Brad Fulton 

One of the things we used to do was the very first day of school, I gave every child their own inspirational quote. And they would have to say that. If there was a test, I said, one of the questions is that I want your quote written down. I've bumped into kids 10 or 20 years later that can still tell me their quotes and how it affected their life. You know, they literally become part of your family. Some of these kids, you know, 30 years later, I'm still connected to them.

Paul Meunier 

Hello, I'm Paul Meunier, the executive director of the Youth Intervention Programs Association. And I'm a youth worker at heart. How lucky am I, I have the privilege to meet youth workers from around the globe and learn their stories and share them with the entire world. I'm glad you're listening because together, we'll learn how their life experiences shape their youth work. As you listen, I encourage you to consider how your experiences shape what you have to offer young people. Welcome to this edition of The Passionate Youth Worker. Hi, everybody. For this episode, we're joined by Brad Fulton from California in the United States. Brad is a retired middle school STEM teacher, but you would never know he's retired. He's busy as a presenter throughout the United States. And he provides affordable professional development for teachers through his internet business. In 2005, Brad was selected as California's Middle School Educator of the Year. I think you'll find him to be humble and super passionate about our young people. Brad, thanks for being a guest on the show.

Brad Fulton 

Thanks for having me, Paul. It's a pleasure to be here with you.

Paul Meunier 

Well, it's wonderful to have you and I'm eager to dive in. So, let's get going. Brad, you spent four decades, literally 40 years educating our young people. But let's walk through your journey of how you got into this calling. What were your early years like for you?

Brad Fulton 

I hated school as a child, absolutely hated it. I made a vow when I got out of high school that there were certain things I would never do. I would never work with teenagers. I would never become a teacher. And I will never take another math class. So, I majored in English. But when I got my degree, I found out no one was hiring authors. And really about the only thing I could do was teach. So, I thought Okay, I'll get a teaching credential. But the one thing I won't do is teach middle school. I'll teach the little kids who are sweet, innocent, or I'll teach the big kids who are mature but not middle school.

Paul Meunier 

Right.

Brad Fulton 

My student teaching was an absolute disaster. I could have quite easily been failed from it. But the teacher I think, reluctantly passed me. And I got a teaching credential. But I hated it so much that I decided I didn't want to teach and I went into construction for a few years. And I liked that industry. But three days before I got married, the company I worked for went out of business. So, I got married with no job. And I thought, you know, construction is you work for two months, then you're off for three weeks because it's raining, and then you work and then you're off and I thought I need something more stable. So, I hit the classified ads and found a job as an aide in special ed at a ninth-grade high school and worked for a wonderful teacher, loved it. Her husband was a principal at an elementary school and I put in an application there. And he thought that I didn't really fit the job so he handed my application to a middle school principal, without my permission and I got hired there. So, we got into this. And I hated it. I was not good at it, I didn't have classroom control. And every morning before work, I would get physically ill. And that went on for about a year and a half. And I was praying one morning before I went to work and before I got sick, and I said you know I didn't want this job. I didn't even seek this job. But here I am. So, I'm assuming this is where you want me to be. And in fighting this, I'm fighting you. So God, I surrender. And I'll stay until you tell me it's time to quit. I'm still on contract with my school. I just signed a contract for next year, which will be my 43rd year.

Paul Meunier 

Wow. Wow. Well, that's quite a journey into 40 years of service to our young people. Thanks for sharing that. So, a lot of people get into teaching had parents that were educators or other family members. How about in your background? Were there other educators in your family?

Brad Fulton 

No, no, literally, I got into teaching because with an English degree there wasn't a lot that I could do. I thought, you know, maybe I'll be a writer, but no one was hiring writers. Newspapers demanded a degree in journalism, which I didn't have. So, I thought really the only thing I can do with this while I'm waiting for something to happen is to teach English perhaps at a high school or something. And I did teach English for about 10 years. I had a minor in math even though I didn't like math. I minored in it because it was always easy for me. So, it was a nice way to pick up credits and keep my GPA high. After 10 years of teaching English, we went through change in California where our math standards were quite different than the ones I'd grown up with. And they were, there was a lot more creativity in them and a lot more exploration and number sense and things like that. And then just seeing the beauty of mathematics just like an English teacher would see the beauty in literature that I thought, you know, I'm I might be able to teach math under those terms. So, I jumped ship and ended up getting my master's in mathematics education, and I've been in math and STEM ever since.

