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Indigenous Wisdom is about opening yourself up and getting to know yourself better as a Human being on this Earth. In this podcast, Julia shares messages, channeled wisdom, and more to support your wisdom journey.
Welcome to The School Without Walls. I'm Julia, and today's episode is a little different — my granddaughter Juliana is stepping in as host. Juliana has been walking alongside this work her whole life, learning what it means to move through both worlds at once, and I'm glad she gets to bring her own voice to this space. Her guest is JR Rice — a teacher, spoken word artist, and author based in Oakland, who works with students that most schools have given up on. This conversation moves through what it really means to show up for young people right now: the pressures teachers are carrying, the power of story as a survival tool, and the kind of presence it takes to make students feel like their lives are worth writing about. It's a grounded, honest conversation, and I think it'll stay with you. A note that in a few places, we use some adult language, so listen with care if you are listening with young ears nearby.
Let’s listen in.
Juliana 0:00
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Juliana, and I'm working with my grandmother, Julia. We have someone here on the podcast. If you want to go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us about yourself and your work,
JR 0:27
yeah, yeah, yeah. Hello, beautiful people out there, out in the world listening. My name is Jay rice. Jay rice name so nice people often say it twice. I am a an English teacher here in Oakland. I am also a spoken word artist. I am a an award winning author. I'm also an event, an event host and curator, as well as just the all around. Awesome dude. Yeah. Very grateful to be here and to talk with you be on this podcast. There's a long time coming too, because we met, like, a year ago, yeah? So glad this came in fruition.
Juliana 1:10
Me too, yeah, because it was, was it really year ago that we met over, yeah,
JR 1:15
the the Bay Area Book Festival. That was like, I mean, not a year year, but it was like, I think back in June, yeah.
Juliana 1:23
So I kind of just thinking about, like, all the moments and coming together of like, wow, it's almost been a year, and I feel like so much has kind of changed and navigated around the world, and kind of here specifically, like in the bay. So just kind of thinking about, like, maybe your work and kind of what has changed for you since the last time we kind of saw you?
JR 1:46
What what has changed? Yeah, a lot. A lot has changed. I when we met, I was still promoting my my first novel, my debut novel, broken pencils, and that roller coaster has been pretty wild. It's been slowing down a little bit. I've actually been working on pushing out my next book. I have a poetry collection coming out in June that's actually going to serve as a sequel to my novel. And so I'm really, really excited about that, in terms of just work things are, yeah, in terms of just like the school thing, I don't want to, I can't say things are getting better or things are getting worse. It's just being things a lot more demanding since, since last year.
Juliana 2:39
And how would you kind of described as, like demanding things, I guess, in terms of teaching. So just to
JR 2:45
give you some context, I work in Oakland. I've been working in Oakland for about seven years. I work at a continuation school. For those of you who don't know what a continuation school is, it's mainly it's a school for students who who don't seem to cut it or make it in mainstream education, in the public schools, like like, oh high or castle mark, they end up coming to my school, which is an alternate Ed site, and so I work with students who have dealt with every problem you could think of, homelessness, incarceration, pregnancy, substance abuse, neglect, attempted suicide, all sorts of Yeah, crazy stuff. So in terms of just my work as a teacher, it has been a bit when I say demanding like our class sizes are getting larger. We have teachers quitting, teachers retiring earlier than expected. So in terms of just the responsibilities of the teachers, it's been, it's been a lot. Even at my school, we had a special ed teacher. Our only, only special ed teacher actually quit mid year. So a lot of lot of fumbling around, a lot of juggling, and so yeah, when I say it's been demanding, it's just been, it's a bit a bit stressful, but we were making it we trying to make do what we have.
Juliana 4:27
Yeah, for sharing that. So would you say that is kind of like the more challenging things that you're dealing with right now as a teacher? Or are there, like, other things that also contribute to just, you know, what makes it harder? I guess, a different year for you.
