S3E12: Navigating the Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade

If you're feeling overwhelmed and frustrated trying to navigate the school system for your dyslexic child, then you are not alone! It's like trying to find your way through a complex maze with no clear path to success. You may be doing everything the school suggests, but still not seeing the progress you were hoping for. It's time to uncover the hidden truths about how the school system really works for dyslexic students and find the support your child truly needs. Let's unravel the mystery together and ensure your child gets the education they deserve.

 

00:00:02 - Introducing St. Patrick's Day 

00:02:31 - Experience at the St. Patrick's Day Parade 

00:07:20 - Involvement in the St. Patrick's Day Parade 

00:10:43 - Overcoming Anxiety and Tackling New Challenges 

00:13:20 - Building Confidence and Taking on Challenges 

00:13:38 - Importance of the Foundation 

00:14:27 - Evolution of Priorities 

00:15:25 - Importance of Exposure 

00:16:31 - Managing Anxiety 

00:23:40 - Finding Flow Despite Anxiety 

00:27:47 - The Flow and Support 

00:29:08 - Education and Learning 

00:32:01 - Challenges in Dyslexia Advocacy 

00:37:03 - Acceptance and Support for Parents 

00:41:54 - Resistance to Change 

00:42:38 - Understanding Dyslexia in Different School Districts 

00:43:19 - The Need for Advocacy in IEP Meetings 

00:44:39 - Empowering Parents through Knowledge 

00:47:33 - The Impact of Resources on Dyslexic Students 

00:51:51 - Sharing and Supporting the Dyslexia Journey

Transcript:

00:00:02
Welcome back to Word Blindness, Dyslexia Exposed. This is Juliet Hahn and I'm here with my co host, Brent Sopal. How are you? Happy St. Patrick's Day.

00:00:10
Look at you wearing a green. I'll be back. I gotta go catch a running leprechaun. Yeah. And I can see you being like, I don't feel like doing.

00:00:19
This has been an episode today because Mercury is in retrograde. We're, like, late. And so you're like, okay, no, no, no, no, no, no. Who's late? I am late.

00:00:31
I am late. I am late because my computer was fucking with me and as we always do, another tab, actually, when it opened up, I had, like, all the things that were like, oh, this, this. I was like, oh, shit. I did have a lot of stuff open. It's because.

00:00:51
So when I go back, I. I can. Okay. This is an attention deficit moment. When I go back, I can see it.

00:00:57
Just like when I have my bills, I need them on the counter. If they go in a drawer, I forget about them. If I have my favorite sweater, it goes in the drawer, I forget about it. If I close the tab, it's gone. So I have to have everything opened, but I don't have more than, you know, one tab over, maybe two at most.

00:01:18
Way most. But how do you. You can't find. There's so fucking many of them on. On there that you can't see them anyway.

00:01:24
So. I can see them and I know exactly where they are. Actually, you're. You're over 50, remember? You're blind, so you can't see them.

00:01:30
So. What are you talking about? They're big. I can see them. They're not.

00:01:35
Mine are. I could see. I could read every single one. Yeah, you got the special fucking Juliet apple, and they're actually not large. My phone.

00:01:46
I don't have anything. My apps, like, all my friends have their apps that are like, the big. And when they type, they're big. I don't have to do that yet. So you listen here, sir.

00:01:56
You're the one that's telling me you're. You're old, blind. I can't see far. I can see close. That's starting to go.

00:02:04
But that's. This is not what this episode. Yes. Special needs, though. Chase that leprechaun.

00:02:14
Well, so you kind of did that this week. That. Why don't you share why your green hoodie and what you did on Saturday? So this is Monday, St. Patrick's Day.

00:02:23
This will be out, obviously, in a couple weeks, but there's Some big stuff.

00:02:31
I was trying to find the pot of gold.

00:02:35
Didn't find it. I was gonna have that go. I found a lot of empty Ford gallon jugs that high school kids were drinking and puking everywhere.

00:02:52
You know, here in Chicago, obviously, the plumbers union, which is one of the biggest unions here, you know, in Illinois. All right, yes, Democratic state, yes. Unions. Unions. Unions.

00:03:08
They. They dye the river green. And the foundation had a float, you know, in the St. Patrick's Great Parade. So they, they say that there's average a couple hundred thousand people and it was 65.

00:03:26
So it was, it was beautiful. You know, everybody on our full gut, you know, made these for them. Half the time I had this on and half the time I had my T shirt on. So the weather was perfect. I think they said it was the nicest weather for a St.

00:03:40
Patrick's Day parade ever. Ever. They did, because I was watching it on Hulu and. Is that what they said? Do they.

00:03:47
Did they say that for weather wise? They, I mean, they said it was eccentric. They didn't say ever, but they, I. They said pretty much. They were like, I think this might be the best day.

00:03:55
It's definitely in the last, you know, 20 some years. It's. They said it was the best. Woke up to, I think it was 25 degrees and snowing. You know, there's still snow on the ground.

00:04:08
So we went from, you know, amazing 65.

