Growth & Grace

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group, Tiffany Lloyd consulting and Chris glow, and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jasmine Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education even

Speaker 1 0:19
better than I was the last time, baby, we back, we back and we back and

Unknown Speaker 0:37
we back and we back and we back and we back, we back.

Leaha Crawford 0:45
Hey, hey, hey, it is Saturday morning. Alright, y'all, it is the 11th of December. Oh, my god. I can't believe it. We are almost two weeks into December. Oh my god, well, I'm sorry, January. I said December. I know, Mom January, but somebody told me that the other day they were like, it takes them 30 days to get used to the fact that we are in the new year, a whole new year, right? So it is January. I said, December, January. Hey, welcome. You are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford. My co host, Tiffany Lloyd, is not here with us today, but we have two amazing people in the studio. First, I'm gonna talk to somebody that I love, love, love, love, dearly. I miss you so much. Hi, Mr. Eilis Thompson, hello, hello. Thank you for having me here today. Oh yeah. And I know I can't wait for Tiffany to hear this, because she's gonna scream, maybe, hopefully not too loud. She's gonna scream. Wait till I tell her next week. I'm like, Oh, hi. You miss eyeless. Okay, got it. And the other person, y'all, she is a pillar in this community. She served on the Clark County School District, school board, school board trustee. We have Dr Linda young. She's a, you were a UNLV professor.

Speaker 2 2:00
I was yes, I was a teacher instructor with the graduate program and undergraduate program for the Multicultural Education Program, the Education

Leaha Crawford 2:10
Education Department. Wow, right, and you Okay, so Clark County School District, Board of Trustees, School Board

Speaker 2 2:17
of Trustees, that's elected position, yes, 12 years I was there for 12 years

Leaha Crawford 2:21
you were there. Have you served anywhere? Any other service, any other elected positions, not

Speaker 2 2:26
any other elected positions. I've been on a lot of boards, a lot of boards. Melissa,

Leaha Crawford 2:30
okay, so who is Dr Young? Because, I mean, we see the name, who is Dr Young? Well,

Speaker 2 2:36
I would like to say it's Linda. Linda young, and that's fine about the doctor, but who I am, I hope, is a person that reaches not only our students, but our families, our community, our churches, our other model in terms of educators as well, and all of us are educators. So I come from Dayton, Ohio, okay? I grew up in Dayton, Ohio. I went to St John Catholic school, and then went to Weaver elementary school and Roosevelt High School, and did both undergrad and graduate work at University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. Okay, and so I'm with the Wright brothers, and I have a whole story about the Wright brothers. So you had to bring me back. I

Leaha Crawford 3:21
had to talk. We talked about the Wright brothers. You know, we don't hear that much about the Wright Brothers, but they, you know, they started them airplanes. Hey,

Speaker 2 3:27
I have a whole story about that with my family, connected with my great grandfather, great grandfather, great grandfather and the Wright brothers.

Leaha Crawford 3:34
Nice. Okay, so Dayton Ohio. Dayton Ohio,

Speaker 2 3:37
and I was a high school teacher for four years, and then I became a school psychologist because I was so concerned that students I worked with, particularly in the later years in the ninth and 10th grade, couldn't read. It was terrifying to me and I, and my whole point was, if they can't read, then they can't matriculate, they can't go further. And so then I started going into kind of a psychological study. I did educational Psych and became a school psychologist, and started working with students to figure out what was going on. And I have gone all the way, and of course, at UNLV. I worked at UNLV, here at UNLV, but I also have gone all the way back to what I call early learning, and I'm passionate about that. I'm talking birth to third grade or eight years of age. If I don't get your foundation set at that level, you're not going to mature. You're not going to get to the fifth, fourth, fifth and sixth grade. I've gotta make it happen from birth to eight. So that's where I am. That's a little bit about Linda. That's a

Leaha Crawford 4:48
little bit okay. I like I like that. So you're listening to growth and grace, and we have Dr Linda young here with us this morning, along with Mr. Ilis Thompson. Interesting point you said that you.

Unknown Speaker 4:59
Birth to eight, birth

Leaha Crawford 5:02
to eight, birth to eight.

