Episode 47: Changing The Way We Perceive Early Childhood Educators with Brittney Carey

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Exit Interview, a podcast for black educators with your host, Dr. Asia. In the house today, Brittany Carey, bringing all the wisdom, bringing all the things. Welcome to the show, Brittany.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Thank you. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Excited to have you here. How's your day been so far?

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: You know, the day has been really, really good. It's been a busy day. I have a lot of talking that I'm doing today, so I think I'm planning to have a very, like talking day tomorrow.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: I am not mad about that. I'm not mad about, I know that sounds like a dream, but not in this household. Like wake up in the morning, mama. Go to bed at night. Somebody's calling my name. So.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yep.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: I get you. Good luck with that. Um, yeah, thank you for, for coming on the show now, folks, I was on Brittany's show, um, it would've dropped in June, early June, and so you'll probably be [00:01:00] hearing this in July, but go and check out.

She'll talk about her podcast. We want her to definitely, uh, blow that up. But go and check out my episode. Shameless plug. Then also check out the rest of, uh, her guests, because she has some great content on there. She's on LinkedIn. She'll tell you all about the things. She'll, it'll be in the show notes.

She's in lots of places. But, well, let's go ahead and get started with the show, with our first question.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: tell us about your journey into education. I saw that you were in the ECE space, so, but tell us about how you decided to become an educator. What was that journey like?

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah. So I actually decided to join education at a pretty early age. Like I had an amazing third grade teacher, so, you know, prior to the third grade I moved a lot, which, which sounds really surprising, uh, that I had moved. I had been in multiple states. I, you know, was born in California. We moved to Arizona, New Mexico, back to California, north Cal, uh, Southern California [00:02:00] to the East coast, all before the third grade.

So I was, I was well traveled,

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: That's a lot.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: the time I got there. Yeah. So the time I hit, like the third grade, um, you know, and moving around so much, there were, you know, we learned different things in different states. And so by the time I got to the third grade. was not up to the same kind of standards that everyone else was up to. Um, I was actually, you know, they were thinking about holding me back in the second grade just 'cause my reading wasn't there. My math skills weren't there. Like, it was just not where it needed to be. Um, but they, they ended up pushing me forward as No Child Left Behind, says so. Got pushed through to the third grade anyways.

Wasn't prepared, but they, there we go. Um, but I always say I got really, really lucky because I had a third grade teacher who was. Absolutely phenomenal. She was an amazing educator and she took so much time to actually get to know me and get to know what my interests were. And you know, at the time I loved animals, I loved [00:03:00] dogs.

And so that's kind of how she roped me into reading. It was like, here's this book about dogs. Don't you wanna look at this? And I'm like, I do wanna look at this.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm. Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: And actually by the end of the third grade, I had some of the highest kind of reading scores. Like I was kind of surpassing my peers in reading and math and Right in all those different areas. Uh, and I attribute that to just having a teacher who really cared and really took that time and saw kind of my humanity of like. she's not, you know, unintelligent. She just needs someone to show her the way. Um, and since then I've been an absolute, a avid reader. I love reading, I love books. Um, and so after the third grade, I feel like I really understood education and I really felt like to do this for other kids.

I want other kids to feel the way that I felt in the third grade. Now there were some hiccups because I don't know who it was, but someone told me at some point in my early ed education, um, is that, oh, [00:04:00] you don't wanna be a teacher. Like, they don't make any money, which

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm-hmm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: they weren't wrong, but

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: No, they weren't. They weren't.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: they, they were, they were telling me like it is. Um, and so I kind of derailed that. So I was like, oh, well maybe I'll be a lawyer, maybe I'll be a doctor, maybe I'll do, you know, all these other different things. Um, and I, I took my first. Well, I started working in an early childhood education center. Um, I was just getting tired of working in bars and working in, you know, cafes while I was going to school.

Like, I just kinda got tired of customer service. wasn't, it wasn't my thing. Um, and so my friend was like, oh, you should try preschool. Like, I think you would really like it. So I was like, okay. I started kinda like volunteering at a free school and then I got my first job at a preschool and love it.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: It was the, it was the place I was supposed to be for sure. Um, and so I started, I was kind of never, literally never really looked back. I just went into early childhood and [00:05:00] that's, that's where I am.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: It's interesting that you talk about, and so many folks that come on the show talk about this, um. The pay and that folks have kept said, you don't wanna be in education because of the pay. And then folks end up in education anyway.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: that really speaks to when, when you have something placed in your heart or however, whatever way you want to think about it,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: what that is, whether that's teaching.

Fill in the blank for what the job is. If that's the thing that you're supposed to do for whatever amount of time you're gonna end up doing that, it's like, why fight the feeling? Just do the thing, push forward and then see what happens in the long run. But I, you're not the first person who's had people say, or are you sure you wanna do that?

They don't get paid anything. And ended up going into education and for a time, loved it and was happy about their decision. So being in, tell us all about the ECE world. Tell us how long you were in school. Where did you teach all the things [00:06:00] we want to know.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yes. So, yeah, when I started, so in California you need 12 units of early childhood education in order to be a preschool teacher. Um. Which is a thing, I, I am constantly advocating that we, we need more than that.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm-hmm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: oh, actually a lot of educators actually do have higher degrees. So they have bachelor's, they have master's degrees in early childhood education. Um, I, I think I forgot what the percentage was, but there's a very large percentage of the early childhood workforce that is very well trained, very well educated, but you know, the very basics that you need is just 12 units, which is like what? four classes that you take, um, that gives you kind of the very basics of early childhood education. and so once you have that, you take, you know, you kind of do, you know, CPR and mandated reporter training and, and all those things. Um, but as I was in the classroom, so I actually got my first, uh, [00:07:00] job teaching was at this very small school, and I hadn't even taken any of my classes yet. You just have to be enrolled. So again, that's a thing.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Hmm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah. You

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Let's talk.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: in the classes.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: pause for a second. That is very interesting. And this is in California that you're talking about this?

