When the Teachers Need Help Too

After 20 years as an educational consultant and licensed social worker, Hashem Garrett has sat in hundreds of classrooms and just as many principals' offices. In this episode, he gets honest about what he's seen: teachers who are true beacons of light for their students, and others who've lost the ability to separate their own struggles from how they show up for kids.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. This is your host of the HMG podcast. This is your host, Hashem M. Garrett. I hope you're all doing wonderful today. Uh, for my new listeners, I'm an educational consultant, licensed master social worker, um, been in this field as an educational consultant for over 20 years. So, welcome to my show. For anybody who's heard me before, thank you for joining me. Today, I want to talk with you about my experience of being an educational consultant from the lens of the teachers that I've had to interact with. And so often when I'm coming into a school, I'm I'm speaking to students, you know, we're doing workshops in the health classes, I'm doing assembly presentations and even done some stuff with parent engagement, right? But one of the things I've I've really been fortunate to be able to do over these years is really have real meaningful conversations with teachers and being in their classrooms um with the same, you know, with the same teacher for a few days and go on and spend time with another teacher. And and so today, this conversation is to say, number one, I just want to say God bless all the teachers. Okay. Um, you do wonderful work. I've met such some so many phenomenal teachers in the field, um, rural schools, districts, public, I mean, private, public, rural, suburban, inner city, you name it. Just some phenomenal, phenomenal teachers. All right. Um, yeah, but now here's the other part. I've met some really kind of uh some people who shouldn't be in the field. Right? I I met some people who are they know how to antagonize the kids, man. You know, that's uh this is this is part of this this conversation that I want to have is that you know, too often, um, some teachers are in positions because it's you know, they've got union and they've been tenured and they've got the benefits, but they really don't care. And it shows, you know, some teachers are great and some really shouldn't be in a profession. They just know how to get underneath uh underneath a uh a child's skin. They know how to just, you know, make it difficult for other teachers. And and so this message today is to say for all of the wonderful ones that are out there who've been in the field, whether they just got started or they've been in it for 20 years, and they are literally a beacon of light, and the kids love them, they hug up on them, and the teachers got snacks, and the teacher knows all of the issues that the kid is going through, and they know how to calm them down, they know how to bring them up, they know how to be stern with them and correct them when they need to. And I'm telling you, I've seen some phenomenal teachers that are just wonderful, wonderful human beings, and those kids cry when they have to graduate, and the teachers are crying. And I mean, it's just a wonderful thing to see see teachers who really pour into kids and really, really love them. But I gotta say, listen, there's some who don't know how to leave their own issues at the door. There's some who come into the school and think that they are kids like the other kids. They they don't know how to be professional, they they they seem to lack the maturity to be able to decipher, hey, I'm an adult and this person is a child, and they the lines get blurred. I mean, I've been in classes where I've heard teachers, I'm not joking with you, I've heard teachers tell a kid, you keep talking, I'll I'll get my son to come up here and beat you up. Like, what kind of like I mean, I'm stuck. I'm looking, I'm listening to class, and I've had teachers say, I'll punch you in your face. Like, I've heard teachers really just say, we could fight. Like, I don't know who you think you're talking to because I wasn't always a teacher, and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, but we ought to re oudie adult. Am I telling you that the kids don't know how to push buttons? Of course they do. But they're the kids, right? And so we know that they're children, we know that they lack immaturity, we know that their brains are not fully developed. We know that. Am I saying that it's easy to always de-escalate, always de-escalate? No, but I am saying you we have to hold each other accountable. I can't just say, hey, let's just keep pointing the finger at the teacher and let's keep pointing the finger at the parents, and let's keep pointing the fingers at the cell phones, and let's point the fingers at the principals. When do you, as an educator who is in the in the mix on the front line, say, you know what, I'm feeling overwhelmed, right? And it's really not the kids' fault, right? You're coming into schools, and maybe you've got to take care of a parent who's not doing well. Maybe you're coming into schools and your child is wayward and they're acting up, and you're you're you're going through a messy divorce, and your your your pet is not feeling well, or you're not feeling well, and bills are mounting. Like, I get it, right? I'm not trying to say that we don't have our problems. I'm just trying to say, make sure that you get the help that you need so that you can be the best version of yourself in that present, in that, in that position. And so this is not a message to beat down on teachers again, and I'm gonna say it again and again. I've met some phenomenal teachers, and I'm and I kid you not. And then, you know, it's it's really bad when the teachers then they climb up the ladder and they become principals. And and I'm not saying it's like it's a bad thing, but I've seen great teachers leave the classroom and just go, oh, I'm glad for you. I'm happy that you are now an administrator and you're making them more money, but I've seen them just shine in classrooms and just go, you know, I walk into their classroom and you can see the lesson plan, you can see the energy and the time and the and the respect that they give the kids, and the kids give that same respect back. And I come and they're like, hey, Mr. Gary, yeah, I went back to school, got my PhD, yeah, Mr. Jarrett, yeah, Hashem. I'm I'm now a principal, and a part of me is so happy for them, right? But then a part of me is going, man, those kids, the kids who are not going to be able to see you in that teacher old boy, are they gonna, they don't know what they're missing out on, right? And so again, I'm not I I want to just make sure I'm