Revolutionizing Childhood Learning: Purposeful Education with Gail Hugman

What if you could transform your child's educational journey from mundane tasks to inspired learning? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Gail Hugman, an educator with decades of experience, who started her teaching career in 1974.

Parents and educators alike will find this episode incredibly valuable as we unpack essential skills children need to thrive and the mental hurdles they might face. Gail shares practical tips from her latest book, "Making the Pennies Drop," offering everyday strategies to help children grasp complex concepts with ease. Learn about the difference between hearing and truly listening, and how patience and repeated practice are key to mastering any subject. Plus, get actionable insights into how to motivate not just children but also staff in professional settings, making this episode a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone invested in purposeful teaching and effective motivation.

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Chapters

• 0:05 Transforming Education Through Purposeful Teaching
• 13:00 Nurturing Core Skills in Children
• 19:16 Empowering Parents Through Motivation and Purpose

Transcript

Cindy Mendez: 0:05

Hello, my name's Gail Hugman and I'm an educator and have been for many, many years. I started teaching in 1974 and, as you can imagine, that means I've seen many changes and I'm trying to help parents interpret the world for their children.

Gail Hugman : 0:27

Well, welcome, gail. I'm so excited to be chatting with you today and we're going to get a little bit into spotlighting your career but also understanding how it is that you're helping parents with their children. Especially our target listeners are working moms, so that can be challenging to take on not only possibly, their own to do's, but also your child's education and all of their milestones.

Cindy Mendez: 0:54

Tell us what inspired you to get into education and your journey as you went from teaching to now with your own, you know business and supporting children and parents well, I think people used to describe me as a born teacher, and the reason for that was I used to line up all my teddy bears and talk to them as though I was the boss, even from the age of six, and so my father made me a little blackboard which I used to take out into my tent that I made in the garden and I would teach all my dolls and my bears to read that was my first

Cindy Mendez: 1:38

and and I decided even at the age of six that I would either be a mother or a teacher. And I wanted to be a teacher. So I chose then and every year I used to check do I still want to teach or do I want to be a mother? But I always wanted to teach and I've enjoyed my career and my business.

Cindy Mendez: 2:01

And in my last year of teaching, on the first day day of term and I've actually written this story into one of my books a student came in on the first day and the principal asked me if he could come and be in my classroom as I was the senior teacher, and as he stood in the corner of the room, the children all came piling through the door, were 10, 11-year-old children and I was about to take a breath to bring them all to order and I suddenly saw them through this young student's eyes and I remembered my first day in teaching 30 years before, when all the children had been lined up in silence in the playground and the contrast was quite staggering and I thought what has changed in 30 years? And I waited a full 15 minutes for these children to settle down and they were all pushing each other and say I want to sit there and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to settle down. And they were all pushing each other and say I want to sit there and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that. And when they'd finished and everybody went what's going on? Why hasn't she said anything? I waited until there was total silence and I said I'm absolutely amazed you did that. And they looked at me as if saying who did what. And I said I'm amazed you came in here like that. This is your last year in this school. You are the senior children in this school. I am going to be your teacher this year.

Cindy Mendez: 3:39

Not one of you said is it okay, can we come in? Not one of you asked if I'd prepared the room in a particular way. Where is your self-respect? And at that point you could have heard a pin drop, and it wasn't that I was telling them off. I was shocked. I was shocked because I thought why aren't they really keen and engaged? Because this is the platform for their life. They are creating the platform for their life and yet it's a battle for teachers. It's often a battle. I'm sure it is as well in America that you want to engage and you are trying to inspire them, and yet we talk about discipline and I thought why?

Cindy Mendez: 4:31

Why have they not got self-discipline? They feel that I need to take charge of their behavior. And that's where it started. And I asked a young teacher what is it you struggle with in education? He said I can get them to do what they have to do, but I can't get them to want to do it. And that difference between getting them to do and getting them to want to do is what I decided to focus on.

Cindy Mendez: 5:04

I expected very high standards of work and they delivered, not because I forced them, but because they wanted to be the best they could be, because that's what I see in human beings and that's what I wanted to draw on. So I wrote my first little book. Well, it wasn't a little book, it was a letter to draw on. So I wrote my first little book. Well, it wasn't a little book, it was a letter to the head teacher and I called it a short and simple book for the wise and it it's just a description of what I believe made my teaching different. It was a letter to the head teacher and I sent it to all sorts of people to see if I could bring about some change.