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: This is, I had no idea, and I can't speak to, to early childhood education here in Colorado,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: the fact that you're saying the requirement is just to be enrolled, and I'm guessing this day one,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: speaks to a lots of things in our system that.

Access, which is like, great, that's awesome. People can access having an education or having a career that they love right away. And at the same time then what, like you said,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: 12 classes or 12 credits and hopefully there's continuing education credits, but there that is very fascinating and sorry to cut you off, but I just wanted to stop and say that.[00:08:00]

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: No, I, I agree. When I look back on it, right when I was entering into early childhood, I was like, oh, this is, this is great. This is easy peasy. Like, I, I just do these things and then I get to, you know, be my little teacher in this little classroom. Um, and the more that I learned, you know, I'm, I'm definitely a much better teacher.

The more I learned, the more pedagogy I learned, the more, um, you know, developmental theory that I learned and understood. The more. Um, you know, hours that I did in, in classrooms, I became more of a better teacher just because my overall knowledge of the population that I'm working with, you know, expanded and changed. and it's also just very limiting. You know, it's, it's what three or four classes that you take and now you're qualified to teach preschool and that's not even like the most atrocious things, you know, nationwide in some states you just have to be graduate from high school and that's the only thing you need to do and you can now teach preschool. And it's just not consistent across the [00:09:00] states, which is something that I find very concerning. Um, you know, from a quality standpoint, and again, exactly what you mentioned, I love that there is not as many barriers to get into it. So if, you know, I love working with young kids, I want to do this, this is the career that I want to have and do and, and be a part of, I love that there's not all of these extensive barriers and hoops and money that you have to put through too. Become that and join that career. But at the same time, it's a very spot, a very special population that we're dealing with. Especially when you get into the very young, early stages, whether that's, if you wanna teach infants and toddlers, you do have to take an, an additional class. Just one additional class that's, um, to teach infants and toddlers. but for, you know, two and a half to five years old, you just take your 12 units. and so I think that. That's one thing that I'm constantly advocating for in, in early childhood is like we do need to raise our standards. Not so much [00:10:00] that it is excluding people, because in early childhood it is the population who's teaching it is mostly, mostly women or people who identify as women and mostly people of color. Which again, going back to what I said earlier, is that childhood educators consistently have. Really high degrees. They either have bachelor's degrees, they have master's degrees, they're very well trained, to deal with this very specific population. Um, and not anyone can just walk into a preschool classroom and do it just the same way as I, I wouldn't dare walk into a middle school classroom and be like, yep, I can do this. No, they would turn me apart.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yes, yes. Shout out to seventh grade graders across the country. By the way,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yes. I know developmentally a lot about middle schoolers. I, I feel like I, I know about how they exist, but yeah, I, I'm too sensitive to be teaching middle school.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: same. And I taught middle school. And so when you, when you said you were teaching in EC and you had more training. Tell us more about, you [00:11:00] know, just your experiences in the classroom, supporting folks you, or supporting young people and maybe adults too. I, I'm not sure, um.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Because I think that's really important that people understand and, and I wanna also say before you answer that question, it's really important that we're having this conversation about what it means to support children zero to five.

Because I think that we often forget, we say K 12, K 12, K 12, and we off often leave out this conversation of ECE educators. Who helped put on coats, tie shoes, teach the SEL,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: the things, right? As a, as a parent whose child went to preschool, um, on an IEP for speech, it was important that she went in and she was talking to her peers and she was learning these skills.

And so we, and even I have to be very mindful to keep in mind that. School doesn't start at K at K kindergarten, right? There's a lot of people putting in a lot of [00:12:00] work to make sure our children are prepared for the world and prepared for kindergarten. Um,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yes.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: yeah. So I just wanted to pause and say that, but go ahead.

Tell us about your experience.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah. So, you know, a lot of what you said is so true because in early childhood, like I said, it's a very special population that we are working with and that we're educating. And the perceptions of early childhood are that we're mostly just playing with kids all day. Uh, we're just hanging out that that is not school, that they're not really learning, that they're just kind of playing with Play-Doh and doodling all day. Um. Which is not necessarily the case. Like, yes, we might be doodling and playing with Play-Doh most of our day, but knowing, you know, the more that I learned about human development and child development, I know that there is so much learning that is happening when young children are using Play-Doh. Thus that fine motor skills and that fine motor development as they're manipulating and doing that stuff, that's gonna be integral for later years when they're learning writing. [00:13:00] They're working on their hand eye coordination, which is gonna be really, really important. They need that skill in order to read. Right? So we are actually like, I think it's what your brain develops, like 75% of its like total size in those first five years. so there is so much. Learning that is happening and so much expansion in their brains that are happening, their social emotional skills that they're learning, their cognitive skills, their fine motor, their motor skills.

