NJ Educator & Author James Freeman - “I Can And I Will!”

Welcome back to New Jersey Now and now, empowering our kids and building stronger communities from the ground up. After 40 years shaping young minds in the classroom, award-winning New Jersey educator and author James Freeman is now inspiring the next generation and teaching them ways to overcome adversity through his book series, I Can and I Will. And James joins me now. You've been a teacher. You've been a coach. How did you take all this life experience and decide to become a writer? Well, I knew that retirement wasn't that far off and I felt that I had an awful lot to give to be able to share that knowledge with children, hopefully millions over time. And I thought writing books was the best way to do that, knowing that retirement was around the corner. Sports psychology, it's a growing field. How does it inspire mental toughness and development for kids? One of the things that I really took when I studied sports psychology is the importance of confidence. And being an athlete myself, when I was younger, I didn't always have that confidence. But when I went away and studied at a graduate school, one of the things that I learned is how confidence really can transform people from being average to extraordinary. And one of the things that I wanted to do is try to inspire children to be confident in themselves and have that self-belief. And also in sports psychology is a lot of goal setting. And I felt it was important for not just children, because I I think there's a lot of adults who walk around somewhat aimlessly at times, but I think that with goal setting, we give ourselves something to shoot for. And by shooting for something, whether it's large or small, once we attain it, that also contributes to our confidence and it becomes a great cycle of building confidence through that goal setting and achievement. And then again, continuing to build confidence along the way. Since you started teaching, what are some of the critical developmental differences that you see in kids? I think first off, children that enter kindergarten are in some ways more prepared physically than they were years ago. And I say that because I think more children are going to preschool where they're learning more body awareness. So they're coming in knowing their locomotor movements, things like skipping and hopping and galloping and jumping and sliding. And years ago, I was teaching probably more than half of class those basic movements where today I feel like those children physically are coming in a little more prepared. The flip side is, and the interesting side to me, is that they're also spending more time on tablets and electronics. And because of that, I feel like their imagination is far less than it was years ago because they're constantly being fed images instead of making up their own images. There's technology, there's physicality, but why do you think explicit character development in teaching is so important in schools? I think character development is probably the most important thing. Obviously, a school is there to teach academics. But if we only focus on the academics, then we're not really developing the entire child. And what we're really trying to do is build children from the ground up. And while academics are certainly important, and that's a major part of school, building character helps developed the child to be a good person. And as a parent myself, I can say the greatest compliments I've ever received were not about myself, but about my children, whether it was an individual child at different points or all three of my children. When people tell me what great people they are, that's the greatest compliment I can receive. And that's because of their character. And that's what we're trying to develop in all of our children. Now you've got this catchphrase, You've got this slogan. When we get to that hill, I can and I will. Yes. Where did you come up with it? And does it work? It works great. The children love it. I started with that in the, I'm going to say early 90s, probably somewhere around 93. I had been teaching I can and I will when I first started teaching. And then I wanted to be able to leave my students. When they left my gym, I wanted my students to leave feeling good about themselves, feeling confident about themselves. And believe it or not, it actually took me a little time because I wanted to come up with a little rhyme that they could catch on to and hold on to. And again, I had the I can and I will in place. I just needed to come up with when we get to that hill. So it took me a little time. Once I came up with it, the kids loved it. Now when I visit schools, I actually teach it to those children that I visit schools with. And I've been blessed. I had a parent at our school who volunteered to paint a mural in our gym that reads, when I get to that hill, I can and I will. And it was so nice. It was Nicole Petrillo. She's an artist. She did a beautiful job. And underneath, she painted my name as well. So now some of the children, when they respond with, I can and I will, after I say, when we get to that hill, they say, I can and I will. Then oftentimes they yell, Mr. Freeman. They read it up there and now they just added it to it. So it's kind of neat. Now we're getting into talking about your books. What made you become an author and what is the best thing about being an author? I felt I had a lot to give. I felt that I could take the lessons that I've learned over my years and be able to give them to a much broader audience than I'm able to do just within my own school district. And I've been blessed to teach at that school for 37 years and thousands of students. But I thought, if I write books, now I can expand that message and get that word out to so many more children. My goal truly is millions across the world to be able to help them develop into strong, confident, caring people. And one of the greatest things for me about being an author is knowing that I've been able to broaden my base on how I can educate, but also seeing the excitement in children, especially my own students when they come in and like, Mr. Freeman, I just read your book, you know, and it's pretty neat to see the excitement they get from it. Now, how many books are in the series and what are these books about? So currently I have seven picture books and I have one early reader chapter book that are currently available on Amazon through Crossroads Publishing. And all of my books are written and based on character education and really trying to develop the whole child. So each book, for the most part, has its own little nuance of what I'm trying to develop. The first picture book was I Can and I Will, and that's really trying to teach children about perseverance and understanding that confidence and positive belief can be their superpower. And the most recent picture book that came out was I Love Me, and that particular book is really teaching children to love themselves for who they are. So social emotional learning, character education, those are the biggest pieces of my books. So when you speak to students, when they read these books, what do you hope is the best thing they take away from it? So I want the story to be entertaining, but I also want them to be able to relate to the children in the stories and be able to put themselves in that position and say, I can do that. The book Be Strong, Believe is really about a child who's learning to step out of his comfort zone and stand up for himself and his friends in a non-confrontational way. And I think there's a lot of children in school that want to do the right thing and sometimes they're not quite sure how. I hope that these books allow them the opportunity to see themselves and be able to go, I can do that. How can people learn more about your work and how can they get your book, I Can and I Will? If people are interested in learning more about myself or my books, they can visit my website, jamesdmotivation.com. And there's information on there about myself, about my background, the books, or they can go to amazon.com, look up James Freeman author, I Can and I Will children's book series, and hopefully they'll be able to find them all. James Freeman, teacher, coach, and author of I Can and I Will. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you so much for having me, Mark. We'll be right back.