A Disruptor's Journey Through Education with Aurelius Raines II

A Disruptor's Journey Through Education - Aurelius Raines II

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dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Alright folks, welcome back to the Exit interview podcast for black educators with me, your host, Dr. Asia. Uh, you know, I know I say this all the time. Fire guests, great guest. Um, we got another amazing guest today, Aurelius Rains. The second who I ran into at South by Southwest. He would say, oh, you saw a big black dude and you walked up and started talking.

But I'm doing street interviews out there and I gotta talk to my black folks to see if their educators and what their journey is. And so now I'll fast forward several months later, we are here in the studio sharing, talking. Welcome to the podcast. It really is. How are you today?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. I'm doing just great. It's uh, it's a wonderful Sunday and it's Father's Day, so, you

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: It is

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: feeling good.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: good. Why don't you start by introducing yourself to the people. [00:01:00] Who are you?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Sure. My name is Aelius Rains the second, the second of his name. I am from Chicago, born and raised my entire life. Um, I got, um, am a kid who dealt with, um, some neurodivergence when I was growing up. Um, so I had a very rough, um, relationship with school and, uh, now I'm a teacher trying to make it better for other kids.

Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: that, that you do that full circle and what a fascinating story. Um, folks, you're gonna love where Aurelius is working now. Uh, first time I got that answer like, where do you work? What are you doing now, now that you've love education? And I'll let him tell you about that. Um, but let's go ahead and get started.

So first things first, tell us about your education journey. What did you, or how did you decide it was education was for you and that you wanted to be in in teaching?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, that was just something that was [00:02:00] in me. Um, my grandfather spent some time as a teacher. My grandmother on my mother's side was a teacher. Um, mom always claimed that she did not like teaching, but she was always teaching kids and she was, she was like the, um, she was the teenage teacher at, uh, uh, the church that I grew up in.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: my dad, uh, was a preacher, now he's a pastor. Um, and I learned a lot about teaching from him and from other people, um, in ministry. Um, and I think, uh, what happened was that a very early age, I understood that teaching was about, was not about knowledge, but it was about care.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: think that's a lot of what maybe, you know, learning about teaching from clergy, taught me is that it's not just about what you know, it's about how you care for people and how you show up for people. Um, and having a father who was a minister, I saw [00:03:00] that. So I saw like the full realm. Everybody just sees a person get up on stage in a showtime. Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, but I was the one watching him, like, you know, talk to people and counsel and take care and go visit people when in their hospital. And, you know, just be not just a person spewing out knowledge in this case, you know, spiritual or biblical, but also a person who is showing up and showing care. And so at

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I realized that's what teaching was.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah. I've never heard that teaching is not about knowledge, it's about care. Yeah. It's beautiful. That's beautiful. And so,

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dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay. And that's awesome and it makes so much sense kind of hearing your story at South by a little bit and what you shared in, um, before we got on today.

So tell me, you decided to go into education. What was that journey? [00:04:00] Did you go directly in to higher ed? Were you elementary, middle? We wanna know the details.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: My journey was, uh, very controversial. Uh, so, um, I, um, I started as an aftercare teacher and so, uh, there was a brand new little small school. I was looking for an aftercare teacher. And, um, I took that job and I did so well with the aftercare program. Um, in the middle of the year, they asked me to start, you know, helping out in the classroom. So I started helping out in the classroom, and then the next year they were like, okay, we want you to have your own classroom. Um, yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Was this directly outta high school or college or what?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: no, I was in my twenties. I wanna say I was in my late twenties,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay. So you didn't come right outta school to TE to teach. Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: came right out of [00:05:00] school. Um, well, that's the thing about it. I had not finished college at that time.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah, I was, um, I was not a certified teacher. I hadn't, I didn't at the time, didn't even have a degree.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay. Oh, interesting.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: yeah. Yeah. So, um, again, this, and this also informed some, a very interesting revelation about teaching that I, I'll get to later. Right. So, um, um, so my, so the next year they gave me my own classroom, but it was like a second, third, and fourth grade When I say I was baptized in fire, um,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, and it's a tiny school, second, third, and fourth.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: yeah. Second, third, and fourth grade, I had eight children.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay. Got you.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: had like a nice little playground to grow.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: but still it was a lot more than like a first year teacher or a second year teacher should ever have.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, so, um, my approach to teaching was informed by the culture and society I was living [00:06:00] in.

Right. So I had standards, right? And um, but what I would look at is what was happening in the world where the world was trending. And then thinking about these little first and second graders and third graders that I have in my classroom now, what skills will they, will they need by the time I get this, you know, by the time 2020 comes around,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So I was looking at it. So I started teaching in like 2005,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So I was saying in 2020, what kind of skills will these kids need to have, not just to go to college, not just to enter the workforce, but to deal with the world that they're living in. Right? And so I was already in 2005 doing, um, teaching kids about, um, uh, computer programming and coding. Um, and this is before the big, you know, coding push came along. So I had like very little support.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: how to use logo. Um, I was already definitely [00:07:00] heavily invested in science, right? We had some serious problems that would need, um, technology and some scientific approaches.

And so I was very invested in teaching kids science. And what ended up happening was the little college that I did have, the college that I did have, I was preparing to become an English educator.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: writing

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: So you, you went to college to be an educator, but didn't finish yet In, in this story. Oh, got you. Okay,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: no, no, no. Um, so, and by then I, like, I, I just got to my gen eds.

It wasn't even

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I had any training at all as a teacher,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: we'll get to that. Um, so, um, that was what really. inspired me as a teacher to make sure that all of my kids, by the time 2020 came around, they had all these skills. But what happened was, since I came in as a teacher looking to teach kids, you know, poetry and reading and interpretation and creative writing, right?

Well, my first students were like first and second graders. Uh, many [00:08:00] of them were just functionally illiterate. Um, so I'm here trying to teach 'em how to rhyme. They're like, okay, let's talk about rhyming. Like, think about things that rhyme with cat. They're like, dog. Like, no wait. Um,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: the basics. Again. Again, yes.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: basic things, right? Um, and so that was like a crash course and just like thinking about that entire, uh, the entire pathway that kids take to, to mastery. But, um, what happened was this, is that that first year when I was, uh, the partner teacher, uh, the teacher that I was teaching with was also a first year teacher, is her first year teaching. she had too much on her plate and she said, I need to offload some of the things that I'm responsible for. so they gave me science. And I told you about my approach, right? I said, well, if we're going to have kids who are taking science class and they're gonna be dealing with and global warming and all these other problems that we have to deal with, right? What should they know how to do at this level? And I said, kids should know [00:09:00] how to do a science experiment.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Now, to me, this was, duh. What I did not know is that this is revolutionary thinking for 2005.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, so I took the kids, we did a very simple science experiment. I got some, some lemon lime soda, vinegar, and some lemon juice, and some baking soda, right? I put them in small groups. I gave each of the groups three cups and I gave them some baking soda. Okay. And then we had like this sort of four square thing, right? And in the middle of the four square, I had them write the experiment. The experiment is, or for the question. And the question is, which one of these cups will make the most bubbles? Right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And then we learned about hypothesis. And so in the, so we had this foursquare I paper divided into foursquares, we folded up, we put the question in the middle, and then we have the hypothesis, we have the experiment, we have the data, and we have the conclusion.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Uhhuh,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And at the time I used much simpler [00:10:00] words, ' cause

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: of course.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: was a crazy word for first graders, but um, it was like, what do you think will happen?

Right? And so, and then we go on the kitchen, the experiment. They have a great time. Um. And we come back in the classroom, we talk about what happened. Uh, we talk about why you should not go back and erase your hypothesis and fit your conclusion. So we're already learning about scientific ethics or

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh, I love that. Yeah. Start with that. Okay. We need.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: because

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Ethics now.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Exactly.

Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Right? Because you know when little kids are like, for them it's all about being right. It's all about just having the right

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sure. Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and I'm finding out even 20 years later, I'm still having to fight this idea that science is about having the right

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So they do all this, and then I have all of my students who took my science class going home and telling their parents when I grew up, I wanna be a scientist.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Parents had never heard that before.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: get called into [00:11:00] the office, um, a few weeks later, and I'm told that I'm the science teacher for the school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: The, the, um, the escalation of

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: promotion. Now, let me ask you a question for about this. So I wanna hear like, what was your family's conversation with you or your community when you told them? Hey, I'm teaching first, second, and third. I'm teaching elementary and this is what's going on. Were people surprised by it?

Were they encouraging? What was that conversation like? Folks, if y'all, y'all watching this on a podcast, are you listening to this on the podcast? You missed his face.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Okay. So first of all, because I don't wanna make my family sound like bad people Okay. Or

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: because they, because my, my parents especially have been incredibly supportive

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I've ever wanted to do in life. But I was a neuro, was a neurodivergent kid growing up in the eighties.

