What happens when social media alters the ways teenagers interact and form relationships? How do we safely navigate the digital landscape while preserving authenticity in these exchanges? Join me, Jason Stratton, and my eldest son, Lee Stratton, as we delve into these questions, sharing personal stories and real-world experiences. We address how platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are reshaping social dynamics amongst young people, while stressing the essential aspect of caution in the virtual world.
We also venture into the shadows of social media, addressing the all-too-common issue of cyberbullying. Sharing from personal encounters that Lee has faced, we guide you through how to recognize signs of bullying and effective strategies in response to such situations. We further explore the life-changing lessons Lee learned from switching schools and coping with the loss of his father, a narrative which will undoubtedly strike a chord with many.
But our journey doesn't end there. Together, we discuss how to foster self-confidence in young people, the value of goal setting, and the importance of fostering interests in academics and sports. We wrap up the episode with tangible tips for high school and college success - advocating for the appreciation of diverse friendships, exploration, and the timeless value of reading. Whether you're a parent, a student, or a curious listener, this is an episode that will surely provide a wealth of insights and practical tips. Tune in now to understand the profound impact of social media on our lives and get equipped to better navigate these digital waters.
What happens when social media alters the ways teenagers interact and form relationships? How do we safely navigate the digital landscape while preserving authenticity in these exchanges? Join me, Jason Stratton, and my eldest son, Lee Stratton, as we delve into these questions, sharing personal stories and real-world experiences. We address how platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are reshaping social dynamics amongst young people, while stressing the essential aspect of caution in the virtual world.
We also venture into the shadows of social media, addressing the all-too-common issue of cyberbullying. Sharing from personal encounters that Lee has faced, we guide you through how to recognize signs of bullying and effective strategies in response to such situations. We further explore the life-changing lessons Lee learned from switching schools and coping with the loss of his father, a narrative which will undoubtedly strike a chord with many.
But our journey doesn't end there. Together, we discuss how to foster self-confidence in young people, the value of goal setting, and the importance of fostering interests in academics and sports. We wrap up the episode with tangible tips for high school and college success - advocating for the appreciation of diverse friendships, exploration, and the timeless value of reading. Whether you're a parent, a student, or a curious listener, this is an episode that will surely provide a wealth of insights and practical tips. Tune in now to understand the profound impact of social media on our lives and get equipped to better navigate these digital waters.
Do you think there's any tells that parents should be looking for?
Speaker 2:It's not because as teenagers. You guys are quiet, as it is, yeah, yeah and disjointed usually if, like your, your child has something that they love doing and like they stopped like doing it, like if they stop loving that's a good tell yeah yeah, like for me. Like, for example, like if I stopped going to the gym, right, you'd be like. I wonder why he's doing that, because that's like such a routine part of my day.
Speaker 1:So people so. So parents should be looking out for kids that have passions that they just stop because they may be stopping because they're being bullied about that passion, for sure Someone else, sure. That's a great one. Yeah, I like that. What's the five p's? Do you remember it?
Speaker 2:proper preparation prevents powerful performance there you go.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter how much money we get, if we don't close, it's no money, right? So no clothes is no money. I'm everything that I am because of my dad's death, and I wouldn't be as successful without his death. Hello and welcome to the Jason theory podcast. This is season two, episode eight, and we have a special guest. Our guest today is my oldest son, lee Leonidas Jason Stratton. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing good, all right. So we are going to Try not to embarrass him, but definitely get what it's about to be a high school or these years. And the first question I'm gonna ask you because I just made a pop, I just made a post and your mom had something to say about it how do people do people In high school Ask for each other's phone numbers?
Speaker 2:I feel like not as much, because there's like so much other social networking like snapchat, instagram. You kind of kind of look up the person, so so if you like a girl, I'm not saying this is what you do.
Speaker 1:So if you like a girl and you want to ask her out, how does it, how does it work? Is it like a group environment? Parents want to know, like how are their kids Meeting people, going out and like having dates?
