EP. 03 | Schooling: Foundations For Success or Factories For Conformity? Featuring Breanna May
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Anonymous: [00:00:00] Like your girlfriend, but hotter.
Hollie Wild: Welcome to controversial as fuck.
Buckle up legends. And my God, do we have an absolute doozy in the house today. So welcome back to controversial as fuck where we shatter norms and we redefine boundaries. I'm your host, Holly wild. And today we've got an absolute powerhouse in the studio. She's someone who redefines what it means to be a disruptor.
And this is none other than Brianna May. She's an educator turned trailblazing entrepreneur. Brianna is not just a business mentor and mindset magician, although that's fricking awesome. She's also a CEO speaker and self proclaimed queen of banter. And that bloody oath is she ever, she's a [00:01:00] bike lover and a wanderluster who can't cook to save her bloody life, but she might just change yours.
She's bubbly when the crowds around yet craves the quiet moments with a good book. Brianna's story is one of daring transformation. Just three years ago, she stepped out of the high school classroom for the last time. Not because she didn't love teaching, let me be clear, but because she was driven to teach what truly freaking matters.
From emotional intelligence to effective communication and leadership, Brianna now teaches the lessons that schools miss. The ones that equip us to lead lives, not by default, but by design. And today she's here to dive into some hard truths with us. We'll explore if our education system is manufacturing compliant citizens rather than independent thinkers.
Why is there a push for university degrees? Is it just a grand scam? And what it truly takes to prepare our kids for real life, not just standardized tests. So buckle up as we ask the tough [00:02:00] questions and uncover even tougher answers with a woman who lives by no one's rules, but her own. This is Brianna May.
She is my own personal coach and mentor. I freaking love her to death. She is like home. When you meet her, she literally feels like home. You are going to love her. So let's dive in. We are live. I'm so freaking pumped for this conversation with you, Brianna. Like seriously, I've been thinking about this for weeks.
This could go so many different directions since we've chatted before, but I'm going to actually get you to start off with telling us about your journey to becoming the disruptor that you are. Today, what sparked your passion to challenge and change the norms within your industry? Holy
Breanna May: moly. How long have you got for this one?
So it's so funny. First of all, when you're like, when you say I'm a disruptor, I was like, wow, I never would have thought that. But if I look over the [00:03:00] thread of my life, I'm like, actually, I never really did like rules. I never really did like to be told what to do. I always had a very inquisitive mind, And when I went to a Catholic school, that wasn't necessarily a special in religion class, that was not appreciated.
So when I would ask very innocent questions as a kid, I remember getting like almost told off. And I was like, well, I'm just trying to have a conversation. Like, isn't that what this is about? Isn't it? Aren't we meant to open our minds? And that thread I have found to be quite consistent through my life.
And so when I went through lots of different systems, because I did follow the, what would you say? The socially acceptable and almost impressive pathway. So it was like, Brianna, you've done very well at school. You should do law or medicine or something like that. And to be completely honest, I, at the time wanted to do psychology or [00:04:00] advertising or writing.
I really wanted to be a journalist or something like Oprah. But it was very much like, well, that would be a waste. That would be a bit of a waste. So I did go and follow the system and I did six years of university and I did law. And then I did all these different things and I wasn't happy. And I found myself back in the classroom being a high school teacher.
And. I fucking loved that more than anything. Like I believe that that was the most beautiful serendipitous divine intervention that I ended up in a classroom. I didn't necessarily choose to be a teacher. It just kind of fell in my lap and. Aligned with my values at the time I wanted to travel. I wanted to, I love learning.
Learning is my favorite thing in the world, but inside of all these systems, I started to say, well, how, hold on, are we actually encouraging people to think for themselves or do we want them to think this way and that I've noticed. To be quite [00:05:00] common in universities. I've also noticed when I was a high school teacher, this system is actually not giving us what we want for our kids.
I want, I love my students so much. And I would often think, Oh my god, like aren't we meant to be sending them out into the world ready to thrive? Aren't we meant to be sending them into the world feeling confident in themselves? Aren't we meant to send them into the world knowing how to regulate their emotions and go for their dreams and actually dream fucking bigger and then aren't we meant to get them aligned in their mind and soul and in their spirit to be able to And a lot of the time I was looking around thinking, we're producing robots of teachers, like the teachers themselves feel robotic, the teachers themselves feel overwhelmed and uninspired and frustrated and out of energy to give and in pursuit of, you know, I don't know what [00:06:00] in pursuit of, I don't know what the actual objective of the education system is anymore.