Speaker 2 5:04
We call it. We call it zero to eight years of age. Zero

Leaha Crawford 5:07
to eight years of age. What can people do, okay? So, when people think about okay, so zero to three, what are things that people can do from zero to three? To encourage reading, let

Speaker 2 5:18
me tell you how. Thank you for that question, yes, the first thing parents and community can do is understand that that baby that's bubbling around and looking at their fingers and toes is learning all the time. We call it brain development, that is happening amid Well, it's happening prenatal, but it's happening especially when my child is born, the child have interesting children that just born started looking around and trying their eyes blinking and all that's brain activity going on. So what do we do? Many people continue to talk to their children. They sometimes put on what we call classical music. They start making all kinds of verbal sounds. Now, is the brain able to replicate that right away? No, but what the brain is doing is storing that, and so putting a child in front of a TV and letting all those things flash by is not learning. So I need my parents, and I need all of my young people who are thinking about being parents, is that immediately start working with your child, and there's all kinds of little activity. You know, when a child is one or two, and we put a little pencil in front of them and they're doing that little scribbling and all that, yes, people go, Well, that's nothing, but yes, it is, what it's doing, is what we call fine motor, starting to find and gross motor and connecting with the brain, the eyes and even the tactile senses. So all of those things are happening, but what we tend to do is we just leave a child there, not doing those things. But there are very staged kind of activities, age related, appropriate activity from birth to eight years of age. Oh, wow. So basically exciting, quite frankly. So a

Leaha Crawford 7:09
child, instead of having them watch TV, sit there, give them something and just let

Speaker 2 7:14
them scribble, they can just scribble and they can listen. Do you know when a three year old, you're talking to a three month old, rather and a three month old, and you're saying things like, that's orange juice. Now, are they going to process it right away? No, but what they're going to do is the brain is picking it up. The brain is storing the brain is all around looking for things to start putting in categories. So when I start with my little three month old and walk around and say, That's a tree, that's a rose bush. Now are they processing it totally the way we understand it? No, but the brain is working to figure it all out.

Leaha Crawford 7:52
So basically talk, because I talk to my plants, so talk to the children

Speaker 2 7:57
all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time and see what's happening with brain development, those dendrites and acts on and all of the things that go on with brain development. The brain is working within that child's environment, and trying to start figuring out, how does the child navigate that the brain is an amazing, amazing organ and muscle, and even, even more fabulous than our computer technology. But see what happens. And I say this with love in my heart, and you all hear the love in my heart. Yes, we tend to think that a little three year old or a little three month old is not ready. That is not that is the furthest thing from the truth. And so starting February the 18th through March the 13th, we in the village Foundation have what we call an Early Learning Institute. And I want you all to pop in. You don't have to stay. I'll give you the link. And those that would like to get credit, they can get four credit through the Nevada State Department to learn about the things that I'm talking about. That's February the 18th, okay, through March the 13th. And this is online, by the way. This is zoom, and it's with the Nevada Association of School Administrators, the village Foundation, the Nevada State Department of Education, and the Clark County School District. And it's called the 2025 Early Learning

Leaha Crawford 9:39
Institute. Early Learning Institute. Early Learning Institute. So when you talk about zero to three and just those activities, what about from three to five? What are the different things do they that you can do with a child from three to five? Well, three

Speaker 2 9:55
to five is always everything is kind of developmental. It grows. Okay. Three to five. Do you know how little, how smart some little three year olds are, and the music and the even the athletics and even the reading and the writing, little three year olds are brilliant, sometimes what we have and and I say this, and you guys again, feel the love in my heart. I went to China for two, two different times to China. My God, you sort of saw what two year olds were doing. They invest in their early learning. They invest especially with the moms. They keep them to one. Do you know that state, a governmental Educational Agency, take those children from two on from two on two years of age on I know. I know, yeah, yeah. And if I might add one more thing, why is it important for three or two or three or four year old to be able to connect with us? Their world is exploding at that age. What's happening with the cells and the connections with what's going on with the brain, and what's going on with the student is that much of their lives are starting to connect at two and three. And so what has happened to many of our young people, our young and I say this sometimes, for students of color, is that they don't get those experiences that put what I call a strong developmental foundation. Some of my parents, who are a little bit more affluent or who are more educated, do a lot with their two, three and even one year olds. They're working with those kids all the time, and so by the time they get to be five, they have the mentality sometimes of seven and eight year olds, and that's because consistently talking to them, talking to them. There's all kind of little activities. There's little drawing things you can do. There's little things you can do with blocks and collar play dough a ton. If I listed out all the little things that you can do with a one, two or three year old, you have more fun too. You have a ball. Wow.