00:04:15
Sun was coming out, it was a little bit windy. But the T shirt weather to the next day, which there's, which I didn't know until recently, again, St. Patrick's Day parade was. I've never actually been to it. I've lived here in Chicago 17 years.

00:04:41
That was the first time that I've ever been downtown for it. You know, at 10:00am they go and dye the river green and you've got thousands of people that go for that. And then at noon, just, you know, half mile down, down the road is where the, you know, where the parade is. So there's, you know, for the foundation, the, the exposure, you know, we weren't a union. You know, you had every, every union had floats in there and you had family floats and people were drunk as a skunk.

00:05:18
I think our float was only, you know, we had kids obviously on there. There was no consumption alcohol on our float. So everybody on our float was sober. So I can guarantee that we won that. The soberest float in the same Patrick caper.

00:05:37
Well, it's good to win things. Oh, that's like getting a hero cookie that's true. Or team participation award. Oh, yeah, it was, you know, so it was experience for. I'd never been downtown for it.

00:05:57
You know, obviously when I was playing we're always gone or we had games or, you know, practice. So would never go down there, stop drinking. I had no reason to go. To go down there. I think the bars open up at 7:00am yeah.

00:06:14
Yeah. So, like green everywhere and puking everywhere and. But as far as you can see, there's people. There's people watching the parade in trees. I was gonna say they televised that.

00:06:28
That this was the first year that they. It was so deep. And if you guys want to look at any of this, there's. There's some footage on Sople foundation for Dyslexia, their Instagram or on LinkedIn for the Sople foundation as well. And you can see some videos which is.

00:06:43
Which we have a couple. When Brent and Elizabeth first saw the float and then as they were setting up and then them on the float. And then also it was televised on ABC 7 Local Chicago, but on Hulu. So I was able to watch it from New York. And they were even, you know, the correspondence.

00:07:02
They even shouted out the SOAL foundation for dyslexia, which was really cool. And gave the 1 in 5 diagnosis, you know, those statistics. And tell us a little bit like why you. And how you became, you know, a part of the float. I mean, about the parade.

00:07:20
How did that all come about? Oh, you know, friends of ours, Garrett Wood Securities. Now I've become a pretty good big sponsor with the foundation, obviously become really good friends, you know, with the family. And they were part of the sponsorship for the parade, but they didn't want the float. So I got a call, I guess, a couple months ago.

00:07:43
Oh, you want to float in a parade? What the are you talking about now? I got to build a float. So I had no idea what he's talking about. Never built my own flow.

00:07:55
Never had, you know, been in many parades. Right. Participated, you know, obviously the Pride Parade, things like that. I was told to show up and be there or not design afloat and get people on there and do all that stuff. So we talked about.

00:08:13
He said, yeah, we'll take it. You know, St. Patrick's Day parade is again, as big as you get here in, you know, in Chicago. So for the exposure for the foundation to be a part of it and what goes into setting it up, obviously, Michelle Coin, who runs the Found foundation, and Jim Coyne, her. Her husband, who runs the plumbers union, what they have to do to put this thing together.

00:08:42
Like, the cops, you know, the. You know, obviously Chicago Police, they had their helicopter up scanning, like, the crowd. Like, especially nowadays, right? Not. Yeah, it's not like we were talking before we got on here our.

00:08:59
In our heyday, all the stupid shit we did. There was no cell phones. There was no parades. There's, you know, just the security. You know, obviously, you take.

00:09:11
Take a look at what happened New Year's in new New Orleans, right? Street tripwalks. Yeah, you can't be too careful these days. Can't be. Can't be too careful.

00:09:22
Like, there was, you know, salt trucks, the plows down, loaded with salt for extra weight, lined up everywhere like it was again, you know. So for what they had to put together, it was pretty amazing. And we found parking probably the highlight of the day. I know you were so anxious about that. $11.99 cost us to park for four hours.

00:09:49
Oh, that's amazing. Right? That's right. In New York City, you can't get anything under 50, 70. Every time I go, I'm like, oh, my God.

00:10:00
I was there for an hour. Like, I had to do an errand, and I'm there for an hour, and I paid 80 bucks. Yeah, well, that's. And that's what Chicago is, too. Yeah.

00:10:06
Yo. Wow, that's so good. Yeah, we. I'm thinking, like, 11.99aminute, you know? Nope.

00:10:14
I think it costs for nine hours. That parking spot, which was right across the street from where we need to be, so we had to walk because a couple blocks out is where they blocked everything off. So you had to park, you know, kind of walk through. So I had to walk, like, three blocks, and I come back and, like, 11.99 for nine hours. That is incredible.

00:10:35
Okay, so I have some questions for you, and I know you're gonna be like, okay. Yep. See, he's already doing it. Did you. Did you guys.

00:10:43
If you're watching on YouTube, did you catch the eye, George? Here we go. Well, no, and I think this is really important for the listeners to understand. So there's, like, so many things, like, in my head, I'm like, I'm so proud of you guys for tackling that. Could have said, oh, thanks, but no thanks, because I don't know what it goes into.