Speaker 2:I mean usually it's over snapchat snapchat. You can get like mutual friends and so what's what snapchat?
Speaker 1:This is what I feel is the devil. But what is snapchat?
Speaker 2:It's like similar to like just texting, but you can like you send more like pictures and there's like you can make uh like groups of, like group chats and stuff like that it's basically text does, yeah, but does isn't, snaps whole thing that it disappears or no.
Speaker 1:Am I totally off? Am I totally being crap?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, yeah, there's, there's some some truth to that, but like you can change, like how long your snaps sent for you can like save stuff too, so it's different.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you can. Okay, so you can send something, and oh, it's changed, okay, so now just not sends, it just disappears, it stays. So you just how do you get to their snap though, do you like? Hey, you know, I know a friend of a friend and you make it that way and then make an introduction on snap.
Speaker 2:I mean there's like a like a quick ad feature with like Mutual friends and you can just go down there and just click like add everyone from that.
Speaker 1:All right. So you have a friend and you know that friend Is friends with this girl. You can go on your friend site and just add that person to your snap.
Speaker 2:I mean not on their site, because it's less profiles, it's more like like contacts, right?
Speaker 1:So like, if they so walk me through this. How do you, how do you introduce yourself? So you wanted to do this, I'm gonna get at you. So you want, you want to, you want to meet somebody. You want to say, hey, you want to hit them up, hey, what's going down, um. So how do you do that? How do you get to them without walking up to them and saying, hey, can I have your phone number? And then I have a follow-up question, because it's usually it.
Speaker 2:Usually I do it in person, you do it in person. Yes, snap isn't as good, because the people you meet on snap aren't always like like. They're sometimes really weird.
Speaker 1:Well, no, I'm saying if you know someone okay, okay. So if you, if you know someone you want to meet, you're just gonna walk up to in person. You're not gonna hit them up socially. Because I just asked you, do you ask people for phone numbers? And you're like, no, we don't do that.
Speaker 2:Well, like, I don't like, if you just want to add someone, you just go to that, you can just type their name in and then so you have to know their name. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You type their name in and you say and you request to follow them yeah, or?
Speaker 2:request to be friends. There's no following. It's not a friend. Yeah okay.
Speaker 1:And then once they say, yeah, I want to be your friend, you know that, hey, there's some mutual interest, because people could just say, no, I don't want to be a friend. Yeah and then once they say Uh, hey, I want to be your.
Speaker 2:Most people accept, just like all the requests they got a bunch of friends with like Thousands of people added, so it's not really like but that's probably not here.
Speaker 1:Co-op closer than Mike's, we can hear you, but that's probably not great, because then people are invited into whatever you're doing and that's a problem. Right, we could talk about that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah so?
Speaker 1:So you request something. That person comes back to you and says, hey, yeah, I'm into like, meeting you. And then where do you go from there? Hey, I'm hanging out on Michigan Avenue or hanging out in bucktown or hanging out at the zoo, and you know we're all meeting up. Is it more of a like? Do people at your age do more of a group dynamic first?
Speaker 2:Yeah, usually you want to start off with like a group, like a couple groups, like because I know when in the beginning you know like I had a, but like after, after all those Wednesdays we had like people would come over to my house, yeah, yeah, like that's how you would probably do it, but it'd be like at like a public area. So usually it's like people, a lot of people, go to the beach, okay, or a water tower. I've been there a couple times.
Speaker 1:But there's a downside to this and let's talk about that to the downside to Uh, snapchat and social media is that people just invite everybody into it. Yeah and can use that as a weapon to Be me, to bully.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like that you like switch topics really fast. I feel like we went well, that's what we're gonna do we're switching topics.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, so you can use this app to meet people and have a good time, but at the same time, it can be used as a method to bully.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the same with everything you could say that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, well, let's talk about that then. So social media now is giving people Some voices that don't have to basically Sit to your face and tell you what they want to say, and they can hide behind this, so that I'm just getting what I'd say it's, it's.
