Transformative Principal

Mirko Chardin
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Transformative Principle. I am here live for this episode at the CAST UDL Con International Conference, and here we are talking about all things related to Universal Design for learning, which is a way to make it so that learning is accessible to all students. This has been a great conference

so far, the one you're listening to right now is from the UDL Conference. And really a great time. Check it out, Check out cast.org for information about UDL. UDL-Con and so much more.

Welcome to this special episode of Transformative Principle. I'm honored to have, uh, Miko

Chardon.

Chardon. Thank you. Miko Chardon, uh, here as part [00:01:00] of the podcast. He was the keynote speaker at, uh, the conference this morning. Uh, uh, very moving, very powerful. Uh, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Thank you very much.

I'm honored to be here. Well,

Well, I'm excited to chat with you. Uh, what I, where I wanna start with is the, uh. Transformative moment that you talk about. Tell us about that. Um, obviously, you know, this is a 10 minute, 15 minute podcast, so you're, you're going to, you're gonna miss a lot listening to it, but wanna talk about that piece, then we'll go into some other topics here in a minute.

It sounds good now, now the long and short was, you know, the Transformative moment in my life was at a regular public school. Uh, oftentimes people assume that it was some. Weird or you know, extra program that had all these resources and different things. But it was a school community where the educators gave themselves permission to do school differently, and that was the thing that mattered.

You know, prior to that school always felt like it was something that was being done to me. Now I was being forced into a [00:02:00] program. My ideas didn't matter and if I didn't walk the way they wanted me to walk and talk the way they wanted me to talk. You know, I didn't fit in and didn't work for me. This school was different.

No. Everything that we learned, even in subjects that are typically considered extremely traditional like math and science, there was always a through line that communicated how this information shows up in the world outside of school, and why they're actually teaching it to us and why they assumed that it may have value for us.

And that was the linchpin that communicated to me that if school was done differently, it can actually provide you with tools and resources that make sense of the world outside of school. And it changed everything for me.

Yeah. Well, and, uh, Danny Bauer and I call that being a ruckus maker, that you do school differently than the, the norm, than the traditional folks.

And when you do it differently and you're a ruckus maker, then you impact people's lives and you reach them in a way that is, uh, essentially [00:03:00] impossible. Otherwise, and it's not impossible, but it's just you, you're leaving it up to chance. But when you're doing school differently and really intentionally trying to design it for the kids that are right there, then you can really make an impact.

And so like I started teaching in a inner city school Title one school, and my students hated the idea of writing. They hated the idea of reading these, uh, these old books, poetry, things like that. And they're like, this just doesn't apply to me. And so we started. Blogging, uh, right from the very beginning and I was like, here's why writing matters because people are gonna read it.

And if I as your teacher, am your only audience, what do you care? You don't care about what I think you care about what other people think in your peers. Think. And you care a lot more about some stranger on the internet. This was back before social media. You care a lot more about the stranger on the internet than you do about me as your teacher, so let's give you the opportunity to do that.

Now, of course, I got in trouble for having [00:04:00] kids blog, but I still did it and it was totally worth it because many of those kids never thought they could be writers and then suddenly saw that writing was a powerful way to express their thoughts and feelings and emotions.

That is so incredible and I, I, I love that frame of being a ruckus maker.

And I, I think we, we have to take into consideration what the purpose is of education and what we're doing. You know, is it a circumstance where there's information that is sacred information that every human, if they have this, you know, they will get to enlightenment? Or is it a circumstance where we have other human beings who are trying to make sense of you know, what they're experiencing?

And if that's the case and the program's not working for them, if it's truly about the humans, we have to have the willingness and the courage. I try to figure something else out.

Mm-Hmm. And

your story resonates with me so much because in my own journey, uh, when I was transitioning, one of the things that happened at that great school that made it real for me was ELA teachers [00:05:00] telling me that they knew that I was interested in rap music and hip hop.

And that those lyrics were good writing and that they were a form of poetry. They actually encouraged it and encouraged that I had a voice that mattered and it was just this natural transition from, wow, my rhymes aren't just things from my friends to, okay, if this is about sharing my thoughts and ideas, how do we make those rhymes more complex?

Mm-Hmm. How do we

then move to actual prose? And oh my goodness, I was just the kid that was trying to be a rapper. But now you're letting me know that I'm a writer and I have the ability to say things to people that matter. And I think that's really what it's all about.

Mm-Hmm. Yeah. And I, I did the same thing where I, my kids brought in rap music and said, this is, uh, this is what, this is the poetry that we're interested in.