We're not producing the results that I believe we should be aiming for, which is to get students ready for the real world. We haven't done that. And it's failing. And so that was a really long answered way of saying, I guess I became a just, I guess I was already a disruptor, but then being inside the education system, I was like, no, I want to disrupt this.
I want to evolve this. I want to start to bring awareness to a system that is failing kids, failing parents, failing teachers. And I believe there needs to be revolution.
Hollie Wild: Wow. I, um, I literally have goosebumps while you're talking and I actually get, I'm not kidding. I get emotional about this topic, partly it's partly selfish reasons.
I've got a young daughter who's not of school age yet, but that is coming. And I'm not going to lie. I get nervous. I get really, really nervous at the [00:07:00] thought of. Putting her in regular education, even though, honestly, I love school. I'm one of those people that actually had a beautiful experience at school.
I loved it. I thrived in it. I had a really, really good school, really great time in education. So a piece of me would love that for my daughter, but I do get nervous when I look at how the system is today.
Anonymous: And
Hollie Wild: yeah, hearing you talk just gets me so freaking fired up. I'm not going to lie. One of the things that I wanted to ask you actually was.
Cause in looking at all of this, like, obviously education is not a new thing. Education goes back even to like ancient civilizations, education's been around for a long time, but something in my own research, when I was looking at it, something that definitely had a big impact in my opinion, not that I'm well knowledgeable about education, but was the industrial revolution
Anonymous: and
Hollie Wild: the fact that like there was this massive shift and that was like a whole reform [00:08:00] in itself of.
Making compulsory education at being very standardized and, you know, one set way of doing things, which you could say was also to help, obviously, um, you know, the parents that were factory workers and to push out nine to five jobs, people ready for nine to five jobs. Not that there's anything wrong with a nine to five job, but do you think our schools are still stuck in that?
Industrial mold today. Like, what are your thoughts on that?
Breanna May: Oh, 100%. And if you actually look, it's so interesting. You've probably seen it on socials. You know, that meme where it's like. If you were to look at a car back in the day, compared to a car now, if you were to look at technology in the 1920s, compared to our technology now, if you were to look at all these different things in society in the twenties, thirties, forties, compared to now, we have had so much evolution, technological innovation.
Our society's structure has changed. And yet If you looked in the classroom, [00:09:00] you could be forgiven for thinking it's still the 1920s. It is so back. It is so outdated. And this is the problem. Students are saying to me on a regular basis, miss this. How is this relevant? And I was like, Oh fuck. Like it's probably not in their current day and age.
And the first thing about learning is that we need to be intrinsically motivated. We need to see its importance. We need to see how. And why it's going to impact our lives. And the kids are going, why do I need to learn this? And they're bored. And there's so much to it. But yes, I do think that the system is stuck in a really out of date structure.
And often the way that the system has tried to change or the changes that I've seen is that Let's add more, is always the answer. Let's add more in the curriculum. Let's add more tests. Let's add more standardized exams, NAPLAN. [00:10:00] Let's add more administration. Let's add more red tape. And what that's doing is creating the opposite effect of actually burning kids out and teachers out.
Hollie Wild: Yeah, I was going to say that must have a big impact on teachers too, like I can't imagine like how, yeah, how heavy it must feel at times with that workload and that weight of all of their students on them as well.
Breanna May: Yeah, and like. I actually, I get so emotional because nobody cares about kids and learning more than a teacher, and you will see that time and time and time again.
Teachers are notorious for burning themselves out. To light their kids candles. And you will see them at the shops in Kmart on the weekend, buying little bits and pieces so they can put together an engaging lesson and staying up late to mark papers so they can give really great feedback to their kid and staying in at recess and lunch and getting in trouble because they missed a fucking Judy again, because the kid was [00:11:00] crying in their classroom.
And that was my day every single day. And I loved it because I just want, I lived for those moments. Where I had connection with my kids, where my kids would light up because they actually understood something. And that's such a small part of the job now, like teaching and learning is a bonus. That you get to do if you've done the rest of your work, that's how it feels.
