Understanding the Younger Generations, with Mark Perna

In this episode, we are joined by Mark Perna, an acclaimed generational expert, who helps us gain a better understanding of the younger generations. He helps us unpack what makes the young people of today unique, what motivates them, how to reach them, and how to help them develop a competitive advantage. His insights are not only relevant for educators, but parents and employers as well. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

#320 — Understanding the Younger Generations, with Mark Perna

AVID Open Access
34 min

Keywords

america, younger generations, education, people, young, today, educators, classroom, recognize, life, build, shift, careers, gen z, competitive advantage, lifestyle, michelle, generation, teachers, compelling reason

Speakers

Mark (73%), Paul (13%), Michelle (11%), Transition (1%), Winston (1%), Rena (1%)

Mark Perna  0:00  

How do we unleash passion, purpose, and performance in younger generations and understand how the dynamic has shifted? Because most people think, you know, that young people are in one place, and the truth is, they're in a completely different location, and we're still treating them as if they're in the other place.

Paul Beckermann  0:22  

The topic of today's podcast is Understanding the Younger Generations, with Mark Perna. Unpacking Education is brought to you by avid.org. AVID believes that we can raise the bar for education. To learn more about AVID, visit their website at avid.org

Rena Clark  0:39  

Welcome to Unpacking Education, the podcast where we explore current issues and best practices in education. I'm Rena Clark.

Paul Beckermann  0:50  

I'm Paul Beckermann.

Winston Benjamin  0:52  

And I'm Winston Benjamin. We are educators.

Paul Beckermann  0:56  

And we're here to share insights and actionable strategies.

Transition Music  1:00  

Education is our passport to the future.

Paul Beckermann  1:05  

Our quote for today is from our guest Mark Perna. The quote is from his website, where he says, "I champion the younger generations because they have so much untapped potential." All right. So Rena and Winston are not able to join me today, so I've got a special cohost joining me, Michelle Magallanez from AVID. Hey, welcome Michelle.

Michelle Magallanez  1:25  

Hello. It's so wonderful to be here. Thank you for inviting me in.

Paul Beckermann  1:30  

It's a pleasure to have you. And do you want to share your thoughts on the quote for today?

Michelle Magallanez  1:34  

I do. I love this, and the fact that Mark is so focused on that untapped potential of younger generations really speaks to my heart, and it just calls to mind how younger generations bring new ways of thinking that can challenge the status quo. Their untapped potential isn't just about that raw talent, but also their ability to see the world differently, which I think is so critical. They offer fresh solutions to old problems that persist.

Paul Beckermann  2:04  

Isn't that the truth? And, you know what? I want to echo what you say, and then also say that I think we underestimate the younger generations too often. They have so much potential, and we need that potential to kind of make the world a better place. So I think it's our jobs to give them the opportunities and space and support so that they can thrive and, flourish with those talents and skills and things that they have to offer. So, really excited to hop into our conversation today about that. And, in fact, we have a guest on our show that's kind of a specialist in this area, Mark Perna. He's the founder and CEO of TFS Results, a strategic consulting firm leading the national paradigm shift in workforce development. He's an acclaimed generational expert and weekly Forbes.com contributor. He serves on the Advisory Council for the Coalition for Career Development in Washington, DC, and is the author of the best selling book Answering Why. Hey, welcome Mark.

Mark Perna  3:01  

Oh, it's great to be here, Paul, thank you. It's an honor to be with you and Michelle and have this wonderful conversation about how extraordinary young people are.

Paul Beckermann  3:09  

They really are. So actually, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself? I gave the little standard blurb, but would like to hear a little bit more about who you are.

Mark Perna  3:18  

That's it. Well, I'm an international speaker and best selling author. As you said, I write weekly for Forbes, but I also travel around the country, working with organizations in education and workforce development and work with communities on how do we connect the pipelines between education, employment, and economic development for the viability of every community? So I'm constantly on the go. I'll deliver over 90 keynote speeches this year across North America, and two-thirds of those are to education and administrators and teachers and counselors and classified staff and really applaud the extraordinary work that educators are doing across America. So we'll hear more about my story as this unfolds here today, but that's the quick 10,000 foot view.