Paul Meunier 

Got it. When you were young, say like in elementary or early middle school years, did you think at that time you would ever be a teacher or work with young people?

Brad Fulton 

No, I was incredibly introverted as a child, just terrified of groups. So, I did not want to be a teacher. And middle school was just a nightmare for me. That those social interactions and things like that. High school wasn't much better. So, I really didn't want a job that involved working with people very much. But, you know, I kind of landed there. And I think it was providence that put me there. And God has worked with me in a lot of ways to make me adapt in those areas where I'm not suited for this kind of work. Now I'm comfortable at it. I can stand in front of students at a school that I go to, or I can stand in front of a crowd of teachers and present and it doesn't bother me. And that shocks me, it doesn't bother me.

Paul Meunier 

That's interesting. So, your education experience was really not all that positive in terms of especially the social aspect of it, it sounds like. Academically were you pretty good? I mean, you said math came easy.

Brad Fulton 

Straight A's. Yeah, I was the kid where you've heard the phrase, if you had brains, you'd be dangerous. I had brains and I was dangerous. I got straight A's but I was constantly trying to cause problems and questioning my teachers about everything and

Paul Meunier 

Really?

Brad Fulton 

Doing sneaky stuff. Yeah.

Paul Meunier 

Yeah. Like, what sort of ways were you dangerous, what do you mean? Were you acting out or were you just kind of like pushing teachers hard to like, prove what they're saying is true? Or

Brad Fulton 

I mean, yeah, I would question stuff and argue with teachers. I tried to get other kids in trouble. I mean, I was the only way I can describe it I was a rotten little kid, you know. So, it's not something I'm proud of. I don't even know why I did it.

Paul Meunier 

Really. And so, were you getting disciplined? Did your parents have to get involved? I mean, did it get to that point where teachers were calling your parents or in teacher conferences they're saying, hey, look, Brad's pretty smart but boy, he's not really paying attention, or he's causing trouble in the classroom?

Brad Fulton 

For me, it depended on the teacher. My parents weren't lenient. If I did something wrong at home, there were consequences for that. I think that probably more than anything else, it was like if the teacher had good classroom control I behaved. This was back in the days when you could get swats. But if the teacher wasn't good at that, I took advantage of it. And I think it was kind of my way of establishing some kind of control in an environment that I really felt kind of threatened in because of just how introverted and shy I was.

Paul Meunier 

Sure, you could use your brains, it seemed like to kind of find a way to fit in in some sort of way, even though if maybe it wasn't the most positive way. You were using, leaning on your strength, maybe.

Brad Fulton 

And now, when I have a student that's like that, you know, it's like, sometimes they ask me if the kids are misbehaved and they're not as bad as I was at that age. And I'll have a kid sometimes pulling something in class, and I go, yeah, I remember doing that.

Paul Meunier 

So, when at what point do you think you developed such a deep passion for this? You explained your road into it.

Brad Fulton 

Yeah. Yeah.

Paul Meunier 

Is there a moment in time when you just said, you know, this, this is good. I really like this. It feels like it fits my skill set? Or was it just a slow, gradual, you know, road into developing a deep passion for helping young people?

Brad Fulton 

I think it was both, Paul. I think that that prayer that morning really shifted my perspective and put me on the correct pathway.

Paul Meunier 

Got it. Yeah.

Brad Fulton 

Just telling God, I'm going to yield in this and I will stay until you tell me it's time to go. Because I was literally getting off work every day and buying a newspaper and looking for jobs.

Paul Meunier 

Really.