And it's like, how does that feel for the teacher? And how does that feel for the kids? It's not helping. It's not making kids. There's so much wrong with it. I'll just, yeah, I get very emotional and there's got to be a change. There's just got to be a change.
Hollie Wild: Yeah, a hundred percent. And of course you get emotional because you've also lived it.
You're not just talking about a system that you haven't been entrenched in yourself. Like you've lived this. But do you think. Schools are just churning out like rule followers, aka compliant citizens, instead of critical thinkers. Like is the whole [00:12:00] education system just one big scam or is that too big of a statement?
Breanna May: It depends which depends how I answer it. If I'm in my conspiracy theory mode and I'm like, looking at that, then I'll say yes. But on a ground level at a grassroots level, I can't say that that's been the case. What I've seen at the ground level, maybe not the systemic level. And so there's probably two ways to look at it.
On the ground, it's, it's a lot of people, principals, even like principals, schools, individuals, teachers, they make up the system really, and they care. They want it to be different and they want critical thinkers and they want all of those things. The system, however, which is actually politicians pulling the strings and making the decisions, the Department of Education and the, The politics of education is usually that ministers themselves have never worked in a classroom.
They don't know. [00:13:00] They're not the ones that should be making the rules, making the decisions. They're not the professionals. And so, on the one hand, I think, yes. It's a systemic problem that is producing like mass produced rule followers so that we can have workers and, and people that go to university.
Cause university is also a business. University is there to make money and they want people who will just follow the, follow the rules and go to university. That's a whole nother issue because the university system's a bit of a scam these days, I would say too. Um, but on the ground. I would say 95 percent of teachers want to encourage creative thought, want to encourage kids to dream, want to encourage kids to think critically.
And unfortunately, because of the time pressures, that doesn't always happen.
Hollie Wild: I love that you made that distinction though, because that actually gives me hope when I think of, you know, again, selfishly just thinking of my daughter here, but also everyone's children's as well, everyone's [00:14:00] kids as well. But it does give me hope to know that it's not when we say the system we're talking about.
The education system, the government level, not the teachers, the principals, you know, they're the ones that actually do want to help to, to nurture our children and to help them to be critical thinkers. And yeah, that gives me a lot of hope. And you just mentioned university. I actually had a question for you about this.
Yeah. Is this whole push for university degrees Is that just a big scam to trap people into debt or what are your thoughts? I mean, you, you touched on it then about universities in general.
Breanna May: So I witnessed something really interesting happening where when you and I went to school, we're roughly the same age.
I think we're the same age when we went to school, there was definitely a push to do the ATAR route or like the TEE route, whatever it's called in whichever state. And. While that's still kind of there, there [00:15:00] has been a little bit of a flip to the extent where now the kids are saying, miss, why would I bother taking that route?
We're all going to get into university anyway. Like, why would I take this sort of tertiary route in year 11 and 12 of doing exams and choosing the hard subjects when we all know that universities take anyone? And that is the truth. Like, universities do. I've seen kids who, I shit you not, Finished year 12 with really minimal, very minimal literacy skills, numeracy skills, like barely scraped by.
And a couple of years later, they'll be like, yeah, I'm, I'm studying psychology or whatever, or I'm studying whatever they'll, and it's not to say like, yes, I believe that everyone should be given the chance to do tertiary education if that's what they want to do. But nine times out of 10, well, not nine times out of 10, [00:16:00] that's a really far out, um, stat, but I would say.
That yes, universities are now taking anyone. And what that is doing is decreasing the value. of higher education and the quality of professionals that are coming out of degrees. And if you look at the education system as a whole, this is one of the problems that I see. And when you compare it to countries where education is extremely advanced, countries like Finland, Australia has a low barrier to entry to be a teacher.
You can get very, very average below average scores in your year 11 and 12 exams and get straight into education. And then when you're doing an education degree, it's an absolute fucking shambles to be completely honest. We don't teach anything practical. We don't teach anything that actually supports the teachers and then they're thrown to the wolves.
And so, yeah, there's just, there's so much there.
Hollie Wild: Holy shit. I have not actually heard it like that [00:17:00] before, which is scary because then. That is also having a massive influence on the education of our children and their future. And yeah, I have not heard it quite like that before. That was a little bit mind blowing.
Breanna May: And the societal, the societal paradigm of education, like in Finland, to be a teacher You are placed amongst lawyers and engineers and doctors. It is such a well respected profession. And what happens when it's well respected? Society's like society's thoughts and behaviors and, and beliefs around the importance of education changes.