Right. Um, back then they're just [00:12:00] calling it attention deficit disorder. But that's only if you were a professional,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: was gonna say that that's pretty advanced for the eighties.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: For most, for most people, I was just bad.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: um, I was hyperactive. That was the technical, if you wanna get technical about, I was hyperactive. and so I did not focus well in school.

Um, I was very turned off by the idea of homework. Um, I wasn't usually engaged in my classes and when I did not get engaged, I tend to do other things and sometimes just honestly cause trouble. I'm not even

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: like I was just, I was just a creative kid in a bad situation. No, if I did not like a class, I would just disrupt it any way I could.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I was just not a great student even when it came to my first year of college because I still did not have the tools I needed to, um, drive thrive well, in an academic setting.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I just, I, I did not do well in college and that's why I hadn't [00:13:00] finished my degree

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, and so when tell everybody that I'm a teacher. It's like, well, you don't have a degree. You hate school. Like I'm, I audibly hate school. Right. And now you're a teacher. Like, it's like, you know, you just let the fox in the hen house. Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And they weren't wrong about that part, but, um, so a lot of them, I honestly just, they didn't believe that I was actually a teacher.

They thought I was just sort of like my actual job description.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sure. Like grandmothers do.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: uh, right, exactly. Um, so, um, I actually, my, um, no one ever like even visited where I worked or even

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: despite my open in invitations until, um, my sons were enrolled in the school where I worked and then they had like a grandparents day and then like my parents showed up for one

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: got you. Oh, wow.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah. Um, so [00:14:00] I, um, yeah. So it was a lot of skepticism. Right. but also. anyone telling me like, you can't do that,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Or trying to talk me out of it.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: honestly, they didn't even believe I was an actual teacher. He's like, look, he's employed, he's making money. He seems happy. Whatever.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Let's just be quiet about it and be grateful.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: it alone.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. No, thank you.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: it was never like the problem. Oh, my son's a teacher. There was none of, none of that.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: He's working. He's not his hand. He's not asking for money. He's doing his own thing.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: in some cases, considering my past probably a lot more than some of them expected.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, that's real. That's real.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: had a wife, I had a house, I had two kids. I was working like,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Let's not complain. Let's just, yes, he says he's a teacher. Heavy quotes. Sure. Okay,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: a teacher.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: so now you.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: back to my sister, like, you know what would be great to do with like my little nieces, like, you know, it would be great to do with [00:15:00] them, like at this level, a great thing

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh, now you are an expert.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I'm like, I'm like giving like, you know, child reading advice based on like my experience

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: like, yeah, okay. Okay. Thanks, thanks. Appreciate it.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah. There he goes again saying he's a teacher. Right? No, that's beautiful. And so

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: from Stanford today, so, you know, we're all

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: to today,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: today.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: oh yes. Shout out. Wait a minute.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I met you. I ran into you with, with someone from Stanford at South by

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Really?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: was recording you, the woman who recorded my story about your youngest self, like the, the voice you give your youngest self.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: She's graduated from Stanford today.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Oh, oh, look at that. See?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Did you not know that?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: it's a huge class. It says some like 2000 people or something

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh wow. So off topic folks. Sorry. Sorry about that folks. This is what happens sometimes. You've been warned. Um, so you were a science teacher for the whole school.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Tell us about that.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: [00:16:00] Again, baptism and by fire.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: so there are a few obstacles. One again, I was a brand new teacher,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I was learning, using, uh, what people my age call common sense. Right? so I said, well, these kids are going to need a text in order to read from, 'cause it's not, 'cause science is not just about doing experiments and things like that.

It's also about referencing text. Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So they should have a text message. They should be, they should be used to referencing a text, right? Not as their only source of knowledge. Right. But as a reference. We didn't have textbooks.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So I went to a um, program here in Illinois called Scarce, where they recycle old books. Um, got textbooks for like the whole school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, then my other problem was, um, again, understanding of science is [00:17:00] about what science looks like in the real world, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Everybody else is understanding of science is just informed by school. And so they did not know what real science looked like. They had no idea what real science looked like.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So, um, when I'm saying things like, yeah, we're only gonna be reading like one or two times a week, but we're gonna spend a lot of times doing experiments, doing exploration, right? My, the school where I worked was like two or three blocks from, um, a nature preserve. And this is a big deal when you live in the city of Chicago, right? So we had this nature corridor, two or three blocks, it was very set up, had signs and plaques and everything. And I'm walking the kids to, uh, this nature preserve and walking the lake, um, lake shore drive, so they can go on the beach and we can actually look at nature,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And that was like, what? Why are you doing that? Like, ooh, that's liability. Like, okay, yes,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: forms, let's get it done. You just

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: [00:18:00] Um, but then my third obstacle was, is that the very first school, um, teaching in was private. Um, but it was a private Christian school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, although I myself am a person of faith, right? I'm also a person of evidence and, you know, science, right? Um, and so there are a lot of questions that I have about, you know, where those two things, um, intersect and where they diverge,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: mean some of those divergences, um, and some of those intersections I had a hard time with people tend not to think about the Bible.

They tend to think about the Bible as like a book of science, and it's not, it's not its function, right? So we just can't take, it's like, well, you know, there could not have been dinosaurs because they're not mentioned in the Bible. Like, well, the Bible also didn't mention zebras, but here we are, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So, um, so [00:19:00] every once in a while I find myself having those type of conversations, uh, with parents and with even sometimes some of the staff. Um, the hardest conversations though, was the ones I had with the, um, administrators. So sometimes I would get a headmaster that was just a little bit too churchy.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah. And so, um, I know one time they even had a parent come in would not do it and teach, um, intelligent design

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm. Uhhuh.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and he would say stuff and I would be very respectful and very kind. 'cause it was also a parent of one of the students. Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And then I would just sort of have to spend the rest of the time sort of like unpacking some of what he said or in some cases repacking it.

Let's put that back in the box and up here on the shelf.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh, he came as a guest speaker.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Not yet as a guest teacher. Yeah. So like every Friday or something like that, they would have him come in and he would just teach my class.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay. And it was like some of that is not going to jive with which you [00:20:00] were teaching, so let's just,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah. So like, but I would do things like sometimes like, um, like I understand these, some of these children were just like there 'cause their parents were Christian, whatever, right? And some of these kids were like, you know, at that point they're trying to discover their spirituality. And I never, I think one of the things I hate about people who don't believe is I hate the kind of person that who doesn't have a belief system, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: they spend a lot of time trashing other people's belief systems.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: thing is this, it's like, okay, this is what you've chosen and that's great, that's fine. Um, but just like you don't want me coming to your house trying to tell you how to live your life, don't come to my house trying to tell me how you live my life.

And

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: that in faith communities, some people really need this idea in order to thrive and be balanced and healthy. And if you take that away from them, if you shatter it or you gonna replace it with something else that

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: You know, so even if I don't believe it, or even if I think it might be a little like [00:21:00] not good, in my opinion, I need to let them have that and let them go on their own little faith journey and they'll figure it out eventually, hopefully. But we'll see. It's

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: to fix 'em.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I'm loving this conversation 'cause I, I don't think that in our podcast I've had someone who's taught at a private Christian school yet, and this, your background, having family who's in the ministry, like, and the ways that you're thinking about this in conjunction with science is really cool. I really appreciate your perspective when you was, was your entire career at that school or did you move around?

Did you finish college? What was that? Because right now we are in the middle of,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: you know, your, your, your, your, your family thinks that you're, um, a para. Professional and all these things. So what was the, what was some other parts of your journey and did you leave that school? What? What was that like?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I did leave that school. I stayed there for [00:22:00] 12 years

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: for about, uh, yeah, about 12 years.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Wow.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: it was a great training ground 'cause I had spaces to make mistakes.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and I think one of the greatest blessings, and one of the greatest things about to that school or teaching at that school is that I was doing it at a time when science was not on standardized tests.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: You know what

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: You

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: That

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: do all anything you want. That's exactly, oh, yes.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah. Right. You know, nobody cared. Like, and so, you know, whereas that could have been a horrible thing if I was a teacher who didn't care. Right. I could have literally just phoned it in. I could have given those kids a worksheet every week.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: do a packet and done just fine. I mean, as far as CareerWise, um, but no, I also could say, well, we're gonna do experiments and we're going to set fires in [00:23:00] the classroom and we're going to da da da da. And, um, they didn't have standards for me. And so when the, um, I'm not, have you ever heard of the NGSS standards?