Michelle Magallanez  4:05  

I love that. And as we start this conversation and we think about workforce development, can you really ground us in Generation Z and how you are defining this generation? 

Mark Perna  4:16  

I define, and I kind of put younger generations together. So, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, coming up behind them. I talk about young people in America, and I refer to younger people as the WHY generation, W-H-Y Generation. Because, frankly, my friends, they need an answer to that question for every single thing they do. And it may be an a-ha! moment, it is when I travel the nation, but when you ask a young person in your sphere of influence, either in your home, in your classroom, in your place of business, to do something, and they look back at you and they say, "Well, why should I do it that way?" Most of us take that as a smart-aleck response, and we, of course, give the all-American response back, which is "Because I said so." But the a-ha! moment is that most young people don't mean it as a smart-aleck response. What they're really saying to you is, hey, you know what? I'm unique, I'm special, I'm important, I'm intelligent, I'm resourceful. I know how to use technology. Why do we do it this way? Because there has to be a better way to do this, right? There has to be a way to use Google something. There has to be a way to put it in the cloud. There has to be a way to get a bigger impact. And yet, we cut their knees out from underneath them. We don't give them that opportunity to try. 

See I think differently about young people in America. Most people think in negative terms. You know, young people. They're lazy and they're entitled, and there's all these negative terms that are used to define them. I go completely the other way. I think they're the most extraordinary generations to come down the pike, bar none. I think they are the most intelligent, resourceful, and pit bull-like generations we've ever seen. When they see a light at the end of their tunnel, right, something they want to achieve, they'll move heaven and earth to do that. Our challenge as parents, educators and employers, is getting them to want something. That's where the battlefield of the future is. And so what I speak about all around the nation is, how do we unleash passion, purpose, and performance in younger generations, and understand how the dynamic has shifted? Because most people think that young people are in one place, and the truth is, they're in a completely different location, and we're still treating them as if they're in the other place. We have to shift our perspective to where they are, and that truly connects, engages, and answers why for them in a way that that gets them moving towards something they're looking to do.

Paul Beckermann  6:30  

So I'm wondering, then, how do we do that, right? Like, how do we get to the why? How do we reimagine our why to become their why?

Mark Perna  6:42  

I'll give you a great example. So young people today, I call them the benchmark generation. And it's pretty simple. I sit in an interesting intersection. I'm a generational expert, but I'm also an education thought leader, workforce development thought leader, and economic development thought leader. So I sit at this intersection that recognizes how all of these things interrelate with each other, and how we, you know, kind of solve our community issues, starting in education, and connect all the dots. And so where young people are today as the Benchmark Generation is simply this. This is why I call them that. Gen Z, who is roughly 10 to 27 years old in this country, these are the ones in our homes, classrooms, and places of business. As the Benchmark Generation, I only talk about that generation really at this point in my career. The reason being is, if you know what someone 10 to 27 in this country thinks, what makes them tick, and how they make decisions, what they want is what every previous generation has wanted, but they're the first generation in history to stand on principle until they get it. Previous generations did it on faith. Not Gen Z, not Gen Alpha. They have to know the reason of doing it, and there has to be relevance and purpose. And I'll give you a great example of this. Have you, or any one of the people eavesdropping on this podcast, have you ever thought to yourself—for either a fleeting moment, or for some of us, maybe for quite some time—you look at that young person in your sphere of influence—in your home, in your classroom or your place of business—you look at them and you have this thought, "Man, they're completely wasting their time. They're completely wasting their time." I am here to tell you 100% and definitively, that young people in America do not waste their time. At any given moment, they are doing exactly what they want to do, exactly the way they want to do it, for exactly how long they'd like to be doing it. They may not be doing what we want them to do, but they're not wasting their time. 

