“In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.” – Teach Different with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Transcript

Dan Fouts (00:10)

Welcome everybody to the Teach Different podcast. We are excited today to have a guest, Candace Fikis from West Chicago and her high school experience as a macro economics teacher, I believe, and a government teacher. And really, really cool that she’s joined us. And we’re incredibly, even doubly as excited because she is going to be our first podcast guest who has actually been through our certificate program, our Teach Different certificate program, which began last spring. And so Candace will maybe share some feedback and things that she got out of that, which is really, really cool. And then as we do with every episode, we’ll roll into a quote and kick around a claim and a counterclaim and a question. And since Candace has done this multiple times in her class, she knows the drill. So hopefully it will be a smooth process. So here we go. Candace, welcome to the Teach Different podcast. Can you just kind of give a little background, you know, where you’re from, how long have you taught, and why you got into teaching in the first place? How about that?

 

Candace Fikis (01:25)

All right, well, thanks, Dan and Steve, for letting me be a part of this. I’m excited. So yeah, my name is Candace Fikis, and I will be starting my 28th year of teaching. I’m actually currently teaching at West Chicago Community High School, which is where I graduated. I have taught, I feel like, specific subject in the social studies over the years. But yes, my biggest focus the last few years and probably my favorites are teaching economics, so AP, macroeconomics and teaching government. They are unbelievable subjects to teach, so much to learn, and obviously a lot of real world applications every day. So I’m glad to be a part of this and super excited that I had the opportunity also to take your class too.

 

Steve Fouts (02:22)

You taught at the same high school for this long?

 

Candace Fikis (02:26)

Yeah, the first three years I taught at Sycamore High School. And then I went to West Chicago. So yeah, I’m on now. done 25 years at West Chicago.

 

Steve Fouts (02:27)

Wow, wow. And this was your high school. I mean, this is where you know, this happens, I think less and less now where you’re in the same community, right? And Mary Ellen, I heard from Dan that you’ve known Mary Ellen. Mary Ellen Daniels is someone who’s also worked a lot with Teach Different. And she actually recommended you for the certificate program. And evidently you were colleagues.

 

Candace Fikis (03:05)

Yes. I believe it because she was a teacher when I was there. I didn’t have her as a teacher, but she did some cheerleading coaching while I was a cheerleader there. So the reason I have the job at West Chicago is because of her.

 

Steve Fouts (03:06)

Wow. Okay.

 

Candace Fikis (03:21)

I was at an economics conference and so was she. Our department chair was getting ready to retire. And so we ran into each other and she’s like, well, we need an economics teacher. So what do you know? All of a sudden I get a call from the department chair and so, weird story. I’m at my brother’s graduation and the principal comes up and walks up to my dad and says, I think she needs to work here. So there’s like family pressure to come back.

 

Steve Fouts (03:29)

Wow. Wow. Wow.

 

Candace Fikis (03:48)

Which was awesome. And then yeah, I worked with Mary Ellen until she took sabbatical for a little while. And then of course, has been doing wonderful things throughout the state. But I thought I was only going to teach government for one year while she was gone. And here I am. It’s now almost a decade later.

 

Steve Fouts (04:04)

Very cool. Now, brothers and sisters, Candace, are you an only child? You have other educators. Did you always know that you wanted to be in the schools and really not ever leave when you think about it?

 

Candace Fikis (04:21)

I’m the oldest. We used to play school a lot as kids and I was the oldest I could boss around my sister and brother. ⁓ I actually made you do homework and stuff too.

 

Steve Fouts (04:28)

That’s what our sister did. That’s what our sister did for us. Yeah, she bring these textbooks home and we would be like, is this supposed to be fun? Like, what are we doing right now? But I’m sorry. Okay, go ahead.

 

Candace Fikis (04:40)

So I actually thought I kind of, I thought I wanted to be a teacher, then I thought I wanted to go into law, and then at the very end of high school, I had an opportunity to work with some students kind of in a tutoring mentoring way, and that really kind of solidified that I wanted to go into education. My dad always joked I’d come back to West Chicago and teaching I was like, no, I’m not. Then like all these things happened in a week that led me there. But I’m glad I’m there. It’s awesome to be back. You know, I can tell the old stories of the school. The schools had like two other renovations since I’ve been there. So, you know, they want to know about the old parts of the building and, you know, the old traditions of things and stuff like that. So there’s a lot of ways I can connect with kids that way, too.