00:11:02
Creating a flow that's all new territory, like, and anxious territory, because you know that, like, it's not like you can throw something together and, like, you have to do something good. You're going to be televised. There's Hundreds of thousands of people you don't want it to look like. But how do you go about it? And so can you take us through a little bit of that?

00:11:19
Because I know this is sometimes when anxiety kicks in for people like us. And so I think it's really important for you to share it. You know, first off, I didn't know. You know, I don't know how it is in each city. It's pro.

00:11:31
I'm guessing it's probably the same thing. But there's. There's two companies here that you were able to use to that, you know, we went with ABC Floats. So they. They actually built the float for us.

00:11:52
Yeah, there's a design. So first when he called me, I'm like, what the. I get to build a float. Where am I going to build a float? Where am I going to store the float?

00:12:02
So, like, I. First my head is like, I literally thought I was going to have to build my own float. Right. So then I started asking some people before I said yes, somebody who owned company like, hey, can I store a float, you know, at your place? Because I'm thinking in my head that I've got to build this whole thing.

00:12:20
So find out that I didn't have to build it. You know, I worked with this company to. To create the design. And then they. They did everything else.

00:12:30
Obviously. They built it. They created it. They brought it down there. So it was down there with the coat, with a car that towed it.

00:12:40
You know, the driver stayed with it. We didn't have to, you know, we. We didn't have to do anything. There were. Did an amazing job, so we just had to show up there.

00:12:49
It was set up right in line. You know, we just had to get there and, you know, and be in one piece. Right. But I mean. And I don't.

00:13:00
And I know I said this to you, but, like, you should be really proud of yourself that you were like, you know what? I'm going to take on something that I have no idea. And this brings us to. I know there was a couple different things that we wanted to talk about, but the reason why I wanted to kind of go into this this way is because there's a lot of people would just say, no right away. No, oh, no.

00:13:20
I don't know what to do. And that makes me really scared now. You would always say, like, I feel like in a number of years ago, you might have been like, nope, I don't think I want to tackle that. I could be wrong. But I think as you're Getting more confident and comfortable in the things that you know and are like, you know what?

00:13:38
This is important for the foundation. I'm going to set aside my own anxiety because I know what this could do. And this could just lead to me helping more kids. Right. This is more exposure for the foundation because that's just going to help me be able to help more families and more kids.

00:13:51
So I'm going to suck it up and figure it out. And you. You did. I mean, I remember you calling me, like, do you know how to build a float? And I started laughing and I was like, okay, I know we.

00:14:00
We talk about my creativeness. Building afloat is not part of my creative. Like, I will. I was going to put my tool belt on and start having. You would have.

00:14:09
I mean, that's the thing. You shut it down for sure a number of years ago. Obviously, you know, having Elizabeth helping and being there to support, you know, catching me when I. When I fall daily with this, you know, is. Is huge.

00:14:27
But the foundation didn't mean as much, and it doesn't the way it's going to sound. It wasn't as important to me four years ago as it is today is because I. I didn't learn the full. The full complexity of the dyslexic world completely until the last couple years. You know, it took me.

00:14:57
So it always meant. It was always the most important thing to me since I started it. But the impact, and I guess we found the way to be most influential the last couple of years. So it makes. It means even more to do things like this.

00:15:25
Like, I had somebody's like, oh, you know, you know, did you get any money? Like, no, it wasn't about money. It's about exposure, right? You got to spend. You know, just.

00:15:36
Why do the rich get richer? Right? Because they have the money to invest. Right? That's, you know, unfortunately, that's same thing with us.

00:15:43
It's. You got to get exposure. People aren't going to donate to your foundation. They don't know about your foundation. Well, and this is what makes me so proud and happy for all of it, because we've talked about this before, that sometimes it just takes one person to see and hear you to make you feel like, okay, I can do this.

00:16:00
And that's what you've collected in the last number of years. You've collected people that you've let in that you're like, okay, I'm gonna let you in and see where you go, okay. You keep showing up, you keep helping. And that has happened to then let you be like, okay, I can take a breath, and you can let some big things and good things come into your life because you're opening yourself up to in a way that is vulnerable. It's like, okay, I know I need support.

00:16:31
I need help. And it's a really beautiful thing to be watching and to be a part of because of I know how special you are and what you can do, and to know that the world just keeps opening up and these things keep happening is just like a really beautiful thing. And I know you were so anxious about, like, parking and getting there, and we've talked about those kind of things. Um, and it made me anxious when you were talking about. I was like, oh, fuck, I hate that shit too.

00:16:58
Like, getting to the airport and all that. Even though I don't mind traveling. You get this anxiety, and I think a lot of people do, but there's a different heightened sense to it when you suffer from anxiety with the 5Ds. Yeah, my anxiety, you know, and if you know it's bad, especially you're going into. Just like you're probably anybody else going into places and scenarios that you don't understand, you know, and that's why my.

