Cultivating Critical Thinking in Students with Daniel Flint

Step into the world of education with Daniel Flint, a beacon of inspiration and the 2022 Gilder Lehrman U.S. History Teacher of the Year for Florida. As he sits down with us, Daniel unfolds his story of passion-driven teaching and the powerful influence educators wield in shaping young minds. We navigate through his classroom ethos, where respect and relevance form the cornerstone of learning, and discover how his accolades serve as more than just personal triumphs—they're visual cues to fuel his students' ambitions. Daniel's commitment to a positive learning environment resonates throughout our conversation, offering a masterclass in nurturing the next generation.

Navigating the nuances of fostering critical thinking in an unbiased way, Daniel Flint takes us back to the roots of American education, where 'Republican motherhood' once laid the foundation for democratic ideals. His dedication to maintaining neutrality, especially in the politically charged arenas of voting and political awareness, is a testament to his integrity as an educator. Flint shares insights from his own upbringing amidst political diversity and emphasizes the consistency of state educational standards. This chapter not only reveals his strategies for empowering students but also underscores the timeless value of facts and self-formed opinions.


VOTE FOR DANIEL TO WIN AMERICA'S FAVORITE TEACHER : https://americasfavteacher.org/2024/daniel-flint

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:34

Thank you Well. Hello guys. It's a special event we are doing an interview tonight, so it's just me. No Clay for this one, Although he would have loved this one, and he's going to be he's probably going to be a little bit mad at me that he didn't get in on this one because he he would love it. So I'm apologizing right now, Clay. Sorry, sorry, sorry, but we have Daniel Flint today and we're going to have a great conversation right after this.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Daniel Hi, thank you for coming on the show.

Speaker 1: 1:10

I appreciate it I appreciate you having me on. I really thank you. You know what I didn't ask you beforehand. Do you prefer? Do you prefer Dan Daniel? Daniel's? Fine, you got it. You got it. I love his great name. I actually love your middle name. Your middle name is Tobias, right?

Speaker 2: 1:21

yes, ma'am, yeah it's a family name, so from uh, you know it's on board upstate new york. So uh, good old farm country so I love it.

Speaker 1: 1:32

I love it. That's awesome. So, uh, so let me tell everybody a little bit about you, um what I know, and then you're going to fill in any blanks that that I might have here. Um, so you're a professional historian of American history, denstar educator with Discovery Education, 2022 Westside High School Teacher of the Year and 2022 Gilder Lehrman correct me if I said that wrong US History Teacher of the Year for the state of Florida. That is very, very cool. Congratulations on that. That's awesome. And you are in the running for Teacher of the Year this year as well.

Speaker 2: 2:13

Tell me about that first, yeah, it's Reader's Digest, america's Favorite Teacher. So somebody nominated me and then I got the email from them and I just put it out and you know I've been in, I've been leading my group for the last like four or five weeks now. You know it asks us, uh, three or four different questions and then you put your, your link, out there and then people vote and based on the voting, that's how, that's how you're selected. So you know I must be making a lot of people happy because I'm number one for my group right now, which is really you know it's a.

Speaker 2: 2:40

as an educator, you don't realize how many people you impact until people start really coming out and supporting you, and I've had so many people come out and support me and voting for me. I appreciate your vote today as well.

Speaker 1: 2:50

You know it means the world.

Speaker 2: 2:52

You know, because you know none of us do this job for the money. I mean I. You know, I knew when I got into education that I wasn't going to be a wealthy individual. My father was a very successful real estate and tax attorney at Upstate New York, you know. And you know, just coming from that, I knew that I'd be, I'd make enough money to be comfortable and I don't have summer jobs. So you know, it's. My father-in-law makes a joke. You know he calls me a seasonal employee for 10 months out of the year. But it's, I love it. I wouldn't. You know I don't consider what I do, work, you know. You know I civic abomination.

Speaker 1: 3:22

So I love that and you're so right. You know the impact that that teachers particularly have on on kids. That's a lifelong thing, you know, and good and bad you know. If you have a bad experience with a teacher, that stays with you. But when you have those good experiences and thankfully there I think there's so many more of those than there are the bad experiences.