Brad Fulton 

And then the next morning, I'd get sick and go to work again. So, that was a huge shift. And at that point, I started to see the kids, you know, and to connect with them. You know, after that it was kind of a long process, I think. But there were milestones in it. I remember one year I had a class of it was literally a math class of about 15 or 20 behavior problems all in one and these kids' behavior was just off the charts. And I just fell in love with them You know, it's like they became so dear to me. I've sometimes compared it to, you know, if the Super Bowl is coming and one of the teams can't get there, you know they're snowed in or something. So, you call your local community college to fill in. They're gonna get demolished. But man, if they kick a field goal, that's huge, everybody will erupt. And that's kind of the way it was with these kids. You know, it's like, nobody had any expectations for these kids other than Gee, if you can keep them out of the office that'd be a huge win. But when they would understand something, or make a connection, that was like, a touchdown. I mean, we cheered. It was great. So, I really kind of connect with kids like that.

Paul Meunier 

Yeah, as I was listening to you talk about that, I'm thinking, I wonder if that's because you see a little bit of yourself in those young people, because it sounds like some of them are doing some of the things you did when you were younger. Do you think there's some sort of connection there? Maybe not cognitively aware of it. But do you think that there's, I can relate to those young people maybe?

Brad Fulton 

I think so. And keeping in mind that, you know, I came from a pretty stable family. My, you know, I had a two-parent home. My mom was at home, my dad worked, it was a real stable upbringing. And yet, I was quite misbehaved in school. And these kids are dealing with issues that are so much more severe than anything I ever even imagined facing when I was their age. I don't know how they hold it together. And to me, they're heroes in a sense, because if they can go through what they're going through and get knocked down and get back up, those are the people I admire most in my life.

Paul Meunier 

When we were getting to know each other a little bit before we started, you were talking about you made a shift at one point where you don't necessarily teach math or teach a particular topic, you will teach kids. At what point did you get to that because that is a deep level of I think, awareness about what your role is?

Brad Fulton 

It was that class that I just described.

Paul Meunier 

Okay.

Brad Fulton 

I was at a traditional middle school, I taught math, five periods a day, and I had this one class right before lunch that was just, behaviorally, they were nightmares. We also had the new administrator that year, who wasn't really supportive of teachers, and two assistant principals that were brand new and had never held that position before. So, if you did send a child up for a behavioral issue, it wasn't handled well and that kind of thing. And I actually thought about leaving education. That was year 14. But there's something about this, you know, I would come to work and these kids would misbehave and between the kids and the administration, my day was miserable. And I thought, you know, why should they be in charge what kind of day I'm going to have. I'm going to start having the kind of day I want to have. So, I decided tomorrow when I go to work, I'm gonna have a good day. I hope the administration does, I hope the kids do, but I'm going to have a good day. And I stood at the door and greeted the kids as they walked in and talked to them and, you know, patted them on the back and that kind of thing. I decided you know, in spite of their behavior, I'm going to live the life that I want to live. And that was kind of a shift again, to where I realized I can do this, this is what I'm really passionate about is, is being in relationship with these kids, positive relationship. And at that school, I had 160 kids a day. And I thought I want to teach at a smaller school where I can really know these kids. And they were opening a K-8 in my district where eighth grade would be only about 60 students in the whole school for eighth grade. And I would be the math/science teacher. And then there'd be a language arts history teacher. And I thought, I'll also have to teach some electives so I'll have a lot more preps but I will know my kids. And I spent 21 years in that position. And that was just every day it was a pleasure to go to work and be with these kids. And they were like my own kids. So, you know, we were like family.

Paul Meunier 

That ability to choose how your day is going to be really shows a level of your self-awareness and ability to only control what you can control, right? And I think it's important that youth workers or teachers or anybody who supports young people has the ability to not confound some of the problems outside of your realm to control because that's where burnout happens, where you get overwhelmed by some of the situations that young people are going through, or sometimes it feels like, no matter what you do, young people don't make progress. So, all you can do is control what you can control. Did somebody teach you that? Or is that a skill that you've learned over time, because that's a really important skill for working with young people, I believe.

Brad Fulton 

It was learned over time. The special ed position that I started in my first year, and then the position I got hired into at the middle school of teaching English. I was teaching reading and English to kids that were far below grade level. So, these kids had reading issues and because of that they did not perform well in language arts and in school in general quite often.

