had an interview lined up besides like tennis and the rest of my school.

And I opened my camera bag that morning and my lens was broken.

So it was an expensive camera and the lens was broken.

I had all this crap I had to do, and I. I just.

I just broke down right there.

I started crying because sure, everything was going wrong.

So, yeah, this great plan and now you had no way to.

You had no way to approach it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Isaiah, if you ever get disconnected or frustrated at school, where does that come from?

I usually don't get frustrated, but I do start to disconnect, especially near the end of the year.

And I think it has to do with doing the same thing over and over again.

It definitely is like they're being repetitive.

Is like, I just don't want to go to class.

Well, not, not going to class, but just being in there doing the same work or doing the same thing that we did yesterday, it's kind of just makes you feel like you just don't want to do it no more.

So that kind of just makes you just.

Instead of doing my work, I just sit there and then I just start to get lost or I get behind and it just.

Yeah, it just helps me.

That's a big thing.

I just get disconnected of doing the same thing over and over again, like day to day.

Malachi, what would you add, sir?

I think it's like what Isaiah said, like, like around the end of the year, like you kind of start feeling disconnected or even like earlier, like if you're in like a teacher's class that like, like, if they're just kind of like boring, like they just like pass a paper on your, on your like, table and like, oh, here I left the notes in Google classroom.

You guys do it.

Like, I feel like that makes like the class kind of disconnected or like me and.

But I don't really feel like frustrated, but I feel like that kind of disconnects.

Disconnected.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, those are some great responses and some things for educators to hang on to.

I'm going to ask you one more question.

Then we'll have Dr. Munro and Mr. Pipa pipe in.

What do adults, what do teachers think is working?

But you know, it isn't.

Like Malachi said is the passing out papers and then just going into Google classroom having to do that.

That's definitely like disconnecting is just the one big thing is just you, you see that paper and you think, I can do this another day.

And that day just, you get more paper and more paper and more paper and it's just you.

There's no point in doing it anymore.

So that's when you start to get your missing assignments.

You're turning in late work and that just drops your grade more and more.

So, yeah, definitely just the, the notes on the Google classroom.

So what do you think is their intent when they do that?

Why do you Think they do it.

I think a lot of teachers do that because either it's something that they've been doing for a while now and they think that they not have teaching down because not everyone's perfect, but something works so there's like no point in changing.

But also because they want us to get some kind of individual work or they might have something they need to do and they just can't be teaching at the time.

So it's like they want you to just go out on your own and just do your own work on your own.

I will say from my personal experience, there's my history class and every day it's always been the same thing.

Since the start of the year, she goes up and gives a lecture.

I think from my personal experience, my past.

Well, this history teacher that I have now and the one before have always been strictly lecture and answer questions or lecture and take notes.

Now I'll tell you, sophomore year, world history, I don't know a single thing besides Genghis Khan, Champa Rice and maybe Mansa Musa.

It was, it was AP World History.

I got a one on that test.

It was just lecture, answer questions, lecture answer questions and like vocab.

I would study the vocab right before the test and then I would do it.

Never ever to ever again.

So that instructional approach that maybe a teacher thought was the right way to do, it didn't work for you?

No.

And I've heard from a lot of students in the past, like, oh yeah, no, that teacher doesn't teach very well.

It's just lecture, lecture, lecture.

It's going into your brain, out, and then that's it.

You know, I've heard that very few actually get a good grade on the AP World exam.

And so you guys are noticing that that instructional approach doesn't work for you, right?

And there's, there's data out there.

Anybody else want to add anything to that question?

What do adults think is working?

And you know it isn't.

Athena, so what do you think would work?

How would that optimum history class look, sound and feel like for you?

I think it's just changing up what you're doing each day.

Not always expecting the lecture and taking notes.

Of course, lecture and taking notes can still be fine for a few days, maybe most out of the week.

But doing projects where you're actually collaborating with others.

Like for my now history class, we've had only one project where we've collaborated with others and we colored it.

It was on, it was about communism and we're just coloring like the entire thing and working together and actually looking up information, printing out photos to put on the poster.

I'll say that that is what I like, actually learned.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Sasha.

I think certain subjects require different things or just should have different kind of learning ideas.

Because for me, history, I feel that it's best when I'm writing notes and I'm paying attention to someone lecturing.

But when I was taking AP World, I did not lift up a single pencil so I can kind of say the same thing.

I do not know a single thing about world history just because it was just lecture.

And then the class environment was very.

He let everyone do whatever they wanted.

And so people would walk in during class and start talking to him and kind of disrupt the class time so that on top of him just playing like videos and.

And just like people weren't paying attention because there was other stuff going on around the classroom.

But I feel like for like subjects like history, I find it best to actively be writing notes and paying attention to someone talking instead of just because other.

The most like, oh my God, the most like notes that people do are copying word for word.

Um, but I feel like students understand more like especially me, if someone's talking and I have to jot down notes about what they're saying.

