Education. A paradigm shift – Parent Empowerment with Punam Saxena

Education is a never ending platform of agendas and disagreements of how to instruct students within schools. But where do parents fit in? With a background in special education Punam Saxena found that all parents need a better understanding of the academic needs of their child. A paradigm shift is needed in education. This shift is to empower parents to become partners in their child’s instructional development.

Transcript
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Catherine:

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Hello, this is Catherine, your host of the podcast, Your Positive Imprint.

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The variety show featuring people from all over the world whose positive actions

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C H R I S N O L E.

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Your positive imprint.

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What's your P.I.?.

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Punam Saxena's background is in special education where she educated autistic

Here's how:

students and students with profound, mental and physical disabilities.

Here's how:

But while in the classroom, Punam observed that parents were in need of resources and

Here's how:

better understanding of the academic needs of their child.

Here's how:

Today Punam is a voice and advocate for parents.

Here's how:

Her goal is to bridge the gap between parents and schools, and she has

Here's how:

a podcast EDU- Me and her coaching provides resources, insight, and a

Here's how:

practical footprint and a positive imprint for parents to become empowered

Here's how:

partners in their child's education.

Here's how:

Punam welcome to the show.

Punam Saxena:

Thank you so much, Catherine.

Punam Saxena:

I'm so excited to be here.

Punam Saxena:

Chatting with you.

Catherine:

I am too.

Catherine:

And your background is in education.

Catherine:

That's my background.

Catherine:

And although I'm not in special education, but I have worked with so

Catherine:

many teachers and have coached teachers.

Catherine:

And I think that education has such moments of awe.

Catherine:

Oh, my gosh, this is so exciting.

Catherine:

This has been fulfilling and moments for children where they have a

Catherine:

breakthrough in their own successes.

Punam Saxena:

Absolutely that, that when that light bulb goes off with a

Punam Saxena:

student, there's nothing more gratifying.

Catherine:

Oh, sure, absolutely.

Catherine:

So now you have a background in education and you are also a first

Catherine:

generation American within your family.

Catherine:

Is that correct?

Punam Saxena:

I am.

Punam Saxena:

I am.

Punam Saxena:

My parents immigrated from India in the sixties and came just in

Punam Saxena:

time for the civil rights movement.

Punam Saxena:

And of course of all places they could have chosen in the

Punam Saxena:

country they landed in the South.

Punam Saxena:

So they were in the middle of all of the excitement.

Punam Saxena:

And I was born in Alabama and raised in rural Georgia.

Punam Saxena:

So.

Punam Saxena:

Yeah, it was an exciting, interesting, and transformational time.

Catherine:

Oh, I love that you used the word transformational because

Catherine:

transformational, as one of my guests said, you can't go back.

Catherine:

So, and that's, that's one of the wonders of that word.

Catherine:

So education and also psych let's say psychology I understand as

Catherine:

well from what I've read about you

Punam Saxena:

Yeah.

Punam Saxena:

So I have a bachelor's in psychology and a master's in education.

Punam Saxena:

And it all kind of prompted from the fact of my own personal experience

Punam Saxena:

growing up in rural Georgia.

Punam Saxena:

We were the only Indians of Indian heritage from the country, India, which

Punam Saxena:

you can imagine in the South, we'd been asked what tribe we have belonged

Punam Saxena:

to, we were the only Indians in our community for the first 12 years.

Punam Saxena:

And we learned a lot about the country that we chose to grow up in,

Punam Saxena:

that we were raised in, but we also learned a lot about what America

Punam Saxena:

is and how we can move forward.

Punam Saxena:

So it was an education that we were getting as an immigrant family, but

Punam Saxena:

also our friends and neighbors as well.

Punam Saxena:

So Grew into a passion for teaching.

Punam Saxena:

My father is a former professor at the university of Georgia and my

Punam Saxena:

mother's a former second grade teacher.

Punam Saxena:

So I come from a long line of educators, but it seemed to be the fit for me that

Punam Saxena:

was best because when we educate people, we begin to expand our horizons, not

Punam Saxena:

only their horizons, but our horizons.