So the a-ha! here is, you know, if you look at a young person and whatever they're doing, you think they're wasting your time, but you want them to do this other thing. The delta between them doing what they're doing and the thing you want them to do is the compelling reason to do what you want them to do. Right? It's the relevance and the purpose and answering, "Why is this important?" And how will they move forward accordingly as a result of that? So what I ask every audience as I travel the nation is, "Well, if the delta between what they're doing and what you want them to do, as a parent, educator, and employer is is a compelling reason to do it, I ask every audience, then, in a reflective way, you have to ask yourself, "Am I, in fact, compelling? Am I giving them a compelling reason to move forward?" And I mean every day. Period one, period two, period three. Do they recognize that what we are teaching and expressing and requesting, do they recognize the power this plays in their life to build a competitive advantage, that the knowledge that they're getting is actually adding to their journey? We assume they are just knowing that. They do not. Without a compelling reason, they will not move forward. Those students who want 4.6 grade point averages and show up every single day, they are self-motivated because they see a reason that it connects in their life. But what about the two points, the one points, those who are not engaged in our daily routine because they don't see or hear a compelling reason to do the work. They're figuring: "I'll get to it when there's a reason to do it."

Michelle Magallanez  10:13  

I love that, and I circling back to what you said that really speaks and puts in perspective what you've just shared, and that is the passion, the purpose, and the performance. How do we help kiddos find their passion, identify their purpose for what they want to do, and then, what are the ways in which they're going to perform to really excel in that manner? And so a lot of times as educators, we talk about project-based learning, as a way in which to meaningfully engage kiddos in that type of framework. But from your perspective, when you think about motivation, it's so often spoken as our kiddos don't have the motivation to do this work in schools. So how do you help motivate or identify that motivation for Generation Z, and then, what implications do you see that having for K-12 educators?

Mark Perna  11:06  

Yeah, Michelle, it's a great question, because we have to move the game. We've been playing a game for decades in this country of how do we motivate the young people in our sphere of influence? So we'll talk in the PK-12 system. We tend to talk to young people about academic performance. And whereas academic performance is critically important in the world, where it's shifted today, it's just as important academically as it was 50 years ago. But there was a time you could have just academic knowledge, and today, you have to add two additional things to it. You have to add technical competencies, and that's the things you can do in your head and with your hands. And you have to also add professional skills—work ethic, punctuality, leadership, communication, work-life-balance, stress management, etc. Those are things that I call professional skills. And so you have to add all of this and help them build forward. However, we tend, in America, to talk to every young person in our sphere of influence, and the answer to the question in most classrooms is, "Why do I need to know this?" The answer we give is, "Because it'll help you get to college." And where college is extremely important, and there are a number of kids going to college in today's world, two-thirds of high school kids in America see no relevance to going to college. 

So if we stand as we have with previous generations who took all of this on faith—that the reason they're in school every day is to get to a good college—and two-thirds don't see that as relevant in their life at this moment, they may down the road, but they don't today, then what we're doing is we're being incongruent with the reasons and the value of our education, which is why many are just disconnected completely because you're talking to the other kids, you're not talking to me. So what we have to do is move the playing field and the playing field that I'm trying to move us to in America is, I don't think we can afford to be in the education business anymore. We have to be in the competitive advantage business. We have to help frame and change and shift the narrative in America to help young people realize they're building a competitive advantage every day. They're not trying to get to college. Yes, though so many may go to college, but they're not doing this to get to college. They're doing this to build a competitive advantage. Those who are going off to 4-year universities, 2-year community and technical colleges, those who are going to get certifications and licensures and apprenticeships and the military, and entrepreneurship—there are lots of ways for young people to be successful in America today. All of them have to be on the table. But young people recognize a competitive advantage when it's described to them, because I speak to a lot of high school and middle school kids across the nation. And when we shift that wonderful stuff, those wonderful things we're doing every day to a different playing field and a different reason to do it, kids are all in.

Paul Beckermann  13:54  

I'm curious to hear your perspective on what those kids see as the skills and the things that give them that competitive advantage. Like, what are they looking for? What have you been hearing? 