Leaha Crawford 12:12
But it's very important to really start working with your children at that age,

Speaker 2 12:18
at the especially. And this is what hurt me, and I'll have to say, I'm a part of the system that did not do the right thing. I didn't know I was a high school teacher. I did not know. I did not know how important the developmental ages from one or birth to about eight years of age. I didn't know. Nobody told me we were in a bubble. And so we thought at high school, we thought at high school, late, well we were doing we were put in a little, little container, that this is what we were supposed to do, and that's what we did. And nobody told us that it was important. What was going on with a little baby, three month old baby, or six month old baby, or one, two or three year old. How

Leaha Crawford 13:01
important is stability in a child's life? How important is stability? It's critical.

Speaker 2 13:07
It's critical. You're talking about social, emotional learning now, and you're talking about, certainly, academics and physical and and you're also talking about the awareness and children are tied in to the feeling of comfort and love and all the things that we talk about that makes any human being feel supported and and can grow when there is that kind of terror. And again, you know, I'm not trying to stereotype here, but when there is a child that's left alone with wet diapers, or a child that's left alone and nobody's talking to them, or a child that's left alone and they don't understand their world and their world is very fragmented or even fearful. Then they grow up that way, and that's and that goes into that whole brain and social and emotional and sometimes, and I'll say this again, y'all feel the love in my heart. And I say this only to make a point. We don't give the kindness and love you. Shut up. You crying. Just shut up. No, no. We don't talk to babies like that. We don't talk to let's

Leaha Crawford 14:20
figure out why you crying. Good question. Let's figure out, why are you crying? Well,

Speaker 2 14:24
you want, you want that cookie. Okay? And I'm saying, talk about the cookie. Yes, talk about the cookie. Yeah, we talk about the cookie. Let's talk about that. And so even with a little two, three or four year old or one year old, and you say you can't have the cookie because we're going to eat some other food. Talk to a child like you're talking to an adult. You don't have to now. Don't do that, little baby girl, don't do that, Mommy. Don't like that. No. Baby Talk. Stop it. No. Baby talk, no. Baby talk, no. Dr Young, I know that. No baby talk. Oh.

Speaker 3 15:00
I became alive. Why? What's wrong with baby talk? Let

Speaker 2 15:05
me tell you why children mimic what you say. They're going to follow. If you say no, what did you do that by not what? Not nice? What do you think they're going to do birthday? They're going to repeat it. They're going to you. And guess what? The brain is actually recording that too. So if you say no, I'm not saying you have to do strong, strong adult talk behavior. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying you have to do that, but I am saying you need to start working and talking with this young child like you're talking to another person, because they're going to follow your language pattern and how you speak and even your pauses and even your inflections, they're going to follow that why? Because you're the person that's there for them. It's important. And I say this again, don't baby talk your children. Don't do that now or speak to

Leaha Crawford 16:09
them. Let's take them to positive light. Talk to them useful sentences, yes, teach them how to pronounce their words and use their exactly, use their tongue and

Speaker 2 16:18
and, and even use the kind of colorful imagery that we put into language. All right. So

Leaha Crawford 16:28
all of that, all of this background, led you to be a part of the founder of the village foundation. Yo, it was a little more than that. All right, come on, let's go. Let's go village Foundation. Because the village foundation, I mean, that is you, and you have 15 years now, 15 years now. So why the village found why? I'm sorry, the village Foundation,

Speaker 2 16:48
l, j, p, love, joy and peace. Galatians, 522, 23 All right, got it. Got it. Got it. No, you're not a village foundation well and and you guys are understand what I'm saying, and you know what I what I mean when I say this. This was really not my my whole thing. This was a calling to do, okay? And I get calling some I kind of hang up my phone at two or three in the morning from it. I got a calling. And that was what happened with me when I ran on school board. I didn't want to run on school board. I don't like school boards. I don't like politics. And I got a calling to do that, and I got a and then while I'm on the school board, I'm just getting on the school board. I got in i i ran 2008 and one, so 2009 I'm on the school board, and I'm going, oh my god, okay, all right. God, if this what you want me to do, I'm gonna do and then I get kind of a push, and I had talked about it to do a foundation. Now, why would I want to do a foundation? And I am now on the school board, which is crazy stuff going around. And did I say crazy? Did I

Leaha Crawford 18:00
say crazy, but go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, that's we won't. We won't dig into, no, we won't dig into the crazy. But what about, oh, my God, but we're talking about the village Foundation.