 

Steve Fouts (05:10)

My God.

 

Dan Fouts (05:25)

Yeah.

 

Steve Fouts (05:33)

Sure.

 

Dan Fouts (05:34)

That’s great. So a little bit of mentoring of young people was your spark. You’re thinking, gosh, this is kind of fun actually. If I did this as a teacher, that’s really cool. And you ever wonder had you not had that mentoring experience, would it have transpired the way it did?

 

Candace Fikis (05:42)

Yes. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if some opportunity might have triggered that. I think it was kind of always there maybe. And I think the social studies became the natural fit because again, I was kind of interested in law and maybe being a lawyer or something like that. Like real world events, you know, were kind of there behind me too. So I don’t know, you know, maybe my life that way would have eventually gone, but for sure that opportunity as a senior in high school really, really put me on that path.

 

Steve Fouts (06:24)

And in the spirit of how things have evolved, you’ve been in a community for a long time as a student, as a teacher, as a kid. I’m curious if we could just fast forward. I don’t want to get too serious, but the state of politics and you know, society right now and the challenges our country is facing in the polarization and things like that. What have you noticed? mean, what stands out that’s really feels different now than say back in the, in the nineties, back in the two thousands, you know, we can say that with you because you’ve been there, but what is, what do you see as the biggest challenges that you’re seeing now and how are people changing? And, know, you can answer it however you want. I’m just interested in your impression.

 

Candace Fikis (07:05)

Yeah, so West Chicago’s in DuPage County, which had been a pretty conservative county for a long time. Then, well, really, with Barack Obama running for president, we saw a change in DuPage County. So I’ve lived through a shift in which political party kind of has had control. I think that filters down to what we talk about in our communities. I think there was an openness, especially with civil rights. We saw a lot of that in the early part of the 2000s, where I mean, started teaching and the idea of LGBTQ plus individuals having the same rights just didn’t seem. like that was going to happen, you know? And so I think there’s been an opening of that and that trickles directly down to schools, right? But I’ve also seen kind of some things go backwards and I, although I don’t feel it in DuPage County, I don’t feel it at West Chicago, I think there are some people who are really afraid to teach some parts of history now and that was just, I mean, I started out as an American history, did it for a long time. And to think about not using Frederick Douglass as one of our novels that we would read or to not talk about things with the Mexican-American war and how individuals were treated during World War II. Like to me, that’s changed a lot. As I work with, I’ve had the opportunity with Mary Ellen to work with teachers around the state, I can see that not everybody has that same experience that I do. don’t feel that pressure there at West Chicago, but I know it exists. And I know it’s a concern for teachers, and that becomes a concern for education overall, for sure.

 

Steve Fouts (09:09)

That’s really interesting slash scary, that pressure. Dan and I have been teaching for pretty much all our lives. Dan’s still in the classroom. I never lived through a time when I felt pressure by anyone to teach or not teach a certain subject. And I’m… I will ask you this, although it seems like you’re being saved from some of these pressures. Is the pressure coming from the school level, the district level, parents, all of the above? What is your sense of people who really are struggling, teachers that are struggling with this?

 

Candace Fikis (09:56)

Yeah. I, from my experience, I think it’s coming from outside the schools. But of course, that pressure can then be put on those that are in school. If you look at who gets elected for school boards, I mean, these were nonpartisan positions for a very, very long time. And I know they are technically still nonpartisan, but we have people who are running with very specific agendas to represent a specific group. And so that, to me, is where it’s at. We’ve always been able to stand behind what the state standards say and why we teach things and our admin is done. Good job my department chair has done a wonderful job with that if there’s been any questions. At least in my community there’s been very few so I haven’t felt that but around DuPage County, around Illinois, maybe not so lucky to have that pressure.

 

Steve Fouts (10:53)

Interesting. What’s the thing about kids that just really motivates you? Could you just summarize it? Like what keeps you… Why are you doing this? Why are we talking to you?

 

Dan Fouts (11:02)

Why are you doing this, Candace? Why are we doing this?