Like how are they moving their bodies, right? How are they learning to speak and, and use language? Um, and one of the most important things that I feel like I did in early childhood was Spark and Ignite that love for learning. you know, right now reading is a really big thing that we're talking about, especially in California and, and nationwide is. You know, students' literacy rates are abysmal, like just across the whole country. Um, and especially in California. Um, it's just abysmal. you know, the number of children who know how to read by third [00:14:00] grade is just, it's terrifying how, how little it is. And, you know, people are always looking at like, well, how are we teaching them to read and what are we doing?

And it's like. Well, I think the first thing we really need to be focusing on is one, those foundational skills. Again, that, that hand-eye coordination, you know, how are they tracking words, um, how are they learning? Just language in general, just oral language. Um, how is their expressive language, so the way that they're talking, how are they understanding the language that they're hearing?

There's so many foundational skills before we get to reading that. If you don't get those foundational skills, you know, early, then you're gonna have a harder time grasping like. You know, phonics and syntax, if you're not hearing words the way that they need to be heard. and so that's another one of the most important things I feel like in early childhood is one when I know and understand development.

So I know that, you know, generally speaking, I know in development it's not as very linear as people like to think that it is. So you are now three years old, so that means you can have this checklist of [00:15:00] things that you can do now. Um, it doesn't necessarily work that way. It's more of a spectrum. So I can kind of understand that within the spectrum, I can understand that this is, you know, normal, you know, development. and so if I'm seeing that you know this, you know, three and a half, 4-year-old and their speech is, you know, still one or two words in their sentences, that's a little outside of the range in which, you know, I would know that this would be kind of normal development. Um, and so that tells me that, okay, we need some additional services or we need some additional. Things that I either I need to do in the classroom to get you up to a level where I can expect, you know, for you to, generally speaking, to be, again, we do some referrals, we get services, we get speech services, we get those types of things. We get, um, you know, assessments done. Like how is your hearing, how are you processing information? All of that happening super early will then again, lay the foundations for you to be able to do those skills later on. and so just making the point of why early childhood is so [00:16:00] incredibly

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: um, I, I loved, I loved every day that I got to be in the classroom. It was. You know, hard some days 'cause you're working with very young people, so,

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: you know, and, you know, getting them to, to do what you want.

Sometimes it takes a little bit of finesse. It takes a little bit of, okay, we're having a day where, you know, the classroom just feels like they are in disarray. Everyone's moods are all over the place. Everyone's energy's all over the place. And so being able to manage all these different competing aspects and still, um, you know, provide a learning environment that is cohesive, that is, you know. Um, you know, like just learning their developmental domains early. Like I loved every day being in the classroom.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: that enough. I loved it. In a perfect world, I would still be in the classroom

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah. And I mean, that's a great transition to our next question, which is

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: we're talking in past tense, right? And so what was it, who was it? What was the situation where you decided it's time for you [00:17:00] to transition out of like a traditional education space and to move on to something different?

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah. And so we, we touched on it a little bit before one was the, the money of it.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm-hmm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: you know, I was teaching in LA and working in LA and LA is expensive. It's an expensive city to exist in.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm-hmm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: and I was noticing that there were days that I, or weeks that I had to decide, am I going to get gas to drive to work, or am I gonna go to the grocery store like. Just trying to really make these intense decisions because, um, early childhood educators, um, in Southern California, San Diego, like they, they just hit like $20 an hour, which would've been great, like.[00:18:00]

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: 30 minutes.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Um, where was I? Yes. Um, so childhood educators, preschool teachers just reached about $20 an hour, um, in pay in San Diego, which would've been nice, probably like. 10, 15 years ago. Um, but the way that inflation is right now, can't live in San Diego on $20 an hour.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: No.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Um,

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Not without a hundred roommates.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: yeah. Not without a hundred roommates, like, you know, and that was kind of my, my constant concern when I [00:19:00] was, you know, teaching preschool. Um, at the time, you know, were making maybe like 12 to $15 an hour. Um, and it didn't matter how educated you were, um, it didn't matter if you had a bachelor's degree. It didn't matter if you had a master's degree. Um, it didn't matter if you had 12 units of early childhood education, you were probably still making 12 to $15 an hour. Um, and so just the money of it and made it so that it wasn't, um, feasible for the long term. And so in early childhood, there's also not a whole lot of upward mobility, um, within it. So you can, you know, be an assistant teacher, you can teach preschool. You can become a director, which is kinda like the principal of the school. And that's, that's pretty much it unless you wanna go into, um, academics and teaching at a collegiate level. and even with that, you need to have your, at least your master's, like at the very, the bare minimum you need your master's degree. So, know, there's just not a whole lot of trajectory and things that you can do. Like if you, you wanted [00:20:00] to kind of move upward in the, the career ladder there, there's a pretty. seal, pretty low ceiling, within it. And I was also just getting really burnt out and I could tell, you know, just in, you know, my personal life, there were a lot of things going on. And then in the classroom, you know, we had assessments, we had observations.

There were, you know, parent-teacher conferences. There were a lot of things that were just like pulling me in so many different directions. Um, and usually in early childhood, you'll. Sometimes you might be the only teacher. Sometimes you might have an assistant. Um, sometimes you might have a co-teacher. Um, and I just didn't, I didn't really have a co-teacher, so it was just me in the classroom with all of, you know, all 12 of my students.

