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In this episode of The Advocate, we slow down and reflect on what it truly means to teach, lead, and serve with purpose in a season of exhaustion and noise.

This thoughtful conversation explores teaching as a calling, the emotional weight educators carry, and how burnout often shows up not because teachers don’t care, but because they care deeply. We discuss discipline as communication, the power of being seen, and how one caring adult can change the trajectory of a child’s life.

We also examine the disconnect between schools and families—why parents often feel intimidated in school spaces, how miscommunication fuels frustration on both sides, and what it looks like to move from conflict to partnership. Through real stories and lived experience, this episode highlights the importance of trust, intentional communication, and advocacy rooted in relationship rather than reaction.

This episode is for educators who feel stretched thin, parents who want to speak up but aren’t sure how, and anyone who has ever questioned whether the work they’re doing still matters. It’s a reminder to pause, reflect, and reconnect with your why, because purpose doesn’t disappear just because the work gets hard.

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• Facebook Group: TheAdvocate
• Instagram: @TheAdvocateDr.Love
• Email: Dr.Love.TheAdvocate@gmail.com

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What happens when we slow down long enough to actually listen to children?

In this episode of The Advocate Podcast, Dr. Kristi Love unpacks a powerful social media post that sparked strong reactions and uses it as an entry point into a deeper conversation about communication, authority, and emotional development.

Allowing children to explain themselves is often misunderstood as permissiveness or loss of control. Dr. Love challenges that narrative, clarifying that letting a child speak does not mean removing boundaries, surrendering authority, or excusing behavior. It means teaching a skill.

Drawing from lived experience, generational context, and school-based realities, this episode explores:

• Why many adults struggle to let children explain themselves
• How fear-based parenting and survival strategies show up as silence
• The difference between validation and agreement
• Why assuming children are lying shuts down honest communication
• How lack of voice at home often leads to discipline issues at school
• Why adult accountability, including apologizing when we’re wrong, models integrity and trust

This episode is especially for parents, educators, and school leaders who want to raise and teach children who can advocate for themselves without aggression, speak without fear, and disagree with respect.

Because advocacy isn’t about being loud. It’s about being intentional.

🎧 Listen, reflect, and join the conversation.

Connect With Me

To submit a question or join my mailing list, use the information below.

• Facebook Group: TheAdvocate
• Instagram: @TheAdvocateDr.Love
• Email: Dr.Love.TheAdvocate@gmail.com

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In this episode, we confront a hard truth in education: what happens when discipline becomes a substitute for development. Too often, students, especially those from historically marginalized communities, are punished for behaviors that are actually cries for support, understanding, and growth. We unpack how zero-tolerance policies, exclusionary practices, and adult-centered control can derail academic progress and damage students’ sense of belonging.

Through real-world insights and a culturally responsive lens, this episode challenges educators, school leaders, and families to rethink behavior—not as defiance to be managed, but as communication to be understood. We explore what it looks like to shift from punishment to purpose, from control to connection, and from compliance to care. If we truly want to develop whole children, we must ask: Are our discipline practices helping students grow, or simply pushing them out?

Connect With Me

To submit a question or join my mailing list, use the information below.

• Facebook Group: TheAdvocate
• Instagram: @TheAdvocateDr.Love
• Email: Dr.Love.TheAdvocate@gmail.com