Next Generation Science Standards,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Uh, nah. Uhuh.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: next Gener Next Generation Science Standards are now the standards that most school districts in the nation have adopted when it comes to teaching children science. Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: These standards did not exist when I started teaching 2005.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I'm gonna say I started teaching 2006 and I know we didn't have science. I mean, it was definitely not on standardized tests.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I remember we adopted, our school district adopted science, a science curriculum, and it had all these experiments and these things, and a lot of teachers try to avoid it 'cause it took up so much of their prep time and their break time to set up all of the beakers and the water and all the things.

So I do remember that, but continue.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: But, um, and so, I'm, I'm, I'm going somewhere with this as far as your answer.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: so, [00:24:00] um, when they did Common Core standards, um, when they first introduced common core standards, um, remember being in the meeting and I saw the math standards I saw the reading standards. I said, well, where are the science standards? So dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig. Oh, then they present like a website.

Okay, here are the science standards. I look at the science standards and all the science standards. Were just supporting math and reading

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: science standards.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: not let me out. That meeting did, you know, they would not let me out that meeting. I could not go grade papers or prepare for my next class. I had to stay in the meeting.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: They just, they just wanted your presence. They just wanted your.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: there. And so I did, and, and this is the bad part about having me in a professional development, and you're not. Doing what you're supposed to do. thing that I did as a child, I still do as an adult, but in a much more slick way. I'm gonna be Kiki in the whole time.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh, you are rebellious.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I'm not rebellious. I just, [00:25:00] when it comes to lack of care and educating people, have very angry and violent tendencies towards that. I don't push anybody, I don't hit anybody. I don't cuss nobody out, but I will messel stuff up.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: So you are the strongly worded email type.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yes, per my last email,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Yeah. So 12 year all caps, the, so, uh, 12 years in a, in a, in a, in a school is a long time. And like you said, like you had a lot of training ground, but you didn't finish there. So what was after that?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So, um, all of that, all, all those frustrations of trying to like get science, I, I had hit a, I had hit a, I'd hit a limit,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: as to what I could do. Um, and um, there was a charter school, a couple of doors down, [00:26:00] and I remember, uh, I went, I was driving home and there's a guy driving home from work from the charter school. We had, um, a bumper sticker, said, honk, if you love Star Trek, I love Star Trek. I honked, right? He noticed me. We got to talking. He says, Hey look. Um, our physics teacher, just, I'm sorry, our science teacher just quit. Um, he ran a high school. He was a teaching at high school and I would love to have you at our high school 'cause you saw the kind of work I was doing where I was.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Uh, and so I applied to that school. Um, and they didn't hire me for reasons, right? and then he left and he went to another high school and they were, again, this is a high school that was a science high school. It was called ishka. It was um, Institute for Health, sciences Career Academy. It was an incredible charter school. And, um, their idea was to teach children, particularly, um, Latino children, how to Latino children, how to, um, [00:27:00] in the health sciences field.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: They had four science classes a year.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm. The kids did?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: like, they had, uh, one semester would be like chemistry. The next semester would be biology. But then in that first semester they also had like human body systems. And then the

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: was like forensic science. It was, it was amazing. Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: of course they're very strong and very heavy on the science teachers. Um, and so he, said they have a position for a physics teacher they really need to fill and you're the kind of physics teacher they need. And so I went over there, I applied and um, my mother had just passed away. She had just passed away. And I was really just thinking about okay, the rest of my life, you know, the kind of conversations you have with yourself when something like that happens,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: okay, what am I doing for the rest of my life?

I definitely can't stay here. It's too small. Um, the woman who got hit, promoted to headmaster, uh, she was my partner teacher for a period of time

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: she did [00:28:00] not respect what I did at all.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: be on my boss

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: This is at the Christian school you're at, you mean?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure, sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And so I had to go, like, she gave me lip service, but she did not respect what I actually did.

So I had to go. So, um, I started this physics school at this, uh, at this health sciences school teaching physics. I'm teaching physics and again,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Trial by fire. 'cause you haven't taught physics yet

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Oh yeah. Oh, oh, oh, no. I've been teaching physics this entire time.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: at high school level.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah, because, okay, so again, nobody's paying attention to what I'm doing. Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: After a while, I graduated from the first and second grade. I'm, now, I'm sort of focusing on middle school. Um, but since I was the only teacher from middle school that had a very unique opportunity, um, I could divide the sciences up into their separate domains and I could spend an entire year just teaching one domain.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Got [00:29:00] you.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So that meant that my sixth graders, we started with biology. We went deep into biology

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: when my sixth graders graduated from middle school and went to high school, they're going to Kenwood Jones. These are all like, um, what they call selective enrollment schools. They're like, these are the best high schools in the city.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: going to their biology classes. Like, we already did this stuff with Mr. Rains. I know all the stuff already,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: killing their biology courses, right? Same thing with their chemistry and their physics, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I'm teaching high school level physics, high school level chemistry because I have the time, I have the space and I have the freedom.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I understand.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: enough to do it.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I have brilliant little black kids. Oh my God, these kids are so smart. I can tell you stories. That's a whole nother podcast. um, anyway, so, um, I was ner I by meant though, like high school physics, I was nervous. I was super nervous,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: again, I'm, I'm still not degreed.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Oh, [00:30:00] wow. Oh, wow. This is, this is turning, this is turning into a whole different conversation. I don't know if my audience, yeah. I, my, I don't know if my audience has their mouth open, but this is Okay. Keep going.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So I'm super nervous, right? And I go into there and um, I'm talking to like, uh, Kovich and that's the guy who brought me on, like Kovich, dude, you know, I'm looking at this stuff. I'm not sure if I'm ready to teach this level just between you and me, right? Like you said, dude, I'll send you work. Trust me, you're gonna be fine.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I get there and, um, I just start teaching the material. Um, but, and this is what kind of, this is why I'm so passionate about what I do, right? So here him as a person that has never gone to school to be, I'm sorry, that has not finished college to become an educator, right? Um, I definitely didn't go to college to be, to teach physics,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.[00:31:00]

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, but if you gave me information, I could learn it right. Without a whole lot of input from other people.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: that was something that was never lionized when I was a child. Um, it wasn't lionized when I, or I wasn't appreciated when I was an adult. Right. And it's something that I didn't appreciate. Right. And the problem is I was like a condescending jackass to everybody else because I'm like, it's easy, it's common sense. Like, I'm thinking everybody else is slow because they're not getting it. and so like, so I, um, looked through the material, I said,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: How.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: a little bit more rigor here, but we can do it.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Let's pause for a second. I want us go back for one second because I think it's important that we point out that the, uh, twice exceptional part of this, right, where you're saying physics is common sense and everybody else is looking at you like, and, and so being twice exceptional, right? Having this, this, what you now say is neuro divergent, and then [00:32:00] also being, which they live together, right?

And also being brilliant in your own right. And seeing and having a place that that lined up beautifully is something to be in my mind, very proud of. I don't think that physics is common sense. I'm just gonna put that out there. But for someone who's twice exceptional, who is gifted in these things and can just pick it up and read it and just go and, and run with it, and then teach it.

Which is how you really know, you know, something that's, that's fantastic in, in my eyes. I just wanted to pause and give you some flowers for something you probably know already about yourself, but I just wanted to say that

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: folks, all you blushing, he said, but it's true, right? It's true. Um, I, I can read a physics book and I think that it's common sense and I've taught for quite a while also.

So I just wanna pause and say that before you continue your story, that you know, you, you are gifted and I hope that you will know that. [00:33:00] So

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Okay. So, um, I appreciate that. Yes, and I do agree. I am gifted.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: there you go.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I did not like sort of start accepting this as a thing until I was like in my late thirties,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: you smart, right? Um, it's only many times, times you can start saying, oh, gravitational constant is easy.

What are y'all talking about? Free Realize. No, maybe it's not them, it's you.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: There you go. Okay. As long as we are clear about that.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, but no. Okay, so remember my background is actually in literature.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yes.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: writer.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yes.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I Google me, see about me, um, I'm out there. Um, but um, so whenever people say like, physics is hard, right? Or I had a hard time with physics, or I didn't get physics right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: it's a lot has to do with the way that we approach physics. And I could, uh. The one thing that college did give me, and [00:34:00] we'll talk about that in a minute. The one thing college did give me, um, is perspective on education of education. Right? especially when it comes to math and science

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and for people our age. Um, I'm sorry for people my age.

I am 48. I'll be 49 later this month

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: people my age. Um, the, I think I might've been the last generation of people who may have had like science where you were like doing experiments and that's only if you went to a nice high school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Saying yes, yes, yes.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: that, it was so much like, just read the book and study really hard

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: on a test. Um, and even for like, even like for people older than me, it was the same thing. Like, you know, read the book study really hard, cram, and then, and it wasn't really, there was no, [00:35:00] there was no connection between your life and the thing you were studying in your classroom.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: No connection whatsoever. Right? Um, one of the things I love to do when I'm, um, teaching with kids, um, my older kids, my high schoolers, is, um, I, I present a scenario, right? So I want you to imagine that you're on the porch, right? And you, you and your family, you, your, your friends hanging out, right? then somebody comes around the corner and the car, and the car's driving real slow. So now you're getting really anxious. You can like, you trying to look out and see what happens, right? And then like somebody rolls down the window and you recognize, oh my God, these are my ops. Right? And then they roll down the window and they just start throwing bullets at you. Just like picking ' em out the box and just throwing 'em at you, just tossing 'em at you. Is everybody gonna be okay? Like yeah, they start laughing and giggling, right?