Speaker 1: 3:45

I was a bad kid, I was a bad student, so I've got a great mix of both. So anything bad was definitely well deserved on my end and I take full, full blame. But you know, I was so blessed to have some really great teachers that saw past the veneer which I think a lot of kids put up. And you know, because you're trying to especially if you're talking like high school, you're trying to present some kind of image and I was very fortunate that I had some that saw right through and said no, no, no, no, you're not reaching your potential and we're going to make sure that you do so. I'm eternally grateful for that and I love that you're making an impact like that on students. I think it's just such a gift really. So thank you for what you do. I love that.

Speaker 2: 4:31

I appreciate it. You know kids always see it like it is. You know I have a. I've been training teachers for the last 10 years and every new teacher I talk to, if I tell them, like you know, there's one of two things you're going to sign, decide after your first year of teaching. Either, hey, you're going to quit if I have a new profession which is for you, or you're going to realize how rewarding it is and you're going to continue.

Speaker 2: 4:48

And I graduated in 1997, you know, and I tell new teachers this all the time, the days of kids respecting you because you're the adult you're, you know, whatever are gone, you have to earn their respect from day one and you have to show them why you matter. So in my own classroom I've got like a giant wall of me. It shows everything that I've done, all the accomplishments that I've done, everything that I have. You know the kids call that flexing. I, you know, I just I like to let them know exactly where I'm coming from. So if you have you know, if they want to question, you know my course like, why should you be here? Well, you know it's all right there. You usually tell me got more degrees than a formander. They always, you know they always like to sit there and joke about that. But you have to show them why you matter, and if you do that then you can. Kids want discipline. They crave it. They really, really do.

Speaker 2: 5:32

And you know, anyone says, oh, I'm going to teach these kids today. You have to spend time with them. It's a title one, so it's like 85 to 90% of those kids are free to be slung. It's a little socioeconomic. The majority of the population is African-American, so stepping in there I don't like using the word minority, but you have to sit there. There's a whole other cultural thing that goes along with that too. I've been doing this 20 years now, predominantly to the inner city. I love those kids to death. I do, oh my God. They will tell you how it is right off the bat. There's no filter. There's not.

Speaker 1: 6:07

They will tell you exactly how they're feeling.

Speaker 2: 6:09

If you look bad, they'll tell you that's how it is. Go ahead, because at least the conversation gets started and sometimes that's the best way to have the intro. If you know talking to women and things like that, you know you gotta, you gotta have that. You have to be able to make fun of yourself, you have to be able to sit there and you know not be stiff. And you know I always ask people all the time like you remember the teachers that you didn't like in high school and did you learn something in that class? Is there something that you took away from the teachers that you did not like that you know that you learned. I always tell people that kids don't learn from people they don't like. You know. So as long as you create a system or an environment where kids can come in and be relaxed and you know it's it's the you win on all kinds of levels. You really do.

Speaker 1: 6:54

That's so true and they and they absolutely a hundred percent can they can smell authenticity in the air. You know, they know when you're being genuine and when you're you're really trying to connect with them on their level and you're not patronizing them. You know, they know, they know and and I think you know it's so easy to underestimate that or just to maybe ignore it. You know, and I'm sure in every profession there are people that just go in to to punch the time clock and do their time and get out. And you know when you get to meet people who are passionate about what they do and are in it all for the right reasons and again, any profession.

Speaker 1: 7:32

But we're talking about you tonight and, and it's so important, and they see it, they know, they know that you're really, you're not just physically present, you're emotionally present for them and I think that's man, that's a, that's a game changer. And I you said it early on you know you have no idea the impact that you'll make on on these kids, on on anybody really. But, um, you know, I suspect you're going to be hearing from these kids years down the road. They'll be coming back to you and say you know what? You, you had a really positive impact on me and that's a that's worth it, and especially the ones that join the military.

Speaker 2: 8:10

They come back in there, you know, and they're being used with the keys and whatever, and they're they're so proud of. You know what they accomplished and you know they. You know I love the Marine Corps. You know no-transcript, everyone's going to college and that's okay to say. I think we're in a society where it's like, oh, my god, you have to go to college and why, right? That? That's the other, that's the other question, like what is a college that you're looking to do? I was like, well, I want to be a welder. I was like, okay, well, tulsa Welding is right down the street. Hey, you know the military, you will sit there and pay for your college and do all this kind of stuff, and it's just. I think that and these avenues need to kind of be opened up for these kids to see, and once they see that they're there, they'll want to pursue them and there's nothing wrong with that, right.