'cause in California, the, the ratios are about one to 12. So you can have one teacher to 12 students in preschool, um, even two year olds, which if you've been in a room with one, 2-year-old,

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah, you need one and a half adults to one 2-year-old.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: yes. Yes. So you can have 12 two year olds in [00:21:00] one room all by yourself and not just be your life. And, know, I was just getting so burnt out and by the end of, you know, me being in that classroom, I just know that my, you know, my, my just, I wasn't able to be the best teacher.

My fuse was so low.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: was just really low. Um, and I just really wasn't able to give them. Everything that I knew that I could give them. And I also just wasn't getting the support. So I was actively being burnt out and there was just nothing I could do about it. I couldn't take time off.

'cause you get like three sick days, you get like maybe five days of PTO. we were, you know, a year round school, so we didn't get summer break. We didn't really get breaks. So it was just, you just keep going and going and going. You know, unless you wanna save all your PTO to take one week of vacation for the whole year, you're gonna get burned out.

Like, there's just no way for that to be sustainable, especially if you [00:22:00] are the, the person who is kind of providing for yourself. Um, so a lot of preschool teachers that I worked with, they had husbands that you generally were the money makers and, you know, this was just kind of something that they might do for fun sometimes. but if you're, you know, a single person trying to live your life, trying to. Um, you know, better yourself and you know, if you wanna buy a house, if you wanna have a family, like you can't do that and be a preschool teacher.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: and that's the most concerning thing about it because then you see teachers, you see one, again, it comes into the standards of early childhood education and the perceptions of it.

Of, well, yeah, if you're just playing with kids all day, then yeah, you can make $15 an hour and, you know, so who then gets to be a part of this field again? Either you have someone else supporting you and you can be a part of this field. it's mostly just people who just got outta high school.

They're doing this because they wanna go into social work. They're doing this because they wanna go teach K 12. So it's kind of like this launching pad into [00:23:00] other careers like I said before, early childhood is such an integral part of this child's, you know, educational journey. It shouldn't be treated as just a launching pad.

Like this is, this is an actual career. This is an actual important aspect of education that a lot of people just don't think about.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah, that there are so many things. Yeah, there's so many things that you just said that. I think it are important to sit with the 12 to $15 an hour is the first thing that stuck out. And again, so part of the work that I do, I support organizations with different projects and one project that I'm on, we've been talking about the pay gap even with black women, um, in comparison to their brown and white counterparts.

And so when you're saying 12 to 15, I know that there are so many black women out there who are seeing that [00:24:00] 12 far more, or at the time, far more than that 15. Like they're seeing 20 and not 25. Right. That 'cause there's always that pay gap, right? Um, even though we feel like, oh, how can there be a pay gap when there's this chart that says you have X amount of years?

I've heard that, but negotiation comes into play. Lots of things come into play.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yep.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: So, and, and the burnout over and over again. And, and I think, I'm so glad that you talked about the not having vacation. Because I don't think that people realize that even here in the state of Colorado, we're hearing the same thing about, this is a year round school, and now we have children who've experienced COVID or all the, like, there's just lots of dynamics and people are leaving midyear and we're not able to sub and people are coming in sick.

And, and so even though you're, you've, you left. Um, [00:25:00] the ECE space a little bit ago, those things are not changing. And even though you're talking about California, I could say the same thing in Colorado, and I know that our audience across the country can also say, yeah, that's happening in Massachusetts, that's happening in Texas, that's happening in Florida because we are not respecting educators and we are a hundred percent not respecting our ECE folks.

Right. Um.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: hundred percent. And I know that, I think I know what you're gonna an how you're gonna answer this next question, but I'll ask it anyway. Knowing what you know, um, about the work that you did where you are now, what are some things that you think that, um, edu or unions and schools, districts, child development centers, what can they do to keep black educators?

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: That is an excellent question and there's [00:26:00] so much that we could really be doing, because we do know that the workforce is. You know, primarily a lot of it is, you know, women of color within early childhood education. and one thing we could do just as a general as a whole is really just start taking this field seriously as we do with K through 12 education. Um, obviously we want to pay them better. We want to have pay parity. We want, um, educators to able to, to live their lives and not have to make those decisions about whether. You know, what's more important this week? Getting to work or feeding myself. those shouldn't be questions that any human being has to deal

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah. Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: of that, just knowing that, know, it, it does feel a little bit intentional that knowing that our field is mostly women of color and knowing that we aren't paid anywhere near, uh, what the district pays, which still isn't a lot, to be honest, still isn't enough. [00:27:00] Um. nowhere near what that is.

Right. And given the fact that they are so educated, um, and just elevating that and seeing it as a field and seeing that what we are doing as education and as a profession, um, it is so important. and honoring that, honoring that it's okay to study early childhood and be in early childhood and like, that's not something to look down on. Um, lot of, a lot of people who. You know, as I was continuing my education and continuing my degree, you know, saying, oh, you're gonna go into teach kindergarten, like, just the idea that I would get all this other education and then stay in early childhood was unfathomable. Right? Um, I,

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm-hmm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: my closest friends, she got her master's in early childhood and people were questioning that of like, well, like, what do you wanna do?