 

Candace Fikis (11:04)

Yeah, good question. I mean, this is the future, right? And it’s, again, the person who believes in law, the Constitution and our history, this is the next group to take us forward. When we’re old and we don’t remember a lot of things and we’re on Medicare, Social Security, we need that group to keep us going. I think maybe part of it comes from my grandparents and it come from a military family too where you make those sacrifices for that next generation. I think that’s in my blood. The exciting thing about teaching is how excited they are. And the most of the students that I teach are upperclassmen, juniors, but mostly seniors. And they’re getting to this point like what’s that next step? And the classes that I teach are helping them financially, right, to make some good decisions as a consumer, but also to help them as they move into this democracy to be able to vote maybe. And for some of my students, we have a large immigrant population in West Chicago. They might be the first in their family to be able to vote and to have a say in this new country. So I think of this as being a… what we move forward, right? It’s our human capital that we are developing right now. And that’s what keeps me going, you know? And I kind of get frustrated when I do hear the political talk like schools are horrible and these kids don’t like anything or they’re not learning. No, no, they still want to talk. They still want to solve problems. They still want to learn, you know. Maybe there are some other distractions that didn’t exist when I started like cell phones but they’re communicating on those phones too with one another. They are using a lot of information, good or bad, that’s out there that we need to help them sift through for again, developing our future.

 

Dan Fouts (13:16)

That’s great. So could we take from what you just said as a lot of the things with kids really hasn’t changed. I mean, look, 28 years ago when you started and then the kids now, they want to express themselves. They need support from other people. They want someone to believe in them. Would you say that there are more common things than we’re willing to acknowledge?

 

Candace Fikis (13:44)

Yes, there’s a lot more common. Even if the world they live in is slightly different, there’s still those basic human needs of talking, communicating, storytelling. Let’s talk about, I mean, the reason we have history is storytelling, right? And they still want to share that they will immediately go to the lunchroom and they will talk about their day with their friends, right? So there’s still that human connection that they’re craving. And we knew they were craving it during the COVID lockdowns, you know, we could see it. And maybe something good coming from that was we really realized that that’s what they needed more students needed that human contact versus just being online or doing just everything independently. Not many work that way.

 

Steve Fouts (14:33)

And you’re in a public school. So that’s another one of those political hot topic issues at times. You know, there’s the homeschool trend that’s happening in certain states where some parents, I guess, are just feeling like they’re not trusting systems as much anymore. And you might be getting this at the school board level.

 

Candace Fikis (14:35)

Yes.

 

Steve Fouts (14:59)

Where some people want, you know, have an agenda and they want to maybe even divert dollars away from public schools and more directly to families. Cause that’s the answer. Parents don’t have enough say as to whether or not what their kid is learning, et cetera. But you’ve been in a public setting, you know, where there’s a society, essentially a mini society in these buildings. And you have, you know, kids with struggles because of that, things like bullying and that, you know, it’s not all positive, but it is a little democratic experiment. Is it not? You know, if we’re, if we’re at our houses, unless we have a really big family, we’re not experiencing those types of things.

 

Candace Fikis (15:48)

Yep, absolutely. And the one thing I really love about my government class is we teach it to all of our seniors. It’s a non-tracked class. And those are rare to find. We do offer AP level courses at the freshman, sophomore, junior level. But this is something we’ve stood behind for a very long time. And we appreciate it. It really is a mini democracy in our classrooms right now at West Chicago.

 

Steve Fouts (16:00)

Right? That’s cool. For those not familiar with lingo and education. It really means you’re going to get all different levels, maturity levels, academic levels, behavioral levels. You’ll get anyone to be in the same room. And what an experiment there. That’s what we’re trying to do in our society. You know, that, and I think that’s actually partly why when we originally were conceiving of this pilot, Candace, that you participated in in the spring. We, well, in addition to the fact that Dan and I are social studies teachers, educated in that, but this is really where there’s the chance to bring in diversity into these classrooms and, you know, see what great conversations can do and how you can get kids talking and like you’re saying, storytelling, we’re big on that.

We always talk about storytelling as one of the keys to a really, really good classroom, a great experience. So that’s really appreciated. Wow. You are, how much more do you have? Like another 20 years?

 

Dan Fouts (17:26)

Yeah. Six!

 

Candace Fikis (17:31)

Six.

 

Steve Fouts (17:33)

You’ve counted! Dan, how many do you have?

 

Dan Fouts (17:35)

I have one. I have nine months.

 

Candace Fikis (17:38)

Wow, wow. So it’s like, it’s like having a baby, it’s gonna come out in nine months. See, I look at myself as being a middle schooler right now. So I’m in the awkward stage of my life.

 

Dan Fouts (17:45)

Right. I remember that. I remember being a seventh grader. So, well, Candace, thinking about the experience you had in the spring with learning this method of communication, how did it add value? guess, or did it add value to what you already do in the class? If so, how did it add value to you?

