About

You have to learn — and often unlearn — in order to grow.

Ajax (Ontario, Canada) resident Joanna Johnson has taken to TikTok to help people do just that, and the response has been overwhelming.

“If I wasn’t in teaching I never would have done it,” Johnson said of TikTok, where 1.1 million people currently follow her account @unlearn16.

She started posting during lockdown as a way to connect in isolation. It began mostly with dance videos and lip-syncs, but one day Johnson decided to share her thoughts on current events and was surprised by the response.

“I started to talk a little bit more and give my opinion, first on silly things like which spoon to use to eat cereal or how to eat an Oreo, but then it started to get more political and I had an incredible response,” she recalls.

“That’s when it sort of clicked for me that ‘oh, I can be myself and address the things that are important to me.’ I try to be funny when I can, even though most of what’s going on right now is not very funny and I try to be respectful in the way I address people, even people who send me hate.”

That type of respectful discourse is a crucial element of Johnson’s platform and she has brought it with her to her new podcast, Unlearn16: Class is in Session.

“Every once in a while someone will come on my page and say something stupid and I’ll just talk to them until some of them — not all of them — will say ‘you know what, I’m sorry, I judged you’,” she explains.

“That’s the victory right there. People who already agree with me, I don’t need to educate them, but to talk to people who come at me with hate or judgment, that’s my true audience, because I think those conversations are vital. The only way we get to better solutions is by people who adamantly disagree still having intelligent, mindful, respectful discourse.”

Johnson teaches full-time at a private secondary school in Toronto, and praises both school administration and students for supporting her extracurricular activities.

“I think it’s a testament to the school I work at for encouraging that kind of thinking,” she said. “I get a lot of followers telling me ‘I wish you could teach my kids’ and that to me is the highest compliment. All the power of change comes from education and fighting for diversity and inclusivity. A lot of people keep their work life and private life separate but for me teaching is just who I am.”

Johnson notes that she walks the walk as well, constantly learning — and unlearning — from her students, her girlfriend, her family and more.

“I’m very open to ways I have come up against it,” said Johnson, who recalls a female student breaking down the inherent double standards in school dress codes for her about four years ago and how it opened her eyes.

“She was 1000 per cent right, and I never addressed an off the shoulder shirt again.”

That willingness to learn and grow and change is at the heart of Johnson’s TikTok podcast and it’s something she will continue to encourage as she embarks on a new string of speaking engagements.

Originally posted here.