Is everybody gonna be okay? Yeah. Like why are they gonna be okay? It's like, 'cause they throwing the bullets. Okay, so why doesn't throwing bullets work? 'cause bullets need to go faster in order to hurt you, like right? They need to go faster. That's what guns do, right? They make bullets go faster, right? Yeah.

Okay, [00:36:00] so, uh, we already understand then that in order to get a lot of force outta something, it has to go faster, right? The faster something goes, the more force you get, right? It's like, yeah, we get it all right? And we also understand that if they did the same thing with Nerf guns, right? If the bullets are coming at you fast, but they like made out a foam, that's not a big deal either, right?

Yeah. Right. So you guys already understand Newton second law, let's go do the math, right? So like when you take the time to make sure that the things that you are teaching actually have a function in people's life. Then it doesn't feel so inaccessible and hard and different. And it does feel like common sense. Right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I keep saying it's common sense because when people get into a fight, right?

They're not thinking about math, they're not thinking about physics, right? But they're certainly trying to hit the other person as hard as they came with their fist,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: right? People automatically get that if I am, you know, five foot two and 90 pounds, and this guy is six foot three and 300 pounds, that I [00:37:00] might not win that fight.

Y'all get that already, right? And so there's not like a lot of the stuff that has to do with physics specifically, a lot of it is so intuitive and so common sense. But what happens is whenever you go into a physics class, the first thing a physics teacher does is make you do math. Math and formulas. Math and formulas.

No narrative, no context, math and formulas, math and formulas, and they never get it. Like if we had more time, I'll tell you about Guillermo and Anez and Guillermo Anez, who teach kids the gravitational constant. Because of their, um, star cross relationship in high school. That's a really great way of teaching a really complex idea. But again, even the gravitational constant or gravitational law is intuitive. We get it. We already understand it. It's just that when you start out with the math, it feels non-intuitive.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Yeah, that makes so much sense. I'm reflecting on my physics in college and in high school and [00:38:00] thinking like how different that experience, experience would've been. Even though we did experiments and things like that and we had labs, how different it would've been if it had more connection or they, they took the time to make more connection to the lived experiences of us in the classroom.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Um, it sounded like that you knocked it out the park. Is that right? How did that go?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: God, my time at ISHKA was incredibly, um, it was good for me and it was good

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, I had to, my biggest adjustment was dealing with the volume of students,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: um, and learning all those names.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And primarily a lot of my education had been, although, like I had some, I have like, um, lat Latinx friends.

[00:39:00] Um, biggest thing was most of my students were let, most of my students were just say from the Spanish diaspora. Okay. and, um, were some very brand new names that I had to how to pronounce. Like

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Like names have rules, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: names have rules.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: learn the cultural names of the rules to make sure I'm saying everybody's name right. And I had to memorize 130 of them every year.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I'm sorry. No. Every semester

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh yeah. 'cause it changes.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: they kept changing. Every semester I would have, um, I would have a new group of kids. First half of the year. I'm, I'm memorizing 130 names.

Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: a brand new set of names the next semester,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: you had to keep going. I mean that's, I, I think that's super. I never thought about that. The language has rules and the names have rules and the all and, and then of course all the cultural components when you're talking [00:40:00] about if that's not your lived experience or you don't have a full lived experience of the community that you in, which you're teaching.

Right. Like you said, I'm from Chicago, but this is not necessarily a part of my daily after work or before work life. Um, did you

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: it's,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Go ahead.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Jackson and Andrea Jas, that kind

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Say your name right. Say

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: And Angel. An angel. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I've made that mistake. It's not angel, it's unhealed like. Oh,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Ivan Heal?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sorry. Yeah. Thank you for pointing that out. Um, so science, physics teacher.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Science teacher for a Christian school.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: many years in are we now?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So, um, now I'm teaching physics. This [00:41:00] is year, um, 12, 13 for me.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Year 13. I'm teaching

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and, um, I'm loving it. I do two years at ishka. Um, and then, um, we have, um, now the whole time that I'm doing this, I am going to school, right? Intermittently. I'm trying really hard to stay away from loans.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: because. when you learn, like, I really wish I had not learned about loans back when I first started school, then I'd be in debt like everybody else, but at least I'd be finished with school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: But because I learned about knowing that had like a certain amount of financial literacy, I'm like, no, this is predatory. Somebody should go to jail. I, I would not take out a loan. So I would work, make money and then pay for my own school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, and that was hard, especially raising, um, kids and stuff.

But, um, [00:42:00] so, but what ends up happening is that because I don't have a degree, right? People hire me on like, traditionally, as long as I'm still gonna school, which I am, right? But then of course, whenever it's time to let people go, I'm the first one to go.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I'm the least valuable on paper.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So I did, uh, two years at this school and, um, there was a strike. I'm a union baby. Um, and so, um, also have a big mouth and I'm visible. so, um, the next summer they let me go. Um, and so I went over to a charter school, um, that was in the south, far south of Chicago, a very historic, um, neighborhood called Pullman. Right? And I went from a high school that had like a great science program back to high school that had no science program to teach physics um, [00:43:00] charter schools. I don't wanna offend anybody who may be listening to the podcast, but charter schools do have some challenges when it comes to teaching, especially teaching children in, um, in, um, marginalized, um, communities. I'll say that. Um, and um, this particular charter school, um, definitely did a lot of really great talk. some wonderful talk, like we don't let cops on the campus. Right. Which I loved. um, when it actually came to how they were educating those kids, there were some huge gaps

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: from Jump Street and, um, and I kept pushing back, on making sure kids were, um, being educated and educated properly. And, um, ultimately there was some pretext and I was suspended. I was suspended for not following directions. [00:44:00] Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and then, oh, and I was suspended March, 2020.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: They handed me the suspension and a week later, the whole school

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Pandemic.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: shut

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

What's up everyone? It's me, Dr. Asia. So just quickly reaching out because I have something I wanna share with you all my friend Stacy Taylor, Brandon and I are coming to you with something new. It's called Podcast and Pause, an Unbook Club for black educators. So instead of a traditional book, what we're gonna be doing is talking through episodes from the exit interview, a podcast for black educators, and then in our sessions and our time together, we're gonna also be talking about wellness.

And healing practices that black folks in education can use to be well, this [00:45:00] is open to paraprofessionals, admins, school psychs, teachers, professors, folks who support youth in any capacity. We love to see you there. Um, you'll find information on my stories and then you'll also see in next week or so, registration landing page coming soon.

So make sure that you check us out. All right. Peace.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: pandemic. So, um, eventually they did let me go

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: um, and then I just, this is my, like, my come to Jesus moment. 'cause there's something else I had time to do since over the pandemic. I, um, over the pandemic, I, I was taking courses online virtually, right?

And I was just packing 'em in there because I didn't have to worry about time,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: worry about distance. Um, they were giving me a break on the money and I was just packing [00:46:00] classes in there. I was

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, but I was also taking jobs, teaching virtually also to support myself. and so, like, again, this is why I have a panel light and a really nice microphone. And I have literally three screens up here.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: have one that I could write on, so I could do like a, a digital whiteboard. I went all in on the pandemic. But, um. I, as I'm taking classes, I'm now getting into my educator courses and I'm just, and they're not helpful

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: And you're also, you also had a lot of teaching experience by this time.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Exactly. I

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: experience,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I had enough experience to sit in this class. I'm sitting here with my, you know, my 20, 21-year-old counterparts, I'm sitting in this class with my big 47-year-old self saying, that's not gonna work.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: a horrible way to teach geometry. And then I'm realizing, oh my God, for my [00:47:00] entire life, people have been telling me that I'm not a real teacher because I don't have a certification. Only to learn that they don't teach you anything in college when it comes to being an actual teacher. I was furious. was furious. And, you know, and, um, I only had one teacher who did it, right. Her name was Dr. Jennifer Slate. God bless her. She's doing great research, by the way, about, uh, algae that has like this glass like, um, membrane around it

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: it. Oh my God. And she was sharing her research with me and she was showing us how to be scientists for our students and how to make sure that our students were being scientists in the classroom.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: She was the only professor that I had there that her job and knew what she was doing and was preparing me for the job that I wanted to do. Every other math science professor there was wasting my time

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. [00:48:00] Can I pause you for a second

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: yeah. Sure.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: In the middle. This is something, it's so interesting that you're saying this because there. What folks find out, like you said, a lot of folks who go into education go in and start maybe a TFA or they start in their bachelor's degree at 19, 20, 20, whatever that that is, and they don't find out until after that their, their pre-service time was a waste.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Right. Or that didn't prepare me, or there's like big gaps or that their professors hadn't been in the classroom either ever or in years or don't know what's happening with youth. And, and so they feel like, well, I had to do that because I wouldn't have been able to get a job if I did it and kind of justify it.