Punam Saxena:

And I want to be a learning being all the time and the best way that I knew

Punam Saxena:

how to do that was to become a teacher.

Punam Saxena:

And I will tell you, Catherine, I fell into teaching because you know, when you

Punam Saxena:

grow up in a family of educators, you that's the last thing you want to be.

Punam Saxena:

And yeah, that's exactly where you need to be.

Punam Saxena:

My first job out of college was actually a class of

Punam Saxena:

self-contained children with autism.

Punam Saxena:

And it was, it was an eye opening experience to see how the bureaucracy of

Punam Saxena:

education plays into the lives of these individuals who really don't fit the mold

Punam Saxena:

of the mandates that are coming down from the federal and local governments.

Punam Saxena:

I did that for gosh, almost 10 years until I had my oldest child and decided

Punam Saxena:

I wanted to take a year off to spend time with her and kind of see if I

Punam Saxena:

really wanted to go back to teaching.

Punam Saxena:

And 10 years in teaching really taught me.

Punam Saxena:

Cause I really don't like bureaucracy.

Punam Saxena:

I understand that we need a system, but I don't know that we need a

Punam Saxena:

system that's so narrow because people are not able to fit in a box.

Punam Saxena:

We can't say that on January 1st, every child is supposed to know

Punam Saxena:

what 2+2 is, because guess what?

Punam Saxena:

Developmentally that doesn't happen.

Punam Saxena:

And we're throwing in children with learning challenges and expecting that

Punam Saxena:

same expectation and that's unrealistic.

Punam Saxena:

So I learned that in that year off that I spent with my daughter.

Punam Saxena:

And I decided that I really didn't want to go back to that.

Punam Saxena:

I needed a break and lo and behold, within the next three and a half

Punam Saxena:

years, I had three more children.

Punam Saxena:

And for all those math wizards out there that are thinking that's

Punam Saxena:

not mathematically possible, there are set of twins in there.

Punam Saxena:

My last two were twins.

Punam Saxena:

So that kind of solves the whole mathematical mystery.

Punam Saxena:

When my oldest started to go to elementary school, I decided to

Punam Saxena:

start volunteering in her classroom.

Punam Saxena:

And obviously it was limited because I had three at home.

Punam Saxena:

Gradually.

Punam Saxena:

I started to find my space in the schools that was not bureaucratic.

Punam Saxena:

I was able to provide the resources that the teachers needed so that

Punam Saxena:

they felt that they had a support person without actually being tethered

Punam Saxena:

to the bureaucracy of the school.

Punam Saxena:

So I learned that I was becoming a partner with my children's teachers

Punam Saxena:

and part of being a partner in your child's education or with your

Punam Saxena:

teacher is to build a relationship.

Punam Saxena:

Just like you build every other relationship on the planet you start with

Punam Saxena:

trust and you have to build that trust.

Punam Saxena:

And from that trust comes a relationship.

Punam Saxena:

So I built that relationship and that trust with each of my children's teachers.

Punam Saxena:

I had carved a niche out out for myself.

Punam Saxena:

And I wanted to bring that opportunity to other parents because

Punam Saxena:

as strange as it sounds to many of us, I was even involved in their

Punam Saxena:

high schools at a very high level.

Punam Saxena:

That doesn't happen for most high school parents because that's a

Punam Saxena:

standoffish period in their lives where everyone's kind of is starting

Punam Saxena:

to assert their own independence.

Punam Saxena:

But I argue that that's when parents need to be involved because the exposure is

Punam Saxena:

so high to things that that children are going to be exposed to and the real world.

Punam Saxena:

And that's when they need some support.

Punam Saxena:

Not in your face support, but just generic support and keeping

Punam Saxena:

an eye out on your child.

Punam Saxena:

So EDU-Me really was born from what I had been doing for so

Punam Saxena:

many years with my, my children.

Punam Saxena:

And I often would tell my children that I wasn't doing it necessarily for them,

Punam Saxena:

that I was doing it for that child whose parents never walked through the

Punam Saxena:

door and was unable to support them.

Punam Saxena:

Because those are the

Punam Saxena:

children that need our support.

Catherine:

Yes.