Mark Perna  14:07  

Kids are looking for relevance and purpose. How am I going to use this? When is this going to be relevant? And for them, when I speak to young people in America, I define it as I did just a moment ago: academic knowledge, technical competencies, and professional skills. And I'll tell you why technical competency is so important. I may have all the academic knowledge one day to be a surgeon, but the inability to cut somebody open, that's a problem, right? You have to be able to marry your technical abilities and your academic knowledge to be able to, you know, kind of have them work in concert with each other, to do the things you want in your life. Young people need to recognize that all of these things play together. There's a huge etiquette gap even today in America. I've written about it at Forbes, and I talk about it on the road. It's with college graduates who are graduating with four-year degrees and beyond, but they're not connecting in the workforce. I speak to thousands of employers around the country, and employers say they don't have enough of the professional skills. They're not connecting in employment the same way. They may have the academic knowledge that they learn, but they don't necessarily have the other skills that they need. So, young people today are really thirsty for a compelling reason why any of this is important. And they're going to continue to do whatever they want to do until somebody gives them that. And so we, as parents, educators, employers and communities, have to get together and recognize that the secret to young people today is answering WHY in a compelling way, but moving the field ofthatlitmus test of why is this important? Well, you're building a competitive advantage. And when I talk to young people in America today, I tell them very frankly, I'm always candid and frank, and I say," Look, don't spend one minute trying to find your passion, even though that's every meme out there in America says find your passion. Go find what you're good at." If you can find what you're good at, and you may be good at lots of things, you may find something that you're good at that you don't like. Man, that's an important nugget of information. But you may also go out and find something you're good at, that you want to pursue, that you want to look at, that you want to try, that you want to kind of, you know, do some research on. And one day, you may find that you like it, you're good at it, you build success, you build confidence. And then one day, that's where passion finds you. And young people just need to understand how this dynamic plays out in their life.

Michelle Magallanez  16:21  

I love that, and it really speaks to ongoing conversations that are happening in public education today, where we're shifting from the Carnegie unit that said you have to have this amount of seat time in each core subject area, and now people are really talking about, well, let's explore competency-based learning and how that happens, not just in the classroom, but in your community, as well. And so, how can that type of model really help motivate kids to be excited about what the future brings and what they can learn, not only in the classroom, but beyond.

Mark Perna  16:56  

We have to build relevance at all levels of lifestyle. And I'll tell you how this all connects, because at the end of the day, lifestyle and career are working hand-in-hand in younger generations. Every young person today, every decision they make is based on how it affects their lifestyle. Whatever they view down the road, right? No matter how grand, modest, or laid back they view their life, that runs everything. Careers become a lifestyle decision, but we tend to talk to young people about careers and very little about lifestyle. So to understand how this dynamic plays out is that, you know, if you want to start any substantive conversation about career or where kids are going or anything, don't start with any of that. Start with lifestyle, because until you understand where they sit on this entire spectrum of lifestyle, like when I speak to high school and middle school kids, you know, I always start by saying to them, "Hey, look, I'm not here to entertain you, though some things may be entertaining, and I'm not here to inspire you, though some things may be inspiring. I'm here to give you a candid and frank view behind the curtain to where the world's completely changed, and it's going to be incumbent on you, as it is for me, to build a competitive advantage in order to be able to achieve whatever lifestyle goals and aspirations you have down the road, right?" 

No matter how grand, modest, or laid back you view your life one day down the road, and that can change every day, it is incumbent on you, as it is for me, to build a competitive advantage to do it. I'm going to walk you through how to do that. And I want to point out, because it's an answer to your question, Michelle, is that I say, no matter how grand, modest, or laid back you view your life one day down the road, we tend to talk to young people in America today as if they all should have, could have, and ought to have grand plans. Most of Gen Z actually has modest and laid back. That's how they view their life. And the second we talk about grand, which is nothing wrong with talking about grand, we disenfranchise those with modest and laid back, because they feel like you're not talking to them. So when I get young people to lean in, in the first 45 seconds every time I address a group, it's because I talk to all of them, no matter how grand, modest, or laid back, and that's going to change every day. You may have grand plans on Monday, pretty modest by Wednesday, and pretty laid back by Friday, and that's pretty much the way adults think, too. But recognizing to accomplish those things that you view for yourself one day, you're going to have to build a competitive advantage to do it. That includes all of the things you're learning and more.