Speaker 2 18:08
And so the village foundation, I got a call to do that because, again, I'm working in District C, and I'm looking around, and I'm seeing so many of my young children, young people. Dropping out of school. Education is the key to the future. And I'm thinking like, what can we do? What can people like me, who are I'm not directly in the schools anymore, because I was a principal in the schools and I was, I was working as a lot of a lot of physicians in the school district, what can I do? What can we do? And it came to me, we need to have more partners, more people who can support who understand education, and can support education and lift children up. When other people walk away, we try to jump in and we try to help understand. So that was the foundation for the village. That was the the impetus, impetus. It was, it was foundation. I love it, yeah, to say that we are here for you and we believe in you. The greatest gift we can give our our children, our child, is our belief in them,

Leaha Crawford 19:22
belief in them. So let me ask. So every year you have your annual fundraiser, and this will march 1. This year, March 1. So tell us a little bit about the fundraiser. What happens at this fundraiser?

Speaker 2 19:33
Well, first of all, and I say this again, do not come if you don't want to have fun. And do not come unless you want to understand that this is all a part of lifting up the family, lifting up the community and lifting up the student. So we're a nonprofit. We take no money March 1 about six o'clock, and we do have what we call a silent auction, and we have some things that you can bid on. And it all goes to the foundation. We're non profit, so we take no money. So I love it.

Leaha Crawford 20:04
I love it. So with the on March 1, so you can get more information at Village V, I, L, L, A, G, E, starfish.org, that's village starfish.org. So proceeds, because I know you give scholarships.

Speaker 2 20:21
We give each year, this year, this year, 2024, September the seventh, at the College of Southern Nevada, we invite our students to come back, or if they can come on the phone or on or connect with us. And we give 46 students dollars in their name. Yes, we used to, and we've had it. We've done it several ways. We've in a student's account, but the students can't access it. We have found that students in school, and we don't give it to the parent. We used to give it to the parents, and we used to give it to the school. We

Leaha Crawford 20:59
you got to be in school. Have to be in school. You have

Speaker 2 21:03
to be you have to show us that you're already signed up. We have, you have to show us your attending classes. We write, I'll check in your name, okay? And we had 46 students. We did that too. So is there application process? Yes, there is. There's an application process, all right? And they can go to our village, starfish.org, and

Leaha Crawford 21:21
the information about the application. So if you know a student 12th grade,

Speaker 2 21:25
they have to be, they have to be ready to graduate, right?

Leaha Crawford 21:29
12th grade, about to graduate, going they can even be in college and in college, okay, so if you're 12th grade, or if you're in college, right? So basically, look village starfish for an application, right, for a good application. So you take time to write, read and write, read and write. And can

Speaker 2 21:46
I add one more thing for our students, we have found that $500 it sounds really small, because people just come after me. No, it goes a long way. Well, the student, they come up to me. So why are you only giving kids 500 give them 1000 give them 2000 and we said, listen, we've done that, but we have found that sometimes a new pair of shoes, another jacket, a down blanket, a slow cooker, a little bit of money to buy another software, piece of software

Leaha Crawford 22:16
makes a difference, makes a difference, and you're able to help more people. We are able to

Speaker 2 22:21
help more people. We're looking to go to 50 students this year. I love it, I love it. I love it. And you have been helping us. By the way, you know that behind the scenes, behind the scenes have helping us get our paperwork together. Yes, yes. You have,

Leaha Crawford 22:35
yes, we I have. Well, I want to tell you first, thank you. Thank you for entrusting my company to work with you so that we can, you know, because paperwork is important. Why paperwork is very important the 990s because when you're talking to donors, they want to know that you're filing the taxes and that you're doing the things to handle the business of a nonprofit. Because just because it's a nonprofit doesn't mean you don't have business, right? So we make sure that we take care of the business for the village foundation. What has been the most amazing experience you've had in education?