And I say they, me included. And so for you to be going back to school and getting into those pre-service classes, having now what, [00:49:00] 14 years of teaching experience and seeing like. They're taking our money. This is a waste of time. I know what it is to teach children and this is not going to cut it. I would imagine for those, for you and others who've had to go and kind of do like a, I guess, quote unquote, backwards way of doing it,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: see being disenfranchised by higher educations, um, or systems expectations that higher education prepares us for, uh, the classroom.

So this is just really fascinating to hear you that, to hear you say to share the story in this way.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah. Um, so I think you're starting to see the glimmer of the end of our, like the point of the interview. Right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So, um, yeah. So, here's the really funny part about it, right? I told you I don't shut up. Like I'm not going to be quiet about things, right? Um, I'm not gonna insult a person, um, [00:50:00] in front of them, right? Um, but I will have an entire like, private group chat. With the rest of the students in my classroom about how our, um, ed, uh, math for educators, professor may be a vampire. I had evidence, not just any vampire, I think this dude was Dracula on God,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: um, but this is how I push back, right? So I'm constantly like, you know, um, finding respectful ways to push back and I'm being very respectful in the way that I talk about some of the shortcomings that I'm seeing in my classes, my college.

Okay. So again, unique situation and a unique person coming together. My professor was like a superstar geometry professor, and he was pretty good at what he did. Um, not so great at, like, he wasn't so great at teaching us how to teach in the classroom, right? But he was a great geometry profe, um, professor, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: it.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: for educators. [00:51:00] But he was retiring that year. was in his sixties. He had an illustrious, incredible career. He was very charismatic, you know, handsome teacher, like, you know, this guy was definitely student crushes like his whole career, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So he's the kind of student, he's the kind of professor that everybody loves, right? And, um, he was even like, um, viral on Instagram for like doing Instagram with his daughter, where she had him pronounce. This is the Greek teacher I was telling you about earlier.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Greek teacher taught me how to say my name, um, where he, they had him saying like English words with his Greek accent and it went totally viral.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Uhhuh,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Uh, we did like the two truths and one lie. He's like, yeah, I'm an internet star.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: and sure enough, that was the truth.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: that's the truth. Yeah. So, um, but one of the things they were adding, because they were just now figuring out, again, remember this is 20, this is happening in 20 22, 21,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: [00:52:00] Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Uh, they're saying we need to add a computer science. To this geometry course. So they went to geometry course. They also wanted to teach geometry using, while teaching computer programming and coding.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, my geometry professor was an old dog. That was a new trick

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and he was about to retire.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So they hired me to teach computer science session of my own geometry class.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I really is, this is, this is a bit much,

folks. I know you keeping up. My audience is keeping up. What's, what's going on here? Okay. You can do anything out there, folks. Forget it. Just, just say yes. Just sign up. Yes.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and fly, you

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: You can fly, you can, you can beat Dracula. You can do anything. [00:53:00] Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and you know, you gotta also have to realize that like. how people have imposter syndrome?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: in a lot of ways, I guess you could say I was the imposter, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: should not have been there, right? I should not have been doing these things. Um, if the thing is, you know, you go to school, get a degree, get certified, and then, you know, climb up from there, right? I was just, um, I learned that I had to, first of all, I learned that, and this is just especially for the younger teachers, I learned that I had to be my own cheerleader. Like, forget that humility stuff. Forget that shy stuff. Like say that when you at church say that for like, you talking to your friends on Friday night, right? When you are at your job, your stuff

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and talk your stuff. Not like apologetically. Um, look, if you are a marginalized person, a black person, a woman, a queer person, whatever the case may be, if they're going to discount your skill, [00:54:00] they're going to discount your skill. They don't need an excuse or a reason, right?

So don't think that if I'm quieter then I'm not gonna intimidate so many people. If they're gonna be intimidated by, uh, intimidated by you shining and doing what you do, they're gonna be intimidated. No matter what you do. Even if you dim the light, they're still gonna have a problem with you. 'cause they're gonna see what you can do, you move.

So I was always in my classes just talking about the things that I know how to do

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: that's how they knew that I also was teaching computer science in middle school and I was also teaching computer science and making at this point in fabrication in high school, we didn't even talk about that part yet.

And this is where the next part of my journey comes from. I was doing all of that They needed a computer science teacher. They didn't have anybody on staff that could handle it. And so they paid me obviously a lot less. They would've paid a real computer science teacher, but I was getting my money back from the school.

So I was happy with that.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: so wait, you're [00:55:00] not in, you're not teaching at this point? Well, you're, excuse me. You're not in a case 12 environment. You're teaching in higher ed, this computer science class.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I need to ask you the question because

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Please.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. What

I want the audience to know what you're doing now. And connection to that because I, I, they, they have to know like what you're doing and I'm totally outta order from what I normally do with this podcast, but I want them to hear, because you talked about the fabrication piece,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: doing now and how you got there.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So I teach at the Museum of Science and Industry, or I'm sorry, the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. 'cause Ken Griffin bought the museum. Um, and, uh, I teach in their fab lab. For those who are not familiar, um, a fab lab is short for fabrication laboratory and it's a maker space. And in this maker space, um, basically what we do is we teach [00:56:00] people um, design and fabricate whatever they want. Um, so this idea came out of a TED Talk that was done some years ago called, uh, how to Make Anything. um, the idea is that we create spaces where people can make whatever they want. And so, and other fish might hear 'em called maker spaces.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Libraries, I've heard that.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Exactly. A lot of libraries have them. By the way, if you live in a community, check your local library.

I bet you they have a 3D printer.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yes.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and um, so I run particularly the camps part. And so my experience as a teacher, my experience as a artist, my experience as a designer and a hobbyist, um, and a technician, um, and a physicist, all this comes together, um, where I teach these classes, where I teach kids how to hold their dreams in their hand.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And I love it. [00:57:00] I love it. All of the stuff that, all the stuff that frustrated me about being a teacher is gone. So all the thing, everything that I love about teaching, I get to experience every day. that I hated about teaching except for obnoxious middle school boys. I'm sorry, that is a constant in the universe, but

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: It's just what it is.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: yeah, you can't, you can't, you can't get rid of that.

But, um, it's, it's a dream job. It's a dream job for me. Definitely. Um, and it's a dream job for other teachers too, honestly. Um, I feel so bad, um, when I talk about my job to other teachers. 'cause they, you could just see 'em drooling, like, oh my gosh, you just, you come up with a plan for a class and it's fully funded. Yeah, it just, yeah. Like, I'm so used and that's the hard part for me coming to this job. I was so used to working in and lack, know, I was like, yes, if you just bought me one Lego set, I could make it work for 30 kids. [00:58:00] Like, or, or we could buy you 30 Lego sets. I'm like, what?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Oh.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So, um, I love that part. And so, um, how did I get there?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, because, because when I met you, I saw why you said this. You said, this is where I work, and it's my dream job and I love it so much. And so yeah. How do,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: the fact that I was at South by Southwest. Um, director, I'm sorry, I interrupted. My apologies. I saw

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: no, you're good. Go ahead.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, my director last year came in with like a South by Southwest sweatshirt on, and I know they had gone somewhere, right? I'm like, oh, that's pretty cool. You know, I've always wanted to go to South by Southwest.

He's like, um, we'll make it happen. And then walked away with this Coke. And so

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: time to start like getting tickets, I was like, yeah, remember when you said I could go to South by Southwest? Just thinking, you know, I'm [00:59:00] so used to people saying things and just not, not, not following through. It's like, oh yeah, let's make that happen. And so they paid for me to, I had a nice hotel and everything, incredibly blessed, um, and had a wonderful, I met you, I met so many great educators, had wonderful conversations, and it just filled my cup.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: yeah, and I loved it. I loved it. It was great. And it's so weird 'cause when I came back, everybody in my department was in a panic.