Speaker 1: 9:03

So true. So now take me back a little. Let's go backwards a little bit. Tell me about where did this passion for educating for US history, where did all this passion come from? Is there somebody in particular that inspired you, or is this just a lifelong thing for you?

Speaker 2: 9:18

Actually the history teacher I had in high school, Mark Pearson, inspired me. I wanted to just like him. He was always active. You know, he did a lot. We did cross country, we did the EnviroFund. He was always there all the time. He was always there like 45 minutes early because my father would drop me off at school and then Mr Pearson was always, always there, had any questions that I always wanted to have answered. He never mind talking. He never.

Speaker 2: 9:40

it never seemed like I was bothering him you know, I know I know that, I know 100, I was, but he still he, he. He never showed that, even if he was, but it just he had the conversation with me and it just he got me excited about history. And you know, we started doing more projects and really focusing on the things and I go back probably every couple of years and he's still teaching in the same classroom. Wow, yeah, wow. You know, I made a challenge for him about a year ago and I went and I went back to him and I gave that to him. It's like this is really, really important. I don't want you to have any keeps up in his classroom now and it's just being able to go back there and talk to him and just, you know he's like, wow, I can't believe you've been teaching for 20 years. It's like, yeah, I can't believe you're still in the classroom. You know, it's just.

Speaker 2: 10:25

You know there was a concept in the early national period. You know, right after the country was founded, you know the idea of education was called Republican motherhood and it has nothing to do with political ideology. It was the idea that the mothers of the country at the time were going to teach the ideas and the fundamentals. And you know about what democracy is. You know that the Constitution is why we fought the revolution and that was going to be instilled in their generations. This is prior to 1840 and Horace Mann making education compulsory in the country. This was the job and moral and civic responsibility of mothers raising children. You, whether in the frontier, whether in the cities or whatever you know and it was just and I kind of feel that that's, you know, that republic, that kind of that civic responsibility on myself to make sure I I feel better when these kids leave my classroom, at least they'll know.

Speaker 2: 11:12

You know I got a lot of kids right now that are that are really nervous about voting in the next election. They ask me all the time who you're, are you going to vote for? I was like I cannot tell you that, but what I can do is I can show you where you can get the information to, or I can. We can talk about both sides of the aisle. You know there are a lot of teachers that don't want to do that. They don't want to. They only, or they only want to talk about the one, their own. I don't even preach that to my own children. You know my daughter hates me now it's like vote for her, for your book, as long as you, as long as my rule is largely read and they meet with your ideology, I don't care who you vote for, just vote, it doesn't matter. You know you're not going to upset me, you're not going to hurt my feelings. I want you to go out and vote in conscience. So that's what I tell my students to do in the classroom.

Speaker 2: 11:58

And there's no political paraphernalia in my room. There's none of that, you know. It's just flag-inspired. You know, everything is historically relevant, from the amendments to all the presidents that have come, you know, and everything. And one question that my students were like all the presidents of lives, you know, because everyone was like oh my God, what did George Washington's wife? You know, what's her character like? Or you know Grover Cleveland, what does his wife look like? You know, and the girls are always really interested to see what they're wearing. But you know, if they go up there and look and ask questions, hey, you know it's, it's always learning something new you know, that people want to ask, and that's what it's all about.

Speaker 1: 12:35

That's so refreshing to hear. You know, we're in such an uncomfortable climate where it seems like every single thing is political and it's hard not to imagine. I would almost guarantee that the kids of all ages are inundated with that as well. Know better than me. They just want to learn. Like I think there are like a lot of people like just give me facts, like just don't tell me, don't tell me what you know, how to think, or you know what to think. Just give me the facts and let me decide things for myself based on those facts and that understanding.

Speaker 1: 13:12

And you know, I think that's so valuable to to be teaching kids. Teach them how to think, not what to think, and you're setting them up for making, like, great life decisions, because they're being critical thinkers, you know, and they're thinking about and thanks to people like you who are just teaching them history, like teaching them, this is what happened, this is who did this, you know and that's it. Now you can draw your own conclusions about it, right? I mean, they get that opportunity to draw your own conclusions, but all based on fact and truth. And I think you know we're so ruled right now by opinion and feelings and all of those things. So it's so great to hear I love facts. So you know, you could throw facts to me all day and I'll just sit there with my hand on my chin, my my hand on my chin, just listening to it all.