Speaker 2 23:09
Well, I'll give you. Maybe we only have a few minutes. Okay, I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give you two. Okay, my first is just being amazed at that little sixth grader that I knew had the potential. And I used to tell my teachers all the time, you respect that little 12 year old, a little 11 year old, because they're going to grow up and do some big things, and to watch them grow up and do some big things. And I said, I knew you would. I mean, it's amazing to see that. And then I've had one or two that are teachers. I have one that when I was working with Gerson Park, she's a principal. Now, I've had a couple that are in politics right now, county commissioners and State Assembly and station, I'm telling you, is something. It's amazing. It's amazing. And they're smart, but they were smart then too. Okay, okay, they were smart. And my second thing, you know, God gives us an opportunity to give back, yes, and we have to to whom much is given. Much is required. Is required, yes. And people reached back and believed that I could do it as a little 11 and 12 year

Leaha Crawford 24:25
old. So now you're reaching back to another 12 year old. You can do it absolutely. And that's how you grow community. That's how

Speaker 2 24:31
we grow communities. And we also have to understand that we have talent that we need to give to the next generation, yes, yeah, so that they can make fresh mistakes, technology mistakes. Okay, new mistakes, new mistakes, but they shouldn't be repeating them. They shouldn't, they shouldn't repeat the mistakes that I've made. Got it, got it. So that that's probably it.

Leaha Crawford 24:52
That's probably it. Well, I want to tell you. First of all, I want to thank you. Thank you. Thank you for accepting the invitation. We're going to go over this event. It is on. March 1, and where is the event?

Speaker 2 25:01
The event is going to be in the Valencia ballroom, the JW Marriott in Summerlin village,

Leaha Crawford 25:06
starfish.org to learn more about the village Foundation, to see what is going on, I can tell you that it is. It has been a pleasure working with you, and I've learned a lot today, really about the importance of children. Oh my god, the importance of that. Zero to eight. That's zero to eight because and then we've had other people on talking about the prison pipeline, and we're not going to get into the prison pipeline. And I did that too. Yeah, the prison lot of years. Yep, the prison pipeline is eight years old. They can tell at eight. And I guess that makes sense, because if you're not doing the foundational things from zero to eight, by eight year old, you I mean by there, yeah, you can tell, you can tell you can't read. Can't you cannot read. We have

Speaker 2 25:49
the whole thing. We say, you look, we teach you to read, and then you learn to read, and then you read to learn. And you read to learn. Yes, and if you can't read to learn, from the third, fourth and fifth, you're done well,

Leaha Crawford 26:01
the other side too is I know for me, I'm a reader, so I learned how to I was reading at three. I was reading Dr Seuss books and some and you loved it, didn't you? Oh, my God, because you, you for me. Now, when I want to escape and I really can't go to the airport, I get a book. There you go. It's a cheap flight, and I have a library. I still have a library card. And every once in a while I go to know what, let me just find a good fiction book. Let me just go. Let me just get caught up in somebody else's world. Yeah, let me just do that. But you can, because your imagination, oh

Speaker 2 26:36
my God, and it's very vivid, isn't it? Oh, pictures and the colors, yes, your brain after you read all that.

Leaha Crawford 26:43
It's funny. You say that because I love children's books. I love children's books just, just the slowness of them, the simplicity of it. It's not complicated. It's not, you know,

Speaker 2 26:54
I'm doing five. Are you I got one almost. Well, one is finished. I

Leaha Crawford 26:59
look forward to, well, when you finish the books, I look forward to bringing you back on and us talking about, oh my God, all right. Well, you've been listening to growth and grace. I am. Leah Crawford, my co host, Tiffany Lloyd, is not here again. I want to say thank you to both of you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. You know, I listen. I love you, love you, love you. Dr, Linda young, I appreciate you coming on here, sharing with us. And you know, just sharing, letting us learn a little bit about who Dr Linda E is, because we see the name, okay, and now we get to hear, hear, talk to her and feel her energy. All right, y'all until next week, we will, you know, peace and love, and we hope that you have an amazing weekend. Stay warm. It is January in Las Vegas, and people can't believe it is sometimes 50 degrees here in Vegas. You know, we went from 120 to 50. See, I'll take it Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Las Vegas. All right, until next week. Peace and blessing. Do well. Bye,

Unknown Speaker 27:54
bye, bye.