00:17:33
My routines, you know, going back to the hockey, you know, the rituals call it routines were exactly the same. I knew exactly. That's why I come home and I watch the same thing over and over again. I never turn on something new like now, you know, I'll turn on the golf down and watch that for 20 hours, because I'm not guessing what's coming next, you know? And the anxiety we live with every day, all day long, you know, so go back to the weekend.

00:18:03
It's like, okay, where we park first off? I don't know. Downtown Chicago. Yo, I really. I've never lived down there.

00:18:12
I've always lived in suburbs. I've never been a city guy. I'm a country boy. So anytime we go in there, only time I go down there, very rarely for dinners years back, only time I go down there, when I go get drunk and do stupid shit and then Uber back home. So going into the city, for me, I already.

00:18:39
I have anxiety about it because I don't know where I'm going. I still. I cannot get anywhere without using YO navigation, because I don't go down there. Don't know then. Now you're on.

00:18:54
You're talking about a couple hundred thousand people. Okay, where does everybody park? Right? You know, where do we have to park? We got to carry all this stuff in.

00:19:03
We Got to be at the float. Now, the float, you know, is the foundation a part of it, right? Our name's out there. Um, and it's not my name. It's, you know, something goes wrong with it, you know, it's.

00:19:16
It's not my name that goes down. It's every kid that we're trying to help that's going to go down. We have, you know, 15, 20 people that are joining us on the flight. Are they all going to be there? Are they going to find out where they're going to be there?

00:19:29
Are we going to be. End up being alone on the float? Like, these are all the things that makes me anxious right now. Jesus. But right.

00:19:36
No, because it's, you know, and I always say this, you know, I just said it. You know, my name is obviously a part of the foundation, but if. If it does go down, meaning, yo, something, the float looks bad, or if something happens on the float or this or that, right? It's not me that that's gonna, you know, suffer from it all. It's all the kids that we're trying to help.

00:20:03
So it's every, you know, obviously every detail that that's out there, right? Do we have enough of these hoodies? And, you know, it's because it's the little details that make or break individuals, groups, foundations, and companies and try to build something that we're trying to build.

00:20:27
It's those, those details that matter. So it's all those little things, all right, where are we going to park and how's the traffic? You know, again, traffic in Chicago is. I always say it's one of the worst. You know, I lived in la, I lived in New York and I lived in Atlanta.

00:20:41
Nowhere near as were as bad as is here Chicago.

00:20:46
So now I got that on top of it now, where are we gonna park and how are we gonna get there? How far do we walk? And you know, then we're gonna die driving down like, oh, my God, dude, did we print off the paperwork? Did we need a badge? Do we need to.

00:20:59
How do we get in? Where do we go? Like, you know, so it was the turnout awesome. You know, obviously had no expectations because I didn't know what to. What to expect.

00:21:18
Floats people. It was. Only thing is, there's a ton of green.

00:21:27
And I so appreciate you sharing all this because I do think there's something that people can understand a little bit more, the way your mind works. But everything you were just saying there, I was like, I know I would have been the same way, but Having someone with you to be able to take that, like, load off. Like, I remember I. When traveling with the kids when I was younger, right? And I would do everything.

00:21:52
And then the second Daniel travels with us, I literally. There was one time I was like, I don't even know what hotel we're saying, what room. We're like, I don't know anything. Because I was like, oh, I'm just gonna follow, right? So sometimes when you have to be in charge all the time, it's a really.

00:22:06
And with all those details, as you said, you want to make sure that you have all the. The sweatshirts. Like, what if you get a sweatshirt? Because these are the things that people don't realize that you're so thoughtful. And they wouldn't know.

00:22:18
They would have no idea. But you. I know you're like, I want to make sure that I have all the right sizes. If I don't have a right size, I don't want someone to feel like, oh, my God, they didn' this. And these are all the little details that you beautifully and stress yourself out, but that you think of because you think of others so much.

00:22:37
And so people from the outside wouldn't know that because of all the stuff that goes on in your head. And nobody wants to be in this head for five minutes. But it is. I mean, Brent, it really is, like, the fact that it all. I'm so glad because I didn't want to ask you about the parking, because I was like, oh, if it was bad, because we all have these scenarios where we know and this is like, where the flow.

00:23:07
Talk about the flow. There you go. Roll your eyes. I was like, I know. He didn't listen to me for a second.

00:23:12
The flow. When I asked you way back in the beginning, like, isn't it amazing when things just flow? And you were like, nothing ever flowed? And then when you talked about it, I was like, okay, he really hasn't had a lot of flow. But, like, even though all of that, like, where you found the parking, that it was right across the street, that everything lined up, and those are the times where it's like, okay, I was meant to be there without as much stress, even though I had all that anxiety in the beginning, but it flowed.

00:23:40
Like, we've all been in parts where, like, we've done something and it doesn't flow, right? It's like, oh, my God. Oh, my God, that didn't work. That didn't work. That didn't work.

00:23:47
And you're still doing it because you have to do It, Right. Because you may be committed to something and then you're like okay, I'm going to think about that again at another date. Do I want to do that again? But everything flowed, it sounds like. Yeah.