Speaker 2:You can't really hide behind it, because it has your name, all this stuff attached, your low, like some people for their location. So I feel like it's like snapchat's like not as good an example as that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it would be more. What would be more of a better example of that iG where you could do a burner? Yeah definitely for sure. Do people do people in high school? No, but they don't do burner accounts and try to go out.
Speaker 2:I don't know anyone with a burner account. I don't look at a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how do you feel the difference is between, let's say, fifth, sixth and seventh grade and now you as a sophomore? How do you feel like you, being a person the only person I know that's grown up with social media 24-7. How has social media changed for you in terms of what you use it for and where you see it going, versus in grammar school or when you first got your phone till now? To where do you see it going in the future and what are the great things that could happen in the future with this, and what do you feel are some of the pitfalls that could happen?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when I was younger, I feel like social media was more just like video games. That's all anyone used it for. When I was younger, fortnite was huge, right, so that's what everyone would talk about, that Everything would have to do with Fortnite. So the social media would be just talking about Fortnite. Yeah, video games, especially Fortnite, yeah. But now it's graduated. Now I get a lot more sports stuff like that. Now I have a lot of people that I follow on Instagram, so there's thousands of posts from a bunch of people. It's less like it used to be big companies that would just post, but now it's like a bunch of other people.
Speaker 1:Do you feel and we'll get into the bad side but do you feel like if you want to know something, like if you're like I wanna know what's going on in the world, are you gonna turn on? They call it legacy media, so are you gonna turn on CNN, fox 2, 9, 5, 7, or is the first thing you're gonna do is hashtag and get online and get your notes, your news from the phone?
Speaker 2:Never the phone. I mean, I feel like there's just too much misinformation.
Speaker 1:So where do you feel in the future people are gonna be getting their news from, like, what kind of source can you trust?
Speaker 2:I mean I think people will still trust the phone for some reason. I mean we've seen it with the newspaper. That's like basically like obsolete now, right yeah. And then like news channels are declining and people are leaning more towards their phone. I mean I feel like it will build up its credibility because as something falls, the other thing will build up, like newspapers had all the credibility and then now it's news channel.
Speaker 1:Then it was news channels right.
Speaker 2:So I feel like that little, that flip will kind of happen. But I feel like it's not, it won't be bad like later, because I feel like there's definitely some side of credibility.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then on the downside, in social media in the future, where do you see just continuing to have people that shouldn't have a voice? Have a voice? Well, everybody should have a voice, but just sometimes people give credibility to voices that should just not have credibility.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, and also like it just like kind of making everyone driven over like technology, like I know a bunch of people that are like just driven over like how others perceive them. That's like never, that's like never good, like to have just your perception of yourself based on how others see you.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's get into that. I really like that, and especially parents like this is a huge. This is a huge problem. And you know when you're when. How do you? When people are saying stuff about you on social media and every kid gets this, so it's not a lee thing. I mean, I can talk to every single parent and every single parent has issues with bullying on social media, people saying stuff, how do you and how do you cope and I guess copes the wrong word but how do you sit back and tell yourself I don't care what X, y and Z says, this is who I am and it is who I is. Like, how do like? What do you go to to yourself, like I mean I don't want to say this word because I don't think it's true. I mean I don't think you have it. It's like there's not a mantra where you sit down and you two flower brooding like James does, I know.
Speaker 1:My six year old does flower breathing when he he goes awry. So we're not doing flower breathing. Yeah, usually we're not doing, you know, but like I know, like what?
Speaker 2:do you? How do you cope with that? Just rationalize it. You know, like they're saying this stuff over a screen like like, what are they like? What's their like? What's the real point?