 

Candace Fikis (18:14)

So I mean, obviously teaching two different subjects, we start every course, you have a couple of units. The first thing that came to mind when you were teaching us about this method is this is a great way to kind of introduce a new unit or a new topic. And I’m a big believer in that. I just had never really thought about using a quote and your strategy with it. You know, in economics for our unit on looking at economic indicators, I asked the kids, what they think the state of the economy is. And by the way, for 25 years, it’s been awful. They always think it’s awful, because they hear awful news, right? And you show them some numbers or you have them look at some things or whatever. I really enjoyed kind of the idea of starting with a quote that might be from somebody has nothing to do with the topic, but it connects them. It kind of brings them in, So economics especially is a topic that students don’t have a lot of prior knowledge. We don’t do a really good job of teaching that along the way, where I feel like with American history, they’ve gotten it a little bit each year in elementary school or whatever. So how do I take some very abstract concepts, right? I mean, big, especially AP macro concepts and kind of connect it to some prior knowledge. Well, taking a quote that they can connect to, that they can tell a story of, that they can relate to, and then I can kind of bring that in with something that we’re studying at the time. I think it’s fabulous. I did one of the examples for the quotes that we did. It was an intro to imperfect markets. We were talking about market power and control as an introduction to monopolies and oligopolies and that kind of stuff. I also like that I brought it back. I did another conversation at the end of the unit. So we kind of did a nice full circle, which again, also good teaching strategies there. And then they looked at the quote a little differently and had some examples from what we had studied, right? So now we’re making that learning a little more concrete. It’s tied to something that they already have instead of this very abstract concept of oligopolies or something like that, or trust.

 

Steve Fouts (20:40)

That’s great. Connecting their experiences. You know, because that’s a, we talk about it, right? You have to go to the student with something that they’re familiar with. And that’s not always easy. mean, oligopoly, that sounds so mean, that word. Like, what does that mean? And then there’s that, there’s that kid that’s just like, new, new word, you know, here we go.

 

Dan Fouts (20:41)

Relatability.

 

Steve Fouts (21:08)

But then, know, just hook them with something, you know, and then whenever you’re learning and you’re not trying to, that’s what’s when it’s sticking. You know, that’s what you hope, I guess, is that’s really cool. I like the beginning and the end.

 

Candace Fikis (21:19)

Yes.

 

Dan Fouts (21:24)

And in the end, I was just gonna say that one more time to bring it back at the end. And then they see what they’ve learned in light of something from before. And so it’s a different perspective and it deepens their learning. That’s great stuff. Yeah. And the storytelling.

 

Candace Fikis (21:25)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, and when you look at all this stuff on brain research, right, it talks about when you have to learn some new knowledge, how much your body wants to kind of reject it, right? So, you know, a lot of students come in, like I said, every single semester, the economy is awful, they all think that’s it. So how do we then learn from some stuff and then come back and say, maybe it’s not that bad right now, or maybe I did learn something from it. And make it a safe place. You can say, it’s all right for your opinions to change when you learn more, right? Your ideas can change, and that’s okay, right? It’s not flip-blopping. It’s learning more and making more informed choices. And I think using a quote where they can see how they’re changed.

 

Steve Fouts (22:07)

Yeah.

 

Candace Fikis (22:32)

I actually had them on the worksheet. I took the worksheet and then I gave it back to him. So looking at it like three weeks later, this was what I thought. And there’s kind of this idea, I can physically see how I changed my mind a little bit and that’s okay. Or that I also solidified what I believed before and now I’ve got more evidence behind that.

 

Steve Fouts (22:57)

Beautiful, beautiful. That whole counterclaim idea. And we’re going to get into one. We’re going to play around with a quote in a second for anyone listening who doesn’t know what we’re talking about. The method is a quote where you introduce it to a group of people, and then you go over the claim, counterclaim of the quote. So talk about what the quote means, maybe push against it, disagree with it a little bit.

 

Dan Fouts (23:08)

Hahaha

 

Steve Fouts (23:23)

And that’s what creates the difference in how you might perceive it later and then ask the good questions throughout. That’s, that’s really,  that’s how it works. But a great journey there.

 

Candace Fikis (23:33)

Yeah.

 

Dan Fouts (23:34)

Yeah. Should we jump into the quote? I mean, that seems like it was an on-ramp to the quote.