00:23:59
You know. So where the, where the parade was was just off Michigan Avenue, you know. So there was a hotel, we're looking at, you know, parking the night before and the Hilton Hotel area on Michigan Ave. Has a parking garage connected to it. I think, I think we saw it was like 80 bucks to park, pull up there, you know, find 80 bucks.

00:24:27
That's exactly what I expected, a lots fall. I'm like fuck. You know, turn on, turn double. Yeah. And then actually this parking garage was on the opposite side cross street, you know.

00:24:40
You know everything, everything did, you know, did flow. Everything turned out better than can anticipated could have laid out like the float being there.

00:24:56
Didn't have to find a driver. Right. Didn't have to find a pole car. Didn't have to, you know. Yeah.

00:25:00
Nowhere. Didn't have to be there, you know because we're talking, you know some people on the phone like there was a. I think they said 150 floats or spots in the parade. Some of our marching bands, some are trolleys, you know, some are, we're floats, some were cars somewhere, you know. But there's come going down this street instead of going that down street and this like, you know, what time did they have to be there?

00:25:34
What time did he have to be there in his spot for us to be there like so it was, it turned out great. Obviously Mother Nature listened. She was, she was, she was very nice. Yeah. Because I mean that night there was like they were saying it was going to be huge wins and then well there's that storm I'm sure people heard about obviously in St.

00:26:02
Louis I think there was 18 people when I saw were killed in these tornadoes. So this came through us overnight. Right. So like that would have, if that came a couple hours, a couple hours later that wouldn't. The prey wouldn't have gone on.

00:26:21
Right. We had storms come through a suburb. We didn't have any tornadoes. High winds ripped the roof off like 110 year old church. So you know, now we're watching this storm come through.

00:26:38
All right y'all, that brings up some anxiety. That came out. I think that came right. That came through it. I want to say it was midnight or you know, something like that.

00:26:46
So if that was pushed till you know in the morning that the parade wouldn't have gone on. Right. So then all like mother, you know, as of being a farm boy, I'm always looking at weather. So now we've got this storm coming through and you know, obviously the, the houses that were damaged, you know, and then it went up to Georgia and right across it was, it was a bad storm. So we're watching that now.

00:27:11
What's that going to be? And then they're calling for 40, 50 mile an hour winds and like, it's all of it. It's a lot. I couldn't, I couldn't imagine being, you know, you know, Michelle Coyne who, who runs the whole parade, you know, and trying to organize all that and hundreds of cops that were out, you know, streets are blocked and you know, they had boats and you know, when they died, the river grant and like, it just, you know, what you had to do to put it all together. And Mother Nature was, you know, she was nice finally.

00:27:47
Yeah. And that just makes me so happy because that's like, that's the flow I'm fucking talking about. That's the flow I'm talking about. Um, and I want to just remember, yeah, the flow. Um, I know other people can think of the flow means something else, but that's what I got.

00:28:04
But so that's another reminder is where people ask, how can we support? How can we support? How can we support? There's tons of support that's going to be happening down the road for people that align with our message. But in the meantime, going to thesopalfoundation.org and donating because for us to be able to do events like the parade, you know, and putting money into a float, those are all those things that we need support.

00:28:31
Not only do we need support financially for then Brent to also do what he's doing every day, connecting and talking to people. But all the stuff that we're doing, the back end that a lot of people don't know about because it's hush hush, we can't talk about it, but there's a lot of stuff. But going and doing those things, that's the kind of stuff that we're able to get the foundation to a different level by bringing the voices because we have financial support. So. Sopofoundation.org did you want to add anything?

00:29:00
Because I do want to. I want to switch. You're going to see how I'm going to. You're going to watch this. Hopefully my Internet doesn't go out.

00:29:08
So people, I'm hoping this is all being recorded. All right, watch this. Okay, let's see if you're going to be really impressed. So the thing that we just talked about, all the stuff that goes into doing what you're doing, so the stuff that you're learning, the stuff that you're doing on the back end for dyslexia, and we've talked about this in the beginning, way back when, where you're like, when people ask you what kind of education are you doing to learn about dyslexia? And you kind of laughed.

00:29:40
You're like, nothing. And I said to you, well, don't say nothing because they're testing you, you so much. You're like the biggest researcher. And the people you talk to and getting all of different people from different states. Oh, this is happening here.

00:29:53
This is happening here. Like, I think you have an investigator brain. I was thinking about this the other day, but go ahead. I know you have something to say. Well, you know, and I was just going to clarify, you know, some people, when they, they asked me if I've gone back to school for the education piece.

00:30:08
Right, right. Yeah. So, yes, and I love that you clarified that because. But this is everything we're talking about, what we do we learn best living it and dealing with it and, and talking to people every day. What you learn out of a book in this world is.

00:30:23
And don't even get me started because you can hear I'm already getting ticked up. But that's what makes me so angry, is when. When people will say that. Because it's like, you what? This is not stuff that you learn out of a book.