Paul Beckermann  19:24  

That's resonating, what you're what you're saying about that lifestyle first. I've got two young adult children right now, and I see that in them. I mean, they look at that, and then they see work as kind of a necessary means to get there. And then hopefully they find this passion in their work, as well, which I think they are. Which makes me think about the work environments that Gen Z is looking for. What do you think Gen Z workers value and seek? Because so maybe the lifestyle comes first, but eventually they're looking for a work environment as well. 

Mark Perna  19:57  

I mean, they're looking for what most of America is looking for today. That's again, that's why I call them the Benchmark Generation. If you know what they think, of what makes them tick, everybody else is looking for the same thing, and that's flexibility. They want a work-life blend. They want to work for three or four hours, take a bunch of the day off, go do the things they want to do, and they want to work their work life around the things that they want to accomplish. Whatever that may be. It might be a couple of side hustles. It might be fun things they want to experience. It can be almost anything, but flexibility for employers out there today is the currency of the future, because 90% of employees in America at all age groups and generations are looking for flexibility. They want to be able to go to the soccer game. They want to be able to go to the doctor. They want to take care of an aging parent. They want to be able to take a long weekend. They want flexibility to do all of those things. And just Gen Z is standing on principle. That's what they want. That's what they look for. And we have to recognize that this shift in how we connect education to employment and ultimately to economic development, because our economic development engine in every community across America is trying to connect these pipelines, but we're not recognizing that young people are just in a different place, and if we just shift the way we think about them, and I say this everywhere I go in America. There's two ways you can look at a young person in your sphere of influence, home, classroom, workplace, you can either look at them as a problem to be solved, which is what most of Americans do. Or you can look at them as a tremendous resource to be unleashed within your home, classroom, and place of business. And the only difference is if you look with the second set of eyes, you are 80% of the way to completely shifting the way you connect, engage, and answer why.

Michelle Magallanez  21:38  

And so how are you inspiring teachers to unleash that potential in the classroom. What does that look like?

Mark Perna  21:45  

Well, first is to simply recognize how extraordinary they are. Second, giving them the principles and the strategies, not all of which I can cover, obviously, in this short time together, but being able to speak to them about, you know, here is the perspective they're coming from. You know, respect works completely differently today. When I was growing up, I respected my elders first. Today, it's 180 degrees the opposite way. Young people expect you to respect them first, and then, and only then, will they turn around and respect you. I'm not saying that's the way life should be. It's just simply the way it is. And recognizing that the single greatest power we have with young people in our sphere of influence is building a human connection. Human connection is number one. And I'm going to be candid and frank. From the federal and state level across America, we have dumped so much crap onto the heads of our administrators, teachers, counselors, special needs, paraprofessionals, classified staff. We've dumped so much on their heads to do, that they no longer systemically, in America, have the bandwidth to be able to deliver the one non-negotiable for an entire generation of people, and that's the human connection. And without the human connection, they're not moving forward, because you have to leverage the human connection and relationship in order to be able to get them to understand the value of the education they're learning today. So no human connection, then they're not moving forward unless they're already self-motivated to do something in their life that's specific, but again, that's based on them already seeing a light at the end of their tunnel and being able to get there. So we have to recognize how this plays out, and I'm advocating across America. We have to get things off the plates of our educators, administrators, as well. We've got to free people up to get back to what teaching is meant to be every day in the classroom, and that's building a relationship, and then leveraging that relationship to teach the extraordinary things that are relevant and purposeful in their lives. Now our best teachers, administrators, counselors, special needs folks, and classified are doing this as their resting pulse, but it's no longer systemic in America, and that has to shift.

Paul Beckermann  23:45  

So, you've given us a lot to think about here with different contexts with this next generation. I'm wondering what messages or advice you would have for the teachers that are listening out there? And you've given us some already, but just kind of...