Paul Meunier 

Sure.

Brad Fulton 

And sometimes that led to behavior problems in the classroom for these kids. Sometimes their behavior problem was a reason that they were behind academically. So, it was kind of a catch-22. And at first, I took every misbehavior personally. But after spending some time with these kids and learning about them, especially from parent conferences, I realized, these kids aren't angry at me, quite often they're just angry. And I would be too if I had to, you know, by the time I got to school, if I had to carry as much baggage as these kids have carried, I'd be angry too. And part of it was, Paul, a realization of that. That this anger isn't towards me. It's just they're growing up in anger. And I could show them a different face then.

Paul Meunier 

Wow, what a wonderful skill to have. Brad, we're gonna take a little short break. When we come back, I want to ask you some more questions about your experience with young people and what you've learned along the way. So, we'll be right back.

Jade Schleif 

No matter how you support our young people, The Professional Youth Worker, powered by YIPA, has your training and learning needs covered. Visit training.yipa.org. That's training.yipa.org to see for yourself, and then join the 1000s of youth workers around the globe who learn from our easy to access exceptional trainings. From our blogs to our podcast, The Professional Youth Worker is your go-to resource for tools to help you keep going, keep learning, and keep growing. Members enjoy free unlimited access to Live Online and On-Demand trainings, and a preferred discount pricing for our one-of-a-kind certificate course. Annual memberships are ridiculously affordable for individuals and organizations. Visit training.yipa.org today to learn more. That's training.yipa.org.

Paul Meunier 

Brad, right before the break, I mentioned I wanted to dive into a little bit more about your lessons that you've learned. And I know you were selected the California Middle School Teacher of the Year. I have to tell you, I think that's a pretty big deal. There's a lot of middle school teachers in the state of California. So, to be picked at the top of that list is pretty big. And I got to believe too probably you had mentors along the way, you probably are a mentor for people now. But did you have a particular mentor or people that you looked up to that you tried to emulate or did you really just drive your own lane into what your teaching style was going to be like?

Brad Fulton 

Yeah, I think I'm an amalgamation of a lot of people that I've known. I mean, my senior year of high school, I had the most wonderful English teacher. And that's the reason I became an English major. I mean, he was someone who had a profound effect. I was thinking this morning, what if I had not taken his class? And it was, I was a senior, I didn't have to take his class. It was an AP English class, I had all my credits. I didn't need to take it. And he registered me for his class.

Paul Meunier 

Really. Without, did he ask you or did he just do it?

Brad Fulton 

I was registering for some other class and he said, You're going to take AP English next year and I said, No, I'm not I don't need it. He goes, I don't care if you need it. You're going to register for it. And I says, I get to register for my classes. He said, I will go to the office and tear up your registration and re-register you.

Paul Meunier 

Wow. Wow, he saw something in you didn't he?

Brad Fulton 

He drove us hard. And it's interesting, he passed away shortly after I got out of high school. I bumped into him my fifth year when I was working on my credential. He was pulling out of a parking lot in the college town I was at and he almost bumped into me literally with his car. So, we talked for a minute and I told him that I was going into teaching English. So, I did have that opportunity to tell him that and he died probably a year or two after that. But there's a lot of people like that. The principal that took my application and handed it to the middle school principal was another real positive influence in my life. He was later the principal at that middle school, so I got to work under him for a number of years. Wonderful, man.

Paul Meunier 

Wow, great story. And now I got to believe with all your credentials and all your experience do you mentor other people? Do you help them understand the lessons you've learned along the way? I know you do a lot of work with particulars about teaching math, etc. But how about this relationship part, the ability to choose how you're going to let your day go, do you try to share that with other people?

Brad Fulton 

Yeah, the year I retired, the following fall two weeks into it, I was working at our continuation school. I just couldn't stay out of education. So, two weeks into it I was working at the middle school and high school teaching science to these kids. And they had a brand-new teacher there that was really struggling in handling their behaviors. And I know she and I talked quite a bit about how to do that. And that's the role I played in a few people's lives since then of, you know, talking about how to relate to kids and things like that. Yeah.