Catherine:

And there are so many that fall into that category and there are others that

Catherine:

certainly their parents are very active.

Catherine:

So I want to ask you, when you are building a relationship with a teacher,

Catherine:

did you find it difficult each year when you're starting brand new to start

Catherine:

building, and then once you have that relationship, then the school year ends

Catherine:

and you have to start all over again.

Catherine:

So talk a little bit about how you did that and how you were able to get things

Catherine:

working because you know, building a relationship can take weeks if not

Catherine:

months, and you don't have that luxury.

Catherine:

And neither does a teacher because a teacher has students for just

Catherine:

that one year, not even a year.

Punam Saxena:

It's interesting.

Punam Saxena:

I will tell you a funny story, and this is how the education, the parent

Punam Saxena:

part of my education career started.

Punam Saxena:

When my oldest started kindergarten, I walked into her kindergarten

Punam Saxena:

class and of course they had little knickknacks for the kids to get

Punam Saxena:

engaged and get to know each other.

Punam Saxena:

I was watching my daughter and the kindergarten teacher walks over to me.

Punam Saxena:

And she's just trying to get to know me as she was doing

Punam Saxena:

to many of the other parents.

Punam Saxena:

And so I said, I just want you to know that my daughter can read.

Punam Saxena:

And I am certain that the kindergarten teacher, she, she was very restrained,

Punam Saxena:

but I'm sure in her mind she was rolling her eyes saying of course!

Punam Saxena:

Doesn't every parent say that about their incoming kindergartner,

Punam Saxena:

but this kindergarten teacher did something amazing.

Punam Saxena:

She would call every single parent in her child's class, two weeks after

Punam Saxena:

kindergarten started to let them know how their child was adjusting.

Punam Saxena:

And the first thing she said to me was, your daughter can read.

Punam Saxena:

And I said, well, I'm an educator.

Punam Saxena:

And I kinda know when my child can read.

Punam Saxena:

And I wasn't being flippant about it, but that kind of broke the ice because I did

Punam Saxena:

not tell her that to gloat, but to let her know where she could start with my child.

Punam Saxena:

After those two weeks, the academic part became easy because

Punam Saxena:

the teacher was able to adapt.

Punam Saxena:

But what that did was it set precedent for the other teachers that my daughter had

Punam Saxena:

because they would see that I was there, that I was involved, that I was not one of

Punam Saxena:

those parents who just was blowing smoke.

Punam Saxena:

I was going to tell them like it was, and that started with

Punam Saxena:

that kindergarten teacher.

Punam Saxena:

And by being honest with her and sharing with her, the challenges

Punam Saxena:

that I was having as a parent and.

Punam Saxena:

When she, my oldest started kindergarten I had, I had two, one and a half year

Punam Saxena:

olds and the three and a half year old.

Punam Saxena:

So they were all in strollers as I was rolling through the school.

Punam Saxena:

And the other teachers would just stop and talk to the kids and

Punam Saxena:

that's how I got to know them.

Punam Saxena:

So that was elementary school.

Punam Saxena:

Middle school and high school's a little different, we can agree on that.

Punam Saxena:

That there's a little more hands off.

Punam Saxena:

There's a little more independence

Catherine:

Certainly certainly.

Punam Saxena:

and I never let that stop me.

Punam Saxena:

I I'm an advocate for you and your school.

Punam Saxena:

What can I do to help you?

Punam Saxena:

And that's how I approached it.

Punam Saxena:

So it's always been that way.

Punam Saxena:

But I will say that , when you start to build that relationship, what

Punam Saxena:

happens is, that the teachers and administrators see you as an ally.

Punam Saxena:

So if I had a concern or something had happened to one of my children,

Punam Saxena:

it was very easy for me to make an appointment with the teacher or the

Punam Saxena:

principal and say, we need to chat.

Punam Saxena:

And I would never go in assuming that my child was right.

Punam Saxena:

I would always say, what behavior did my child exhibit that you feel this happened?

Punam Saxena:

And that's how we would approach it.

Punam Saxena:

The other thing that I did was I always took those challenges to them with a

Punam Saxena:

solution.