You wanna own your own preschool? Like, what are you trying to do with that? And being a preschool teacher is a profession. Full stop.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Say it again for [00:28:00] the people in the back. Say it. Say it again. For the people in the back, please. One more time.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: because being in early childhood, being a preschool teacher is a profession. It's a full stop. You don't need to do other things. You don't need to be anything extra. You are teaching. I remember in my early years of teaching, I never really called myself a teacher, so you'd get, you know, teacher, teacher discounts and stuff like that. would never go for those because I didn't consider myself a teacher because. That wasn't the, the ethos around me that wasn't, what people were saying, you know? Oh, K through 12, like those are teachers, kindergarten teachers are teachers. I'm just, I'm just a preschool teacher. It's literally in the name.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: It.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: it's literally right there. Um. So, yeah, really changing the way that we perceive early childhood education and how we respect and how we listen to early childhood educators. Um, you know, going back to your, your question here in California, we're doing, um, we just upped our tk so we've been doing transitional kindergarten for years now. [00:29:00] Um, and it's kind of this additional year of schooling that's a part of the school district, uh, before kindergarten. And it's usually for four year olds. So before in California, if you, you had to have your birthday between like a certain date in August and like early December for you to qualify for tk.

So it's a very small subset of children who qualified for transitional kindergarten. Um, and so now we've opened it up in California for all four year olds to be able to be a part of this transitional kindergarten program. Now, here's the catch, right? In order to teach transitional kindergarten, you have to have a multi-subject teaching credential. Um, and like 24 units of early childhood education, most early childhood educators don't have multi-subject teaching credentials. 'cause that's not something that we're required to have. So even if you have a master's degree in early childhood education, even if you've been working with four year olds for 10, 20, 30 years, like that is your life's [00:30:00] work.

Right? And again, it's mostly women of color who are in this field. You've essentially put a major block. childhood educators to teach the age range that they've been doing years. Right?

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm-hmm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: that's something that, you know, we're kind of just seeing that there's a blockade there. We know that in, through 12 teaching, there's so many barriers to access. So we see that in K through 12, it's majority, right? It's gonna be white teachers, you know, a majority in early childhood is. You know, teachers of color and now you've essentially made it so that you have this whole age range that they've been teaching that they can't teach now. Right. Um, and a lot of, you know, you know, anecdotally I'm hearing from parents is that even though it's still optional, like to kindergarten, California, it's still optional.

You don't have to go to kindergarten if you don't want to. Um, TK is optional, but a lot of parents don't have the option to not go. Right. So if they're in early childhood, if they're in [00:31:00] preschool. They pretty much have to do transitional kindergarten the way this hurts our, our profession, right? And a lot of educators are in either you're in a preschool center, you can be in Head Start, you can be in a California state preschool program, which are both like federally and state funded. Or you can be in a private preschool, which is usually just funded by the parents themselves. or you can open up your own family daycare, which is usually in your own home. So it's not a center-based um, program. And for family, you know, daycare owners. We see it's, again, primarily it's gonna be families of color who, you know, either weren't treated right within early childhood education, weren't respected within education, and said, I have all of this knowledge and knowhow, I'm gonna open up my own program. Right? But now that we're seeing this TK rollout and they're, you know, they're also accepting more three year olds in this program as well, which is problematic. that means that you're losing a core group of your, Of your, your [00:32:00] participants in your program. If all your four and three year olds are going to TK and you have your program, and so with infants and toddlers you can have a program with infants and toddlers, but the ratios are much smaller,

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm-hmm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Um, but also like your insurance goes up because it's just a risk your age group to work with. You have sids, you have illnesses. There's just more things that you have to do. So it's not very profitable to have a program that's just infants and toddlers. That's a whole other conversation because infant and toddler care is still incredibly important. Um, and families need that. And they, it's, it's so important for our, for our economy and just how we move into so many things about infant and toddler care. But what we're seeing now is that it's making it really hard for these black, you know, child family care owners to continue to operate their businesses because we've taken away so many students that would possibly go to their programs, So there's all those different aspects, right, that we just need to be looking at in terms of just listening to [00:33:00] educators, to their experiences, what's going on. The fact that, um, family childcare providers weren't at the table when we were making these decisions is problematic, They held all of these, um, the Department of Education held all these information sessions, uh, as they were rolling out tk, but they had them in the middle of the day.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Of course they did. Of course.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: make that.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah. Yeah. No.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: So it feels really intentional. It feels really intentional that making these decisions at this state and legislative level, and the people who need to be at the table aren't there. They aren't being considered, they aren't being heard. and we're just jeopardizing, um, families.

We're de jeopardizing. The care that they have access to, we're jeopardizing, um, black owned businesses, small, black owned businesses, um, are being jeopardized in the decisions that we're making. So, in a long-winded way to answer your question, yes, there's so many different things that we [00:34:00] could actually be doing, uh, to prioritize how black educators are navigating this field, um, and prioritize, you know, how are we actually including them in conversations?

How are we including them in school districts? So many things. Yes.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah, that when you said they were holding the meetings, I just knew, I'm thinking middle of the day on a weekday. Right. Um. So we had a, a, a guest, JSA Evans, shout out to her, who is the executive director of the Black Educator Advocates Network out of California. And she, you, I see the two of you having a good time chitchatting because there's so many pieces that you are filling in for me in our, in our conversation right now that.

Kind of puzzle piece here and beautifully with our conversation with Desa and I, and so I have to connect you two, and that's totally off topic. So anyway, [00:35:00] thank you for that. So when we get back from our break, we'll get into my favorite part of the show, folks. Grab something to drink, grab that notebook, do all the things.

We'll be back in a minute.

Welcome back. Um, we are here with our guest. Uh, so Brittany Carey has been giving us all the things, uh, early childhood, and if you some for some reason skip to, to this part, you missed the beginning. You need to go back and you need to get your notebook out, especially if you live in California, especially if you are a person who wants to support equal pay and the end up burnout for ECE folks.