Speaker 2:Like the stuff that you're saying like has no, has no meaning because it's not sincere. Like if someone wants to say it face to face, like you know, maybe I'd put more thought into it, but like when it's over the, when it's over like text or over like a over a post or something like that. I mean, I feel like it's not. It's not as does have enough magnitude for me to like really take hold of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's a very educated answer and we have had this discussion because we've had. Everyone has episodes and moments. Do you think that conversations that you and I and mom have had about people hating or this or perception, do you think the conversations that we have had have helped you cope with that?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, in the beginning because like it was like I was kind of new to the whole social media thing and like how other people like already established and stuff like that. And I feel like as soon as I like figured out, like all right, this stuff doesn't matter. Or, you know, like they just it's just doing it for like, like, like others, like like enjoyment, like it's. You know it is what it is.
Speaker 1:How do you think parents or what are the tell tales where parents need to get involved, where they need to come in and say, hey, this is what people are saying to you. Let's talk about the fact that this is BS. This is how you would do. This is like, cause me and you have had conversations where it's like, hey, man, you know, haters are gonna hate and no one talks smack about somebody that they're not jealous on. I mean, that's the truth. I mean there's no reason. The only reason people say bad things about bad people is cause they feel bad about themselves and they don't know how to handle being bad about themselves and fixing themselves. So do you think there's any tells that parents should be looking for?
Speaker 2:It's not. Yeah, I mean cause as teenagers.
Speaker 1:You guys are quiet, as it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and disjointed Usually. If, like your child, has something that they love doing and like they stopped like doing it, like if they stop loving doing it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good tell, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like for me, like, for example, like if I stopped going to the gym, right, you'd be like. I wonder why he's doing that, cause that's like such a routine part of my day.
Speaker 1:So people, so parents should be looking out for kids that have passions that they just stop, because they may be stopping cause they're being bullied about that passion by someone else, that's a great one. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2:Trying to think of some other ones. And that's a really good one.
Speaker 1:You don't think of that one. That's a good one.
Speaker 2:That's all I can think of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you hit that out of the park, so that's good. So you know I will to Lee's horn. So Lee left a private school because we had a path that we wanted to go to. We went to an options program in Chicago. We don't want to offend anybody, so options means gifted, so we don't want people that get to a gifted program to feel that they've accomplished anything, cause we can't have kids feel that they've accomplished stuff. That's like really bad, that's total sarcasm. So Lee went to a gifted program, tracked, did great. Was that? The school for two years Was the valedictorian Gave, a great speech, gave a shout out to Kobe Bryant on the speech.
Speaker 1:The speech is on TikTok. It's fantastic. Then got into the number two school in the nation, at Peyton. I would love to talk about being at Peyton and what your so. Being at any academic school, that's higher learning, that's an elite school. What was your perceptions going into Peyton? And were you nervous? You know, was it? I don't know what to expect. I'm not gonna be able to hang. What were your thoughts going into the school?
Speaker 2:I mean kind of like a mixture of all those you know, because I've never been to like a school that like high caliber. You know what I mean and we only knew one person that's been there, right. So like my mom has a bunch of friends at Lane that the kids have gone to Lane right. So I've had a bunch of sources like around that high school but I never knew anything about Peyton right. We never even toured the school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we never saw the school or like we're doing it.
Speaker 2:We saw the school or we put the ranking on there. Yeah, we never experienced like the Peyton field what gave?
Speaker 1:you the balls to do that. We toured Lane. I mean Lane was where we're going. So you score perfect on the entrance test and you're like I'm gonna go for it, but like I don't think. I mean I remember when you got your score as we sat there I mean it was a 10 second decision like I'm doing it Never stepped in the school. We knew nothing about it, we just knew that this is the hardest to get into. And you're like I got into it, I'm doing it. What, what, what? You just just having confidence in yourself, like what, what can a parent teach their child to take on that decision?