Punam Saxena:

We

01 Main Mic-1 00:18:17

is,

Catherine:

that is ideal.

Catherine:

That is,

Catherine:

that is definitely something that is admirable.

Punam Saxena:

Okay.

Punam Saxena:

Well, I feel like if you're going to, um, challenge someone's opinion, then you

Punam Saxena:

should at least have taken the time to say, how can we problem solve this, this

Punam Saxena:

not only for my child, but all children.

Punam Saxena:

And so that's, I did that through middle school.

Punam Saxena:

I did that through high school.

Punam Saxena:

And in fact, I am looking to publish a book here soon, and I had the principal

Punam Saxena:

of my children's high school,write

Punam Saxena:

the Coda, he wrote the afterword for it after forward, whatever it's called.

Punam Saxena:

And so he is, he wrote it and he sent me a very preliminary version.

Punam Saxena:

And I thought, Oh my gosh, you have read my mind.

Punam Saxena:

That's exactly what I wanted to do.

Punam Saxena:

And it was to ensure that every child had the opportunity to

Punam Saxena:

succeed.

Catherine:

I think one of the fears that some parents have is that

Catherine:

they'll be looked at and I'll tell you why that they'll be looked at

Catherine:

as instead of an ally that they might be looked at as intrusive.

Catherine:

And the reason I say that is because when I was a teacher in the classroom,

Catherine:

I still am an educator, but I'm not in the mainstream classroom right now.

Catherine:

But when I was in the classroom, I loved parents like you and I invited

Catherine:

the parents to come in and be in, in the classroom where their child

Catherine:

was so they could observe so they could learn what I am doing so they

Catherine:

could see what strategies I'm using

Catherine:

so they could go home and use the same strategies to help

Catherine:

their child academically.

Catherine:

That's how I approached when they wanted to come into the classroom

Catherine:

. Other teachers saw it as, Oh my gosh, they're in there to see what I'm

Catherine:

doing and to spy on me and to spy on the other kids and to make trouble.

Catherine:

And I would really like to see that as a, to see that separated

Catherine:

from the minds of teachers.

Catherine:

And I know there's parents that don't always have the school at

Catherine:

their best intentions and that they have an agenda, which is their child,

Catherine:

which is certainly understandable.

Catherine:

So how do you tell a parent right now that what, what they could say, what

Catherine:

they could do to put teachers' minds at ease so that that gap is being bridged

Catherine:

and the relationship is strengthening.

Punam Saxena:

I would say, and I think you would agree with me that teachers really

Punam Saxena:

can use the help and the support

01 Main Mic-1 00:21:09

Oh, I definitely

Catherine:

agree with that.

Catherine:

Oh my goodness.

Catherine:

Yes.

Punam Saxena:

they, they need help.

Punam Saxena:

And they're certainly not able to get it from the districts and the

Punam Saxena:

governments, because that's just not the way our education system

Punam Saxena:

is set up and we just don't have the financial means in that system.

Punam Saxena:

But here's what you can do.

Punam Saxena:

First of all, you have to, as a parent, realize that your child will benefit if

Punam Saxena:

you come at it, if you approach helping teachers in schools from an authentic

Punam Saxena:

place, I've always been an advocate for every student because when those students

Punam Saxena:

succeed, so does my child and vice versa.

Punam Saxena:

So we start to raise the level of education.

Punam Saxena:

The difficulty that many parents that I have worked with have is that

Punam Saxena:

they're coming in with the mindset of my kid needs this, this and this.

Punam Saxena:

And I am in essence, demanding that my child had these privileges.

Punam Saxena:

So what kind of system are we setting up?

Punam Saxena:

We're setting up a, a system where the children are not earning their

Punam Saxena:

place, and then we're sending them out into the world where

Punam Saxena:

that's not how the world works.

Punam Saxena:

You earn your spot from your hard work, your ethics, your social socio emotional

Punam Saxena:

intelligence and your social skills.

Punam Saxena:

So when we're not modeling that for our children in schools by, I use the

Punam Saxena:

word demand and that's a harsh word,

Catherine:

But parents that.