JR 4:44
Well, also in terms of just the Trump administration, how that just is trickling down, even at the micro level, at my school, like at my school, and don't quote me on this, because I'm bad with. Own numbers, but my school is about maybe 65 70% newcomer students or bilingual students, and so a lot of my students are first generation in the country. A lot of them are immigrating from like Guatemala, Honduras, or all sorts of different countries in Latin America, and they're dealing with the pressure, what's going on with ice, and just the politics I had one student in particular, he was afraid to even come to school for about a week, because I think it was earlier this year, there was rumors that ice was coming down to Oakland, and so, yeah, he was just avoiding coming to school. And so there at my school, there is on top of just the stress of just trying to cut it in school, they're also these kids are also dealing with the stress and pressures from outside factors like the government. And so that has also been a stress and the demand from the teachers as well us trying to navigate through that and trying to reassure the students that things will be all right, when, in fact, we don't really know.
Juliana 6:12
Yeah, I definitely think so. It's not knowing of when these kinds of things will happen and when things will change, and then not being able to give, I think, students, an answer of what that looks like, and that's what I think I find challenging, because also, same thing as San Francisco High School, it's a good portion of our students are newcomer students and speaking different languages, and across, you know, from Latin America. But then also we have, like some other countries, as well, and they get fearful of that, not wanting to come to school, because they hear these discussions of like, ISIS here, and yeah, it's hard when I think our role is to kind of be there for students. But then in a moment like this, it's feels like you can't give them that safety or comfort that we normally can so kind of thinking about that. So what are ways that you kind of are able to support students like right now, during this time or in the past that you feel like have worked?
JR 7:17
Yeah, what? So I teach English. I teach ninth and 10th grade English, and I'm also a writer, so when I try to do and emphasize where my curriculum is teaching different writing forms. So in our first trime, we go by trimester, so there's like three trimesters in a year. So in our first trimester, I was teaching students about identity. We had them interview each other about who they are and where their place is in the world. I teach them writing different forms of poetry, like bio poems and bucket list poems and shape poems and acrostic poems. I teach them also about personal narratives of short stories, but all an effort to kind of like personalize this, these writing assignments, so that they can actually show themselves through the poetry or through the essays or through the short stories. And so what I'm trying, what I try to do to kind of help students kind of cope with what's going on and also just have a better understanding of themselves, is providing assignments that allow them to express their identity and also just showcase who they are and how they differ from other people, as well as like how what makes them unique. So yeah, it's something I actually learned from my my teachers. When I was in high school, I went to San Andrew high and I had a lot of great teachers over there. One in particular I had a English teacher. He was from Wales. His name's Mr. Watley. He would talk like this, and he was great. He was like, he was like, I don't know if he's seen this movie Dead Poets Society with Robin Williams, but he was kind of like that he would like, stand on tables and just recite poetry. And he was like, yeah, he was super, super, super into just the whole English language and just expressing yourself. So I borrowed a lot from him, and I try to kind of carry that passion on into to my students, in hopes that, like they find power, they find freedom and expressing themselves through writing and and also learning about other people's stories.
Juliana 9:36
Yeah, just thinking about So, right? You're also those working with word artists and then looking at this question here. So what do you think this offers students than than traditional school writing? Because this is a little bit different than like, I think, what we're taught as like teachers and that we're meant to teach in a certain way, in certain curriculum. So how does this differ from that?