stressing this, that it's a hard profession. It really, really is. Um, some people shouldn't be in the field. Some people really should leave the field. And for those who are in the field, I want you to feel supported. I want you to just, I just want you to get that round of applause. And you know the work that you're doing. You know that there are kids who love you and they would, they would literally give you the shirt off their back. They would do anything for you, and you're like a second parent to them. You know who you are, right? Um, but for those who just are going through a lot or don't really have the capacity to uh be in that position, it's okay to just pivot and just like say, hey, I need some help. Doesn't say mean you need to leave the field, right? And that's part of what I do as a consultant. I come into schools and I just try to support the staff, right? Because what happens is those teachers, right, if they begin to antagonize the kids and they're constantly telling the kids, get out, gotta go to the principal's office, gotta get out, or no, you can't come back into my classroom until you apologize, even though they don't, you know, they don't tell the full story of what role they may have played in it, right? Because we want to we want kids to respect us as adults, but the truth be told, we have to also give that respect. Sometimes it's almost like, well, I'm an adult and you're supposed to respect me, even if I disrespect you. Not in 2026. No, maybe in 1976, but not in 2026. That's not happening. You have to give that, you have to show that to kids, right? You have to show them, like, listen, I'm going to respect you, and I'm gonna keep respecting you. And this is just what I'm asking in return. This is and and we show that. And we but we don't what we want to just make sure that we show that with a way of being compassionate and being, you know, applying that empathy because kids are going through a lot and they and they're not adults. They don't know how to necessarily verbalize the trauma that they're dealing with on a day-to-day basis. We don't know exactly for those of us of a certain age, we don't really know what it's like to grow up in this era, in this generation, right? That loneliness is on a on a on the isolation, is on a whole nother level, right? And so again, I want to make sure teachers feel supported, right? Because we can't continue to just come to the teeth the principal's office, right? Because I've plenty of times I've at the end of the day, I'm sitting with the principals because they're the ones who are paying for me to come into the schools. And I'm sitting there and I'm talking with them. They're like, hold on, Mr. Guy, hold on, I got a teacher coming in. Hold on, Mr. Guy. And this is school after school after school after school. I'm not just talking about one school. I've been doing this for over 20 years, and I'm usually in about a hundred on a on a really busy, busy year. I might be in a hundred different schools in a year, right? And so I'm not not that many every year, but I'm I'm in a lot of schools. And and so I'm sitting and I'm talking with a principal, and they're like, Hashem, it's the teachers, Hashem. I know you're here to talk about conflict resolution with the kids, but Hashem, I need you to can we do a professional development with the teachers? They need to learn how to forgive one another, they need to learn how to forgive the kids. And so that's the message today is I'm here to just support you, teachers, administrators. If you're looking for somebody to come in, I hope that you know our schedule and the budgets aligned, but I'd love to come in and support you. But part of supporting means being real. Part of supporting means, hey, you have to get your stuff together. Part of supporting means, hey, listen, you have to ask for help. Part of supporting means that you can't keep, you know, berating a kid in front of his peers and think that that's going to be okay. It's not just what we do, it's how we do it. It's not what we say, it's how we say it. Right? And sometimes we we we we forget that part. And again, it and then another part is listen, we are not their friends. Right? They we can be friendly, we can be cordial, but there always has to be that line where they go, yes, Mr. Such and Such, yes, man, da-da-da-da, right? And we're just trying to get them through that those difficult years of being adolescents. And I'm talking, I'm talking to all of this, the principals out there. You do a phenomenal job. It is not easy being an administrator. And most teachers, I don't know if you notice, teachers, but you have no idea how difficult it is to be a teacher a principal trying to run a school, and at the same time not being able to, you know, teachers say I need this, I need that, I need this. Yeah, well, the principal only has a certain amount of money on the line on the budgets, and superintendents are, you know, saying, listen, this is coming down from the state, and then trying to get some grants. And so here you have one principal, you know, two, maybe two, three different assistant principals, depending on the size of the school, but all of that's being loaded onto the principal's desk, and it's a lot. So again, just here to support in any way possible. I know that there's a teacher shortage. I I know that um it's it's a difficult time that we're we're living in. And um, but we just all need to make sure that we care about the parents, we care about the students. We have to show that same amount of compassion to the teachers, the social workers, the psychologists, the custodians, the security guards, you know, food services, everybody. We're all in this together and the principals. We're all in this together, right? All we're all in this ship, in this boat together. Right? And so I just wanna I want to commend every single teacher in the building. Because if there's an active shooter, you all are in it together, right? The the Don Hoffstrong's the principal in Connecticut who gave her life, and there's you know more than enough teachers who sacrifice and put themselves in harm's way, who go out of their way to feed kids, to do wonderful things for their kids. So again, uh, I want to just say please keep up the good work. It's August 2026. You're doing phenomenal, phenomenal work. But as for help, I know that you carry a lot every day when you walk into that building and nobody knows, and you have to be present for probably 150 different students, and you you feel overwhelmed. Right? And so I just want you to know you are loved, you are special. Whatever is rare or unique has enormous value, and it is the same with you. So God bless you all. Continue to do the good work that you're doing. Thank you. Stay well.