When we as a society say, anyone can be a teacher, you'd barely even need a pass. Just go do that. What's that saying about the importance and the respect of this profession? It's not even taken seriously by the institutions themselves. And so [00:18:00] why would students respect them? I had, this is a, this is a sign of that.
I was teaching at a very high, like one of Perth's. Best private schools for boys. And one of them said to me, my students, he was about 14. He said, miss, you obviously never made it as a lawyer. If you wanted to be a teacher. And I was like, wow, isn't that really interesting that that's what people. And, and that's the truth.
A lot of people, when I said I was a teacher were like, Oh yeah, cute, like nice, but if I said I had a law degree, it was like, Ooh, wow. And I thought no dig on lawyers, but isn't it. the most incredible thing to do to educate the next generation. And should that not be amongst one of the more regarded professions?
I believe that it should be. And in countries where education statistics and well being and all of that is high, They have a very different standard of education [00:19:00] and they respect teachers a lot differently than we do here.
Hollie Wild: Yeah. That's a massive point right there. You are right. It is definitely not as revered as a, as a job as yeah.
Like something like a lawyer, you're absolutely right. And I was just thinking about with things being more standardized, especially since you know, the industrial revolution, what about like, what impact does that have on kids who don't fit. the mold or who, yeah, like if, if there's this one size fits all approach, not every kid is one size.
In fact, we're all kids are different. So how does that play out in schools?
Breanna May: Those are the kids that I feel for the most. And I was like you Holly, like, I loved school. I performed very well in school because I did fit that mould of education. It's very much like route learning. It's sit down, listen, read.
Regurgitate it. And I was great for that. Like that was fine for me, the kids that don't [00:20:00] fit that mold. And in the junior school, I often find young boys, like little boys, they're five or six when they're being asked to sit at a desk for seven hours a day, I can barely do that. And so then they get tired with like the.
Oh, you should go get tested for ADHD, or you've obviously got a learning difficulty, or you're naughty, or you're not focused. And then what that can do. And it's not just boys, it's girls as well. If you don't fit the mold, those kids become disengaged in their learning. And they learn very early on that learning is not fun and they don't want to do it anymore.
Their confidence goes. Plummets and then with their confidence plummeting their identity shifts with it. And you don't want like now as a mindset person, I, I'm now a mindset coach and expert, it's like the, the worst thing that we can do to young kids is to, for them to develop an identity that I'm not smart.
Anonymous: Yeah.
Breanna May: And that breaks my heart because there's not enough opportunities for kids to [00:21:00] understand that intelligence comes in so many different forms and can be tested in different ways. And so the side effects for kids that don't fit that mold can be quite heartbreaking. And, and what I'll say to counter that is there are some incredibly talented and skilled and aware teachers who, Um, I think it's really important that we know who those students are and we'll go above and beyond to make sure that those
Hollie Wild: students never feel that way.
Yeah, they're the legends, truly, the teachers that go above and beyond, because I can imagine if a child doesn't fit the mold, doesn't fit the one size, you know, fits all mold, it would be the hardest time in their life going through the education system as it is right now. That would be. Really, really difficult.
And that's why I think teachers like how you were as a teacher, a pure angels to have. Um, and again, it does give me hope for sure. Yeah. Um, with young people experiencing higher levels of depression, stress, [00:22:00] anxiety. Cause I mean, that's pretty clear that it seems to be a bit of a pandemic itself with, with young people.
Anonymous: Shouldn't
Hollie Wild: we be integrating things like. emotional intelligence, mindset, mental health, education into the actual curriculum. Um, what's your thoughts on that and what other critical elements do you think really should be included?
Breanna May: I love that you asked this question. Obviously I'm biased because this is what I teach now, but There's studies, there's so many studies, there's so much research.
There's so much that points to the fact that the true determinant for somebody's success in life. And when I say success in life, I mean, fulfillment and ability to handle adversity and ability to exist in this world. The single thing that will predict somebody's ability to be able to cope later in life is actually their emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence, which [00:23:00] is Not at, and this is something I also want to say, EQ is not at odds with IQ.