Speaker 2: 13:59

I love that you know they're scared of being canceled. My my theory exists. I teach what the state of Florida says. I cover the standard. You know so. For example, you know SS 912-827 is review the Native American experience. That's from start to finish, what they went through, how it was. You know their experience is good and bad. And going through all of that. Or if you pause course and consequences of the United States Civil War, going from sectionalism to course of the war, to reconstruction, to all of those different things and just laying all the facts out.

Speaker 2: 14:29

And I get questions all the time oh, how is everything since? Everything's changed? Nothing's changed for me Since 2011, when the state adopted the benchmarks that I teach. My standards have not changed. America for me in a standard us history class, my standards have not changed and you know there there is the new african-american history class that the state offers. That you know I don't and I tell you I don't get into that. I don't get into all that. You know it's like I can only speak to the content that I directly teach. So and that's that's what i's what I'm talking about all the time.

Speaker 2: 14:57

The other question is like you grew up in New York, how are you conservative? And I was just like. I grew up in farm country, you know. I mean, you know it's just, and these were people that you know I grew up around. You know Chatham is a I'd say more purple area now, but it's just. It was the upstate.

Speaker 2: 15:20

New York is very conservative area grew up hunting and fishing and I grew up around people that were just good, solid human beings to talk to. They expressed their feelings, both Republican and Democrat. It didn't really matter. I always got both sides of the aisle. That was the best part. No one ever tried spinning me one direction or the other. I was always welcome to hear people's views.

Speaker 2: 15:34

I think one of the teachers at school he's an avid Democrat. We have conversations all the time. We enjoy each other. You know it's great that you know a conservative and a Democrat can sit there and have a conversation and get along. You don't have to sit here and hate each other, and I think that's where, as a nation, that we are. They always say we're waiting for the adults to come back in the room. Yeah, please, let me know when they can show up, because being able to have that compromise and that conversation is a huge part. You know when you show up when I teach you a history and we're going through all the different topics you know you look at. Oh my God, they were actually able to sit down and talk about this.

Speaker 1: 16:17

You know, I mean that's that's a huge that that you're creating or being a part of creating is future adults who are going to be able to have those conversations without them being a battle, without people hating each other. They'll have the skills to have those conversations. And you know, and that's something that obviously is so lost right now in society, and I think generally, and I mean this very generally we're being a terrible example for our youth. You know, collectively, as a nation, I mean they're watching our behavior and modeling it. And you know, I mean, we see it, we don't have to go into all of that. But you know, you, the viewers, everybody, you know what I'm talking about go into all of that. But you know, you, the viewers, everybody, you know what I'm talking about. It's just constant, right, it's just constant conflict and tension, and we need to be raising and teaching kids how to be adults who can engage intelligently and compassionately.

Speaker 2: 17:12

You know, yeah, absolutely, and you're being able to listen to someone else's view. You might not like it, but at least entertain. You know, listen to them and that, hey, you know they might say something that you agree with. You know, right, that's the hardest part. You know, I tell students all the time like we're not discussing politics. If something active happens, you know like the kids will ask me, you know like, oh, why is President Uniform, president Trump on trial? I was like, well, they don't really discuss any current facts. It's like you can present me with stone cold facts about why you're asking the question. I don't want to hear conjecture, I don't want to hear opinions. It's like if you want to know, then present a rule.

Speaker 2: 17:49

I'm a conservative and I'm a Democrat and I was like and then we'll have a conversation. Other than that, we're not discussing it and we move on. And the idea is that unless you can relate it back to what we're discussing, we move on and move past that. And so a lot of kids really respect that and they like the fact that you know they're not getting bashed in the head with you know this political stuff all the time, you know, and they just they actually get fed up with it, believe it or not. They just want to know why. They want to know why this is happening.

Speaker 2: 18:13

And I tell them all the time it's like the US history is one of the best stories that you're ever going to find. You know, from the way it starts to how we started out as a nation. You know we're a nation that hates taxes, you know, and we talk about a lot of stuff that we do in the US history we cover a lot of stuff that deals with taxation that you know, going back to the revolution, reason why we rebelled was because we you know we were being unfairly, you know, taxed by the british and then moving forward, and just once these kids start seeing the patterns, they start understanding why things are happening the way.