'cause some things had changed. like, oh my God, this is horrible. I'm just like, y'all think these are problems?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Like, know, you know the feeling like talking to me at the museum is like talking to like, like if you ever had like an immigrant parent and you try and tell 'em about your problems,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Yeah. No. Like you think this is bad.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: you don't have problems. I

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, no, [01:00:00] that's be, oh my goodness. Yeah. You had mentioned that to me too, that I said, how was it when you got back and you said everybody thought that things were on fire and it wasn't as bad to you as it could have been.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Um,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: they added an extra class. Oh, really? You have more students than you plan for. Hmm,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah. But you still have the supplies that you need. Is that correct? Okay.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. And I, I wanna, you know, I want to, no, I, go ahead. Tell us a story. Why, how, how this job, because I, the reason why I'm, I wanna pause on this.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: minute is because in on this podcast, you know, we ask people, what do you do now?

And again, you're the first person that we've had in a podcast who works at a museum, any type of museum. And I know that that's a dream for a lot of folks.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I think it's really important for us to spend some time here talking about, I mean, they can't replicate any other part of your story. Let's just be real.

I, you, you, you, you're blessed. [01:01:00] And I think it's important for people to think that this is a possibility for them, regardless of whatever the situation. So how do we get here?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, so it goes back to, I was teaching at the small private school. Right. Um, my then wife got a, uh, message that there was gonna be an educator night at the Museum of Science and Industry. So we went. And, um, uh, they had a session where we got to go into the fab lab and 3D print, um, a little creature, right? So this is my first time seeing a 3D printer, even hearing of a 3D printer. And this is like 2009, I believe,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: 2009. So we go there and at this point I'm already experiencing a lot of frustration with teaching science.

I'm frustrated with my administration. I'm frustrated with like, just not just my administration, but just the entire country's [01:02:00] approach to science. Okay? Because remember, this is before everybody was talking about STEM all the time,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, everybody was like, oh, science will give it 15 minutes, twice a week.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, you swap between science and social studies. Science and social studies, yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and I was super frustrated and I also understood that. Um, I had this, I had this saying in my classroom that it's important that I teach my kids not to be consumers, but to be producers.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: so I felt like a lot of my, um, a lot of my course was going towards creating, um, good consumers and not producers.

So I walked into this lab, right? And I just started talking to the people who are running the lab and they're on the same page. I am. They have the same concerns, right? I have found my little teacher tribe,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: teacher I talk to looks to me like I'm crazy. And so, um, [01:03:00] I give 'em my number, I give my email address, say, oh God, I would love to do this again.

Or if you guys are having stuff just let me know, right? And um, a few months later they came back with this thing was like, you know, we've been having a conversation about bringing children into the lab. And although we are initially. this to be for high schoolers. I think you could make this work for your middle schoolers. so about a year later, about a year after that, year and a half, um, there was a program where every Friday I brought my students from the little private school, my middle schoolers, from the little private school to the Museum of Science and Industry to work in the fab lab and learn how to use the fab lab to make whatever they wanted.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: An amazing opportunity, an amazing experience. Um, they did that for my entire rest of the time. They were at Cambridge, at that, at that small school. Um,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: [01:04:00] Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I would, uh, we would, it would, sometimes it'd be a Wednesday. Sometimes it'd be a Friday or a Thursday. Um, but yeah, uh, after, like towards the end of school, uh, I'll put them on a bus, take them to the museum, and they would spend time 3D printing, uh, doing electronics, working Arduino, computer coding. Whatever. I had this one girl, I'll never forget her, Kennedy Springfield. I don't, she's graduated from something now. She's an adult. So yeah, Kennedy Springfield. Um, she was amazing because she was the one girl in my who would not like science and I kept preaching. Science is your life and whatever you love to do, that's the science you focus

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, I, somebody said something like, your science is your, or your research is your or whatever like that, or your love or your passion, whatever. Anyway, this girl, again, middle school girl, she's all about like being girly, right? She's all into girl presentation. Love it. No problem. [01:05:00] she did not know what to do with her science project until I helped her realize that a science project is a great excuse to try out makeup.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: makeup.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: three years I had that girl, every single one of her science projects was testing a different type of makeup. And it's durability, it's color is long lasting, whatever. this girl in the fab lab made a shelf using a like $80,000, um, machine called a shop bot. It's a robot that cuts wood,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: she made herself a shelf for all of her fingernail polishes.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: about the things that kids made in my lab and I'm at this really great point in my life, in my career where, um, they're all adults now. And, um. They're telling, like I'm, I'm [01:06:00] meeting them, right? 'cause Chicago's a small town. I don't care what anybody tells you, you're gonna run to everybody, you know.

So behave yourself. If you ever come here, behave yourself.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: but, um, just three weeks ago I ran to one of my students, um, waiting outside of Chipotle, um, to get, uh, for his sister. And, um, he was a dinosaur nerd. And, um, he said, Mr. Rains, your class changed my life because, it was the first time, like, I felt validated.

Like I felt like I, like I could figure out who I was while I was in your class. And I just love this thing. And so I'm like, what are you doing now? It's like, oh, I work at the Field Museum and I teach kids how to make, um, two and three dimensional models, uh, um, related to paleontology and dinosaurs. Right. And so I said, you wanna come with me? And so I took him to like, I was actually going to a grand opening for this brand new makerspace that's in [01:07:00] Hyde Park. um, he's like, dude, I'm just like, I'm wearing my pink stained shorts and stuff. I was like, just come with me. I got you. uh, he's, by the way, his name is Samir Ali.

This kid is a star, right? If you look him up, Samir Ali is amazing. Okay.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: right.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and I introduced him to, like, I introduced to my vice president. I introduced him to the guy who ran the makerspace. I introduced all the people at the museum that I work with and, you know, I just, and he like got so many contacts and networked and um, um, after everything had died down and I was about to head back, uh, head back home, um, still hadn't gotten at Chipotle for his sister, by the way.

He had to make so many apologetic, uh, text messages. but he said, you know, Mr. Rains, um, I just finished, um, I got let go from my last job because of the budget cuts and, um. For a long time. He had like long hair,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: hair. Um, when I met him, he was like, clean shape and he like, just cut all his hair off,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: he said.

And, [01:08:00] um, I didn't know what I was going to do. Like I even cut my hair 'cause like, I gotta find a job, I gotta make sure that's not a barrier. And I just thought that like, I didn't have a future. I thought I wouldn't be able to do anything else. He's like, he's, she was like 22. Um,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Still a baby.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: all right, I wouldn't be able to do anything else.

And I just felt like really ble about my future and now I feel so great. He said, you haven't changed.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: He said, you haven't changed. Like, you're still doing that for me. I appreciate you so much. And it just made me feel so good, you know? So, um, so having that experience with the museum, giving my students a chance to do those things right, it not only, um, opened up their world as students, right? But it opened up my world as an educator

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: because now I had like, because they were teaching me how to use these machines too.

Like oftentimes my kids would learn how to use the machines before I learned how to use them.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sure. [01:09:00] Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: so, you know, um, they're like, Mr. RA taught me how to 3D print. No, I did not. Um, just gave you the space and time to learn. Um, but, um, and so what started happening for me was, is that I found myself, um, doing this with the museum when I went over the ishka.

Um, I was afraid that that like relationship, like, so I wanted Cambridge to keep that relationship up, like the school where I was, and they would not do the work to create that relationship so they could still do that for those kids.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So when I left, that opportunity went with me.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: when I went to ishka, now I had these high school kids.

Um, it was a bit, it was a lot further away from the museum than, um, the school where I was working. But, um, we had an engineer come with the buses and we figured out a way to get them to come there too. So I was doing this with my high school kids, and there again, changing like their weight. Like I had a kid one time, Miguel, um, I taught him how to use a 3D printer. [01:10:00] And in the space of a week he went from just like doing like, um, almost, or not just a 3D printer, I might use CAD software in the space of a week. He went from designing like a rectangular box with like four, four cylinders on it to like a full van with like a little gear shift in, in the steering wheel, everything like that in the space of a week. And you say, oh my God, I know what I wanna do now. Like, I wanna design cars for a living. Like I wanna work for Ford. I wanna like, you know, I wanna make the, the best Mustang ever. And you know, just giving them that opportunity just like it just opened their world. And, um. After a while. And on top of that, what I did not know, and what the guy that I work with now told me is that, like he told me that I was, he said I changed his life. Like one of the guys at the museum, one of the guys who facilitated the fab app, I remember he called me on a, um, like on a Friday evening about some stuff.

We were trying to work out some problems with getting the [01:11:00] kids there, some logistics with getting the kids there. He called me on a Friday evening and he was so apologetic, like, I'm so sorry to call you after hours on a Friday. I know. And I just said to him, offhanded, because I still had sort of this toxics mentality at the time and I resented it so much. I was like, dude, man, we're teachers we're never off the clock. Right. And I was

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: A toxic mentality. A toxic mentality. I love that you said that. Continue. Yeah, continue.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: idea, like we we're like, we're always working. Right. Which is literally, I was grading papers when he called me.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: but um, he said, but he had never thought of himself as a teacher. And it wasn't after we started working together at the museum that he told him that we had like the same kind of background. He came from a family where, um, he wasn't appreciated. Um, he was always seen a bit of screwed up. He worked a little bit differently and he just always saw himself as like a really bad student and he never thought of himself as a teacher. Um, he was like 60.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: [01:12:00] and so they see that, they see the way I affect my students and they see how I take what they do and I'll take it outside of the museum and try and spread it elsewhere. And they're like, we're gonna hire you. We don't know how, we don't know what regard, but we're gonna hire you.