Speaker 2:Because it ain't easy. I feel like it's all self-confidence, you know, and like sometimes, like as a parent, you have to let your child struggle like a lot to make them find their own way. And like when I, when I figured that stuff out, I really had like a lot of confidence in myself and I feel like if you were to fail, you'd learn like how to find confidence in yourself.
Speaker 1:And that's how I felt like I went into pain. Do you to get on that failing thing? Do you sometimes, when you put yourself into positions to fail which is how you achieve goals is to fail? When you do fail sometimes, what do you say to yourself to kind of say I'm gonna keep grinding even though I'm failing?
Speaker 2:I mean I watch progress, like let's say, for example, I was trying to run them like a mile, right. I watch like, and let's say I didn't get it right, I'd watch the time me like get closer to the desired time, right. So I'd be like, well, there's clearly progress, so soon enough, if I keep working, I'll get to it, you know. So I feel like tracking progress is a huge thing to like maintaining motivation.
Speaker 1:So one of the big things that Lee does. He's a creature of habit, but he also is very goal oriented, task oriented. I think for a lot of kids you know, and I can speak this for you know every kid's different. I can speak this for will A lot of kids don't set those goals and I think it's hard for a child. And I would tell a parent, you know, if they wanna know, like whenever I taught something, they're like oh, lee got into Peyton. They're like, oh, tell us. I'm like is goal oriented you gotta have, you gotta have. You gotta be able to track progress like you do. First off, it keeps you motivated and when you do have setbacks, you know that you've made progress. So the setbacks aren't really setbacks.
Speaker 1:I think if you don't teach your child how to have daily tasks and I'm not saying massive tasks, I mean a task could be brush your teeth, make your bed and pour yourself a glass of milk. That's a task. I mean it's just getting to that thing where you can hold yourself accountable. Lee has always been somebody that can hold himself accountable and I hold Lee accountable from a young age too, which I think parents don't do. I think there's something people don't wanna hold people accountable and I think not holding your child accountable is just gonna breed a person who's unaccountable. So I think that being able to hold yourself accountable or have a child hold self accountable get to the spot where when you do test and to patent or you do wanna go for it, you're okay with it because you know the progress you've made to get to that spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because people are goal oriented Humans wanna achieve stuff, and I gotta tell you especially and we may not wanna talk about the difference between sexes, but I will at any point boys especially need to have that structure and that goal structure. That's just how they operate. It just is what it is. There's that book Menophram Mars and Menophram Venus once a war. It's the truth. I mean there's just differences in how they're raised and boys need that structure. Speaking of structure, how about? What would you tell a parent who has a child that isn't the best in their sport or has struggling in the sport or, you know, is just upset where they're at? Not that they need to be rock stars or MVPs or all stars, but where do you see where you are right now, which is fantastic? Where you see right now in sports. What did that play in you getting to where you are?
Speaker 2:Well, I went to a basketball camp a couple months ago and it was really, really insightful and I learned a lot about like mentality and I feel like being able to like slow down and assess like where you are is really helpful, like something for me. Like I was struggling in baseball this year, right, so I slowed down, I assessed my weaknesses, right, and then like I got to work on that stuff and like like doing stuff you don't want to do is like always the best for you.
Speaker 1:So you're saying yeah, so that you're saying what you've gotten out of sports. Forget about the fun and the winning and the losing, but the guideline for you would got a sports is being able to attack things that you are deficient and not worrying about the fact that you fail from those things. Yeah for sure, because everything in life, whatever you're great at, you don't need to work on. It's what stuff that you're not good at that? You need to work on Plyometrics. So where do you see yourself to someone that's looking at a child that's in high school? You're going to be, you're rising sophomore. I don't understand that term, but you're a sophomore coming up in 20 days Having one year of high school under your belt.