00:30:34
This is not stuff that you get in your PhD. Yes, you can understanding about how the brain works, but you're boots on the street talking to people every day. Not just 1, 2, 3. I mean, like so many people that you talk to and interact with and learn from about what their education system is doing, what they are, you know, dealing with on a daily basis. Go ahead.

00:31:01
You know, it's.

00:31:06
The problem is that here, you know, in the US is way government, words, things. You know, we get this all the time, tagging us and, you know, Richard Branson or that all these people that put the word dyslexia out there, a lot of it is smoking mirrors, is, you know, it seems like they're doing good, but they're not. You know, they're not behind the scenes. You can't build a house by the roof down. And that's what a lot of these people are doing is trying to build it from the roof down because they benefit financially.

00:32:01
They don't give a shit about your kid. So when I say roof down is, they put it out there, right? Oh, we're doing good, we're doing good. But you have no idea behind the scenes what they're actually doing, you know, and. And not a lot.

00:32:18
You know, there's not a lot of. Of that. You can't build a house roof down, all right? So it's. To have the full grasp of concept, you've got to understand to make a major impact in the world.

00:32:35
The way you're trying to do is you've got to know everything inside and out from, you know, start to finish. And I got a pretty good grasp on, you know, on this world of dyslexia. One, I'm an expert in it because I've lived at 48 years.

00:32:55
And the other one is because I. I know how they try and word things. I know how they try and place things. I know how they try and say things to make it look like they're doing good to the, you know, basically to the naked eye, right? But truly they're not.

00:33:12
And it's planting little bombs and exposing them little by little, you know, till some point in time, the whole bridge will collapse, and so will they. And. And the thing is, like, if you look at the people that are. Are out there putting stuff together, they have money themselves that they're like, oh, I'm just going to spend it and putting it so my face is all over and it's like, dyslexia, dyslexia, dyslexia, dyslexic university. All these different things.

00:33:45
Oh, we're going to teach the teachers in New York City. And then when we start peeling back the things, it's like, okay, those are just a lot of words. And this is like something that people talk about all the time, right? You could speak, but what are your actions? What are your actions behind the scenes?

00:33:59
What are you doing behind the scenes? Is it like, oh, you're on camera. Oh, and then you go back and you don't even think and talk to dyslexics, you know, about dyslexia or think about it. And there's a lot of that that goes on behind the scenes that people don't realize, because what they're seeing in media, on social media, is a different picture that's being. That's being portrayed, which is all fine, because you know what?

00:34:22
They can stay in their lanes and there's other lanes to. To be had. But the thing that is interesting, and we were talking about probably last week and a Couple times. Because we have people close to us, family, you know, friends that know us from our. All of our lives, and just maybe recently have had some discoveries with their children or they own discoveries because of conversations we were having.

00:34:49
And it's so interesting when people have to. Do they have to go on their own path to find their own journey? Even though they'll ask for advice, you give them advice, and it's like almost they do the opposite. However, there's an outer circle of people that come to the foundation because they hear and they see and they're like, oh, I know Brent can help me go to my IAP meeting. He can help me go through this.

00:35:17
And sometimes there's some days that it's like, it's exhausting because the people closest to you, sometimes you're like, you know, you know them so you have a deeper love. And I know you. What are you going to say? I'm trying to read your face right now. It's making a lot of.

00:35:33
A lot of faces. So I'm going to stop what I'm saying there and like, no, it's just as when I played hockey, my kids used tell me, you know, I don't know how to play hockey. What? Because I'm dad. Oh, my God.

00:35:50
Right? All right, now, because I'm dad, you know, leave the rink. I'm still changing diapers. You know, sometimes you've got to be there and, you know, with your kids a lot, you gotta. Gotta be there to pick them up.

00:36:08
You gotta let them scrape their knee. And the hard part about, you know, the five Ds and diagnosis, no parent wants to hear their kid is sick. No parent wants to hear the kid is struggling. No parent wants to know that their kid isn't where they want him to be and has a long journey ahead of them. Right?

00:36:45
No parent wants that. Every parent wants their kid to be the best and feel the best and look the best and be the smartest. Like, that's. That's life. So a lot of times dealing with this stuff is number one.

00:37:03
You know, I've said this to a number of parents. Like, I, you know, I want my kid to be okay with, you know, with their dyslexia. I'm like, well, first off is I need you to be okay with yours.

00:37:18
You know, addiction.

00:37:22
I don't think it's hereditary. I think it's from childhood trauma. Now, if your parents, mom or dad right now, you know, we're an alcoholic while you're abused. That's just. That's.

00:37:33
That's how it goes, child. Right? So to your inner circle, right? The people that are close to you that almost do the opposite. I don't.

00:37:47
Yo. It may seem like they're doing. Doing the opposite right now, but they have to skin. They have to be there fall. You got to be there to skin their knee, and you got to be there to help them pick them up.

00:38:02
And nobody knows as much as I do how frustrating it is to be there to do that. But this is the journey that we're on when it comes to. It's not a broken leg, it's not a broken arm. It's, you know, it's not a hangnail. It's something that's.