I feel like that is what makes me understand material the most.

And so what I take away is that, you know, different students learn, learn in different ways.

And so what works for Athena doesn't work for Sasha or vice versa.

Malachi, Isaiah, anything you want to add to this conversation?

What do adults think is working?

But you don't.

But you as students know it isn't.

I kind of said something about it earlier, but the whole Internet thing, but it was definitely like the Google classroom just giving us notes and expecting us to be able to just do it on our own.

I mean, yeah, it is.

That's a good way to learn for sure.

But not just every single day.

It's, I think would be a good way is just one.

The first day we get the notes, we do it on our own.

And then another day we collaborate with our classmates and we have to put notes together and like a parent and.

Malachi, anything you want to add, sir?

I think like, when.

When teachers give like work and then they like, they give like a really long due date for like, like they give multiple assignments at the same time, but then they give like a really long due date.

I think it just like it like, it leads to like procrastination.

And stuff, and just like.

Like, they say you're supposed to be working on it the whole time, but I think it just, like, leads to, like, everyone working on it, like, probably like, the last day or two before it's due.

Adults do that too.

Adults do that for sure.

We're notorious at that.

Absolutely.

Yes.

I have one last question I want to ask you, and this, for me is probably the most important question, because it's.

It's a.

That is, like, near and dear to my heart.

Not that everything wasn't, because it all was, but this is what I've been really looking forward to hearing you say.

If a school truly believed that each student mattered, what would you actually see or feel?

If a school believed that each student mattered, however you want to define it in your head, it's all, whatever.

What would you actually see or feel?

I feel like you would see more student participation, like, more active student participation, whether that be, like, in class or just in more extracurriculars.

If.

If the school, like, truly believed in the student, then the student would feel more confident to go out of their shell and try.

Try out new experiences.

And then I feel like that would just go over, like, the school culture as well, and, like, the school spirit, that it'll just, like, enhance itself.

And all the students would just feel excited to come to school every day.

And add on that we do more things, and it will bring more people together, like, not even getting out of your shell, but you'll find people that have more of the same hobbies as you and more things that you guys have in common.

And that just makes you want to come to school even more.

And it's going to make you want to, like, learn new things, learn more things, because you're going to.

There's going to be someone at school that has the same hobbies as you, enjoy the same things as you, and just someone that you want to talk to, like, throughout the day.

So it's just another reason to want to come to school.

Thank you, Athena.

I think the biggest thing is, obviously, like, as a school, like, we do have clubs, we do have sports, but I don't think it's actually, like, directed for everyone.

You know, like, usually the people that go into the sports, it's already.

Because they've been playing for years and since, like, middle school and elementary and going in there, like, barely knowing anything, you kind of feel like an outcast, you know, and you feel like, okay, well, I'm not as good as the rest of them, so I'm just to like, stop, you know, And I think that, like, it makes them not want.

Not want to participate.

And then I know some.

I'm in Link crew at my school.

So Link crew is where we take care of, like, the freshmen.

We go to their classes, make sure they're fitting in, and, like, basically have good grades and stuff.

One of the freshmen, he told me he really wanted to get into the photography class, which I actually took my freshman year, because I was like, I want to do photography.

This is something I've been doing, I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I better get this class.

And they just told him, like, oh, no, sorry, you can't take that class.

Like, you should do this instead.

The counselors are always telling us to do what?

Obviously, like, we know what we need to do to graduate, but we also want to have fun at school, and we don't want our electives to just be Spanish, you know, Like, I told him, I was like, you have to go to your counselor and, like, be very directive, exactly what you want.

Can't let them push you over.

I've been in classes where it's like the middle of the school year, and I know I can't change my class, but I know if I push hard enough, I can, you know, And I think they just need to be more allowing of that, like, to let us actually choose the classes that we want and not be like, oh, okay, but like, you have to do this.

You should do this first.

You know, like, me, I'm a junior.

I still haven't taken physics.

Usually the counselors will look at and look at that and be like, oh, she really should have done that her freshman year.

But my freshman year, I prioritized being in other classes because physics wasn't my main priority.

You know, Even though it is a, like a required class to graduate, I know I could have done that any other time.

So I am taking that my senior year.

But it's because I, like, I sacrificed it so that I could be able to do photography.

We need, like, more like, just to be heard, you know, Just to be heard.

Oh, we've heard that before.

Could you say that again, Athena?

Just to be heard?

Oh, thank you.

I love that.

Thank you so much.

Malachi, anything you would add, sir?

If.

If a school truly believed that every student matters, what would you actually see or feel?

I think that you would see, like, attendance go up or like, maybe like, tardies.

Like, kids wouldn't just be trying to get out of class and stuff.

Or like, I think you would just see, like, overall, like, behavior and students go up, like, not get sent to the office as much or, like, if they do get sent to the office, like, I think maybe, like, the punishments will be different because I feel like sometimes the punishments are kind of, like, based off, like.

Like, maybe, like, your previous, like, what you've done in the past and stuff, like.