Catherine:

They do.

Punam Saxena:

My child, my child needs this.

Punam Saxena:

My child got a C on the spelling test and it's going to lower their GPA.

Punam Saxena:

Okay.

Punam Saxena:

Guess what?

Punam Saxena:

That's okay.

Punam Saxena:

If we never teach our children to fail, then They never know

Punam Saxena:

how to learn and get better.

Punam Saxena:

And so to the parents out there, I would say, what is your purpose

Punam Saxena:

of volunteering and helping?

Punam Saxena:

Because if it's coming from a place where you're not helping every single

Punam Saxena:

student then I would ask you to reconsider, because I would argue with

Punam Saxena:

what you were saying earlier, Catherine, that teachers don't want intrusive

Punam Saxena:

parents who have a single goal in mind.

Punam Saxena:

Teachers want parents who have a global interest in every student.

Punam Saxena:

And the other thing that I would say, and this is, this is something that I I have

Punam Saxena:

said so many times to so many people.

Punam Saxena:

If you do not want your child to be spoken ill of by other parents,

Punam Saxena:

then you should not do the same.

Punam Saxena:

So many times we go and talk to teachers about, well, you know, little Johnny said

Punam Saxena:

this to my child or pulled, you know, her pigtail or, you know, complaining.

Punam Saxena:

Where we really need to be teaching our children how to manage that and

Punam Saxena:

let the child go to the teacher and say, you know, Johnny did this to me.

Punam Saxena:

Would you mind keeping an eye out?

Punam Saxena:

And I think that's how we not only built the opportunities for our children to

Punam Saxena:

mature, but also for our relationship with our teachers to mature as well,

Punam Saxena:

because the whole goal of education is to create productive citizens.

Punam Saxena:

And if we can't do

Punam Saxena:

that, then we just need to blow up the whole education system and do nothing.

Punam Saxena:

And that's kind of harsh, but you know, isn't that the entire purpose

Punam Saxena:

to equip them with not only the knowledge, but the social skills and

Punam Saxena:

the team building skills that they need.

Punam Saxena:

And that's what parents need to be partnering with their teachers

Punam Saxena:

and is creating that continuity.

Punam Saxena:

And I think you would see more teachers

Punam Saxena:

say, please come into my classroom.

Catherine:

Yes.

Catherine:

And, and I think that you're giving some actual verbiage for parents to use when

Catherine:

they want to go in and become active, but it also gives validity to reasons why

Catherine:

a parent should become active and why a school should allow a parent to be active.

Catherine:

But you know, teachers with building a relationship and good strategic

Catherine:

role modeling, they can power down

Catherine:

parents so that a relationship can come of it.

Catherine:

You said it well, our job is to educate and to make citizens productive within

Catherine:

our society, within our community.

Catherine:

, it's a never ending platform of agendas and disagreements,

Punam Saxena:

Yeah, one thing before you move on, Catherine, I wanted to share

Punam Saxena:

is because I'm painting this very rosy picture of parent involvement in schools.

Punam Saxena:

And I don't want any of your audience members to think that

Punam Saxena:

we, my husband and I did not have challenges raising our children, our

Punam Saxena:

children are by no means perfect.

Punam Saxena:

We had challenges in schools.

Punam Saxena:

They are kids.

Punam Saxena:

We used it as a teaching moment.

Punam Saxena:

To the schools, we always presented a United front and we protected

Punam Saxena:

our child, but in our own homes, we absolutely used those experiences as

Punam Saxena:

teaching lessons and throughout their educational careers I would like to put

Punam Saxena:

out there that there were three teachers that we did not agree with at all.

Punam Saxena:

It wasn't because let me put it another way.

Punam Saxena:

We did not feel that they had our children's best interests at heart.

Punam Saxena:

Now I'm not saying that there were not others, but the, these three

Punam Saxena:

teachers were blatant in their, uh, Methodologies towards our children.

Punam Saxena:

So the, those three teachers, I did go to the principal and

Punam Saxena:

say, please see the email chain.

Punam Saxena:

I don't think this is healthy for my child.

Punam Saxena:

I would always present it back.