Speaker 2: 18:43

They want to become their effort, and it's really I like watching the light bulb go off you know, for example, we just we just uh, kind of wrapped up vietnam and I just didn't ask you if President Johnson hadn't gotten caught lying, do you think Vietnam would have been as bad as it was? And I was like that's a really good question. I really don't know it's just like.

Speaker 2: 19:01

But there were so many groups out there protesting against LBJ for lying about. You know how Vietnam got started and I also bring in my Vietnam veterans, a lot of former Vietnam combat Marines, and they'll talk to my students and you know, going back, you know, one of the big things I do is I even the 50th anniversary of Vietnam. I welcome them back in. I always welcome them home because these guys are starting to wear their hats out in public again. They're proud veterans that served in Vietnam and I want to make sure they understand you know that role that those guys had and how badly they were treated when they came home and just just seem to forget and it just, it's sad really. And they really only started talking about it until the withdrawal from Afghanistan happened. And then I started seeing the cartoons out there. You know the the Vietnam Marine put his hand on the Afghan soldier from the Afghanistan soldier soldiers like yeah, I now I know, I know how I feel and kind of stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 19:49

You know I feel your pain yes, yes, those tear your heart out.

Speaker 2: 19:53

Yeah, it does you know from when Saigon fell to you know where the, where the aircraft, where the C-130s were taken off at Bagram Gate, you know that kind of stuff and it just you know it's hard because these kids see this and they want context for what is going on and that's, that's the part that you know hits a lot of us as educators all the time.

Speaker 1: 20:13

Yeah, absolutely In a kind of neutral environment and you know, teaching US history, teaching history in general, is so it's critical. I mean, it is so imperative that we understand and know history and I'll be perfectly honest that you know I joked around and what a bad student I was and you know back in the day and I was, and I'm mad at my young self for being so reckless. With, you know, an opportunity to to just have that knowledge base. I'm like I'm ready to ask you can you do some online classes for people and give us like a Well funny, you mention that.

Speaker 2: 20:50

I've actually partnered with a company called Quick Learn and, using AI, I've actually created an avatar of myself and I've actually partnered with a company called QuickLearn and, using AI, I've actually created an avatar of myself and I've programmed 26 different courses right now, 13 which are active. That's QuickLearnai. I'm not pitching anything Because we're actively piloting the program in my school right now. So my avatar is teaching content in US history, which you can ask my avatar real questions in real time. Us history which you can ask in real. You can ask my avatar real questions in real time and, based on the content I have provided and the regulations that the state of Florida has for education, you know that you can sit there and have that real conversation with an AI generated instructor and get the content without all the, you know, all the extra stuff that goes with it, so you can have that one-on-one classroom. And when they created my classroom, what I have them do is they put me in President Lincoln's executive office, so the same office he was issuing orders out of during the Civil War. That's the classroom that I chose to have and, as my avatar is going through the content, which is really, it's probably one of the more impressive things I've done in the last five to six years of education, because now students have access to be able to ask the avatar questions.

Speaker 2: 21:55

And if they have it, if it's allowed to be able to, you know if it falls in the forever the content of the course, it will answer the question. And if it goes outside, if it goes outside the content, like you know how, how do I? You know where can I go to? You know, get marijuana or something like that it won't answer the question. You know it'll sit there and say you know, based on the guidelines, I can't answer that. But it has become a tool for me to use for students to help them review for their course exams. But it's another way to kind of pass along that. You know ideology I worry. You know I worry about when I retire. You know the next person coming in after me will have the same passion and enthusiasm that I do. You know they may or they may not. You know it's really hard to tell. You know it's just the way education is going, the way things are, the way things are seen. That's why I stay in it as long as I have.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Right, yeah, that's. That's just incredible. The whole AI thing is just incredible. I'm so glad I.

Speaker 2: 22:47

I accidentally asked you that. Well, people are scared of it because they don't really understand how it can be used in education. And I was in that summit last year when David Bradford at Utah called me up he's on the LinkedIn profile he's like, hey, yeah, I wanted to ask you some questions about creating a US victory class and I was like, oh yeah, and now from June of last year to now, those courses have been offered online. So they've got courses from NFL great Steve Yellen, kerry, joe Smith, the US number one pickleball player, and it's just a wide variety of different people that you can take a course and ask questions and kind of get a basic backdrop to, which is really amazing. My students have access to a course, my courses as well. They also have access to a course taught by Abraham Lincoln.