JR 9:57
Well, the curriculum that they often get. Me from the O USD district. It's good, but on the surface, it doesn't really cut into what emotions the students are feeling. A lot of the assignments in curriculum that's filtered down from the district is very limited, and also I can use them in verb filter. It also kind of puts a filter on the students language and kind of, I don't know limits what what they could say. So in terms of my class, I don't have any filters. I don't have any boundaries. I mean, I try to keep them away from talking about stuff that I would have to report, like suicide or threats or whatever. But in my class, we I still teach traditional writing, but I allow my students to be to be free enough to talk about whatever they want. Some of them talking about breakups, some of them talking about just how their mom just didn't give a f about them. So I, I allow my students to be as free as they can with their writing. I had a student write a poem about when he went to the sideshow up in sack and he he saw somebody get shot at the sideshow, and then when he ended up running away, and the cops came, the cops ended up scooping them up. And long story short, the cops thought that he was the shooter, and they interrogated him anyway. I'm going off. But he wrote a whole poem detailing this whole story about what happened to him over the weekend. And I thought that was really, really beautiful. Him being able to kind of express like, oh, this was a traumatic experience, and him kind of coping through that, through the writing, I think, with a lot of other traditional writing, or a lot of other traditional curriculum or whatever, it limits students from kind of accessing access. Accessing their own stories and being able to express that. So sorry, that was a long answer, but yeah,
Juliana 12:12
no, that's perfect. I was just gonna kind of go with like, follow up questions of like, what was the moment that kind of stood out to you about a student really grasping onto, like, spoken word poetry, or poetry in general. So that's why I was kind of like this perfect and just kind of like, also, maybe, how are you able then to connect with your students? Because I think sometimes, definitely we can get them to kind of get there. But then also, like, as your part as a teacher, how are you able to connect with them once they've shared something so vulnerable? Because I think it takes a lot to do that,
JR 12:46
actually, before they do that, I'm vulnerable with them. I share my own poetry with them. Also share with them the traumas that I've been through, like the stories I hear from the students. My students some the craziest thing I would ever hear my life and then. And so when I share my personal struggles, I don't, I don't know. I never try to compare my my issues or my problems to theirs, or make make it seem like my life is any better or worse than theirs. But I do share what I've gone through, just the death, just coping with the death of my dad, losing my best friend when I was younger, even my health issues, also, I'll be transparent with y'all, like I'm bipolar, and that's something I've been dealing with since I was young, since I was Like 16, and I've been in the hospital. I've been I'm on meds right now. I'm also seeking therapy. But I also share that with my students, like, hey, when I was your age, I was like, a roller coaster. I even, like, tried to kill myself when I was younger. I share it with my students, even though it's like, pretty, pretty serious and pretty deep, but they they will look at me like, oh, like he he's a real dude, like he's been through stuff. And also they're able to see like, Oh, I'm not perfect. I have my faults. I might act like I'm a stable and secure teacher, but in reality, like I've been through my own shit, just like they have. And so when I'm able to share my story, share my palms, share any narratives that I have, it allows them to kind of open up and connect to me. And so I actually do that first before they share their vulnerable side, because, yeah, just try to model it. And if I expect them to be open and vulnerable, I need to be open and vulnerable as well. And what and I'm in on a starter. I could talk. I could just keep talking, but so in turn, like they're able to connect with me, but at the same time I'm able. Able to connect with them, like when they tell me stories about them getting in fights or conflicts with their parents, or they talking to me about, like, Oh, my dad doesn't love me. Like, I'm like, Damn like I've been there, like I used to get in fights with my dad. I even threatened to beat up my dad with a baseball bat. And so, like, I've been I understand where they coming from and and so we're able to have this kind of even though, like these kids come from different generations, different backgrounds, different hoods, like, we still connected by similar experiences.
Juliana 15:40
Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, because it's a lot to share, I think, in general, but then also with your students and have that relatability with them.
JR 15:48
Yeah, there is a line, though I don't Yeah, there is a line. I don't share everything. I've been through a lot of craziness. I don't share everything. But when there's a lesson that could be taught, I do share those stories.
Juliana 16:09
Thank you. I was gonna ask, since you talked about poetry, do you have any of your own poetry that you can share? I think that would be,
JR 16:17
um, yeah, I can do a short poem. Give you a context. This is, this is a poem from my upcoming book. And so make a long story short, I got, I got fired from a teaching job. And the reason I got fired was because I was trying to get the teachers to unionize.And so anyway, I wrote a speech that was supposed to say at the school board meeting, and but I ended up getting let go before they I could do it. So I ended up right typing it up, and then I ended up putting it in my my upcoming book. And do I have it Aha, I can read a little bit. So this is called martyr versus the school board, or why I got fired, dear blank, blank, blank, blank, school board, first and foremost, let all folks in the room repeat these words of hope, Power to the People, Power to the People Power to the People Power to the people. Now I am honored on behalf of the heroes without mask who fight evil through class yet still value zero to last. We, we, we, the educators on staff have been granted the humble task to keep each lovable student on track. So in fact, we're here to make clear our grievances. We're here to this. We're here to repair disagreements and disappear in the Ill Will between us for the benefit of this beautiful school full of the brightest, boldest, bravest students who are losing to apathy instead of winning happily, sadly, these students are choosing the Wrong support, pursuing a dark force maneuvering off course and marching toward a doom fate, if all we do is wait, the weights of our future will break by our own mistakes, if it's not too late to make it plain and well, then let me risk my own insane Farewell from a school that failed to Excel but prevailed in preparing kids for jail. Shall I make it plain and tell tales of hell as it is? Shall I talk my talk? Talk my talk about the loss of our kids, only known for choosing to stay in lonely homes or pursuing the terrors grown from areas condoned with no choice but to transform into the Children of the Corn. Shall I go on? Who will voice the song to sing along about our failed wrongs? Who will bring some calm for the educators who stay strong every day. We, we play a million roles, from dust through dawn every day. We we slave without adequate pay to comfortably live on every day. Can't equate the time. Time and weight needed to maintain an idle space for young minds to create within a mindful state. It's safe to say teaching takes a toll too deep to be told, known only to We. We. We the brave and bold teaching breaks the body, but never the soul, so we carry the weight proudly, turning struggle to gold and almost out, but that was like half the palm. It's a little bit longer, but that one's called martyr versus a school board. Wow.
Juliana 20:43
Thank you. It was very moving, and definitely hit me in just a lot of ways, and relating to just how I've been feeling as a teacher right now, it's thank you for sharing that. You know,
JR 20:55
it's crazy so that. So the rest of the that poem is about us calling along the strike. And what's crazy is, I'm not sure when this, this episode is going to come out, but in about two weeks, there's a very, very, very, very, very strong, almost 95% possibility that O USD is going to go on strike.
Juliana 21:23
I was hearing about that too, so it sounds like that it's gonna happen.
JR 21:27
Yeah, yeah. I was like, I was prepping that poem. I was like, man, that'd be crazy if, like, I read it at one of the rallies. But, yeah, it's crazy because San Francisco just wrapped up their their strike. I'm not sure if you were part of it. I know you're South San Francisco. That's probably
Juliana 21:45
different, yeah, just separate little districts, so it's a little bit away from it. And, yeah, so I do know people in San Francisco that were a part of the strike and and they were there.
JR 21:55
So, I mean, the striking season, and it's, it's overdue, and I mean, sorry, I know we're going on attendance, but it's like, I don't I'm not sure if this cycle is we're gonna get out of the cycle, because I was in O ust three years ago when they went on a strike, and we were striking about the same reasons, Same same shit that we're striking over now. And I was talking to one of my colleagues, and they were like, yeah, it just goes in cycles. And I'm like, man, so when, like, three years from now, we're just gonna go through another strike, it's just the same kind of bullshit,
Juliana 22:36
yeah, definitely how I've been feeling too. And just kind of like my district was talking about how, like, our contract doesn't end till like, two years from now, so they're thinking that that's when the possible strike could happen, and then kind of also expressing, like, the expenses at the strike and how we have to prepare for that. And I kind of just didn't even about like, oh, wow, a strike takes money and and budget from your union. So I just kind of didn't know some of the mechanics of that that was new to me. Yeah, would you be willing to share, like, if you're if you want to, but about what happened, kind of, with the unionized process with the school that you just mentioned, I think that would be pretty impactful to share.
JR 23:22
And, yeah So this is during the covid. This is after the shutdown, when all of when we were trying to get back, when we were like, doing hybrid mode. You probably know about this, where we're in the classroom, everybody was masked up, but we're also doing kind of hybrid where some kids were remote anyway. What was happening at my school? It was a lot going on. it was getting it was just bad. I was complaining they were treating teachers like we were basically paid slaves, and I was one of the lead high school teachers, and so I took this step to, like, get the get the teachers together and be like, hey, we need to come together. We need to fight back against this. This is not right, because I was complaining about it all. The other teachers were complaining about it, but nobody was really stepping up to add them. And so yeah, we were having meetings in my room, basically secret meetings at lunchtime, also after school, getting together, trying to form a plan. And we ended up taking over one of the staff meetings and bringing our own proposals about what we want and our own demands. And yeah, make a long story short, the principal did not like that, and he tried to find every excuse to get me fired. And he ended up, he ended up firing me, and I was working at a charter school. And I don't recommend anybody work at a charter school. Charter schools, basically, they do not run, they're not they do not need to abide to a certain standard. They could basically do whatever they want. And so the good side of that is that teachers have the liberties, Liberty to teach whatever they want, but the bad side about is that at a charter school, admin could do whatever they want. we try to create a union, because at our charter school, we didn't have a union. And yeah, it did not work out, and I ended up losing my job mid year. Wow. And what I learned from that it's about money. And so what I've learned is that with school, schools operate as a business, and a lot of it just has to do with just money. They look at students, they look at teachers as numbers.
Juliana 29:21
It brings up a good conversation, because charter schools do definitely function in their own way. And I think sometimes, you know, being in the public school system and then just kind of seeing how admin or the district handle certain things, it can be frustrating, but then to kind of see the other end of like a charter school and not even having any structure or union in the whole kind of shows you like, Oh, this is it's not always like the grass is only greener on the other side of it. So, yeah, I think that's something that most people are not aware of and understand. And. Like, teachers are not supported within like, a charter school space, and that's that is, yeah, yeah.
JR 30:09
And they're growing, they're growing charter school that I was at, they would hire a bunch of new teachers, and then they would hire a bunch of old teachers, a lot of charter schools do that, and there's no middle ground where they have a bunch of newbie teachers who don't know what they're doing, and they have a bunch of old heads who are too close to retirement. So a lot of the operations at these charter schools are just all funky.
Juliana 30:46
Yeah, I think so. So I kind of was, like, thinking of it as you were talking about it, since it was around covid, how do you think things have shifted since covid, since you've been teaching for that amount of time, and then, if, like, you think it's gotten better in terms of, like, how administrations, or even, like, the district handles those issues?
JR 31:06
Yeah, I was actually talking about this with my colleague. So the pros and cons since covid That I know this, the pro would be the good thing would be the implementation of technology. We are using a lot more technology in the classroom. We're adapting AI. We're adapting. We're my students are using Canva and Adobe express to design things. Lot more so in terms of just the technology, the literacy and just using digital apps and technology that's grown a lot in the fluency using computers has grown a lot. Now, the downside that I've noticed would be the dependency on technology like the so what I've noticed with my students, they're losing just handwriting skills. They're losing the skills not losing but they're growing less familiar with just holding a book, writing on paper using a pencil. So what I've noticed, just the the practical stuff, is kind of falling behind, yeah, just handwriting, just basic stuff like that. The stuff that, like you and I were grew up on, they're doing a lot, lot, lot less. My students now are using off dict. Is it diction dictating, oh, man, I can't think of the word they start sort of D they they're doing this thing where they just talking to Google Docs, voice typing, and it's dictating, I think. So it's
Unknown Speaker 33:04
like that voice to text that they use,
JR 33:07
yeah, so they're not even typing anymore. They're not even typing anymore. So a lot, I'm noticing a lot of this, grammatical, grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, a lot more of that than I was used to when I first started teaching. I think that in the last point, I want to make the biggest, biggest change that I would count as a con as something worse would be just collaboration and connection. Before covid, I would do a lot more group activities, collaboration activities where students are talking to each other or just in groups. But since covid, students have grown very disconnected, a lot less engaged with each other, a lot more isolated. And it's like a preference. Like, yeah, I prefer to do work on my own. I prefer to just do just the solo stuff. And so I what I've noticed is just the sense of just collaborating, and the eagerness to kind of work with a peer that has diminished a lot, and I'm afraid, like in the long term, how that's going to affect the kids as adults, them being like, kind of looking at themselves as an island, as opposed to looking at themselves in community with others. Yeah, that's something I'm kind of concerned about.
Juliana 34:33
Yeah, I think so too. And just that struggle with them trying to come together as just being able to share, like a simple prompt and getting students to feel comfortable with that. So, yeah, I mean, like, kind of thinking about it a little bit. How do you think, like administration, or the district handles kind of these, I don't know if it's like challenges, but kind of just like the effects of like covid. With the students,
JR 35:02
yeah, we do a lot of social emotional work. Social emotional work, yeah, so we have a lot of at my school. We do a lot of community activities. Right now we're in Black History Month, so we're trying to celebrate or try to do different activities related to to just black history. Last week we did a food demonstration one of our security guards, She's Jamaican, so she did a food demonstration on how to do jerk chicken. And it was at lunchtime, and yeah, so basically it was activity to get students engaged. We had, we had some of the Latino students mixing them with the black students, and they were all trying to make jerk chicken, and then it was fun. And so we do so admin has been trying to deal with this issue by creating more opportunities for students just to connect with each other. We do talent shows, we do we do a lot of food festivals and activities at my school that just to bring people together. And for the most part, it's working. It's working slowly.
Juliana 36:19
No, I definitely think that they they respond well to kind of like that modeling and different like exposure to things. And I think that's what they definitely missed within those covid years, and just kind of having that different ways in terms of being together. So I think they were just used to like, Okay, this is me logging onto a screen every morning, and this is because how it's going to be, and they got kind of used to that. So yeah, I think that's great that like your school site is able to do that and kind of bring in different aspects for students to connect with, yes, yeah.
JR 37:00
But stuff that I was just like, it was valid, like, for example, today is Valentine's Day. I know it was kind of corny, but even in high school or middle school, we would do Valentine's crams or send, I don't know, Valentine's hearts to some a classmate or somebody we just like, but little stuff like that we don't do at my school. We have prom, we have a prom, but we don't have dances. I remember when I was younger, we used have like, school dances, like once a month, even though they were a hell of whack, like, stuff like that is sort of missed out on, even, at least in my school. So I think, like, a lot of that kind of stuff could be
Juliana 37:45
brought back. I think so. So kind of wanted to shift just a little bit. So thinking about, like, we talked a little bit about the struggles and kind of the challenges. So what are the things I think that gives you hope about this generation of students and kind of like, what do you pour back into yourself? And like, give you hope at the end of these days. Hope.
JR 38:14
My hope is that, well, we always hope that the next generation will be better than the previous one. That's something that my mom would tell me she hoped that my generation will be better than hers, and my hope is that this next one will be as well. I like I said before, I try to teach students different ways to express themselves, and hope that they find some power and freedom in that. And my hope is that in the future, they are able to take what they've learned from my class or other classes and actually use it as a tool, as something something powerful. And my hope is that these young people actually create better change? I actually, I do believe I might be too optimistic, but I do believe that within this next generation, like racism, can diminish and possibly even go away. I think with education, a lot of the racist ideas that you and I grew up on and our parents grew up on can can go away within the next generation. They are very, very open minded. A lot of the stuff like the homophobia or the xenophobia and the racism that that I grew up on is very a lot less that I've noticed with these young people. So as bad as crazy and chaotic as this world is right now with just Trump and AI and global warming and just everything. Like, I do believe there's still hope within this generation that they can make a positive change to all this other madness.
Juliana 40:49
I like that. Thank you. Definitely. You explained really well about how writing allows you to connect with your students and give them an outlet to feel connected. So I think you know that's that's our goal as teachers, is to allow students to connect with writing in that way. So how do you make that connection for yourself outside of the classroom,
JR 41:14
when I when I perform, or when I perform my poetry, or when I'm just like talking to people about my books, I'm able to connect, I'm able to connect with other people through my my story.
Juliana 41:27
Yeah, I think it just as a writer, right? Writers usually have, you know, you find that connection for yourself. So, yeah, I was just curious of like, what does that mean for you in terms of being a writer and having that connection to your own writings.
JR 41:44
I don't want to have my story be silent, and also, what I get from sharing my story is just feeling connected with other people. Also the bigger why? Another big reason, a push that motivates me to do what I'm doing, is just about legacy. It's about just trying to leave as much as I can on this earth before I go away. So that's a big, big, big push that motivates me to do what I do, okay?
Juliana 42:26
And I kind of just kind of have this kind of closing question and kind of thinking about, what kind of advice or like support would you give to kind of like young writers, like my students, and kind of like what they could do if they wanted to share their stories to a much larger audience.
JR 42:49
I believe that, like sharing stories is probably one of the oldest, oldest, oldest, oldest traditions in human civilization, going back to just the Egyptians and the hieroglyphics and the Greeks and the Romans, Buddhism, with the Mayans, all these, all these cultures from across the spans of all these different races, all carried On the oral tradition of just sharing stories. And so we the lessons that we learned today come from the lessons from the past. So what I, I strongly, strongly encourage young people, especially, is just to carry on that oral tradition or carry on this past time of sharing our stories, because, like, that's how history is made. That's how we've learned about the past, that's how we've learned about Jesus, that's how we learned about all these different important figures in the past to carry our own stories. And so I think this is a tradition that needs to continue, and my hope is that with the young generation, that they see the power in their own story, that they see that that even though they might share their story now and they might not get a whole bunch of traction or clout, like your stories don't live on forever. Someone else is going to connect to it, whether now or after you're gone. And so I just hope that stories are continuing to be passed on, and that young people, anybody is not afraid to share their story, because we've all learned from it. And just, probably most importantly, like, I tell myself this is just don't give up. Like, like, you're gonna go through some hard days and you gonna feel like shit. One day you're gonna feel like, you know, like, actually, just asking yourself, like, why am I even doing this? But. Just don't give up see, try to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Try to see, like, the bigger goal in this, yeah, yeah. I don't want to get my, my, my speech mode, but Yeah, something like that.
Juliana 45:16
That's great. what would be your like advice, then to teachers that are kind of going through this moment in time right now and like how they can get through this.
JR 45:34
Being a teacher is a selfless gig, and being a teacher, you don't get respect. Parents yell at you, Teacher, other teachers yell at you, the kids, most kids don't like you. You don't get paid enough. But the biggest, biggest reward, man, is that you're gonna save a life being a teacher. Like, there's these micro battles and big battles that you go through, and it might not seem like you're winning, but, but you are like, yeah, a lot of days I come home from work and I'm just so exhausted and tired, I'm like, asking myself, like, Man, why am I doing this? Yeah, like, I should have been a rapper. But it's like the bigger, bigger picture of is like, like, you got to think, like, man, that you your hands are in, you are helping impact the future of so many different lives, and so it might not seem like it in the moment. It might not seem like it on those evenings when you coming home and you just dead ass tired, but you are impacting these lives. And these kids might not show their their gratitude now, but you'd be surprised. Like I have kids hitting me up. I still got kids hitting me up when I first started teaching. And these kids are, like, kids are 25 one of them 30. And found my one kid found my email. You got he's married. Got kids. And hey, Mr. Rice, I remember your class. You should play that one song. And so, like, they still remember the teachers and so you you're in their lives forever, and you have a choice of whether or not you want to make a positive or a negative change in their lives. And that's a lot of power. And even though we get paid less than plumbers, we don't get the respect that's due. Like we also have the power to change lives that no one else has. That's very good.
Juliana 47:46
Thank you. Okay, and now I want to bring it back to you, because it's all about you too. So how do you take care of yourself during this time and at the end of each day, what are what are your things? I give back to you,
JR 48:01
you sound like my mom. That's a mom. I what works for me best is going on walks. Is something that I started doing a lot with my my ex girlfriend, and she got me into that, and I didn't. I wasn't much of a walker unless I'm, like, walking to the grocery store or something. But then, yeah, just found out, like, how my mind's able to just kind of relax and have this I get a sense of calm from that. So the way I take try to take care of myself, just going on more walks, being active, I'm trying to meditate more. I try to meditate before I go to go to bed. I'm not always good about that. Just trying to make more healthy choices, something that you made me. You don't know about this, but last year, I actually had a had a health emergency. I was dealing with this thing called a fib. It's a heart condition where your your heart's basically beating either too slow or too fast. And my heart was beating like 150 beats per minute, when the average heart beat rate is like 60 to 80. Mine was beaten at 150 and so sorry. Long story short, I had to do this heart procedure last summer, and they had to stop my heart and reset it, and yeah, for about, maybe about four seconds, I was like, oh, like, dead. They brought me back to life. And after that procedure, I was just like, I just started just trying to take. Better care of myself. My doctor was, like a lot of it was, my condition was contributed from for stress, and so I'm just trying to take better care of myself and just prioritize in my health and making healthier choices. After that procedure, I realized, like, Matt, I'm not getting any younger, and I could pass away tomorrow, next week, like I need to make better choices of my life. And so, yeah, I am doing much better with the self care, but I can still do better.
Juliana 50:42
Thank you, yeah, yeah. I think self care is definitely it's a for everything that's something that always, always happens and that you need to kind of incorporate for yourself. Yeah, it always changes too, especially this is just as time changes. You know, we have different needs and different things we need to, like,
JR 51:01
take care of, I'll tell you this. Don't wait until you're about to die to change your life. That's that's my advice. Oh, well, another thing, sorry. I don't know how we got on this, but go get checked out. Go get checked out. I I was one of those stubborn black men who just hated the hospital, hated going to the doctor, and this is not just a thing that I have. My dad was like that. A lot of my my friends, especially my male friends, are like this, where they just refuse to go to the hospital get checked out. There's like an ego thing. And so I anyway, I went maybe three years without going to see a doctor, and then last year, I went to go see a doctor, and I found out all these health things. And so to the people listening, go get checked out like you might seem like you 100% good, and everything's all lovely Dovey, but there's a lot of internal struggles and internal fights going on inside your body that they are silent, that you don't even know. In my condition, with my heart, I was asymptomatic, so that meant I wasn't showing any symptoms. And so I could have had a stroke or a heart attack at any moment without any any kind of warnings. And so I just want to just push to the people listening, especially my dudes out there, like, go, go, get checked out.
Juliana 52:39
Yeah, well, I mean, yes, it's teaching, but then it's also about us too, right? Because if we're not taking care of ourselves, then we can be there for these kids. And yeah, and that's what we want. We want to be there for them. So yeah, okay, that's all I have, I mean, and thank you for being here and like sharing your story and just kind of your impact and the things that you've done and been through. If there's anything that you would like to share like about your work and kind of close out and maybe how people could reach you, that would probably be the last thing so people know where to find you. Yeah, yeah,
JR 53:15
of course. So yeah, my name, once again, my name is JR rice. I teach and reside in Oakland. I actually have a my novel is available. It's called Broken pencils. It's on Amazon. Barnes and Nobles. You can also pick it up at your local bookstore. If they don't have it, just request it. Hit them up. I also have a new book coming out this June, which is a sequel to my novel. It's actually a poetry collection. It's called I was am and will be they'll be out soon. And you can find me at if you go to my website, J, R, rice, calm, you'll find more information about me. Also, you can hit me up on on IG and Tiktok and all those good spots at I'm J rice, I am J rice. And, yeah, this is lovely. Thank you so much. I really, yeah, I don't normally talk about just my teacher life and how it relates to other stuff. So this is, this is good. This is a good eye opener,
Juliana 54:28
of course. Yeah, thank you so much for being here and sharing.
Thank you for spending time with this episode. If something JR said landed for you — about teaching, about story, about not giving up — I hope you let it sit a little. Connect with JR at jrrice.com or on Instagram and TikTok at @iamjrice—we’ll have those links on our show notes page at our website. If you're new to The School Without Walls, a good place to start is the free resource on our website — 10 Questions to Ask Your Soul Self — or with our online course that invites you to explore and connect with your Archetype, The Magical Papers. We're at theschoolwithoutwalls.net.
We’ll close today with JR sharing another one of his poems, See Saw, Fall & Rise