And they kept, like, so they, they kept making job offers for like, it was like. Peanuts. Like, I can't take that job. Like,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sure. Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: paying enough money. I

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I got miles to feed. Right? Um, and so what they ended up doing is they ended up creating, um, they ended up creating a job that fit me to a t. Um, and it was as the, um, um, it was, um, a job where I would teach children how to work in a fab lab help them run that fab lab. Um, [01:13:00] and, um, they offered me the job. Um, after lockdown ended, I needed to get back. Like I had to get my, I had to get my teacher legs back. I realized that, um, there were some physical things about being a teacher that I always taken for granted that I lost sitting in a chair teacher from a screen all.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, so I started teaching, um, art classes and programming and fabrication classes at some of the local high schools, uh, for a local, um, community arts organization, um, to make money. Um, and they sent me all over the city and I would go to the school and I would teach a class, finish teaching class, and I would be exhausted from like 1 55 minute class.

I'm exhausted. And so I said, yeah, I need to get back in the classroom. And

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and I wanted to go to a place where again, I knew that I could, like, I'd have some space to grow you know, figure things [01:14:00] out. And so I went back to the small Christian school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Uh, a lot of things had happened with that school since then. Uh, the same principal was there, but since that time that principal had hired me several times to come back and teach science and computer coding classes. So I would like do an afternoon and teach them. Um. And, um, so I went back there for a year. Um, some other things were going on personally. Um, my marriage, um, uh, was being separated. um, again, I was just coming out of this really horrible time with the pandemic, and still recovering from some of the stuff that happened there. And I needed a space. And one thing I will say about that school is, despite some of the professional shortcomings, uh, everybody there loved me.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Like, not like, oh, we love you 'cause we work with you.

It was like literally they, the, the care they took from me as a person, as a man, I, it was a safe space. So I say, I'll say, I'm gonna go back [01:15:00] here and because this is a safe space for me emotionally, I need to be going to work every day someplace where I feel supported emotionally

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: The emotional part was there. Professional part was way worse than it had ever been.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh no.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah, it was really, really bad. Um, 'cause some things that happened with the school that I really can't get into. But, um, I think, um, the day that I quit about quiet, quitting, I, I hard, I try not to take sick days. Um, not because I have some toxic thing of like, you know, um, I gotta be at work every day, it was more like, I know that if I leave my kids with somebody else, they're gonna mess it up.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, sure. Oh yeah. That's all of us. We understand that you come back and it's like, what happened? I.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I remember leaving a very simple quiz with a substitute one time when I was teaching high school. It was like a very easy quiz. Like, just give them this quiz for 15 minutes. The rest of the class is theirs. They know what to do. [01:16:00] Right? And I gave the quiz and I watched this substitute pass it out.

Like it was a worksheet. Like, like I left very explicit instructions about how to know how to proctor the quiz and all that kind of stuff. Right. And I just, and like I was about to go on this. Excursion with these other students.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: looking back, I see 'em just taking the quiz and passing out like, okay, finish this worksheet, da, da, da.

I'm like, dude, no.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: That's not what I said.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: This is why I never take sick days. I took a sick day and I took a sick day. And, um, at the beginning of the year, I bought, I, I, I buy my own, I had to buy my own science equipment. I've been buying my own science equipment for then my entire career. Um, some of it I have donated. Some of it comes outta my pocket, but it's all mine.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Where I go, it goes. I came back to the school, I brought my science equipment with me. A lot of the stuff that I've been using to teach physics at the high school level, right? I had a mass spectrometer. Um, but um, [01:17:00] when I came back from my sick day, the headmaster of the school, the principal of the school had taken all of my science equipment moved it and cleared it out of my room. Um. ' cause she said it just looked a mess. And I'm like, well remember at the beginning of the year when I asked you for some shelving so I can shelve and store the science equipment?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And she said, yeah, but it was messy. And that was it. I quit. I didn't like walk out the building. 'cause I, I, I've only had to leave students in the middle of the year twice in my career.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, but I'm like, forget what you want to do. This is my school now. And I ran the class however I wanted the kids had a great time. They wrote incredible stories. They made, uh, virtual reality video games, uh, not virtual reality. Um, they made, um, in interactive video games using, um, Google Slides. I [01:18:00] taught them

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: we just had 3D printing. Um, I had this one kid, he found out he was a novelist. He had been like functionally illiterate for most of his, uh, school career. Um, but when we stopped asking him to, like, he, we was in a space where he could just write every day, um, without thinking of that it's an assignment. had these incredible stories and the grammar and spelling wasn't horrible.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Like a lot of his impediment had just been like the pressure that we put on him when we say like, we need you to write it this way in this, in this particular space. Right? He wrote this incredible, like, really deep, dramatic story. Um, I had to keep, I had to save it because when I left, they got rid of all their files, and so I had to just like download all their work, all their artifacts. man, I had so much talent in my room.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm. Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, and I just took the day to like, we're, we're still doing math, we're still doing science, we're still doing English and literature, we're still doing all the subjects, but we're gonna do them my way and we're gonna do them the way [01:19:00] that works.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: love the class 'cause it did not feel like class every day to them. just felt like hang session where you're talking philosophy and politics and literature science and philosophy. And they, they just loved it. They loved it. Um, they had these new rolling chairs and we just put the chairs in a circle. And I had my little tea. Oh my, I had my little teacup. It was my little tea cup.

This is my little tea cup that I would use. And I had like a little, uh, tea station. So I had loose tea. And they knew that whenever I was making my loose tea that it's time to talk about the reading. And we just have a conversation about the reading and they loved it. and my, the kids produced so well.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: of course at the end of the year, they don't want me back up. By that time, I already secured my job in the museum science industry. So I was like, oh, yes. Um, we've been thinking about, I was like, I was just about to call you and tell you I quit, sorry.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: like before you go ahead and finish that sentence about what you're thinking about, let me tell you.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: You can't fire me.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Right. Uno. Uno [01:20:00] out. Thank you. Act Actually actually skip you. Skip you reverse back to me. Draw four colors. Red uno's out.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I'm using that

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: happens to be, again, I'm using that Uno Uno out.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Uno. Uno out. I'm out. Thanks. Thought you're gonna win. No. Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: yeah. And so I get to go back in classrooms. I get to mentor other teachers. I get to teach kids. It's a dream for me. It's a wonderful, it's a wonderful opportunity. Uh, if you

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I love it.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: um, make sure you make the Griffin Museum of Science Industry a stop, um, and come see about me. And if you, if you like, you know, if you, uh, hit me up in my IG or whatever like that, um, I might be able to get you some free passes. That's my name. That's my other thing. Um, I really got into social media before I realized that it's a bad idea to be super transparent. Um, so all my passwords are password.

Um,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh, and that's the thing, you know, and you just, there's another group of people who just wrote that down.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: not passwords, but if you are looking for me on any [01:21:00] social media, just literally use my name and you'll find me.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: There it is.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah. I'm not dark teacher 7 28. I'm not, that's not me.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. I, I, I really is, I, this has been, this has been a really cool story and I think, you know, how you came into education where you are now so much reminds me of my own journey. Only in that you just kind of have to see what happens. And there's, and I think that folks get really into this A to B2C to D, and they leave no room for magic.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Yeah,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Right. And I think that's really important. That's something that I live by is leave room for magic. Because we met at South by Southwest because we both left room.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm. Oh God. Oh, are you, are you talk about that?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: What?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I talk about that?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: What? Go ahead.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: you, you left. I thought you meant left the room.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: [01:22:00] No, when? When we both, no, we left both left. Education in a traditional sense.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I thought you were talking about the, the, I thought you were talking about the particular seminar that was going on that made us leave the room like this is some bs

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Oh no, no. Uhuh. We are not getting into that. We are not going down that road. No, no. But, but, and we, and you know, that's the rebellious spirit of both of us. And I'm not mad about it 'cause it got me a lot of places, but I do, and I do feel like there is this piece of, you can't. You have to dare to be powerful.

You have to show up for yourself. You have to leave room for magic because if you don't, are you gonna do it? Still be silenced. You're, you're still not gonna fit. It's best to just say what you have to say. And like I said, we wouldn't have met in that all that space. When I'm walking up with my microphone, had we both not made decisions all from 2005 on that got us there.