Speaker 2: 23:26

Around the Gettysburg Address there's a course taught by Leonardo da Vinci. You can literally ask da Vinci real questions in real time. Davinci, you can ask me. Literally ask davinci real questions in real time. It's this is, I mean, everyone, like I said, everyone's scared of ai. They don't really understand how it can be used effectively in the classroom and this is one of the ways that it can be effectively used and kids aren't sitting there. You know, just, oh, type me a paper up. You know, that's not how this works, the way I structured it, the way I've set it up. There's a study guide they have to go through to answer questions. But if they each the idea is like, so can I take an average person and so can I make you a content expert in a civil war in 25 minutes, you know, can I take anybody off the street? Do I? Could I do that in one of these courses? That's kind of. That's kind of the premise that I took with it.

Speaker 1: 24:06

Wow, that is so, so cool. I, I love that and you know, and it's, it's, it's, it gives you some hope. You know, I mean we're so used to everything negative about the internet and everything that you know it negatively brings into our lives and we do forget, you know, that there are some really really positive things that it can be used for, when it's used constructively and properly, and the way that I like to believe that it was intended to help educate and, you know, inform people and not be, you know, all this other crazy stuff. So that that's really, really exciting. I love that stuff and, and I would imagine you know my history, my high school history teacher, I know that he passed away within the past couple of years and you know I would love to apologize to him for being such a little jerk that I was, and you know, and I hope that you know he knows, that I'm doing better now. I'm interested, I'm interested.

Speaker 2: 25:06

One of the great things I think I've seen over the years is that I don't believe it's like there's no such thing as a bad kid. There's not. You know, I've never had that mentality. Every student is different. You know. People ask me all the time how can you teach the same thing over and over every class, every day?

Speaker 1: 25:21

That's a great question.

Speaker 2: 25:22

Actually it's different. Like I know, the A&A class that I had today is going to be completely different on Wednesday. You know whether those kids can have. You know I read an article about a week and a half ago. I called it. You know the. Being an edutainer, you know I put on three 90 minute shows a day, five days a week. You know every show is different. You know you have to be. You know it's the dancing clown routine.

Speaker 2: 25:42

I tell my students, you know it's not just about teaching the content, but you have to do it in an entertaining way. You have to keep their attention because not only are you fighting with the cell phones, you're fighting with, you know, instagram and everything else. They want to sit there and they, they want to be entertaining and you have to be the entertainer because if you're not, they're not going to listen and they're not going to capture their attention. And you and that you know, and I tell americans, american history is one of the, you know, the best and most entertaining stories on the planet. If you take time to listen to me, you'll see why. And they can, they want to, they want to learn and you know it.

Speaker 2: 26:12

That's, that's probably the hardest part you know, because, oh, they can look it up in a hot second. I'm not yet, but do you understand? You know it's a difference. I tell them all the time. It's the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is knowing what the right answer is. Wisdom is understanding why it's the right answer. So, and that's what I tell them all the time.

Speaker 1: 26:27

Yeah, I love it. I love it. That's what we you mentioned. So you mentioned one of your endeavors there with the AI and the learning tools and everything. But you actually have, and have had, a lot of stuff going on. You are a huge, huge give back kind of guy and a lot of this stuff it all revolves around service service to others and I think that's so noble and cool. So talk about some of the projects that you have going on. I know we talked about that one. Are there some other things going on right now as well?

Speaker 2: 26:54

So currently, right now, I'm working with Mighty Hero Homes out of McDonough, georgia, and their organization. Drew Wallston and Derek Lane are the Drew is the CEO and Derek's the CFO up there. They're great guys. The idea is to house homeless veterans to go from homeless to homeowner in two years. You know I met drew about a year ago when I was reaching out to other organizations. You know I I've done things for other groups. Um, I have I've done work with grunstall. A lot of the educational outreach um I do they support. So it's really nice to have that support. You know, when I go every year, you have you're able to display the grunstall colors and sit there and people know that, hey, you, we're able to sit those things up. Oh, wow, there's an organization that we know is, you know, pro this and pro that and they're going to support what you put out there, which is really really nice and it's nice to have their support. Tim Jensen is a fabulous human being. I love talking to him and I love having his support. You know, in the Grimm style foundation as well, tiffany Homer forever warriors. You know, here in florida is absolutely another gem to. You know, drop the hat if I need, if I need their support. All I gotta do is get a phone call and she is just absolutely amazing.