Punam Saxena:

What are my options?

Punam Saxena:

What can we do?

Punam Saxena:

So.

Punam Saxena:

I w I want you to know that parenting is not a rosy job all

Punam Saxena:

the time, and everyone knows that, but there are ways to approach it.

Punam Saxena:

And so from that day forward, my other three children or my other children did

Punam Saxena:

not have that teacher, but three out of, you know, 60, 70 teachers that we had over

Punam Saxena:

that course of our educational career, I don't believe is unreasonable because

Punam Saxena:

the teachers that we did not agree with other than those three that's part of

Punam Saxena:

working in a work environment, you're going to be on a team where someone's not

Punam Saxena:

pulling their weight, or the team leader is not as strong as they need to be.

Punam Saxena:

That's all part of how you cope.

Punam Saxena:

Your job is still to get your homework done,

Punam Saxena:

learn the material and get a good grade.

Punam Saxena:

So as, as rosy, as I painted this picture of parent volunteering, that

Punam Saxena:

it does come with the fact that I spent time getting to know their teachers.

Punam Saxena:

And when I did bring a real life issue, that was insurmountable in my

Punam Saxena:

opinion, then I was taken seriously.

Punam Saxena:

It wasn't just me complaining.

Punam Saxena:

I had valid reasons, but I always asked what are the options?

Catherine:

and again, that's a great way for parents to approach with so that

Catherine:

ice is broken and you can sit down and collaborate on the needs of your child.

Catherine:

Thank you so much for that.

Catherine:

Yes,

Punam Saxena:

And tone is everything tone is everything

Catherine:

yes.

Catherine:

And yes.

Catherine:

So now that you were observing the needs of your children, the

Catherine:

needs of parenting and involvement and the need for strengthening that

Catherine:

relationship between parents and schools, you started EDU-me and that

Catherine:

has a load of resources for parents.

Catherine:

So talk a little bit about EDU me and the positive imprints that you're

Catherine:

bringing to the educational sector.

Punam Saxena:

So I alluded to it earlier.

Punam Saxena:

EDU-Me really is a branch of what I've been doing for the last 25 years.

Punam Saxena:

It's trying to help parents understand that the bureaucracy

Punam Saxena:

of education is just that.

Punam Saxena:

And there are ways that we can make it more amenable for

Punam Saxena:

our children and our teachers.

Punam Saxena:

And one is to provide support.

Punam Saxena:

One is to understand it in a way that takes a little bit

Punam Saxena:

of burden off of our children.

Punam Saxena:

Our children are faced with such a burden of testing and

Punam Saxena:

grades and promotion retention.

Punam Saxena:

It's a big topic of conversation for these children when they're taking

Punam Saxena:

these high stakes state mandated tests.

Punam Saxena:

Oh, if I don't pass this test, then I can not go on to the next grade.

Punam Saxena:

I could be retained.

Punam Saxena:

Okay.

Punam Saxena:

I didn't know what the word retained was until I got a

Punam Saxena:

retainer for my braces, you know?

Punam Saxena:

I mean, so their, their depth of understanding and their depth of

Punam Saxena:

anxiety is really, really high.

Punam Saxena:

And.

Punam Saxena:

EDU-Me is really wanting to break That barrier down for parents because

Punam Saxena:

part of the reason, and we talked about some of the reasons parents

Punam Saxena:

don't become involved, but another reason they don't become involved

Punam Saxena:

is because they don't understand it.

Punam Saxena:

It's so complicated.

Punam Saxena:

There's nothing simple about the education system.

Punam Saxena:

And I would argue almost every bureaucratic system out there.

Punam Saxena:

It's just so complex, but when we can break down some of those things that

Punam Saxena:

parents are constantly struggling with, especially those with special needs

Punam Saxena:

and they had IEP and 504s and you're sitting in a room full of professionals.

Punam Saxena:

And those professionals are telling you what your child's goal should be.

Punam Saxena:

I'm going to say, no, they can guide you, but you as the parent, know

Punam Saxena:

what you want your child to attain.

Punam Saxena:

So we have to start breaking those barriers down.

