Austin Bailey, Public Relations Coordinator for Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy in Mooresboro, North Carolina joined The Third Talk’s® John Van Arnam for a Zoom interview regarding John’s appearance on May 12, 2022.
John begins the conversation asking Austin what he thought about the event and Austin proceeded to comment on the importance of this subject, how eye-opening the presentation was and how excited the staff are to get John back to speak again.
“Parents, a lot of times, don’t know how to talk to their children about things like this online,” Mr. Bailey said. “They might come at [their child] one way, say something, and then their child shuts down. … You really opened an alternative path to have that conversation, to start that conversation, and I think every parent there needed that because talking about that sort of stuff is not easy.” He want on to elaborate, “Our entire professions, what we went to school for, what we’ve worked hard to achieve in these administrative positions is to help children, is to help our students. And there’s no really way better to do that than to not not only help prepare them for what they’re going to see, for what – you hate to use this word but for what opportunities there are on the internet to see that sort of explicit material. And so for us as educators, as administrators, we work in the school system because we want to better the lives of the students we deal with each and every day. It’s more than just academic; it’s character, it’s behavior. And a lot of times, administrators and educators, we see these children more than their parents do. That’s not uncommon. You know, parents have to work. Our work is to work with their children. So, I think it’s so vital for each and every school to have the opportunity to hear [John] come out, and to hear those same statistics we just talked about and truly understand the impact explicit material has on these children, and how easy it is for them to get a hold of it and to share it with their friends. It’s not just one person finding it, it’s then sharing it.”
John asked Austin for his final thoughts and he responded, “I think that the main point I want to get across is that this program is important. [The Third Talk] is important because it is hard to find an individual this program will not impact. And I know you made the comment before, a lot of parents say, ‘Well, this couldn’t be my child,’ you know, ‘We didn’t raise our child this way.’ But peer pressure is real. Friends see things, they share it with their friends. I think it’s so important to utilize this tool you have and help and really try to get in front of this problem and be apart of the solution before it becomes something that’s too late to have a solution and we just have to react on our heels.”
John has a 22-year history protecting children from viewing explicit online material and is the creator of the Parent’s Guide, the eBook and Video Series that helps parents initiate this difficult conversation with their kids.
We also invite you to watch and read our Parent and Professional Testimonials and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for the many videos we create covering this topic. This is exactly the conversation we are having; it needs to be parents, and we’re here to help you have that conversation.
Parent’s Guide: https://thethirdtalk.org/the-third-talk-parents-guide/
Consultations: https://thethirdtalk.org/coaching-sessions/
Request an Appearance: https://thethirdtalk.org/book-the-third-talk/