It's like, we've created this false dichotomy where it's like, well, school is for IQ and the home is for EQ for emotions. It's like, actually, no, they go hand in, they go hand in hand. There's a beautiful quote and I can't remember who it's from. It's about emotional intelligence, where it says emotional intelligence is not the triumph of heart overhead, but the beautiful nuance where both come together.
And it's just so true. If we can, as a system, embed the Skills, because it is a skill. Skills, skill building in emotional intelligence, that is the ability to regulate our emotions, understand our emotions, connect with others, express our emotions, all of those things. Not only does our academic performance increase, We're [00:24:00] more likely to have meaningful connections and relationships later in life, which is one of the key determinants for our mental health.
We're more likely to go for the jobs that we want to go for because we trust in our ability to handle the, maybe the high stakes that come with it. We're going to perform better in things like, um, job interviews because we can relate to humans better. And if schools are there to set kids up for career success or to be good workers, Or to, you know, have a business, which is not what school really does.
School does not encourage entrepreneurs, but if school were to set kids up for success in adulthood, we would be doing emotional intelligence as a skillset. And we would be also incorporating learning that. Is relevant to modern day.
Hollie Wild: Yeah, perfect. And that leads me into if, if we wanted to prepare our kids for real life, [00:25:00] should we be pushing for more personalized, um, like holistic or alternative paths?
What's your vision for this? And do you think these options are actually realistically available to regular families? Not just the well off.
Breanna May: There are, yes and no. So there are schools that are really pushing forward and paving the way. And there are models where success has been shown. It's not necessarily always, Finland is always the country that I look to.
Unfortunately, Australian politics and government usually follow in the footsteps of America and the UK. And we don't really want to follow their schooling, in my opinion. That's not true. Really the role model, um, but for parents, what seems to be really great for kids development and for kids confidence and for kids engagement in learning is when it's like [00:26:00] integrative and relevant, relevant play based learning, especially at a younger age.
So for example, if a child was It's showing an interest in collecting bugs, creating a curriculum and an assessment and the assessment doesn't need to be a standardized test where we bring together sciences and English and history and geography based on what they're showing an interest in that is relevant and engaging in their life.
A child, especially a kid, I think will learn so much more from play and And if, if the educator and the parent can encourage that and start to bring in different elements of learning and different subjects, that's what I would be doing as a parent. And as an educator, I'd be trying to make it relevant and integrated.
Hollie Wild: Yeah, that that's the dream that I would love for my daughter and for all of my friends, kids as well. [00:27:00] That's the dream. And, but to be able to actually have it. At a school like that would be amazing because a lot of us starting to think about homeschooling these days, it is becoming a lot more common than what I thought it would be.
Anonymous: Yeah.
Hollie Wild: Um, I have looked into that, even for my own daughter, I'm not sure which way we're going to go, but to be able to have exactly what you've just described in a schooling system would be amazing and so supportive for the kids.
Breanna May: And it's happening. It's happening in Australia. There's people like, Lael Stone is a really great pioneer in the education space.
She has built her own school in New South Wales or Victoria. I can't remember now. My geography was not my thing, but I think it was, I think it was Victoria maybe. She's built her own school that does exactly that. And They will learn through, for example, she had year sixes who wanted to do a podcast because that's relevant and that might actually help them these days.
They might want to be podcast producers or social media managers. And that's actually the reality for a lot [00:28:00] of kids these days. So they were building a podcast studio and they had to put together a budget and they had to come up with the finances and they had to write a persuasive speech to the school leaders about why they needed a podcast studio.
And then they had to bring their English skills in to put together how to write a questions and. They did it in such a way that the kids were so engaged. And I just think, Oh my God, if that was an option for me at school, I would have been the stress. Well, I just, I would have been more, I'd already loved school, but can you imagine the kids that are like, well, I don't really want to learn about Shakespeare.
I want to do a podcast. If that was possible. And then the other thing is too, which I do feel I need to say is that. Every kid is so different and that's why I've, I've really been hesitant when parents ask me which, which school should I send my kids to or private or public or alternative Montessori or Steiner school or homeschool.
My answer is always, it depends on your child. [00:29:00] Like it's so different. So it depends on your kid. Every kid is different. And every, some kids actually thrive in the mainstream system. And that's perfect. Like you and I were those kids and it was great for us despite social problems. But yeah, I think that there's no one size fits all because no kid is the same.