 

Steve Fouts (23:38)

Why not? You have it, Dan, right? I gave it to you.

 

Dan Fouts (23:44)

Yeah, yeah, I got it. So this is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And here we go. In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. In the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.

 

What does this one mean?How would you put this in your own words, Candace or Steve?

 

Candace Fikis (24:17)

Yeah, well, as I look at that, I think that a riot is what comes after probably a fight or a struggle to be heard about something. There’s some grievance that’s there instead of just a riot just starting up out of nowhere because that there’s something there and we need to maybe listen in to why this riot is happening or why this whatever kind of maybe more aggressive struggle that there might be. There’s something that’s underlying there.

 

Steve Fouts (24:58)

Something psychological, something that it’s trying to address a problem. And if we just look at the riot and focus on the behavior and we don’t whatsoever empathize at all with what is happening, we’re going to miss the boat on some level that these riots don’t happen in just societies. Riots don’t, I’m going to bring it down to the individual level, arguments or misbehavior in a classroom, for instance, usually just doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Someone isn’t doing it just to create a headache for the room because they want to see everyone’s reaction. I probably should allow a caveat for that. There are some that are practicing their ability to see if they can push limits and boundaries. But I think for the most part, if there’s disorder, if people are trying to disrupt, there is a reason for that. And yeah.

 

Dan Fouts (26:10)

If, if just to jump in, a kid is misbehaving, it’s oftentimes something that’s happening at home where they do not feel heard or they feel powerless and they’re taking that frustration out in a public setting. Not always, but that’s,I think that analogy tracks. What do you think, Candace?

 

Candace Fikis (26:31)

Yeah, I mean, I think too, or maybe even not at home, maybe from the class before and they’re struggling with math and now they’re walking into my government class and they’re angry, they’re frustrated, or remember they’re teenagers, maybe there was a fight with a friend or something and they didn’t feel that. People usually just don’t burst out in something or react in that kind of aggressive way. Usually there’s something that frustration has gotten to that point.

 

Steve Fouts (27:02)

And we can go back to, you know, the 2020 with the riots that were occurring because of George Floyd, right? There are different reactions to those riots reveal so much about people. And really, I guess the division in a lot of senses in our society, some people are going to react to that as. There’s property being destroyed. There’s a lack of order. Why aren’t these mayors cracking down on this type of behavior? That’s all the focus of the energies. And then you have the reason that the riots were occurring in the minds of many people as well. The frustrations that were mounting and building, you throw in COVID to it and you’re more trying to understand it. This quote by King is definitely siding with the second strategy of it’s the language of the unheard. This George Floyd triggered something that’s always been there and affected people that aren’t always given a voice. And so it’s just like a dam that just breaks. And that can be a description and an explanation for the behavior. Meanwhile, you have people wondering, why are we not stopping this? And I don’t know if that’s a counter- Yeah.

 

Dan Fouts (28:34)

Hmm.

 

Candace Fikis (28:36)

Yeah.

 

Dan Fouts (28:37)

Right. So let’s get to the counterclaim. Let’s get to the counterclaim here. What do you think the counterclaim is, Candace?

 

Candace Fikis (28:44)

Well, I first went to the claim idea, same thing I was thinking about COVID and a lot of demonstrations that happened then. And then my brain kind of went to January 6 riots. And then I wondered, does it fit there?

 

Steve Fouts (28:53)

Thank you.

 

Candace Fikis (29:04)

There is probably something underneath that but there’s been this build that there’s potentially some fake stuff You know what going on with election or election fraud? But to me a lot of that riot was led by a leader, right? And so then I kind of go into this mob mentality. Is that it versus is there really a concern that’s underneath or maybe there just is and now that mob mentality was able to work. It’s magic in that situation. To me, that’s one of the counterclaims I see with this quote.

 

Steve Fouts (29:42)

Interesting there.

 

Dan Fouts (29:42)

Interesting, yeah. That if, you know, riot and upheaval are a product of things that maybe were deceptive, then maybe they’re not as justified. But then the question is, well, which riots are justified? There’s your essential question, right? Which is the third part of the method. Which is the third part of the method. It’s interesting.

 

Candace Fikis (30:00)

My God, yes!