Speaker 2: 27:59

Uh, and being able to work and help veterans and help in the veteran community is it really has really become a a new project for me. You know, seeing that the rate of veteran homelessness that we have going on in the country, it's an epidemic and you know people kind People don't want to discuss it and they want to skirt the issue and avoid it. I was like why these guys gave up PTSD and everything else to go through with that Drug dependency. The Brunstall Foundation they're kicking off their new four-killer campaign this year ending homeless veterans. That's a big part of that Working with Money, hero Homes housing homeless veterans and knowing that they can get, you know, help them get jobs, help them get back on their feet and knowing that they're not some like diseased part of society that we just really ignore. These people need help, they serve our country and they absolutely deserve the respect and gratitude that they deserve. That's been a really big push for me in the last year and a half and working with different organizations and being able to pump out articles and things like that for organizations.

Speaker 2: 29:02

Just recently I was invited down by the Triple Nickel the company, to attend their Black Ops project. It's part of the Veterans History Project and it's all about African-Americans that serve in the special forces. You know, throughout military. It was what an eye-opening experience that was seeing, you know, these individuals get up there and just share their history with a group and a population. You know, it's just, it was really really impactful. You know, just last year I did a and it was one of the things that I had focused on. That one thing you didn't hear enough of, hear enough of. I did a project about African American history veterans in African American history, you know, from the revolution all the way through current military operations, really shining a light on different aspects of what they went through. I did that with you know. I did that with, you know, timothy McCoy and I did that with, you know, arthur Coley. And these are just individuals and Redside and congenital are actually letting film that in their san antonio uh uh headquarters there, which is really fabulous.

Speaker 1: 30:01

It's a great project to do and I was really honored to be a part of that wow, wow, well, you aren't kidding man, you, uh, you, you don't just walk the or talk the talk, you walk the walk, you do. You do quite a bit. That's so impressive and and so amazing and so generous and selfless. Very cool. If this guy isn't getting this teacher of the year thing, I'm coming for all of you. But listen seriously, though. Speaking of which, where can they find you? If you have a bunch of links, where can they find you?

Speaker 2: 30:34

LinkedIn is the only way to get a hold of me. So that link is on the page. It's on my LinkedIn page, like right there at the top. I gave it to you earlier today. So if you want to share that out there, that's great, I mean it would be. So. The grand prize is $25,000 and a trip to Hawaii. But you know I tell people all the time, you know the money's great, the trip would be awesome. You know the money would go right back into my students and, you know, into my classroom and, yeah, who would want to talk? But you know, with everything that comes with, that would give me another platform to really bring more awareness to supporting veterans in the community. And that's what I. You know, this past week, last week, I was actually able to talk to Colonel Allison Black. You know, the agent of death, you know just phenomenal, phenomenal person, and she agreed to come to my school next year to do, uh, you know, a project to inspire females to join in this military.

Speaker 2: 31:23

You know that's another underrepresented kind of category, you know, because a lot of times when recruiters come in, a lot of the guys and you know women are just like they want someone that looks and speaks like them and they want to be able to hear. From that perspective and kind of lack of, I had a fabulous time and I was, I was like more when she agreed to come to my school and talk to my students, which is, you know, it's absolutely fabulous. So we're currently working on that for next year and uh, working with uh, the black ops project working with their organization. They want to bring that to my school. So I'm currently that's in in the works for fall uh 24.

Speaker 1: 31:56

Nice. Those are some extremely fortunate students. I don't know if they realize how fortunate they are, but they will at some point for sure. Absolutely amazing. Daniel, I could listen to you for hours, but I won't do that to you. I'll just ask you to come back on another time.

Speaker 2: 32:12

The next time you have some stuff to share with us. I enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 32:16

Awesome. I can't thank you enough. Just amazing work that you're doing and proud to have met you and to hear about all the great stuff you're doing. So thank you so much and God bless. Just amazing I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 32:29

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 32:31

Absolutely All right, guys. That was Daniel Flint. All of the info that you need, his links will be in the show's notes. Go check them out. Go vote for him too. The link will be there for that as well. And thank you, guys, for watching. We'll see you in the next episode, take care. Outro Music.