So the parent really is. A parent knows their child, parents know what their kids need and what their kids might need extra support in and what's best for their child and there is always options for that child.
Hollie Wild: 100 percent and you've also just touched on a point that You are right. Every kid is different.
And the parents do know their kids better than anyone else. And it's also on us parents to help support critical thinking and questioning and, you know, supporting them in, in things that they're passionate about. And it's not just on the education system. Like that's also something that's on parents as well.
And, um, When I think of my daughter, like I could see her [00:30:00] thriving in, in mainstream education. I could see that one of the things I would love to know though, is there some way of being able to tell if a school is a good one? Like, how do you know? How can you, how can you tell which ones are seen as better than others?
Breanna May: I love this question. I, if I was choosing a school for my child, what I would be looking at is the class sizes, which is so interestingly something that not many people ever ask. Yeah, I didn't think of that. Yeah. Class sizes as a teacher, and this is like inside a scoop. When you're the teacher, what happens is you get allocated your classes at the beginning, at the end of term four, usually, and you see what you've got next year.
And if you're a teacher that has Five classes of 32 students and you don't have EA, you don't have support, which is the common, that's pretty common. What's EA? Sorry. An education assistant. You don't have an EA in your [00:31:00] class because there's not enough funding or whatever other reason or they've used the funding for PR for their school, whatever.
So as the teacher, I can tell you that your child is not getting much attention. Your child is not really getting differentiation. I'm not really able to spend lots of quality time with that child. I am kind of just trying to get through that hour. And if 32 students are in that class, I'm probably going to be focused on the ones that, you know, what's the saying?
The squeaky wheel gets That's what's happening in the, in the classroom. I will be giving my attention to the child who maybe is extremely disruptive, maybe has behavioral issues, maybe, do you know what I mean? And so class sizes is something that I think is really important and schools should be doing what they can to reduce class sizes.
Um, Which unfortunately is just what I've seen. It's getting, because there's a teacher shortage now too. So now because there's a [00:32:00] teacher shortage, they're actually putting classes together and making the classes bigger. Which means more kids can get away with being, you know, not really tended to. So I'd look at class sizes.
I'd look at subject selection. And what that means for your child. Some kids are way more likely to want to do things like dance and drama or sport and mechanics. I once encouraged one of my, um, parents. To take their kid out of this private school and go down the road to the public school, because he's a hands on boy.
He wants to be in the mechanics workshop. Take him there. They, they are so good with workshops for all of that. Like go there. There's schools that are really great with sports and they will have specialist soccer programs, cheerleading programs, dance programs. So that's where it's like match your child to the school.
Not just the suburb or the area that you live in, or even within your suburb area, look for those things. So subject selection, class [00:33:00] sizes, and then I'd be looking at their wellbeing programs. And I'd be asking the principal, what's the principal's or the leadership's position on mindset, on pastoral care, on.
Doing things for their emotional intelligence as well. And how much do they really value? Cause a lot of schools, and you will see this in your first meeting with a principal, some of them will promote to you how incredible they're doing in NAPLAN. Some will promote to you and just talk a lot about. How well they perform against the national average.
And what that says to me is this is an extremely academic school that will promote that. And that might come with pressures for kids who don't do so well academically and you need to consider that. So, what is the school's main advertising proposition? And does that align with what your child really needs?
Hollie Wild: That's a huge bonus everything you've just said then because a lot of that is stuff I wouldn't have even thought of to even ask or to look into. So yeah, that's definitely an amazing inside scoop [00:34:00] right there. One of the things I wanted to ask you is, What should education really be doing to shape future leaders and disruptors?
And you've touched on a lot of this already, but is there anything you'd like to add to that?
Breanna May: I would like to see way less prioritization of standardized testing. I think that we've become a school system that loves to test, test, test, test, test, test, national scores, national like NAP plan. They start NAP plan so young.
Um, So I would like to see way less focus on that and more focus on effort and yeah, effort over outcome and play, play, you know, in Finland, which I keep referring to, they don't even, they don't do any testing until high school. And then it's like one test just to see where they're at, because they trust their educators because their educators are highly skilled professionals.
To do their own testing and to adapt [00:35:00] accordingly. So I see testing as a tool for professionals, which should be used by the professionals to gauge student comprehension and adjust accordingly. As a weapon to use against the kids to tell them whether or not they fit the mold and they've, you know, performed to the average and all of that.