Paul Meunier 

All your years of experience, if you were to summarize, what do you think the best thing about working with young people is?

Brad Fulton 

Well, I jokingly say that as a science teacher, my job is to blow stuff up and act 13. So, those are two really big pluses right there. There's so many things, and so many of them connect at such a deep level with what I think my purpose is, that it's hard to really dig down deep and quantify that more or name them. But you know, the intrinsic rewards that you get in education, the kid who said, You made a difference in my life.

Paul Meunier 

Yeah.

Brad Fulton 

That's huge. I mean, they look the same walking out the door as they did walking in. But when you bump into kids years later, and one of the things we used to do was the very first day of school, I gave every child their own inspirational quote. And they would have to say that. If there was a test, I said, one of the questions is that I want your quote written down. And they got three different quotes throughout the year. I've bumped into kids who it have tattooed on them. I've bumped into kids 10 or 20 years later that can still tell me their quotes and how it affected their life. And the quotes were selected specifically for them. You know, as I got to know them, I would pick a quote that spoke to me about who they are, or what their struggle was, or how they were overcoming. So, you know, they literally become part of your family. Some of these kids, you know, 30 years later, I'm still connected to them.

Paul Meunier 

Yeah. Really quick, what were some of those inspirational things like, like, you matter, you're smart. I mean, what were some of those inspirational quotes?

Brad Fulton 

A lot of them had to do with not so much affirmation, because affirmation is good but if you're depressed, say, and I start just affirming you, it's probably not going to make much difference to you. You know, my opinion of your worth is not as important as your opinion of your worth. Quite often these quotes were about adversity. One of them was, I don't know the author of this and it might be anonymous, but it was a ship in a harbor is safe. But that's not what ships were built for. I shared one the other day with you that the two most important days in your life are the day you're born and the day you find out why. So, a lot of them were like that where, you know, I have a kid as an eighth-grade teacher, I'd seen them through the years coming up, maybe their sixth-grade teacher sends them to my room because they're getting sent out of class. So, they have to come sit in my room. So, I know, they've got some behavioral issues. And I'll give them a quote about that. One of them was that I gave to a student was, there's never a better measure of who a man is than what he does when he's absolutely free to choose. And he was often choosing to misbehave in class. And I talked to him about that, you know, he was a sixth grader at the time, I said, you're gonna get your quote, two years early. When I see you tomorrow, you have to know this quote. So, when he started eighth grade, he already had his quote, and he still knows it to this day.

Paul Meunier 

That's great. What a great story. And you said that knowing you made a difference, that intrinsic value, that intrinsic reward that you get when you know you've had a moment with a young person that really matters. What would you describe that moment like? How do you know, Brad, when you have made a difference with a young person? What markers do you look for?

Brad Fulton 

Yeah, it's interesting because I've seen people go into teaching, the average teaching career pre-COVID was five years. Half the teachers quit in the first five years. Post-COVID, it's probably less than that. So, I've seen a lot of people going into education thinking that's where they need to be. And it's not what they thought at all. For me, the intrinsic reward is, like I said, it's so deep within me, I believe this is my purpose. If I had stayed in construction, I would have been content. I liked construction, but I wouldn't have been fulfilled because I truly believe that God created me for this purpose, to teach kids in a school, to teach classes at church, things like that. I think he made me a teacher. And I think the characteristics that I had that he put in there, were buried for a lot of years and he slowly unearthed those and brought them out, you know, it'd be buried under my introverted nature or something like that, or my defiance. But he unearthed those and so for me, the rewards I get connect with my purpose. And for some people, that wouldn't be it if like if I said, you know, the intrinsic rewards of education are overwhelming and somebody says, well, then I'm going to become a teacher. That might not prove to be as rewarding for them as it is for me.

Paul Meunier 

The fact that you found your purpose and you know your calling in this world is very clear to anybody who would listen to you or seek advice from you or just watch you and the way you work. You have found your calling. And you tried to retire and walk away from it but you weren't very good at it, were you, Brad. So, now you're doing all kinds of other things. You've got this internet-based consulting work going on, and you're keynote speaker for a lot of different conferences. How come it's so hard to just walk away, Brad? Why do you just keep doing it? Why not focus on Brad and some other things you might be interested in?