00:38:27
Our brain is wired that way. This is. This is who we are. And the quicker the parents get the exception of, you know, accepting it, the quicker the kids can. And one of the things that, like, as you were talking, I was thinking, and I think it's really true, us as just humans, we also sometimes want to be the ones that fix or help the situation.

00:39:01
We don't want to admit, oh, wait, I don't know what's going on, right? We don't want to be like, no, I don't know this world. I'm going to figure it out myself. And that's a. I mean, that's.

00:39:11
That's again, human nature. I. I've been there where, you know, if someone comes and gives me advice because I'm going through something, maybe that they've been through, and if you're not ready to receive it because, as you said, you haven't dealt with your own stuff, or you're like, flailing, drowning, and you're like, I'm just trying to survive, and I can't take anything else in because I just need to survive. I'm in, you know, I'm in survival mode. There's so many things that go into it, and it's.

00:39:39
Sometimes it's hard on our sides to watch because we're like, okay, we know what's going to happen. We know what's happening here. However, we need to, you know, respect it. Well. And the other hard, other part is that a lot of time, the information that we are giving is so drastically different than you'd expect.

00:40:04
Example, you know, if you talk probably nine out of 10 people and said the school system isn't for your kids, they'd say, you know, you're full of shit. But it's not. So your kids are just a number people. No, they're not. They care, though.

00:40:24
Again, they don't. So it's, it's not like it's a small draft, small difference. It's a massive difference. It's almost the opposite. A lot of times, correct me if I'm not wrong, of the information that we're telling them to do is almost opposite of what they think.

00:40:49
So anytime you have an individual, no matter who you are, where you're from, that I need you to do the opposite. There's always pushback because that's a drastic change. Like, it's not a little bit. Right. So it's.

00:41:10
If we're going on First Avenue. All right, turn on the second. No, we're supposed to be on 20th. How did I get. How is it.

00:41:18
Yo. So that comes into play to, to, to. What you're talking about is if our information wasn't so different, they may accept it quicker, but it's just such a different world and such a drastic change from what they thought. And then that thought is, okay, why is it so different? Why didn't I understand it?

00:41:54
Why didn't, why didn't I know that? Like, why are we going from here to here? Like, how did I, you know, what's wrong with me? How is it so different? How did I, you know, and then that goes, you know, then they turn it back on themselves.

00:42:06
Yeah. And so I want to change some of your semantics and just, and see what your thoughts are. So, yes, I think the information we give is very, very different. I want to say it builds on what. And I'm talking, I'm going to be very specific.

00:42:22
I'm talking about like an IEP meeting with a school, like the diagnosis on how to get diagnosed and then how you approach the school. So that, that's, that, that's what I'm talking about. Instead of talking in code, which I was talking before. So when we tell. There.

00:42:38
There are certain schools, certain districts that have more knowledge of dyslexia and how they think a child should be taught, learn, you know, whatever pulled out, whatever, how they should be intervened. There are districts, some districts and some states that have a, I don't, I want to say a stronger understanding now. I'm not saying right or wrong. I'm not saying that this state, you know that, because again, it's coming from non dyslexics. But it's like maybe they have had some, they've had some good results in their school districts because maybe they don't have like severe dyslexic.

00:43:19
So it's like, okay, these kids seem to be Improving a little bit. I mean, I'll bring it back to like when Connecticut, they're like, no, Montgomery's improving. But what we said was, and my mom was the one that said this to me and I was like, oh, wait. She's like, honey, he's improving. Because yes, they're intervening, but look where the rest of the class is.

00:43:37
The rest of the class keeps improving at higher rates. And I was like, oh. She's like, so he's just going to keep getting more and more and more behind. I would never have thought that. Right.

00:43:46
So these are the things that a teacher, a district is going to tell you when you're sitting in your iep. No, look, all the services that we're giving your kid are working because look at their numbers. But what you always have to ask is, well, where are the rest of the kids numbers? Right? And that's something that parents.

00:44:02
And so I'm not saying that I'm disagreeing with you at all because I'm totally agreeing. I'm building on it. The thing that's so crazy is as a parent, and I'm just going to go back to like when I went, I'm not someone, I shouldn't say that. I don't mind to get. To get in it.

00:44:17
I don't mind to get into an argument. I really don't. But when you don't understand something and you're not fully comfortable with what a teacher or a lord whatever is saying, you're not going to go and argue just to argue because you're like, well, now you know, I don't know what I'm arguing about. Right. So you kind of just sit back because you're like, I'm so lost and I don't know where to go.

00:44:39
And so as a parent now also on this side, like, I knew that day that I was like, oh, no, now I just have to fucking argue everything and I'm going to learn because knowledge is power, right? So that's the thing that we really empower parents to be like, these are all the things that you have to understand. This is probably what the school's going to say. These are the things that you have to fight back and ask for. And there's a lot of parents that are like, well, I don't really feel comfortable fighting back and asking for it because it's conflict.