You need to make sure that you listen to what she's has to say, especially for folks, um, in California and actually in Colorado too, because we're having si very, very similar issues. So, um, my next question to you is, you talked about your third grade teacher. You talked about folks that were in the space with you and you [00:36:00] all were trying to make it work.

Who is a black educator? Past, present, future, I guess not future, but past or present. Oh, maybe future. You never know. Like free service. You never know who you'd like to shout out on our show.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yes. this question. Um, you know, unfortunately in my, my K through 12 experience, I didn't have very many black teachers. Um, even when I went to school in, you know, Virginia, which is I think technically considered the south, um, I don't really know where the south begins, but, um, you know, I just didn't have very many black educators, but I did have my, my fourth and fifth grade teacher, um, she was a black woman and she. she always said, she said, um, at the end of our, like fourth grade year, she was like, oh, I liked you guys so much, I'm gonna teach you guys in fifth grade. And we were like, yay. Um, but I look back on that now, I'm like, you probably didn't have a choice in that, but

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Right.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: us,

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: [00:37:00] Yes. Yes.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Um, but she, she was really amazing. Her name was, uh, Mrs. Butts, um, which also, luckily she didn't teach middle school 'cause I feel like that would be insufferable. So.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Facts. Facts. Oh, I love, but I, I love that. I, I, uh, anybody else you wanna shout out?

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yes. Um, I did have a, um, a professor, so when I went to, uh, my bachelor's program, I went to Pacific Oaks College. Shout out Pacific Oaks. and that was an institution that I finally had the most diverse. Teachers that I've ever had. Um, it was a social justice school, so it was very, very specifically around education and around social justice and equity. and so I had a lot of very amazing diverse educators there. But I'll give a shout out to, to Dr. Grant. He was my professor in my, um, art and social change class. And that class changed the way that I, like, I think about things. It changed the way that I approach education. [00:38:00] Um. Just the way that he would ask different questions and pose different topics.

Um, it didn't feel like an average class where you're just kind of in the classroom being bestowed upon with knowledge. It was, most of this con, most of this class is gonna be us sitting in a circle, just talking. And helped me to like, absorb so much information, just the questions that he would ask, the way he would ask them.

I was like, this is amazing. This is what education is. Um, so shout out to Dr. Grant.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: I love that. Thank you so much. So, kind of going a little bit backwards,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: are no longer in the ECE classroom. You're no longer teaching preschool. Tell us what you're doing now.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah. after I left, um, my classroom, I think that was like 20 i 18, maybe. Yeah, 2018, I dunno, the years kind of blend together at some point. Um, but I think it was 2018 I had left my, my preschool [00:39:00] teaching classroom. Um, I went to go into nonprofit space. Um, and that was the whole situation. Uh, but I went to the nonprofit space, got a little bit more workplace trauma and,

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: We could talk about that on another show. Yeah. Yes. Yes, me too, honey. Me too.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: You know, I was like, yeah, I'm gonna help. You know, you go into education and it's a very specific personality that I think education attracts. It's just people who, who love working with young people who love, you know, helping who love just that, that act of making change. Um. It's just a very specific type of personality that I feel like draws us in. And then we get there and we're like, I'm too sensitive. Everything is a lot. and so then it also draws the same type of person into non-profits. And then you just get more trauma and you're like, why? Anyways, so now I launched my own business, um, and so I do education consulting. Um, so I, I help other early [00:40:00] childhood educators.

A lot of my trainings go towards early childhood educators, and we're working on things like anti-bias. We're working on culturally responsive, uh, relevant pedagogy. We're working on. You know, how do we teach in a diverse society, right? So I really want to, to bring this home, I've had the pleasure of working in private preschools in publicly funded state funded preschools in family home daycares. Um, I've worked with elementary students, I've worked with middle school students, I've worked with high school students, even adult learners. Um, so I've worked with pretty much, if there's a developmental age range, I've probably worked with it. Um, and so a lot of my trainings are bringing in my understanding of development and how people learn, how children learn, how adolescents learn.

And I'm adding in that component of how can we make sure that we're creating spaces that are fully inclusive, authentically inclusive, um, not just, you know, I checked all these things on the boxes, so there's black people on the walls now. So I am now inclusive. It's like, no, that's not how that works. [00:41:00] Just because you've added representation on your walls does not mean that your classroom is actually inclusive, that it is actually authentic. Um, so a lot of my trainings are really around how are we creating our classrooms? How are we teaching our, our educators, and what can we do, be doing more to make sure that our students actually feel a sense of ownership, a sense of belonging in their classrooms.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah. How did you decide that that was the direction that you wanted to go in?

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah, so part of my studies in my, my Bachelor's program, uh, like I said, it was a social justice school and my, my bachelor's degree is actually in social justice. It's in advocacy and social justice with a concentration in education, which is always a mouthful every time I say, um. And so in that program I learned a lot about social justice and advocacy.