 

Steve Fouts (30:03)

There’s your essential question. Well, and let me come to the aid of the rioters on January 6th for a second. Was that the language of the unheard? Not so much if I were asked to describe that, if I were going to compare that to the George Floyd protests. It doesn’t seem to fit as much. However, rightly, wrongly, There was a sense of injustice that provided the fuel behind that, the January 6th riot. It was a writing of a wrong. Mob mentality, yes, but it’s slightly different. You could argue that’s the unheard, but then I’m thinking of also the idea of the blowing off of steam that we associate with the language of the unheard. know, the George Floyd was just a chance for people to just get so angry and they didn’t have a purpose per se. They weren’t angling toward some type of –

 

Dan Fouts (30:56)

How is it different? I feel like that is the unheard.

 

Steve Fouts (31:25)

– benchmark or achievement. It was more, my goodness, I’m so mad right now. I’m going to burn something. It wasn’t as focused, I guess. I’m not suggesting January 6th was a focused event. I think there was blowing off steam there as well, but it seemed to almost have more of a purpose. I don’t know if that’s a fair way to put it. And I don’t even know if I’m making a distinction out of a difference or if this is the same, but I’m just trying to understand them.

 

Candace Fikis (31:55)

I like to question about when is a riot justified, right? And that’s a great question. That kind of is something to pull from here. Because there’s always two sides. One side thinks it’s justified when they’re leading that riot and feel unheard. And the other side will say no. So it’s a great essential question to examine.

 

Dan Fouts (32:26)

Yeah, what criteria should we use? Think of this question having our group of students chew on this one. What criteria should we use to determine a justified riot? Come up with three criteria. Let’s share. You could just interrupt your conversation and have it do a little writing activity and then come back.

 

Candace Fikis (32:38)

Yeah. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And I think the First Amendment for teaching government, like what a great opportunity to then talk about is this using your First Amendment, especially if your First Amendment has not been listened to. You’re right there, right? That’s great. I like that idea of criteria with that. There’s a lot of great things. I think not just my brain first went to history, right? And this would be great during the Civil Rights Movement, but it is so current today in so many ways.

 

Steve Fouts (33:18)

Here’s what I thought of as you were talking, Candace, American Revolution. Tell me that was not a riot. That was a drawn out riot in a way. And that would be really interesting, I think, to give the kids something contemporary that just happened. Then start asking the question about, could you see yourself being for or against the American Revolution?

 

Candace Fikis (33:25)

Right? Huh.

 

Steve Fouts (33:48)

There’s a question I don’t think a lot of people ask. We just take it for granted, right? Well, of course we had a revolution. Here we are.

 

Candace Fikis (33:52)

Yeah.

 

Dan Fouts (33:57)

I was just in Boston in the room where the Boston Tea Party was birthed. Where they met at the, was it the old state house? No, not the old state house, the old meeting house. And they congregated there and then they marched off to dump the tea. There’s a riot. Was that justified?

 

Candace Fikis (34:19)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Dan Fouts (34:23)

And anyway, so this is a good historical connection you can make.

 

Candace Fikis (34:29)

Huh, for sure.

 

Dan Fouts (34:32)

Civil War. See now our social science brains are starting to fire.

 

Candace Fikis (34:38)

Well, I think about even just how many books deal with a group of people, you know, we in our little pilot that we did, had someone who came back from, it was a language arts teacher, right, talked about a lot of the books and things that she used, right. There’s a lot of conflict in some of these books. That could be a great trigger for teachers to use this quote on, know, protesting or not, maybe even not, maybe even just a book where they’re talking about what kind of actions do we take, is it appropriate or not.

 

Steve Fouts (35:08)

In your tenure as a teacher, Candace, do you remember or does anything come to mind as far as some type of student revolt or organized resistance toward rules? I remember one in our high school where the rule was you can’t, if you’re a man, if you’re a male, you can’t wear shorts in school. But females could wear skirts. Of course some of the senior males decided to come to school with skirts just to see what people were going to say. But anyway does anything come to mind of what you know kids have done over the years?

 

Candace Fikis (35:43)

Yeah, we haven’t really had a big demonstration, I do remember after, unfortunately, quite a few school shootings, there was a movement that was led by some other students in other schools about kind of walking out and talking about how we need to pass some legislation about, you know, gun violence, you know, whatever it might be there. I know that, I go back to the students felt like they needed to do something because no legislation was being changed. You know, and I think back to Parkland, for instance, students were like, we need to do something. This just keeps happening and happening. And while we didn’t have a full on riot, we had kids who did wear certain color that day. made signs around the building hoping like, please listen to us. And could that eventually escalate to that point? I think that could be an actually interesting question. But when you get back to is a riot kind of justified? Do you have to do some steps before you get there? Do you have to check off a couple boxes and then society says, okay, yeah, you can riot now, you know what I mean? I don’t know, but that’s another question that just popped in my head right now.