00:45:08
And people don't love conflict. They don't love conflict when they are not 100% comfortable in what they're conflicting about. Yeah, that's correct. I didn't know if I was going to use that. Right.

00:45:17
And so there is so many things. So it's not that we're doing completely saying the opposite of what to tell people, but we're building on what the school is doing, even though the school is like, okay, this is what your kid needs. It's like, show me. And then. And then prove it.

00:45:35
And so we're giving the kind of knowledge. So finish. Because now I'm gonna start babbling. No, that goes back to. No, it makes sense, you know, but people.

00:45:45
Parents wouldn't know. Again, you wouldn't have known to ask that question if your mom didn't say that. Totally. I would have been fine. Oh, good.

00:45:53
He's. Look, he's improving. Right? 100, right. So that's.

00:45:58
Those are the things that go on in this journey. So that's kind of, you know, and that's part of the opposite question. No, you're 100, right? Yeah. Yeah.

00:46:13
I mean, that's good. And that's what I mean by the opposite. You know, almost the. Almost the opposite. You would never ask that question if you didn't.

00:46:19
You know, your mom was. Was a teacher. She asked that question. Yo, yo, we got states right now that your kids have services, They've gotten them up to a certain level. Now they want to take those services away.

00:46:40
Now, hang on. These services helped get this kid up. Kid's still not even at par. The rest of his classmates, and now you want to take it away. Mm.

00:46:56
How to make sense, you know, And I think you know, is the parking garage scenario. Yeah. I love that scenario that we had in last episode. Two episodes, probably, when this goes out. Mm.

00:47:10
You know, everybody, you know, on. On lobby floor, on the level floor. Is it was everybody. Somebody with dyslexia is living on, you know, parking garage one. Now you're one level below them, somebody with, you know, dyslexia and, you know, two of the Ds.

00:47:33
Now you're on parking level 2, 3Ds, park level 3, 4Ds. So I'm living on parking level 4. So I'm four floors below normal. But you're not gonna, you know, you give me some resources to help me, okay? It helps me.

00:47:53
Now I'm only at 2. Well, you're right. I went up, too. So it's. It's.

00:47:59
It's how you word things, right? You went up two levels, but I'm still two levels behind. So they'll always say you went up two levels, but they'll never look at it and say, oh, but you're still two levels behind the narmies. So those are two different ways of saying it. Yep.

00:48:20
And. And I want that, you know, that's kind of where, where I go with it. Yep. No, and I love that. And I want to be very clear in stating that the school knew that Montgomery was not going to catch up.

00:48:36
And they didn't. They were okay with being like, okay, this is what we're doing because we don't want to say anything because we don't want to get sued and have to have money go out of the district because we can't teach him. Right. We can't get him to be level with the class. They all knew that.

00:48:51
The principal, the teachers, and they let a parent myself sit there and think, oh, he is still improving. So this is great. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing. And that's where then I go fucking ape shit, right? Because it's like, wait, you knew that what you're doing is just like, so he's always going to struggle because you can't.

00:49:12
You can't teach him and bring him there. Instead of being like, you know what? We can't do it. Like there. There's a better route, like, beyond.

00:49:20
So that's where we come at it and really tell parents, like, they, they, they know what they're doing. And it's really sad because it's like, you, that's where your kid's a number. Because they can't get emotionally attached to that kid because then they're not going to feel comfortable being like, right, your kids getting right now. You know, and, and a lot of times when we talk about here, you know, we talk about schools, certain schools, just like, you know, dyslexic schools or schools that have resources or schools that have understanding of learning disorders do the same thing. Let's be very clear.

00:50:02
You know, certain schools will only take certain kids so that they could go up and use them. Use those numbers. Right? That they know that they could teach them. Right.

00:50:18
You know, so these are people like, oh, yeah, it's great. You know, this school, they always do. Yo. And they know it's a dyslexic school and it's the best and they know what they're doing. Well, not saying that they don't know what they're doing, but does your kid fit in to their model to make sure your kid is successful?

00:50:46
So their school looks good? Not for every dyslexic. Why didn't my kid get in because they knew that they were going to have to do a little bit more or your kid didn't fit into their business model.

00:51:06
Business. Yep. A number, not a kid. And we're going to leave it at that. I'm sorry that my Internet has been in and out because I'm sure that's been difficult for you.

00:51:18
You're like. And we're still talking, you guys. You know what I said? New York Mercury in retrograde, I guess is worse to hear. Oh, here we go.

00:51:31
Here we go. So, you guys, I say it every single time, like rate, review and share. Because you don't know who's sitting there that is starting this journey or is in this journey, who is coming up on their end of their IEP meetings and are like, what do I need to ask for? Like, we had a really tough year. How do I not have my kid have such a tough year?

00:51:51
They're. There's so many things that go into it. So you need to share this because someone needs to hear it. And don't forget to go to soplfoundation.org to donate. Look at our Instagram, because you can also see the St.

00:52:03
Patrick's Day festivities and keep in line with what we're doing here. Thank you, Brent.