And the area that I focused on was exclusionary discipline, specifically in the preschool realm. and so from firsthand experience, I would see kind of one, how our black children were [00:42:00] being treated and how that was different than how we were treating our, our other children, our white children in the classrooms. we often see that, you know, black children are being pushed outta their classrooms more often. Um, so whether they're being sent to the director's office or they're being sent home, there's this idea called like a soft expulsion, um, where you know, you're constantly calling the parent or the caregiver to pick up the child, um, like, oh, they threw something today, or they did this, and you're just constantly calling them to come pick up their child in the middle of the day, which means that it's making it really impossible for them to find adequate care for their child. So either they stay there and they can't work, or they have to find another school to go to. You just basically make it impossible for that child to go to that school. Um, and you see that a lot in preschool. we see, uh, black children get suspended from school more often, um, in, in preschools, right? So this happens in K through 12 all the time.

And so people, one, they don't think of preschool as school. But they also don't think that these things are [00:43:00] happening for some reason. They just think it suddenly appears in kindergarten. Um, it doesn't, it happens anywhere that black children exist. Um, and so we're seeing that they get pushed outta their school environment more often. Um, they get expelled from school and again, preschool is, you know, two to five years old. So we're having two year olds getting expelled from school. I see toddlers who get suspended, expelled from school. Which is an extremely concerning thing because oftentimes it's for things that are developmentally appropriate and it's oftentimes for things that they're not penalizing white students for. So you might see, you know, a black student might hit another child and they're like, oh, this child's aggressive, this, it's not safe for this child to be here. They're making the, they're making the other children feel scared. But you know, then you think, well, it's a 2-year-old. They're learning communication skills.

That's part of my job in this classroom is to. Help them with their communication skills. [00:44:00] Um, and I don't think that any child can really be aggressive or violent because they are a child. They are learning That is part of how they learn and grow. Uh, which goes back to what I was saying earlier, that it's important that we understand development and we understand what's appropriate in their developmental range because it's, it, it's two year olds bite people.

Like that's, that's what they do sometimes. Like they're still learning, communication

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: um. And so that's, that's what kind of started me, you know, being in the classroom and seeing this happening more and more often. Um, and then studying it and getting the data. Um, and then, you know, doing more kind of work on okay, why does this happen?

And kind of learning historically why this happens. Uh, the history of preschool is, is fascinating. Uh, so people are interested in that. Um, definitely check it out 'cause it's the history of preschool in the United States. It's a fascinating thing. Um, and then when I went to my master's program, I continued the study on, um, exclusionary discipline practices, um, in [00:45:00] juvenile justice and how that kind of happens.

So how it starts in early childhood and the push out of students, um, in the school to prison pipeline. Um, it actually starts in their preschool career, not just in kindergarten. You see the push out and you see the, the bias and you see the disproportionate practices that are happening. In preschool. So from the very, you know, inception of their educational journey, they are being told that you don't belong here. And that carries with them everywhere they go. So that's really why I started focusing on this, and that is really the heart and soul of my business. Conscious pathways. I don't ever want to hear the phrase, like, school just wasn't for me. Because school is, that's, that's school is for everyone, right? Um, and so how can we create schools and practices and classrooms that are holistically, authentically um, that everyone knows that they belong there.

That this is a space for [00:46:00] everyone to be, everyone can be loved, everyone can, you know, just be in the joy of learning. I want every child to experience that.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Yeah, I love it. I want to ask a question that I know.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: That my audience is want going to want me to ask, which is, as a parent, if I'm listening to your show, I just heard for the first time soft expulsion.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: if a parent let's, and I am realizing, oh my God, that's happening to my child right now,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: happening to my neighbor's child, or that's happening to my grandson, can you talk to the parents for a second?

Give them some advice on what they should do if they notice that this self expulsion is starting to happen.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Mm-hmm.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: are some strategies? How do they advocate for their child and for their family? Help us out.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Yeah. Yeah. And it, it's, it's hard, especially in early childhood. So I know in [00:47:00] California we have, um, some specific laws that, that. Are banning kind of the expulsion of, of young children. So, you know, schools have to kind of work with families, they have to work with early interventionists. Um, so it, it gives them more skills and tools. But really at the heart of it, it's just that, you know, teachers don't have the skills. To work with diverse students. They don't have the skills to work with diverse families, and they don't have the skills to work with challenging behaviors that might stem from things like, you know, special needs autism, um, you know, A DHD, they don't have the skills to actually work with these things.

And so that's one of the reasons why these things start to happen is that they see behaviors, um, and they attribute this to something else and they're pushing these students out. So, kind of whether it's getting the appropriate assessments right, so we have, you know. IEPs are, it's a legal document, right?

And so it's legally binding. So they, they have to respect that IEP and especially in California, we [00:48:00] do have a lot of kind of things that are protecting that. But it does unfortunately, fall to parents to have to be their child's advocate Um, and you have to show up to these meetings, you have to do all these different things.

And that in itself, in addition to being. A parent, in addition to navigating your own work life, your own things, like that's just an additional thing that you have to do, which is really unfortunate and it falls the heaviest, I believe, on, you know, parents of color. So if you are hearing this and you're experiencing this and you're saying. like my child's been, you know, expelled from preschool, or I know children who've been expelled from preschool. Just know that it's probably not you, you're, you're doing, you're doing a fine, um, that this happens more often than it really should, and usually it just falls on. The educator or the school, just not having the skills and the know-how to do that. Um, and so you can continue to advocate for your child by either getting, you know, screenings, if you suspect that there might be an underlining cause for the behavior, you can get some [00:49:00] screenings done. And so that way you know how to really add advocate for your child and what exactly your child needs. Um, and also just shouting out to our, our small business owners, our, you know, family run, you know, daycares and family run, um, preschools really reaching out to them. 'cause sometimes when it's. In a center based, you know, program. they don't have the skills, they don't have the time, they don't have, they have too many students in the classroom. Uh, so again, you can have, you know, one to 12 is the ratio for preschool in California, but you can have two teachers in the classroom and you can have 24 2 year olds in one classroom. Uh, which I have seen. And it is chaos. Yes. so really finding out what your child needs and whether you're finding a, a different program that will affirm them and will, um, look for, look for what they need and actually do those things.