Speaker 2:what are things that you learned about high school that you either were misconceptions or you're like had like a clairvoyant moment where you're like, oh, yeah, I know, I feel like there's so many people like no matter where you go, there's always at least one or two people that are, like very, very similar to you. I feel like if you can find a kind of spread yourself out, like especially in like the early stages of high school, like if you're going into freshman year, like freshman connection, like find other people that are similar to you and, you know, hang around those people, that's really important and like sometimes it's hard to do because you don't want to extend yourself out, but that's something that you've got to do.
Speaker 1:So what do you mean? Extend yourself out to other people, like people that you would not normally be friends with.
Speaker 2:No, it's not like you wouldn't normally like going out of your way to talk to people. You know, like some people, some people like naturally wired to do that, like that's not one of my things, right, I usually stick around people that I like I know, right. But like going out and talking to other people can create like new friendships, right, and if those people, if you discover those people, would be like you, you know you got a solid friend for four years.
Speaker 1:And that's the, that's the number one thing that you kind of picked up your freshman year is just start talking to other people and branching out, yeah, okay. And then where do you see yourself like what do you want to work on as a junior and senior? I mean, obviously you want, you're like thinking about college and this and that, but where do you see yourself in terms of your self work, like like, where do you feel like you need to work on as you, as you progress?
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't really know, like when you're talking about self, but like Well, you said you worked on talking to people that you don't know. Well, yeah, that's, that's definitely one of them. But I feel like I've done enough of that right. So where I now have like some like a stable group of friends right, where I have like people to talk to and like people to hang out with like all the time, right, so I feel like that's definitely like did like kind of achieve that goal within myself.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people move out of the city for high school or, as they're tracking, they're like, hey, we're going to go to the suburbs, we're going to go to this school or this, you know this, or high school and they don't want to deal with. You know what we dealt with in terms of testing and this and that, what are the best things? Give me the three best things about going to high school in the city versus not so like, if there's three things you love about, and it doesn't have to be the school itself, but three things about that you love about going high school in the city of Chicago the stuff you can do after school, Like all the time we sometimes go to the beach like maybe water tower, or we go to like a friend's house because, it's tougher to do that in the suburbs, right, because it's not like as condensed as the city.
Speaker 2:right, there's so much to do, there's so many restaurants to go to, so I feel like that's one of my favorite things about high school in the city.
Speaker 1:Okay, two.
Speaker 2:You get like a bunch of different people. Like a bunch of diverse people because they're coming from all over the city, like especially at like a test in school, right, they don't take the people in the neighborhood, they take the people from all over.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you have different tiers. We have four tiers in the city of Chicago, so you have people from each tier. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I can't think of a last one. The public trends. Yeah, that is nice.
Speaker 1:That's kind of tied to the first one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, getting to be able to move around the city, you know, for a couple dollars.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even though you don't have a license, you're in Jefferson Park, you're in the South Loop, you're in the West Loop, you're in Struyerville. Yeah, I think that's an education itself learning how to manage yourself and how to get around places and figure that out too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's really important, especially if you're going to high school like familiarize yourself with, like maybe the route that takes you home or the route from home to school Feels like that's something I had to learn and I found it like really helpful.
Speaker 1:If you're a seventh grader looking to get into, you know, one of the five tests. Well, there's more than five, but let's say you're a seventh grader looking to get into Whitney Lane, peyton, northside, prep, I'm leaving out only Jones Jones, thank you. What would be some words of advice that you would tell the parents in terms of how to get into those schools, things that not only you did. But maybe, looking back, I mean you scored perfect, so it's kind of tough to see what you messed up on. But, looking back, what could you tell those people to give them a leg up, Like if someone said something to you because we were obviously ignorant. So if someone said something to you in seventh grade, you'd be like, oh perfect.
Speaker 2:Read a lot Read. Make sure you're reading a lot of books, because you can gain new vocabulary and you know, just like it kind of like picks up, like you just like gain new information. Right, that's always useful.