So I'd just really like to see less of that and I'd like to see less curriculum. And I'd also like to say, say. Teachers given more autonomy to just leave it to the professionals. Let's just let professionals do their thing. That's what they want. They just want to teach.
Hollie Wild: Yeah. Wow. How, how do you see this all happening?
How do we, where does it start?
Breanna May: I'm honestly a little, I'm quite disheartened. Um, because And I speak, I advocate for a lot of teachers now because so many [00:36:00] teachers cannot use their voice, the ones that are still there. And sometimes the more I use my voice, the more I'm shut down. Um, because schools still need funding.
Schools are still being driven by politicians. Politicians still have their agendas. And so things need to happen. I'm not saying yet that it is happening. I'm seeing it getting worse. Teaches all. Teachers of, um, a few weeks ago did a strike and nothing changed. It was barely reported in the media. The teacher shortage is barely reported in the media.
People don't realize how bad it is. I'm having teachers reach out to me who are suicidal. I'm having teachers reach out to me who are actually trading their profession for going and getting a job at KSC or Coles because they can't take it anymore. And, um, I don't know what the answer is at this point.
All I can do is [00:37:00] keep speaking and doing my part and putting my blinkers on. And I, I really think it's important that parents also do their part. Parents need to rally behind the teachers because we all just want more for the kids. We want more for the educators, more for your children. More for the kids, the students in our classrooms.
And I think if parents started to get on board with this too, and saying to schools, we don't like seeing this. We don't like seeing our kids in classes with 31 other children. We don't like, you know, why do the, for example, I'm getting really like
Anonymous: Go for
Breanna May: it. Yeah. I, I spoke to a teacher two weeks ago who had a class.
She had a class all day. She taught, she had five classes with high school students, two duties. And then she was meeting with 32 parents for parent teacher interviews after school, no time off, no extra, no extra Support for a, now you've got to do more planning and photocopying outside of your school hours.
No, just [00:38:00] move on. And then tomorrow night, you've got another 32 parents to see for the parent interviews. This is a teacher who is now in care of 32 children again tomorrow. And it's like, parents want to be asking for better. Parents should be demanding for better too, because we, it's all, we just want better.
Hollie Wild: Yeah, yeah. And you are right. It's, it's all of us together as corny as that probably sounds. It is literally that though. It is us. I mean, this probably sounds dramatic, but it is us against the system in a way system being from government level, not from the teachers, the principals it's yeah. We're with the teachers as parents for sure.
That that's huge. Um, if one last question, if our goal is to support sharp, critical thinkers, What's the first wrecking ball we should swing at the traditional education system? And again, you haven't touched on this, but what would be the very first thing that you would change?[00:39:00]
Breanna May: An overcrowded curriculum.
Anonymous: Yeah.
Breanna May: The curriculum is so crowded that we don't, we don't leave time for discussion. I was very lucky that I was a senior English teacher. And with that comes a lot of philosophy and a lot of deconstructing texts and looking for like critical thinking, what was the author saying here?
And really cool conversations. And my favorite conversations as a teacher were the debates and the heated discussions and the kids disagreeing and the kids saying, nah, this author thought that, and, you know, it was so awesome. It was the highlight of my career was just these unplanned. untested discussions.
And unfortunately. There was never a lot of time for that because it was like, we've got to move on. We've got another course to teach. We've got another text to teach. You've got another test to do. We've got to get this done, that done, this done. And so it's just next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing.
You're always chasing your [00:40:00] tail. And for me, I want to have critical conversations with my really intelligent students. There's just not enough time. And so. The first thing I would get rid of if I wanted critical thought was an overcrowded curriculum and more time for class discussion.
Hollie Wild: Yes. Oh God, yes.
Breanna May: Yeah,
Hollie Wild: love it. Okay. I'm going to give you three rapid fire questions. But first, is there anything that you wanted to add to the conversation that I haven't asked questions on anything you want to get off your chest before we finish this up?
Breanna May: I just want to make it really, really clear that Although I, it sounds very much like I'm speaking against the education system, I am with and for the teachers, the principals, and the people on the ground doing the work because from what I can see and what I have experienced, educators, principals, education support, education assistants, they are the most heart centered, hard [00:41:00] working, Individuals I've ever met.