Gail Hugman : 5:49

and people used to say thank you that's a very nice project, you know.

Cindy Mendez: 5:54

Good luck. But I thought, well, if I can't change the system because it's so traditional in the UK if I can't change the system, then I'll go through the parents and I started my one-to-one teaching service. When you sit next to a child and they say why should I? And you really want to tell them why they should, you've got to go deep and you've got to meet them. Human to human. You can't. You know, I could say, because you're not going to get dessert. It's easier to say you should because you owe it to your life.

Cindy Mendez: 6:37

Or and a boy said to me why should I? And I said you know, when you're born you think you get one life, but actually you get two. And I drew a line and at one end I put zero and at the other end I put a hundred. And then I marked it you know, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 and the other way. And I said between birth, at zero and 10, you're a child. Between 10 and 20 nightmare. Between 20 and 30 you're a young adult. And I went through the different stages and I and I could feel he hadn't heard anything like this and I hadn't ever said anything and I said your first lie. I call your natural life, and that is the same for every single human being on the planet.

Cindy Mendez: 7:40

And then you get a second life and that I call your world life. And your world life is your experience in the world, and that is different for every single human being, because your natural life is about you and your development. Your world life is like a whole big banquet of experience for you to choose what is going to help you develop you. And I always ask the children do you want? You can see that the world is not quite like it should be. There's a lot of unhappy people and they always say, yeah, it's terrible. And I said, well, do you want to make the world better or do you want to make it worse? Why, children, they're so gorgeous? They always say I want to make it better.

Cindy Mendez: 8:35

You can start today, and you can start by being the absolute best you can be and only be happy when you're satisfied You're doing the best you can with every single thing you do. And they respond to that because they feel included, they feel they're helping, they feel that they can do something. It gives them a chance to look at it and say, well, there's good things. I don't want to be involved in the bad things. I am going to choose the good things, because you can learn to be patient by collecting stamps. You can learn to be patient by growing flowers.

Cindy Mendez: 9:12

You can learn to be patient by becoming an athlete, and it is all about what are you going to choose in the world to help you develop yourself, because that's what human beings are for we're meant to grow and develop. And when you look at nature which is what I use as my reference and I would say to the children, if you look out of the window, how many blades of grass can you see?

Cindy Mendez: 9:42

and then we go oh, millions, and I think how many blades of grass do you think there are in the world, and are some of the blades of grass not trying as hard as the others? Every blade of grass is trying to be the best blade of grass it can be and it doesn't fight with all the others and it can push through concrete and it can really the stamina in a blade of grass and you can be the same and they love it. They love it. So they respond to that and each child would trigger another human thing that would make me say another magical lesson, like the two lives. So I thought parents need this, parents need to know.

Gail Hugman : 10:28

And here I am still doing it no, but it makes total sense when the way that you describe it right it takes away the duty of education and turns it into like almost a gift, like almost just giving them choice and opportunity and helping them understand there's a purpose Not many are explained to.

Gail Hugman : 10:56

I mean, I don't think I've ever heard anybody give me that take on education until I was, you know, in college and it was a little bit too late of like, oh, you know, maybe I wanted to be a nurse, but I now I chose other things like in, you know, chose other things like in, you know, middle school and high school. And now it's a much higher mountain to climb, uh, to get to what you're maybe passionate about, what you want to do. And so I think it's so good to have them understand that that very base level you're doing this math problem because it's not about the math problem, we don't care how many apples are there in that problem, it's so that you can build and use it to what you want to do in the world and the good you want to bring. So I love that approach and it's so helpful with parents too, I think our parents listening here to incorporate that, not just for education but for livelihood with their kids. You know, following rules at home. You know you build those skills for for a purpose.

Cindy Mendez: 12:11

Well, when you think Cindy into a classroom and there was a poster on them and it said good listening and it had images of children with arms folded, legs crossed, just sitting.

Cindy Mendez: 12:25

But that doesn't tell a child what good listening is. But if you've got a neurodiverse child, it may not look at you, but every child and this is in one of the books I always write the stories that go with the learning and he was nine years old On one day I said a sentence to him and I said I'm going to see if your brain can remember things and I want you to repeat to me exactly what I say to you. So I said I put my jacket on and I went out to play. And so he was looking at me there was only him and me in the room and and he said I got my jacket and I went out. So I said no, I want you to say exactly every word that I said to you. So I repeated I might get it wrong now. I repeated I put my jacket on and I went out to play so he said I got my jacket and put it on again.