Punam Saxena:

And when we break that barrier down and we become a liaison, not only for

Punam Saxena:

the teachers but for our children, then we really start to bring together

Punam Saxena:

the, the fear, the vast differences in communication about education.

Punam Saxena:

And I would say there's a vast communication disparity as

Punam Saxena:

well as a knowledge disparity.

Catherine:

That yes.

Catherine:

And part of your bridging is to provide resources, to help them understand.

Catherine:

I know that you have a monthly forum or webinar or theme.

Catherine:

And I think that this is a good time for you to introduce those

Catherine:

themes so that listeners know what you have to offer at EDU-Me.

Punam Saxena:

This year, thanks to COVID and lots of opportunity to think and

Punam Saxena:

expand I am launching a monthly webinar.

Punam Saxena:

So each month where we are tackling a different topic, relevant to parenting.

Punam Saxena:

The podcast, the blogs and the webinar, will all work around that

Punam Saxena:

topic are centered around that topic.

Punam Saxena:

We talk about time management.

Punam Saxena:

We can all be better time managers let's create a sustainable model for ourselves.

Punam Saxena:

We're going to be talking about finding balance.

Punam Saxena:

We often have a challenge finding balance in our day.

Punam Saxena:

And I don't mean schedule wise.

Punam Saxena:

I mean, reflective wise, taking care of ourselves wise, stepping back

Punam Saxena:

and knowing what our boundaries are.

Punam Saxena:

We're actually going to be talking about how to manage,

Punam Saxena:

how to build relationships with

Punam Saxena:

someone who is not necessarily your ally.

Punam Saxena:

And I'm going to, I'm saying that in a long roundabout way of

Punam Saxena:

saying, how do we handle bullying?

Punam Saxena:

, we're going to be talking about stress and end of the year exams because no

Punam Saxena:

one has stress at the end of the year.

Punam Saxena:

Do they?

Catherine:

Yeah.

Punam Saxena:

So, you know, it's really about trying to make

Punam Saxena:

parenting more manageable and realizing that when we are partnering

Punam Saxena:

with our schools, it all becomes manageable because we're all on the

Punam Saxena:

same page.

Catherine:

Yes.

Catherine:

Well, I so much enjoyed this because of course it, it brings

Catherine:

back some of the things that I have advocated and put together as well.

Catherine:

And I thank you for sharing all of this and we like to end with

Catherine:

the last inspiring words of Punam.

Punam Saxena:

Well, first of all, I would like to say thank you for this

Punam Saxena:

opportunity, but also Catherine was on my podcast at the end of January.

Punam Saxena:

So please do check out all of her wisdom on parenting and literacy and

Punam Saxena:

how we can move the ball forward.

Punam Saxena:

She's an amazing, amazing guest.

Punam Saxena:

So I'm grateful for you for honoring me by

Punam Saxena:

coming on.

Catherine:

Oh, thank you.

Catherine:

And you are welcome, but thank you for it

Punam Saxena:

was a lot of fun.

Punam Saxena:

it was.

Punam Saxena:

a lot of fun.

Punam Saxena:

So my, my, my words of wisdom are this.

Punam Saxena:

Be mindful of what your purpose is, what you want.

Punam Saxena:

To do and how you want to get there.

Punam Saxena:

And the very last thing is, remember, your children are

Punam Saxena:

modeling what you're putting out.

Punam Saxena:

So those three earlier points are even more important because

Punam Saxena:

someone is learning from you.

Punam Saxena:

And I think we can all agree that we all want to do well for our children.

Catherine:

Absolutely.

Catherine:

Yeah.

Catherine:

Punam Saxena thank you so much for your true, authentic self

Catherine:

and for expanding your horizons and those horizons of parents.

Catherine:

And of course, thank you so much for your efforts and your ongoing work in bridging

Catherine:

the gap between parents and schools.

Catherine:

And I know that the parents and teachers are so appreciative with

Catherine:

the resources that you are providing and the opportunities that you're

Catherine:

providing for them to understand, as you say, this, this system of

Catherine:

bureaucratic education so much better.

Catherine:

Punam thank you so much.

Punam Saxena:

Thank you so much,

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