They really are like heroes that just go unnoticed and unpraised and they're not doing it for that anyway. But I just want to make it really clear that I'm not speaking against those people. I think the system needs to change. And It's going to be a really nice day when that happens.
Hollie Wild: Well, 100 percent and look, you can feel your heart in this conversation and that you are 100 percent for teachers and you're not against them whatsoever.
I mean, you've, as I said before, you've lived it, you've been a teacher, you know exactly what it's like with firsthand experience. And it's very different to wanting, Reform for a system, but you are a hundred percent supportive of the actual teachers. So yeah, you can feel your heartbreak, um, with these rapid fire questions.
These are without justification or explanation, which is going to be hard for me to not probe more I'm such a sticky bait, but the first one, if you could instantly dismantle one institution, I mean, this is probably clear, but you might [00:42:00] surprise me, which would it be?
Breanna May: It's a really close tie between education system and the sick system because it's not health system.
It's the sick system. So those two. Oh yeah.
Hollie Wild: Love it. What's one piece of mainstream advice you think is actually harmful?
Breanna May: God. Oh, there's so much. There's so much. Um, mainstream advice that's harmful. Hmm.
Hollie Wild: You know, it's hard to pick one.
Breanna May: Yeah, there's so much. I would say most mainstream advice is bullshit. Um, um, it's something to do with trusting authority.
Trust, just trust authority and don't ask questions. Just trust the people in the white coat. Trust the people in the, with the fancy titles. Don't, don't ask for yourself. You don't know yourself best. It's something around blindly trusting the [00:43:00] media, blindly trusting the government, blindly trusting doctors, I think being.
Yeah, it's something around that.
Hollie Wild: Bloody earth, you're speaking my language, woman. What's your boldest prediction for the future of your industry?
Breanna May: Do you know what's really sad? Is that for the education system, I don't see a lot of change. But, I see a lot of Disruptors who are building alternate alternatives.
And I think more and more people are going to seek out alternatives, uh, because more and more parents are going to be dissatisfied with the system that's meant to be supporting their kids and is actually not.
Hollie Wild: Oh, a hundred percent. And if you are part of building that, my daughter is going to be a part of that straight away.
When I said earlier that I think I could see my daughter thriving in mainstream education, just to clarify, I don't mean the way that it's set up. I mean, going to a school where there's [00:44:00] children that she can play with and, you know, just having that social aspect as well, as opposed to say me educating her at home.
Like I could see her thriving in that, but we a hundred percent need the disruptors just like you out there to actually bring change. And yeah, even if that is completely alternative and separate to what is considered the education system as it is right now. So. I would love to hear from you. Bray before we finish what you're working on, what you have, how people can connect with you and yet mind school.
Tell us about
Breanna May: that. The mind school is my main thing right now in the mind school method is a certification. I started out saying it was a certification for coaches, which it absolutely is. However There's a lot of professionals, corporates, mothers who have come to. The mind school method to learn emotional intelligence, to learn shadow work, to learn mindset, NLP, and all the things like my mission in my company is to teach the things we were never taught at [00:45:00] school.
And that's what we're doing. We're teaching those things so that we can become highly skilled coaches, but also, you know, Grounded autonomous, sovereign, confident humans who forge our own path and create really meaningful connections to ourselves and to others. And so the mind school method is opening again in a few weeks and we have one session in Perth and one session in Queensland, which is really exciting.
And so all of that's on my socials and. You can find more information there.
Hollie Wild: Yeah. Awesome. And I'll link all that in the show notes so that people can find that with ease. And I just want to say, thank you so much. You are an absolute trailblazer in your industry. Like, yeah, you were just blazing such a big trail and I love watching your journey.
You just inspire the crap out of me and anyone that knows you. And yeah, thank you for coming on and helping us as parents or people just interested in what's going on, what the crap is going on with the education system. Thank you for taking your time out of your day. Having a chat with me. I so appreciate you.
[00:46:00] Thanks for having me. Thanks for tuning into this controversial episode. If you found our discussion thought provoking, share it with your friends and spark some debates. And if you're a thought leader ready to disrupt the status quo and dive into bold, unfiltered conversations, then I'd love to hear from you.
Visit my website or email me at hello at hollywild. com to join me on air. Let's make some goddamn noise together and ignite the controversy. Until next time, stay fierce and keep questioning everything. This is Holly Wilde signing off.
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