Mark Perna  23:59  

Yeah, no. That's a great question. I've been speaking around and around the nation. Number one is human connection. If you have a human connection, the way you leverage it is a compelling reason to answer "Why is this important? How will I use this?" And college cannot be that answer. They may even be going to college. College can't be the answer because it's too irrelevant for two-thirds of American kids today in high school that do not see relevance of going. They think they'll be just fine without a college education. We need more of everything in America. We need more at the university level. We need more surgeons and engineers and accountants, you name it. We need thousands of careers available through 4-year universities. But we have to recognize that kids are going to make decisions differently than previous generations. They're going to make decisions based on what they see as relevant in their life, and then get the education necessary to do that thing. I was just recently, several days ago, I had a number of universities in a group of economic development that I was delivering, and those universities understood when I got done that they have to pivot accordingly. They may get left because we're in the middle of a three-year slide in college enrollments in America. It is going off a cliff, and I've written about it, and it's not because they're not doing great work. It's because there's no relevance to young people seeing it anymore. There's a lot of ways for them to be successful, and they may have less people coming out at eighteen, but our university system is going to have to adapt to more 19-to-30 year olds who, you know, do a couple of jobs, they have a couple of opportunities, and then one day they go, "You know, I want to do this next thing. Now I need a 4-year,, university degree to do that." Then they're going to go, then they're going to accomplish it. They're going to become a completer. Everybody wins in that model. We have far too many, 4.0 you know, straight A students who go off and are not successful in America, according to Georgetown University Center for Education Workforce. One-third of those kids are not successful. We have way more one points and two points and three points in this country who would be perfect for college if they understood the relevance of why they were going. So we have to do better at career exploration, so our teachers have to be better at recognizing everything needs to be on the table. We build that compelling reason to build a competitive advantage, and then allowing young people to move forward, to build something for themselves with everything on the table.

All right. Well, my brain is spinning with things to think about, and I think this is a good time to hop into our toolkit. 

Transition Music  26:30  

Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What's in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what's in the toolkit? Check it out.

Paul Beckermann  26:41  

All right, in our toolkit section today, Michelle, what would you like to drop in?

Michelle Magallanez  26:45  

Well, I really want to build on what Mark had shared and his response to the last question, and that is that importance of building a relationship with students. And how do we do that, and how do we bring opportunity knowledge into the classroom so they have various ways to explore different careers that they might not even know about. That's not something that we've rigorously built into curriculum across content areas. But how do we help them make that connection to potential careers that haven't even been defined yet, and what does that look like in the United States as we make that a focus, so that students have an idea of what they can aspire to be when they grow up. 

Mark Perna  27:30  

For sure. That sounds pretty awesome.

Paul Beckermann  27:32  

Yeah. And I'm thinking about the relevance piece that that Mark's been talking about. And I think too often we give kids problems to solve instead of asking them what problems they want to solve. And I think that we can build that into what we're already doing in our classrooms. I'm a huge proponent of project-based learning, which you kind of mentioned earlier, Michelle. If we can give students opportunities to choose problems they want to solve, empower them to get in academic situations where they can solve those problems, they can wrestle with those hard questions. They can tackle important problems that are out there that mean something to them. They can develop these skills and perhaps find their passion within that, too, that can help steer them down the road of their career. So that's what I drop in the toolkit today.

Mark Perna  28:24  

You guys are dropping some really good stuff. You're putting some pressure on me now. You're coming up with something really magical. And so I'm gonna drop something that actually people can go and check out. It's absolutely free. So I'm not trying to get people to interact in a way that sells them anything. No, it's actually pretty free, and we just launched it two weeks ago. But we just came out with a Competitive Advantage Track. I put it out to the world for absolutely free. Any school district, any coach, any teacher, any administrator, any parent, anybody anywhere, can use this. You can go to MarkCperna.com. C is my middle initial, so it's m, a, r, k, C, P, E, R, N, a.com, forward slash, C, A, T, which stands for Competitive Advantage Track. And it's a series of videos. We've worked for a year on this with my team. It's five each each slice. We're calling each one a slice because it's all part of a whole. But it talks about competitive advantage for kids. It's me sitting at a counter in a multi-camera shoot with no teleprompter, but being very candid and frank with young people the way I talk to them around the nation about what is a competitive advantage. How do they achieve it? How do they build their dream? How do we move them off having a fear of failure, to understanding there's a power in failure, and how they can be comfortable being uncomfortable, where we take them to the next level. 