Brad Fulton 

Well, I jokingly tell people, it's because when I retired I found out my wife won't let me blow stuff up at home. So...

Paul Meunier 

You need a classroom to do that.

Brad Fulton 

You have like an 85% survival rate on my science labs. If I quit doing this, I'm no longer connecting to my purpose. I mean, since I've retired, I'm investing more time in teaching at church and things like that. More time in writing. But to sit down on a couch and eat chips and watch Jeopardy, doesn't appeal to me. Playing golf does not appeal to me. And during retirement you ought to be doing the things that you absolutely love. And I love working with kids. My current job is I'm an Outdoor Ed coordinator and STEM coordinator for the fifth graders in my district, which means I get to go hiking and national parks with my kids. I get to go in their classroom and teach them about volcanoes and the Earth and things like that. And I don't have to grade papers or go to meetings. I mean, this is perfect retirement in my opinion.

Paul Meunier 

Yeah, what I've always thought about teachers, or people who support young people, whether they're mentors or probation officers, whatever, whatever they do to support young people, the really good ones, you can't really separate their work from who they are. They are kind of one in the same. It's inherently in them to do this kind of work. Would you say a lot of people that you've worked with over the years have that same level of just their personality was built to teach whether they're in the classroom or not, they're teaching. Did you see a lot of that or do you consider yourself to be kind of an outcast in that, rare in that situation?

Brad Fulton 

I think the overwhelming majority of teachers have the same kind of mindset that I do. And I work in a wonderful district where they hire people like that. And I as I travel around to other districts, occasionally I run into a school that is very depressing, where it's not the kind of school I'd want my kids to go to. But by and large, I think teachers are like this. If you don't come into this career with the right mindset, the kids will drive you out very quickly. So yeah, I see a lot of this. I see teachers that are very passionate about it. There's a phrase that we have, we're not in it for the income, we're in it for the outcome.

Paul Meunier 

Ah. You know, I've heard so many conversations about you don't get rich doing this, but I've never heard it put in that simple of a phrase. That's right. That is exactly it. You know, I think that a lot of people, share your passion, and share those personality attributes that you have. But it takes a lifetime to get good at this. And there's so many moments in time where you could have gone in a different direction. And no matter how you support our young people, you have to be in it for the long run and make that commitment to it. So, I just want to say, Brad, thank you for all you've done over the years to help countless young people and think of the lives that you've impacted along the way. Probably too many to even ponder. But it is just wonderful to have you leading the charge for other people and sharing all the things you've learned and giving that gift to other people. So, I wanted to say thank you for all of that. And thank you for being a guest on The Passionate Youth Worker.

Brad Fulton 

Thank you for having me.

Paul Meunier 

Brad, you probably know before we end the show, I always like to give the guests the last word. So, what words of wisdom or inspiration would you like to leave with the listeners?

Brad Fulton 

Years ago, I was at a conference and a presenter said I have a program that will improve your state test scores, lower your discipline problems, create a positive school climate. And he went on and on and listed all these things that this program could accomplish. And he said it's free. It won't cost you a cent and you don't need any training. He said the number one factor in improving education is positive relationships between teachers and students. Where students value their teachers and teachers value their students. He said if you foster that everything else falls into place. And I really think that's true. I believe that who we teach matters much more than what we teach. And, you know, you can cram for those state test scores and obsess over them and do all the things you want. But if you simply take care of the relationships the rest falls into place. The school where I work at is demographically not at the top of our county, and yet our state test scores every year are way up there. Just because we see ourselves, the students, the parents and the teachers and the faculty, the administrators, we see ourselves as a family.

Paul Meunier 

If you would like to share your passion for youth work, we'd love to spotlight you as a guest. If you have feedback about the show, please let us know. Just visit training.yipa.org, that's training.yipa.org and click on the podcast tab. This podcast is made possible in part due to a generous contribution from M Health Fairview. I'm your host, Paul Meunier. Thanks for listening to The Passionate Youth Worker.