Speaker 1:I always tell the people I was like how to get it? I'm like just fucking read.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's all it is. Yeah read Don't be discouraged by like the things you're bad at. So, like I think when I took the test I got like the mock test. I got like a 40% on like language structure and stuff like that, like sentence structure, right. So instead of being like, all right, let me just work on math, which I got a high school on, right. I'm like I'm gonna be like, all right, let me sit down for 30 minutes every day and get out like get it work on my sentence structure.
Speaker 1:So parents have to look at that practice test and say this is what the problems are Hold your children accountable. Stop doing like I say to Will. Stop doing math. You're ready, testing as a high schooler and start fucking reading.
Speaker 2:Yeah, start reading. You gotta do the stuff you're bad at if you wanna see improvement.
Speaker 1:Yeah, especially if you want you need perfect. So okay, so we have reading. So parents should be like read books, take those practice tests and really hone in on the skills. Your kids are not great at.
Speaker 2:And what's the third thing you think, if there is a third, I mean definitely find like a tutor or someone that's like has good, like academic, like proficiency, like some like an old, maybe like a high schooler already, or like a professional, because I feel like they can teach you like certain tricks that like make the test easier. Like for me it was like how to eliminate answers or like how to solve problems quicker, right, Without looking at like all the numbers and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like getting rid of stuff right off the bat and then focusing Cause. I mean, you may not have it, but I remember when I was testing and this is obviously ancient times, before you know with an abacus. When I was testing, they were like you know, you're gonna have stuff you don't know and you need to guess. But there's a difference between guessing one out of five and guessing one out of two. Yeah for sure, one's 20, one's 50%, so you'd always gotta eliminate those other ones. Those are good ones. I like that. So let's talk about what's coming up for you briefly this year. So you've got you just finished baseball and you're gonna start training for basketball JV basketball are you ready for that? Yeah, and then we have baseball after that. For people how important you know. I just had a discussion with someone like this morning we'll end on this I had a discussion with somebody this morning where their child is in the Whitney, the seventh and eighth at Q Whitney.
Speaker 2:Oh, the academics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and someone in their family is really really great at volleyball, but maybe not Whitney volleyball Like they're cause. Whitney's volleyball team is like one nine out of the 10 championships or something, or else they're crazy, right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's where their principle discresions go. Nothing against that, but that's where they go. So how important would it be? I had this discussion with them. She's like I don't know if she'd make the team at Whitney, but I think she'd test into Peyton too and she knows the coach at Peyton. I know she could play sports at Peyton. We talked about this when you were selecting schools. How important is having that full immersed experience sports academics at your school. I mean, what would you do if you weren't playing basketball and baseball? What would you be like? It would soccer.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, because the whole point of high school is to enjoy it, right? If you're not doing anything outside of school, I mean it gets really boring, not only like lonely too, because a bunch of my friends that I've made have been through sports.
Speaker 1:They're clubhouse boys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I feel like if you don't kind of make those connections or don't have not having something to do, it sometimes it's just crazy boring.
Speaker 1:I think parents really need to make sure that they understand that their child needs a full experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they just need one like maybe like super immersed club or like a super hobby or something like that to keep them going throughout the year, because doing school and then coming back home for five hours, you know it's boring right? You got to have something every day.
Speaker 1:But doesn't the sports also tie into your thoughts of being held accountable and then also slowly being able to work on progress? And I feel that if you didn't play sports when you're young and work on things that you needed to work on, how would you be able to have said, hey, I also need to work on it. Hey, I know I have a great jump shop, but I need to work on my cross. I mean just making sure that I know I have a great job shop.
Speaker 1:Well, you do have a great job shop, but I need to work on my cross and off the dribble and I need to attack that. Then you can go to your studies and say, hey, listen, I'm awesome at this and I suck at this. I need to work on this, I think they tie together.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, that's life, you know, because there's in every facet of life. There's always stuff you're good at and stuff you're not Like. When I started basketball, I had this coach and I sat for 90 minutes every day shooting one handed jump shots.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, he cried I'm never going back, I'm never going back. And he's like and you have a wicked jump shot and it's because of that, yeah, and I think that just shows.