So the first six slices are up. Someday, there'll be ten. Someday it'll be fifteen. But it's five to eight minutes of me. A teacher can put me on a smart board, a teacher a parent can put me on a laptop or their television at home. They're all on YouTube. They're absolutely free. And there's Spanish translations available for Spanish speaking around the country. And there's curriculum that comes with it. There's curriculum that is free. There's a facilitator kind of reflection, so that the facilitator who's doing this, whoever that may be, just understands how to frame it. You watch the video, and then there's reflective questions you can ask in group discussion starters, to have that conversation with a class or a group, or, you know, a counselor can use this. And then there's actually activities and things. It's for middle school, high school, and college kids and up. So, it's universal. It fits all of them. We've worked really hard at it, and I decided not to put it behind a paywall or to make you, you don't even have to sign up for it. You don't even have to give an email address to use it. It's all downloadable. It's all available to anybody. That's what I'd like to drop into the toolkit, have people check it out. If it's of value, use it, If it's not of value, that's okay, too. But a lot of people, I think, want those kinds of ways to shift the narrative. And this way I'm shifting it for you. You just have to bring it to life. And then September 9, I'm coming to San Diego to film a parent master class on competitive advantage that we're going to release probably in November, which will also be free for parents all across the nation and North America.

Paul Beckermann  31:25  

Great stuff. So MarkCPerna.com/CCPerna.com/C-A-A-T for this piece, 

Mark Perna  31:30  

That's correct. 

Paul Beckermann  31:32  

Awesome. All right, let's hop into our one thing.

Transition Music  31:35  

It's time for that one thing. One thing. One thing. Time for that one thing. It's that one thing. 

Paul Beckermann  31:49  

Michelle, final takeaway today?

Michelle Magallanez  31:51  

Well, I'm really excited about the Competitive Advantage Track. I love the way you describe that. I think that's the perfect way to emphasize this conversation. It's you're giving not only students, an insight into why failure is so important and how we can only learn from those opportunities where we're not doing well. So failure becomes something that we should embrace. I love that, as you're speaking to a former perfectionist, something that's a very hard thing to learn. And the fact that you've wrapped it in reflective questions, so whoever is engaging that child in this conversation, there's a way to move it to that metacognitive where they're thinking, oh, you know, how does this apply to the various aspects of my life? I love that. So thank you so much for putting that in the conversation. I'm super excited to check that out.

Mark Perna  32:41  

Thank you, Michelle,

Paul Beckermann  32:42  

Yeah, I'm stoked about that, too. That's going to be awesome. I'm also hanging on a little phrase that Mark said earlier, that these younger students that we're teaching are" resources to be unleashed." I love that, because there's so much potential in these kids. Let's not underestimate them. Let's build them up. Let's allow them to be empowered in our classrooms and in life, and let them unleash themselves on this world, because our world can be so much better for that. Mark, what would you like to to add as a final thought today?

Mark Perna  33:18  

You know if we continue to treat young people the way previous generations were treated, we're going to continue to be frustrated, and we're going to be frustrated as parents, educators, and employers. And if we recognize that, how we shift our perception of them, and then meet them where they are, it's game changing. I've got districts and organizations across America who have just absolutely--it has turned everything around--and it's just in shifting that view, will change everything. And I wish we had more time today, but it's been such an honor and a privilege to be with you, and I'd like to thank every educator out there listening for all that you do every day. You, in fact, are enough, and I appreciate you taking the time to grow and listen to this podcast, because I'm just thrilled to be a part of it.

Paul Beckermann  34:14  

Hey, thanks for being here. We are really grateful to have you on the show.

Mark Perna  34:17  

Thank you.

Rena Clark  34:18  

Thanks for listening to Unpacking Education.

Winston Benjamin  34:23  

We invite you to visit us at AvidOpenAccess.org, where you can discover resources to support student agency, equity, and academic tenacity to create a classroom for future-ready learners. 

Paul Beckermann  34:38  

We'll be back here next Wednesday for a fresh episode of Unpacking Education.

Rena Clark  34:42  

And remember, go forth and be awesome.

Winston Benjamin  34:45  

Thank you for all you do.

Paul Beckermann  34:47  

You make a difference. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai