[00:00:00] Welcome to the Classroom Narratives Healing in Education Podcast. The space for Education Meets Resilience. I'm Dr. Joey Weisler, and in each episode we dive deep into the personal stories of educators, students, leaders, and frontline advocates who are navigating the complexities within modern education.

Whether you're just starting your teaching journey or are a seasoned professional looking for inspiration, we'll explore how to foster meaningful change, prevent burnout, and build trauma-informed communities within our schools. Now, let's take a seat at the front of the classroom as we get started.

Welcome to an exclusive segment here as part of the Classroom Narratives podcast. You are tuning in at this time to what will be a spread out series of voices right from the heart of the system itself, its students. I recently thought about my favorite text, "The Help", where a protagonist works to expose the ills of a system, but in doing so, she must turn towards the very voices that [00:01:00] are being suppressed and cause change to begin one whisper at a time. In this segment and others to match, I revisit not only the students who formed the heart of the education system, but the very same students who formed the heart to my "Why" . All high school graduates and university students at the time of our recordings, these students will tap into their pasts with me as their teacher, some from their time in middle school.

We'll reminisce and talk openly about what worked, what didn't work, and what calls to action we can give onto the system to ensure that every student is equipped for future success. Now, let's go ahead and get started.



Welcome to today's episode everyone, and I'm so excited that you're tuning in today to my conversation with my former student Dieunise Pacius, whose primary focus is in film and video, and secondary focus is on legal studies.

Dieunise was my [00:02:00] student for English Composition two in the spring 2024 semester .

This is an archived conversation from August, 2025, and the first question I wanted to ask is, what does education mean to you from kindergarten through 12th grade and now even well into college?

In terms of education I believe like growing up I believe that it was making me succeed. I'd say, it was showing me new things but, recently I feel like education too often focuses on

who we should be instead. And I feel like that's what is failing us as students today. So it's focusing on who we should be instead of who we already are. And it feels like at this point in time, the system's goal is to mold us into something useful. And this puts students like me and a lot of others in scary positions.

I mean, [00:03:00] I believe that no one can thrive when they're just trying to survive a system. But in my opinion, I believe that the world doesn't need more perfectly obedient people, but it needs bold thinkers, artists, problem solvers. And I believe that's what the system is failing to realize that there is just one system that will work for everyone.

But in cases like us as students, we're a new generation. We're not students from, you know, 100 years back , it's a different world today and our world has evolved. So educators and, those authorities failing to realize that is what is hindering us as students. And it's a scary thing.

But, um, if we don't talk about it, we'll never evolve . Yeah. So as somebody who is focused in film and the humanities and storytelling, what's missing from your education and what can we bring into it to continue bringing [00:04:00] opportunity to your field? In terms of what's missing?, I feel like, a lot of schools mainly focus on, like stem, , other things like politics and things like that. But students who want to go into the arts often have to battle it out themselves and figure it out themselves. , There's no handholding. It's kind of like. We don't really fund this here. So you kind of have to go out and, figure it out all by yourself.

And I feel like that's why some people, they always say you don't necessarily need a degree to go into film and production, because a lot of times those degrees don't really help you because not the educators per se, but I'd say a lot of like the schools and the educational system itself, they don't really put the time and [00:05:00] effort and also funding into those programs. And that hinders people that like the arts and want to be artists. They feel like they're not being represented., So, that kind of hinders them , to do their passion and the career that they believe was set for them.

And it's a sad fact. I've seen it like a lot of schools just don't fund the arts because they don't think the arts matter. They don't think the arts will help in anything. And that's very sad, unfortunately. Right. Absolutely. And so, as a student who was in film? Like how were you working through the realities in order to make it work for yourself?

I'd say as a student in the arts, it was a lot of researching for myself, because departments counselors, a lot of times they don't really know what it takes to be an artist. They don't know what [00:06:00] it's like to do the arts and have no one care. They don't know how it feels that your program is being underfunded.

So, a lot of it, I had to do my own research and create a path for my own where I know it could potentially work out for me in the end. Um, so again, there, there was really no handholding. I mean, I have a friend in STEM and she's in pre-med , and I've seen the difference that the school's put into those two students, because, like, starting off, she had all four years planned out for her. All her classes planned out for her. Her counselor told her, here's what you're gonna do for pre-med and these are some minors you could take and this is how you can study for the MCAT and all of that.

But as a student in the arts, when I went it was very [00:07:00] not informative. It felt like I was not getting anything , just like general information, but not information that are niche to my own journey to help me, if that makes sense. So like a lot of art kids, you have to do research on your own and figure it out on your, like all on your own.

And it's the reality that artists go through. Yeah, it's like in science and stem. It's like if you do A, B, C, D, E, your future can look like WX, Y, and Z. And with film it's like you can do all the right steps, but the opportunity may not always be there by the time you graduate.

And I think what schools can do to improve is just be morbidly transparent about that and saying that, Hey, society itself may not offer you the outcomes that you're looking for by the time you graduate with this degree. So here are some [00:08:00] alternatives that you can do in order to navigate a system that could give you more opportunity, I won't say promise, but opportunity and possibility by the time you've reached your graduation.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Because if you know the system is set a certain way for students who won't struggle it doesn't work at all. What about those who struggle? Right? And I'm thinking based upon your time in the classroom, what would you say is a major takeaway or a life lesson that you've gained from a classroom space, and how do you continue to think that through and what you're doing?

I'd say , my most growth came from English classes. Which is funny because as a kid , I was not a big reader. I did not like reading. But, from the time I was in fourth grade, my teacher really sat me down and she asked me questions and she [00:09:00] said , what makes it so difficult for you to read?

And it went from, oh, I don't want to read. I don't understand to, oh wow. I love reading and as a kid I really found out , like the books that I read, like the ones that I'm interested in is what kept me going. so I'd say , what I've learned is from mostly English classes is to be bold, be transparent, be who you are. Just be bold about what you think. I feel like it's different in a STEM class setting where it's just like solve the problem.

Oh, well you didn't do the steps correctly. Now your problem is wrong. But in English classes, you're able to freely, explain your thoughts, explain how you feel, explain your values, and like in a class discussion settings or Socratic seminars, you learn from others. So that pretty much like brighten your mind, make you [00:10:00] understand different perspectives and that is the biggest takeaway I took with me.

What would you also say is either your best or your worst classroom based moment that still sticks with you today? I'd say my worst classroom moment was in a math class , when I was in sixth grade.

I struggled with math a lot , because my brain just can't look at a problem and solve it. I was more into like reading and writing. Like I could write a whole paper, but I couldn't solve one math problem. And I went to the teacher and I asked for help and he called me lazy and incompetent.

He said if I put more time into maybe studying, maybe then I would understand. [00:11:00] But no matter how much I studied, it wasn't clicking on my brain because my brain is just not powered to work that way. I'm better with words than I am better with numbers and facts. So, that is something that he himself failed to realize as an educator. If you can go back and tell that math teacher something, what would it be?

If I could go back to tell him something, definitely like putting it out there that not everyone thinks the same way. You will have kids that need more help. You will have kids that learn differently. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're dumb or they're lazy or they can't think.

Everyone's brains are wired a certain way. So, like it's some people to go over something again and again and again to [00:12:00] finally, finally get it to stick in. Why it would take other kids. Like five minutes, 10 minutes to understand a problem.

So that doesn't necessarily mean that one is intelligent and the other is not.

It's all about finding what works best for different kinds of people. So definitely that's what I would tell him to be more flexible and being inflexible really hinders some kids and it's hurting some way more than benefiting all. , If you could turn back and tell your 12-year-old or 16-year-old self something about how schooling works or how education works,

what would that be? I would definitely tell myself that everyone has their own journeys. and , just 'cause so and so is doing this and that, that doesn't mean that I am incompetent compared to them. And [00:13:00] definitely in college I've realized that we all do have our own journeys. No one starts at the same place and no one ends at the same place. I mean, you have people that are way older than you in your classes and , you have people that are in different walks of life in your classes. So it's definitely not about , oh, so and so is doing that, so I should be doing this too.

It's more about okay, I'm finding what works for me. So, because this works for me, me, like the keyword me, this is what I will do to, build on to that and be better than how I was doing yesterday. And definitely comparing yourself to only yourself, but not to other people's accomplishments and journeys.

Has there been anything that we didn't touch on that you wanted to, or any final thoughts that you wanted to share with other audiences?

Um. Well one more [00:14:00] thing I've realized about being a student, it's like at this point in time, it's often more about surviving than learning and that's the scary part.

You know, you learn how to navigate expectations, how to cram for a test, how to hide your burnout. But that's not real education. It's just endurance. And a lot, a lot of, a lot of, you know, students I've spoken to go through that , it's all about, oh, let me just finish this. Um, I, I don't care if I know it or not.

I just want that grade. So, um, I definitely tell those in authority, like. You know, again, if your system is only working for students who never struggle, and for students who always pass the test, then it doesn't work at all. Because in that case, no one's learning anything. It's a different day and age, and I feel like, that switch to a different world should be reflected into the educational system as well [00:15:00] because, at this point I feel like it's failing students rather than benefiting because no one learns anything sometimes.

Being a student, like it definitely showed me that most of the decisions about our education are made without us in the room.

Yes. Like our voices don't matter. So the decisions and choices that are made by those in power, it directly impacts us, our classrooms, the way we learn, you know, what we take with us to the real world. And , like a lot of things that we need are not being projected in the classrooms or, being thought in the classrooms.

And I feel like it's definitely up to the younger ones that are rising in power to make a switch and change that because the system that we have right now, I don't think it will survive in the next 30 years, especially with the, with the new generation that is coming up and the tech age, like it's just it [00:16:00] won't survive. it's bound to fail, it's bound to fall. So that's what I'm hoping for currently as a student . I work as a after school counselor and, after class I go and be with those kids. I kind of help them with homework, talk to them and all of that. And it's definitely a new generation that is coming up. Those kids are not like how I was as a kid. They're not like how my parents were as kids.

So, definitely I feel like as each generation come in or every two to three generations, there should be tweaks in the system because I've realized that those kids are not necessarily learning. And one of them had a similar experience like I did. They said that they don't know how to add and subtract.

They're like in like first grade. And when I ask, okay, did you ask your teacher for help? They said that the teacher doesn't take time to really explain to them. And [00:17:00] they kind of just like see the general kids that get it and they're like, okay, moving on. They don't really take time to really get deep in there and figure out who's learning and who's not.

And , I had to explain to her how to add and subtract. What I've realized is that it took multiple examples and it took a lot of, like, you know, talking to them, trying to get them to understand, per se , for them to understand it. And that is something that, you know, in the classroom that doesn't happen.

You know, no teacher will have the time or, um, you know, sit down with a kid to really, really make sure that they understand. It's kind of like. The like, majority gets it. Okay, we're moving on. So yeah, I feel like, yeah, we have kids with, you know, A DHD now, and it's harder for them to learn. So I feel like those should definitely be reflected in the educational system.

Definitely we need to keep up with the [00:18:00] times of our students because our students think differently from hundreds of years ago, even though that the models in which we teach them are still fundamentally and relatively the same. Yeah , that's one thing I want to emphasize on. We need change.

Thank you so much for tuning in, and we hope you enjoyed our Weisler alumni panel. Let's focus on the values of authenticity, flexibility and mindfulness as ways to become united as students and teachers while making our moments in school matter.

Thank you for joining us on the Classroom Narratives Healing and Education podcast. If today's episode inspired you or made you think differently, I'd love to hear from you. Drop a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts and stay connected with us on the at Classroom Narratives podcast over Instagram and Facebook.

Remember, together we can transform our scars into stars and education, one conversation at a time.