Speaker 2:I think that just shows progress, you know, because I went from shooting like one handed three foot shots and now, like I warm up with that stuff and it's like it's stuff that I can do every day, right, yeah, but like putting it to like academics, right, something you could get better at. It's like so you have like not as proficient math, right, you could start with the easiest stuff and then work your way up, and I feel like that shows. That shows not only growth, but it shows consistency, which is and we've used it in the reverse.
Speaker 1:I've said to you, when you're struggling at like, hitting, or at the plate, I've said, hey, look how you are in school. Yeah, you attack school, that you're bad. I said you just need to do the same thing at the plate. You did it so like you can take lessons in school and reverse them to sports and vice versa. And listen, I think like 3% of the population is going to play professional sports. So we're not talking about playing professional sports and that's the goal. The goal is creating discipline, accountability and the ability to attack what you're not good at and not to be fearful of failing For sure. How many people at your high school that you know don't do stuff because they're just afraid that they're going to fail? I know a lot of people. What's the percentage of that?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:What do you think they would attempt if they knew they wouldn't fail Everything?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how it is. You know, you have extreme confidence yourself, like my younger brother, will. That's his thing. You know. Will still says every day he's a better shooter than me. Right, I've never lost to him in horse, right, I've never lost Not in his head Nope, yeah, he's something else.
Speaker 2:But that extreme confidence is you know how you ground yourself. You know because if you think you're going to fail, I mean there's no point in doing it right, because thinking you're going to fail is you're just setting yourself up to just Well, you sent me that quote.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we used it on. We're using it on Monday, when Ford is like didn't you send me the Ford quote. Yeah, he's like you either going to fail. You either think you're going to fail or you're going to make it. Either way, it's what's going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a we'll end on this but I had a really good friend from college and my father passed on a crazy airplane accident and out of randomly she sent me something and it was and it's still on my desk and it's a piece of steel and in braided and steel it says what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? So like, it's so true that we, especially at your age, parents, at this 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, that really important age, you just have to tell your kids and I say this as because this is how I raised my kids you have to fail. Yeah, if you're not failing, you're just standing, put right. You have to fail Because if you're not failing, you're not striving somewhere that you're not comfortable with.
Speaker 1:And I, you know, listen it was. It's not tough for you, but you've done that and I think Will. Leaving his grammar school and going to a gifted program was tough for him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure it was tough. He's not you, so that's tough. Yeah, he's leaving his friends. He's comfort yeah, he's leaving the comfort right To go to something that can help him get better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think too many times parents are like, oh, you know he can't do that. You know, we mom struggled with you going to the options program and I was like no, this is what we're doing. Like yeah, for sure, Don't be afraid to have your kids Struggle, Move schools, struggle, help them cope, because they're going to come out the other side Fantastic, and they're going to come out like Lee did, and Lee's a fantastic kid. I'm proud of you.
Speaker 2:Please say.
Speaker 1:Oh, I just got emotional, Okay, so thank you so much. Hopefully, parents understand that you need to make your child uncomfortable. You need to push them into ways that makes them fail. Watch their Snapchat. If they love something and they stop doing it, I love that. That's the key, that's the. That's the. That's the 20 second bite. We're going to lead with this. If they love something and they stop doing it, get involved. Get involved in your kids life. What is going on? Why did they stop something they love? There's always a reason, and it normally is a bully on the other end. That's telling them that they suck at it and you tell that person that you tell your kid to turn around and slap them. Can you say that? Yeah, I can. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Jason theory. You can find us literally everywhere audible Amazon. I listened to us on Amazon and I think we have the most plays on Spotify, but also Apple. Be good and we'll see you soon. And thanks again, Lee, Of course. Love you, dad. Thank you very much.