They didn't say it like that. I had to say. What you're listening to, that's poetry and let's talk about that. So they would bring songs in and I, I played some inappropriate [00:06:00] songs in class, but it was so valuable because they, they had someone who was saying, this is worthwhile. And it's not just loud, awful music.

It's something that there is meaning. And if you kids can learn how to, how to phrase something in a way that. You have to think about it more than just hear it. That's really powerful. That is strong, good communication that people can, can react to and have a visceral feeling about. And, and that's incredibly powerful.

And when the kids started doing that themselves, it was so cool to see that happen.

That is so awesome. And it, it just reminds me of the fact that, you know, for me, this work's all about humanity and our kids want the same thing that every single human on this planet wants. And that's to be seen, heard and acknowledged. That's to be treated like you're not an accident, to be treated like you're not a mistake.

And to be treated like your perspectives and the things that you share of value. [00:07:00] And when we provide experiences to acknowledge that for any human being, whether they're an adult or a kid, magic takes place. Now when we feel as if people are actually taking into consideration our ideas and treating them as valuable ideas that are worthy of consideration.

Know whether we are 45, 65, or five years old. The feeling in our hearts minds and not even argue souls is the same. You know, people actually know we have something of value and we're not just taking away. Yeah,

Yeah. You said something in your keynote this morning that that really highlights that, that you felt like you were trusted with certain information, responsibilities, and whatever else when you were a young kid.

And E, everybody can think back to that time when they first felt like, and I, I don't wanna say felt like an adult or felt like a peer, but felt [00:08:00] respected and heard, like what they had to say matters and. When, when that happens, one of the things, uh, that the, uh, um, psychologist Alfred Adler talks about is that when you praise someone, you put yourself on a, on a different level than them.

You, by giving praise, you say, I'm better than you, and I need to give you this praise, which is like, good job doing X, Y, or Z. And he says, the way to do that better is to express gratitude. And so I've been trying that with my kids, and my daughter wants to be a writer, and she started a blog and I've helped her do that.

And so I've started saying, thank you for sharing these experiences. Thank you for writing this. Thank you for these kinds of things. And her response to that is really powerful because she doesn't feel like I'm patting her on the head saying, good job. She feels like I'm treating her as an intellectual equal.

And she's my daughter and she is not my equal, but I believe in her [00:09:00] potential to become my intellectual equal and hopefully become even better than what I'm doing. And what that means and adds to someone's identity is incredibly powerful. I

I agree with that a hundred percent. And I, I bring that back to, you know, it's a scary notion and it's something that adults don't always take into consideration when we look at the next generation, but it's the fact that they are gonna be the ones making decisions for us.

Right, that they in fact, will inherit this world that we live in. And whatever it is that we fuss about isn't even for us to experience the outcomes. It's really gonna be things that are laid at the feet of the next generation. And if we take that into consideration, you know, we realize that they not only have a stake in it, you know, their voices need to be part of the process.

Because unless we discover the Fountain of Youth know often. Much more quickly than we could ever imagine. These young people grow up and they take their place in the world and [00:10:00] they vote and they make decisions and they get leadership jobs and they change policy. And you know, again, they're the ones who are gonna be the movers and shakers and decision makers in our very own lifetimes for us.

And it's a scary thing to wrestle with, but I think if we're mindful of that, it gives us permission to acknowledge the fact that. We have to, you know, prepare them for this role that they're stepping into. You know, in particularly, or I say this with a smile, I'll own it as merko. And particularly if we want to age and not have a tremendous sense of anxiety that the next generation doesn't have it and things are gonna fall apart.

Sometimes I think when we profess that, you know, it's a little self confession

Mm-Hmm. That

we know that we haven't authentically prepared them. And that's why we have the anxiety. Not that the world is messy because we grew up in a messy world. We live in a messy world. But it's [00:11:00] that internal acknowledgement that we haven't done what we needed to do when we are with them to set them up for success.

And you know, my mission is ensuring that that is not the case. Ensuring that whatever decisions our young people make, that they feel that they've been prepared for them and that they feel. As if they know that that's what this life journey is about. You know, stepping into a place where they'll be making decisions for their lives and the lives of those that they care about and the lives of those individuals that they impact, whether intentionally or unintentionally, along the way I.

And that perspective is so powerful because the, the kids are gonna grow up eventually. They're going to make the decisions eventually anyway. If we teach them, help them experience it and help them learn from maybe making some bad decisions.

I. But making sure they know that they're owning it rather than rebelling against us or, uh, which is what I did as a teenager. I just [00:12:00] rebelled against anybody I could. You say, I need to do this. Well, I'm gonna do the opposite, you know? And, and, and when we give them the opportunity to make some choices of their own, they inevitably, because I believe in, in the good nature of human beings, they choose the better path.