Um, we have, you know, kind of smaller micro schools. Those are really great option if you just wanna look for an alternative to the programs that how you have right now. Um, but look into your state's also protection, especially if [00:50:00] it's a special needs issue. Um, if it's a civil rights issue, look into what your state has. Um, because like I said, California does have a couple of laws and legislation that has gone through to say that. You, we as educators need to go through more steps before we're expelling children. Um, and that's why we've seen the increase in soft expulsions 'cause they're not technically expelling you. Um, but you can bring

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Mm.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: up. You can say like, I'm seeing this, it's making care impossible. You're not doing what you need to do to make sure that my child is included in this. And so really, really bring this up and really advocating it. But I can't say enough, like, don't, your child doesn't need to be in a space where they're obviously not welcome. So if possible, finding spaces where you can be affirmed, where your child can be affirmed, because that's not only putting undue pressure and stress on you, but it's also putting undue pressure and stress on that child just because it's little. The, just 'cause they're little, it doesn't mean that they're not experiencing the negative impacts of racism, right?

They're, there's, [00:51:00] they know it's wrong. They can, they can see and feel what's happening. It's impacting them too. Uh, so finding spaces, finding community. Whether that's a family friend or neighbor, whether that's a small, um, you know, black owned business, finding ways that you, you and your child can be affirmed, but I can't stress it enough that your child is not aggressive. Your child is not violent. There's nothing wrong with your child because you can be made to feel like, oh, my child's the one doing this. I'm doing something wrong. Me or my child is somehow wrong. That's not the case. That's just purely not the case. Um, you know, children just have different needs. And it is okay for those, those needs to be met. And, you know, children learn different ways and we can find that in, um, other spaces as well.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Thank you so much for that. Thank you so much for that, that question. I just felt like I had to ask it, and I just, I have a, a good friend who's going through that right now with their son and their son's school [00:52:00] and I, he came to me and said, this is what's going on. And so I reached out to who I knew, and they also said this could be a civil rights issue.

Reached out to the equity department of the organization, reach out to your, um. We have here, like the Denver Preschool program. We also have the Colorado Association for the Education of Young Children, which is Coac C We do have a national organization. There's, there's ways that you can advocate even if your center is one building.

There's other, there's other organizations that make sure that that particular center is within, um, the following the laws and following those rules. And so find out who those people are and show up. Thank you so much. So. Tell us before I ask, ask my last question,

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: And.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: tell us the name of your podcast. Tell us about, say your business and tell us your email address so we have all that information in like one clip.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: absolutely. So my business is Conscious

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: I.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Uh, the podcast is also [00:53:00] Conscious Pathways. I thought I'd keep it simple for everyone. Um, and then social media is also just Conscious Pathways, and you can reach me specifically at brittany@consciouspathways.org.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: Perfect. Last question. What's been bringing you joy these days? Brittany?

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Uh, I love this question. This question brings me joy. Um, but one thing I think I've been doing more recently is just trying to be more present. Um, I'm trying to consume less. Um, so I've been taking a little break from, from social media and just consuming, just so, I just found like from the second I woke up to the second I went to sleep, I was just consuming things, whether it was a YouTube video or a podcast or and just, I was just consuming all day. so I've been very mindful about that time that I am spending with myself. So I've been taking walks, um, in the morning, in the afternoons that. There's no music, there's no podcast, there's no audio book. I have just been walking in silence [00:54:00] and that has been the most joyful experience. Um, like this morning I was walking and I just listened to the birds. The birds were just, they were just having full blown conversations up there. I don't know what they were talking about, but they were going on about something and they were having a grand old time. And I just listened to that as I was walking my dog. And moment brought me so much joy. I've been. More observant of my surroundings. I've been, you know, observing the birds. I love hummingbirds. So, you know, they've just been kind of, it's spring now, so they've just been out and about a lot lately. Um, so just watching the way that they fly, listening to the birds, um, that has been bringing me a lot of joy just being in the present moment.

And it's also meant that I've been more discerning about. What I am choosing to consume just 'cause now I'm doing it so much less now. so, you know, I listen to one podcast a day before I was, I was doing the most, um, [00:55:00] just listening to podcasts, listening, like I was doing the most at all the times, at all days. And so now it's, I'm just really mindful about and intentional about. Okay, I'm gonna get one podcast to listen to today. do I wanna spend my time listening to? And actually listening to it, not multitasking, not doing nine different things and listening to this at the same time. No, I'm trying to just multitask and just slowing down life, and that has been the most joyful experience.

dr--asia-lyons---she-her-_1_06-05-2024_131642: All right folks. That's it. We're going to end the show there. Brittany, thank you so much for coming on our show folks. Reach out to Brittany. F uh, organizations. I need you to get conscious pathways in your budget. I need you to get rid, fly her out to where you are, figure it out. You need her in your life.

Right? Thank you so much for coming, going, and we'll talk to you later. Peace.

brittney--she-her-_1_06-05-2024_121642: Thank you.

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