But then if you have, like, nothing done in the past, like, they might give you, like, a.

Like, just let you go or something.

Or, like, if you're in sports, like, stuff like that, I think.

And I think, like, they would just, like, the school would just feel better if every student, like, actually believed they mattered.

Like, the school spirit would just go up and it would just be a better environment for learning for everyone.

I could not agree more.

I could not agree more.

Anything that any of the four of you would like to add as we wrap up this conversation today on anything that we've talked about or if we haven't even.

And if we haven't mentioned it and you think it's important, Feel free.

Anybody want to add anything to this conversation?

Sasha, anything you want to add?

Yeah, I just want to reiterate the fact that every student is different, that it's really hard for teachers to accommodate every student every day.

So you've heard our opinions and, like, what we think, but that's just what works for us.

And that's not, you know, that's our school is 2,000 students or, like, more.

So it's just every student is different.

Everyone has different learning styles, and it's just based off the student.

And it's pretty hard to accommodate every.

Student, but absolutely, yep, teaching is a tough job.

Isaiah, anything you want to add, sir?

I don't have anything to add right now.

I think we covered up pretty much all the questions and everything here today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Athena, anything you want to add?

I think the biggest thing is just letting students make their own decisions and choices, whether they be good or bad, and not be forcing them onto them.

Because at the end of the day, being in high school is you're getting ready for adulthood.

And in adulthood, it's just making decisions on your own without having anyone whisper into your ear, into your ear and being like, you should do this or you should do that.

Just let us make our own decisions, whether it leads to failure or to actually succeeding.

Honestly, I think that's just what makes people, like, not want to do things, because they feel like they're being forced to, you know, like, I don't want to wash the dishes if my mom is telling me to, but if I see them there and I'm like, okay, well, I could do this for my mom, be like a nice thing, and I just wash the dishes on my own without having to be told.

Malachi, anything you want to add, sir?

No, I think I. I think we covered everything pretty good.

Well, first, I want to say thank you very much for joining in this conversation with three strangers that you have never met.

I think that the things that you have said have resonated with me at least, and I know they've resonated with Michael and Alicia as well.

We're so thankful that you are here, Michael.

Alicia, anything you want to make a comment on?

As we wrap up today, I hear.

A theme that says, you know, I think Sasha, you mentioned that there are 2,000 or more students in your high school and it's not possible to maybe come up with a plan if I'm a teacher for every single individual student.

That said, we don't need to create a system that simply herds students along.

We can do better than that.

We need to do better than that so that students feel seen and heard and that they see failure if that's what happens as one of the main sources of how we learn stuff.

So please don't make decisions for us.

As you said, Athena and I just really appreciate those insights so much.

Dr. Munro, anything you want to say to wrap up?

Absolutely.

So I've really appreciated this conversation, but there is a prevailing theme, right, Michael?

Right.

It's about.

I heard Athena talk about the importance of student voice and self advocacy and really speaking for what they know is best.

It's about being relevant without teaching so our students can connect and engage in the content and really relate it to their own experiences.

So as Isaiah said, there is no busy work.

Right.

We're not giving out these packets at the end of the school year and it's not more of the same.

So I just wanted to stress some of those things because it's about engagement, not compliance.

When students are engaged, Malachi said that they come to school.

Right.

They're not late.

That's right.

Discipline referrals go down.

Right.

Sasha said that they get engaged.

They're excited about the learning experience.

We can learn from our students.

What the students don't know is that we also had college students sit in the same spaces and their thoughts and their opinions and their perspectives on their student experiences were very similar.

They want to be heard.

H E A R D Not heard it.

H E R D E. D. Because all of you are wonderfully different and beautifully diverse.

So thank you for joining us today in this really impactful and powerful conversation.

And I'm just going to wrap up and say thank you very much.

What a perfect, perfect way to end season 12 to hear from these four amazing students.

So one more time, I want to say thank you to Sasha, to Isaiah, to Athena, and to Malachi.

Students in an American high school, and they have important messages for all of us.

We'll see you next time in the wheelhouse.

You just heard it.

Not a program, not a strategy, not an initiative.

Students, their words, their experiences, their truth.

And here's the tension we can't ignore.

We say students are at the center, but too often they're not even in the conversation.

That's drift.

Not because we don't care.

It's because we've built systems that make it easier to talk about students than to truly listen to them.

So as we close season 12, this is the question we carry forward.

Are students shaping the system or just experiencing it?

Because if they're not shaping it, we're not as aligned as we think.

We're just more organized.

I want to thank our amazing special guests today.

Sasha, Athena, Isaiah, and Malachi.

Thank you for joining complete strangers and sharing your truth.

There is so much wisdom in your words and in your ideas.

A special thank you to the wheelhouse team, Kathy Mone, Michael Pipa, and Dr. Alicia Munro.

That's a wrap on season 12.

We'll see you soon in our hiatus series and again for another powerful set of conversations and special guests in season 13.