They choose the best choices, they. At least the best choices. They know how to, and we can trust them to do that. And when they don't, then we can talk about it. But it's a lot different saying, you disobeyed me than it is saying you made a choice and it didn't work out. How do you feel about that? And what are you gonna do differently?

I agree with that a hundred percent.

And I always chuckle in my mind when our profession and the world of education, what we don't embrace, what's kind of become the calling card of the world of, uh, you know, entrepreneurs and innovation outside of the world of education, which is the notion of failing forward. That, you know, it's not a finite thing.

It's [00:13:00] never a one and done. And one of the most powerful experiences you can have is learning what doesn't work so that you have an opportunity to move in a different direction. And it's fascinating for me because as we think about young people and the work of supporting young people, it hasn't been normalized at that same thinking that we idolize when we think about these really successful entrepreneurs who've made all of this money.

The fact that they normalize, we fail forward. We take chances. We learn from mistakes, and we realize that those mistakes are powerful lessons that push us forward. Even some of the sports personalities that our young people idolize, you know, it's pretty typical in their speak. Although as educators, we don't always take the gift of saying, Hey, you know, someone like LeBron James, who's this huge success.

You know, he has these really great stats of points and shots that he's made, but he also has stats of shots that didn't land. And [00:14:00] you know, the fact that it hasn't been all about him or any successful athlete getting to this dynamic place of success due to perfection, but due to their willingness to continue pushing at it, and particularly when they have these heartbreaking moments when things don't work out.

That they believe should, I feel like if we make that our rallying cry, it takes pressure off of us and it takes pressure off of our young people and really embraces this idea of being a lifelong learner. Because if you're a lifelong learner, it's not just learning about the things you want to learn about, you know, it's learning about experiences that help you sometimes, you know, reposition your thought process and perspectives because you counter, you encounter information that you only would have.

If you didn't get things right and it might sting, but it's a beautiful sting. You know, when it shows you that there's different possibilities and different directions if we just tweak some small pieces.

Mm-Hmm. Yeah. And, and. When I [00:15:00] think about that miracle, what I think about is we all have this little ball inside of us that all of our learning sticks to, and that ball becomes, uh, misshapen, distorted, all that stuff.

And that's what the beauty of who we are each individually is. And we all have different experiences and different things that happen that make us who we are. And. Those things when given the opportunity can define us in a really positive, healthy way. Even if they were exceptionally negative, even if they were really bad, and people would look at that and say, oh, that's horrible you went through that, but that defines you and makes you the person that you are.

And you don't have to say That was traumatic. You can then say, that was a learning experience that was really hard to go through. But I'm grateful that I went through it and virtually everybody who's been through anything difficult can look back and say, I learned something from that. [00:16:00] And yeah, it was hard.

I don't ever wanna do it again. But I'm glad that I learned these key lessons from that. So, last question, Meko. Uh, how would you like people to connect with you and reach out to you? Uh, what's the best way?

So the, the, the best way is definitely social media. Um, super active on, uh, uh, Instagram, super active on X, um, super active on LinkedIn as well.

Uh, part of my passion and drive in this work is figuring out how we give educators permission to network, you know, across cities, across districts, across states, in the same way that folks in other professions

Mm-Hmm.

Because folks in other professions talk shop always, and it's not about who has the best idea, it's essentially about, hey, if they're doing something great over there, how do we learn lessons from them and implement, you know, the things that they've learned so that we don't have to start from scratch.

So my hope is if we're able to utilize tools, you know, [00:17:00] such as social media to connect where space and location may be the limitation. That we'll be able to do that, you know, share resources, share ideas, and have each other's back, you know, so we can ensure that this work of changing the experience of young people, you know, becomes as real as it can be.

Yeah. Very good. And will you share your, uh, social media handles?

Absolutely. That's, that's an important thing to do.

to do.

Um, so my, uh, my ex is, uh, at Merko milk. So it's MIL excuse me. It's M-I-R-K-O-M-I-L-K. Um, my Instagram is actually the opposite of that. So it is, uh, at Milk Merko. So it is M-I-L-K-M-I-R-K-O. Um, there's not a short link for my, uh, you know, LinkedIn.

You would just have to search my first name, Merko Chardon. Uh, but I'm super active there and it'll be really easy to find me.

Yeah. And there's not a lot of kos, uh, in most of our circles, so that, [00:18:00] that helps. Also, Jethro is a unique name also and I benefit greatly from that. So, uh, Merkel, this was awesome. Thank you so much for your time.

Thanks for being here at UDL Con. And sharing your wisdom and experiences with us.

Thank you very much. It was an honor.