Um, and it's all, it's, it's, it's [01:23:00] risk. It's following your ancestors, it's being in prayer, whatever it is for, for the person. But they, I feel like so strongly, we have to stay in alignment with ourselves and what we're meant to do and not what other people believe that we should be doing or what makes sense for us.

Um, yeah. Yeah. And so

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: you're

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: had this long, this long path in education. You've shouted out some students and a couple of your professors, is there a black educator that you would like to shout out on our show or multiple?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Like two. Uh, and again, you know, I, I did not have a wealth of black educators.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Um, um, the first one is my high school African American history teacher, Mr. Bratton. Mr. Bratton [01:24:00] was a really smart guy. Um, unfortunately he was teaching high school. I was a senior. I think I was in a class, maybe a couple of juniors and sophomores. um, he was also a really big guy, right? And, you know, high schoolers are not nice people. Like they're social paths. So, uh, like they used to give 'em a hard time, right? Excuse me, pardon me. But this is my high school, African American history class. I'd never had like African American history. Um. And so I respected him because he was teaching me that.

Right? But he added respect when, again, a DHD if you're doing something and I'm not engaged. So while you go over the classroom rules and expectations, I'm looking through the book 'cause they're the same expectations every year, right? I'm looking in the book and I'm looking, okay, who wrote this book? Like, first of all, African American history, I be by a whole bunch of white folks.

I bet you. So I go in there, I see my high school teacher's name in the book of people who consulted on the book. I'm like, dang, okay, [01:25:00] wait, let me pay attention. Like, oh, he bowed about it. um, it was the, um, but Mr. Broad was the only, was one of the few teachers who didn't just recognize me as being smart.

'cause C had been telling me all my life, I was smart. It was always you smart, but right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Like you super smart. But he was just like, you, smart. And then he did something that nobody had ever done for me. He gave me an award for being good in his class. Like whenever they, you know, have the award ceremony in

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I was never going up there. I didn't have perfect attendance. I da da da. Anything that they were giving an award out for, I don't go get a grade for it. I went on the honor roll, none of that. And, um, I was at my high school, my senior year of high school and he gave me award for, um, outstanding performance in African American history.

And I was in the school gym in front of like a a thousand kids, like walking down the gym floor and getting this award in front of [01:26:00] everybody. And I'd never had an experience like that that just meant so much to me. Right. And that, that was like part of my journey to start the, like, to believe that I wasn't like worthless.

That I wasn't like useless or I wasn't a problem that like somebody actually respected me, and appreciated the fact that I was smart. That was a big thing for me. Um, the second teacher who's really the first teacher. It was Ms. Kim's way back when I was in grammar school. I had to be like in second grade, I think second or third grade, and she was there for a couple of years. Ms. Kim's was this and my memory. Beautiful black woman, right? And this is back when I was like, I, I was going to a mostly white school, or the north side of Chicago, northwest side of Chicago. Anybody doesn't know about Chicago, um, will beat you on racism, [01:27:00] be Mississippi and racism against everybody in racism. Um, and so I'm at this little black boy going to school with all these white kids in the early eighties. Um, and so I was getting some really, um, harsh anti-black messaging. Um. But there was this one black. Ironically though, my first three teachers were all black. But, uh, there's this one black teacher in um, particular, I did not know her role at the school. I'm not sure what her job was, but the sister was clean every day. She was gorgeous. Miss Kims and I did not obviously get along with the other kids at school. Um, and I was fighting all the time. And, um, and I developed, 'cause this is such a formative time for me, I was also developing some really bad social habits and some horrible anger issues. Um, and so I'd [01:28:00] be playing by myself, literally just playing night writer by myself, talking to my fake watch and pretending like I'm driving around the school. It was so sad. Like I was a pitiful child, um,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And Ms. Kims would talk to me. Like during recess, and we just have conversations, and I'm not sure how many bad people are in the audience, but you know, when you're a bad kid and you in trouble so much that all the people in charge of like your suspensions and whatever, uh, just uh, or your detentions just start like talk to you about their life.

Like they grown folks life.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: You in, you in there so long. They're like, well, gimme some advice on,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mr. Jackson messing up again.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: It was like, but she wouldn't talk me. Like, she wouldn't talk me about like her, like, her talking to me about like, um, she was really happy that she think, um, that she, um, might finally, um, be having a baby and she was really happy about being a mommy. And um, you know, she was like, it was like kid [01:29:00] appropriate, I don't remember

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: inappropriate, but she was just being transparent and honest and talking to me, um, like a friend. The way a adult would talk to another kid like a friend,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And, um, I did not appreciate it 'cause I was such a little jerk at that point. But, um, we had these, these, um, gymnast rings. 'cause this is the eighties. They let us, they let us die. They didn't care. They had these gymnast rings in the playground and a couple of one kid had fallen off the gymnast's ring and, and broken their arm, right? the gymnast rings, um, were supposed to be tied up and not used anymore, somebody would always untie the gymnast's rings and you just go play on 'em, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: So I went to go play on the gymnast rings, right? I'm swinging back and forth and I'm having a good time. And Ms. Kims came over and very gently told me, do not play you, you know, Aurelius She know you're not supposed to play in the gymnast rings. Let's get down. Let's go do something else. Right? And I was mad because she was, I was having fun, I was enjoying myself. She wanted [01:30:00] to stop my fun so I could do something else. And I took the rings and I hit her in the head with.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I was a large child. Um, do you know that woman still talked to me? I hurt her. Like I didn't, like, I remember, remember an ambulance. My dad said there couldn't have been an ambulance, otherwise it would've been a lawsuit. I remember an ambulance,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Sure.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: I don't know if they came here for her, but I remember an ambulance.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: um, incredibly violent for no good reason.

And she was just doing her job

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: and she still, she didn't try and hold it over my head. She talked to me every day. A woman forgave me and I did not say sorry. I did not apologize. And she still talked to me every day. And I did not appreciate it at the time. But when I reflected on that as an adult, after I became a teacher, I'm like, that's the blueprint. That's the blueprint. [01:31:00] That's the blueprint. Like I, oh, I get choked up every time I think about that woman. 'cause I can't find her. I cannot find her. I've tried, I've gone through all the CPS records that I know how I cannot find her, um, I'm sorry. Chicago Public School for people who don't live in Chicago.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: And what, what's, what elementary school was this?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: This is Bel, um, Hiram Belding Elementary School. Um, and um, so when I became a teacher, I always had like these really horrible children who would just treat adults horribly or treat everybody else horribly. Right. And I always was the guy who would like, just sit down with those kids and just have, and like build these relationships with these kids.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: And build these. And, um, so they would like bring the bad kids to me. I'm like, don't please stop. First of all, stop it. and I appreciate the fact that y'all don't call 'em bad. I'm glad y'all don't call them bad. Thank you for not doing that. But still,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: doesn't do any good if you still treat 'em like they bad.

You

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah, yeah, yeah, [01:32:00] yeah, yeah. Oh yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Like when people like tone police you on, like what you call kids and how you talk to kids, I get that and it is very important. I'm not downplaying that, right. But none of it makes a difference if you don't actually change the way you treat them.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: But anyway, they'll bring these kids and like I have like YouTube videos of like, um, there's a video on my YouTube of me teaching a kid how to build a circuit.

He's four years old. I taught him how to build an electrical circuit. Um, but the backstory of that video is that he was in the room with me because he had been screaming at his kindergarten teacher nonstop for the whole morning. And she's like, you need to take him. I'm gonna lose my job. He was like being that difficult.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Mm-hmm.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: to my room, we have a conversation and we'll build stuff together and we talk about like how to be nice to people and how we want people to treat us and what some ways we can do some really great things. And I just did what Ms. Kims did for me every single time. Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: I love this. [01:33:00] Thank you. Last question.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: In your work, you're supporting a lot of folks,

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: folks, older folks, your own children that you know. The question I'm about to ask for you, what does it mean to be well?

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: For me, um, to be happy with yourself, to be secure in your position. Whatever that position may be. And, um, be happy with your work. And I think for me, that's wellness. When everything's going okay with my family. Um, when my students are happy, I don't care about my administrators, my students are happy. and when [01:34:00] I got a roof over my head and something to eat, I'm in a good place. Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: Yeah. Um, all right folks. This has been one of the best episodes of the exit interview, a podcast for black educators that I've hosted. Uh. Don't go to a Realis job looking for discounts.

aurelius-raines-ii_1_06-15-2025_112558: No.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_06-15-2025_102559: yeah, pay the full fee. We need the money in, in our, in our museums these days. But thank you so much for coming on.

If you are someone listening to this podcast and you are a black educator from Red, black educator and traditional space who'd like to share your exit interview story, please reach out at be well@allianceeducationalconsulting.com or uh, our, our podcast website, exit interview podcast.com. Aurelius, thank you so much for coming on.

[01:35:00]