 

Steve Fouts (37:15)

I like that. The criteria check your boxes. All right. You passed. Here’s your go for it.

 

Candace Fikis (37:19)

All right.

 

Dan Fouts (37:24)

This is great. We’re warming up for the school year, Candace, getting our thoughts going here. Yeah, any other like essential questions that might flow out of something like this?

 

Steve Fouts (37:34)

I’m trying to think, yeah.

 

Candace Fikis (37:38)

Well, I even just like getting to the part of what does it mean to be unheard? Maybe you have been heard and you don’t like the result. I go back to the January 6 event where a lot of people were claiming election fraud, okay, and there were 50 some lawsuits all around the United States challenging elections and they were found to be no election fraud there. So you were heard, you had your chance in court numerous times. So at some point, when do you accept that that’s the reality or that’s, or that that’s not what mainstream society or majority of society wants? That’s a whole other question there to look at.

 

Dan Fouts (38:22)

Great.

 

Steve Fouts (38:24)

That’s really, that’s really good.

 

Dan Fouts (38:26)

Yeah. And then, then kind of spinning off of that, assuming that people do feel unheard, whether or not they actually are or not, you know, what can society do or what can individuals do so that people are more heard? You know, what, what, can we do to prevent riots? And then then, yeah, yeah, right, right.

 

Steve Fouts (38:49)

take away the excuse in a way.

 

Dan Fouts (38:54)

And then the kids can maybe get some work internally, thinking ethically about some of their responsibilities to help people feel heard and themselves heard. Because if they’re just sitting at home and they’re not writing to their congressmen, they’re not reaching out, well then of course they feel unheard. They haven’t taken it upon themselves to get out there and do something.

 

Candace Fikis (39:06)

Yeah.

 

Dan Fouts (39:20)

Yeah. Great stuff. Great stuff. Martin Luther King, in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. It’s a good one. It’s a good one. Well, Candace, this has been great. Thanks again for coming on. And we’re so happy to have you in the pilot in the spring and looking forward to working with you.

 

Steve Fouts (39:22)

Good stuff. Awesome.

 

Dan Fouts (39:47)

You know, this fall and moving forward. I mean, we have six years at least, right?

 

Candace Fikis (39:51)

Yes. I got these kids I gotta pay for college and stuff. I gotta keep working.

 

Steve Fouts (39:53)

Hahaha.

 

Dan Fouts (39:56)

Yeah. Any other parting thoughts you wanna give, Candace?

 

Candace Fikis (40:03)

I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to introduce me to this strategy and be a part of the pilot. I really liked that I had a chance to talk with you, but also some of the other members as people got a chance to share online. I mean, that’s where I get so much from where someone shares, I use this quote in this context and it gets me thinking about how that might fit in my classroom, which could be on a totally different subject with a totally different age group. But it’s the sharing. It’s the collaboration. I we know that as educators. It’s how we get our best stuff is when we can collaborate. And sometimes we get in our little tunnels or our classroom, and we’re just trying to get through the curriculum, the day, whatever it might be, that it’s always refreshing to hear from other educators in other parts besides West Chicago.

 

Steve Fouts (41:00)

Awesome. We’re so happy that you were there. I mean, awesome. And you’re going to be one of our shadows, right? Did we? Okay, good. Shadow. There you go. There you go. And Candace, here’s what we were thinking. By the way, for everyone else, a shadow is something everyone who’s been through our certificate program, for those that are interested, we end up asking them to help mentor new enrollees.

 

Candace Fikis (41:06)

Yes, I am. So I’m going to continue to learn more too.

 

Steve Fouts (41:28)

So we call them shadows. The mentor is too much of an educational word, but that’s your opportunity too to kind of keep fresh with it, Candace, you know, and maybe model it for them. it’s a win-win. So we’re excited about that too.

 

Dan Fouts (41:33)

Yeah. Right, right. All right, well, thanks everybody out there for listening and Candace Fikis appreciate you and looking forward to working with you into the future.

 

Candace Fikis (41:57)

Thank you.

 

Steve Fouts (41:58)

Thanks, Candace.