Cindy Mendez: 13:34

He hadn't repeated exactly what I'd said and he he laughed when I pointed it out to him and he said I can do it. So I said well, let's have another go, let's see how well your brain can do this. You know, it took nine nines for him to do that, for him to slow himself down enough internally, but that showed me what happens inside a child's head when they're in the classroom with lots of people. And when this lesson was over I walked through the door and his father had been listening outside and he said to me if I hadn't heard that for myself, I'd never have believed it.

Cindy Mendez: 14:19

When we say listen, they think. If we say, are you listening, they think are you hearing? And they go yeah, yeah, but they are not processing the information because their heads are too busy. So I teach children about listening and what the process is, and I've written this into my hundred things to learn before you're and so there are little things like that, that parents can try with their children but they don't know how unless we make them aware of it, Because the world has changed so much.

Cindy Mendez: 14:57

Even you know I'm quite old now, but even since you were born the world has changed a lot. We've got the World Wide Web, which is affecting brains and brain development. We've got the pressure on people, but the biggest thing is the quite fantastic growth of the population increases pressure on resources, on all of you know everything on school places, on everything. Our old systems are collapsing and breaking down and that's what we're watching, I believe. But there's some very exciting young people, innovative people that are beginning to change things behind the scenes. I'm very excited about them. So if I can help parents keep their children intact so they grow the best of human being, that would be a great help.

Gail Hugman : 15:57

There's more hands on practice that's needed at home, like those examples that you gave. You know, it's just practice with listening, practice with staying still for a moment, um, and and just these things that I think growing up we kind of were expected to know and I say to the children you know when they say why are?

Cindy Mendez: 16:21

we going to do math why, algebra.

Cindy Mendez: 16:23

they hate algebra because when you're, when you're born, your brain is only one third programmed, if you like. It's got one third and that is the unconscious and that has all the instructions in it for making you grow and develop and to keep you safe. And you know, and I said there are two other parts to your brain. There's one part called the conscious, which is where you are when you're awake, and then there's another part called the semi-conscious and that's like a library and that's the bit where you do all the thinking.

Cindy Mendez: 17:01

And when you go to school to learn something, your conscious gets bored very quickly because its job is to find out everything new and to show you it doesn't know what's good, it doesn't know what's bad, it just wants to show you new stuff. And then your semi-conscious is where you put all your learning. And so when you have to learn something for maths, like your multiplication tables, or something, your conscious will go. I'm so bored and I say that's a good sign because then, if you keep doing it, it will get popped into your library, because your brain will say he really wants to learn this, because he keeps on doing it, so I'll throw it in the library.

Cindy Mendez: 17:48

and that's when you say I got it now and it. It really helps them to appreciate learning in a different way and it helps you to say, instead of you have to do this, how many times have I told you you have to do this? It helps you to say what are you actually trying to grow in yourself? Are you trying to grow in responsibility, or are you trying to make me take control of you? Because I don't really want to do that and the children will always rise into it.

Cindy Mendez: 18:25

And so my latest book, which I've only just published, is called Making the Pennies Drop. You know that phrase. I love it. When the children, oh, I've got it now, I said you can see the pennies drop. And it's when the children get it and they go ah right, got it. That is Making the Pennies Drop. So my book, making the Pennies Drop, is all about how parents can use everyday activities to make those pennies drop, and it's a lovely, easy read. I'm really thrilled with it. Essentially, the core skills that children need to develop so that they can succeed not only in school but in life.

Gail Hugman : 19:16

Well, that's perfect, and thank you for sharing the information on your new book too. I'll put the link for our listeners and the notes and for your website, and hopefully moms can hear and learn something from this conversation. I've definitely learned a lot about motivation, really, I think not even just for I mean, I have a three-year-old so trying to explain to him, but at least I feel prepared for, you know, when that time comes, and I think I might learn a lot about not just my kiddo, but maybe myself too, you know, and dealing with people and the workplace as well, because a lot of what you spoke sometimes can help to like motivate staff, like give them a purpose, give them an understanding. Motivate staff like give them a purpose, give them an understanding. So I think there's a lot of good nuggets of knowledge that can be pulled from that. But yeah, thank you so much and for our listeners, all of Gail's information will be down in the notes below and feel free to reach out and ask any questions and check out her books.