“From Reading Struggles to Educational Revolution: Transforming Pain into Purpose”
In the quiet corridors of memory, some experiences leave marks so deep they reshape entire life trajectories. For Janet Uribe Alexander, those marks came early, wrapped in the shame and embarrassment of not being able to read like her peers. What could have remained a childhood wound instead became the foundation for a revolutionary approach to education that has transformed thousands of lives.
“Feeling constant worry and embarrassment as a child for not being able to read like my peers came with significant levels of shame and guilt,” Janet reflects on those formative years. The punitive consequences at home for poor grades only deepened her determination to find a better way. “It became a life mission to find a better way to teach children, and I was determined to not allow others to go through that level of pain.”
This personal struggle would eventually birth Hearts and Minds Learning Center in Austin, Texas, in November 2021, but the journey from struggling student to educational innovator required decades of evolution, learning, and profound personal transformation.
THE REVELATION THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Janet’s transition from traditional teaching to educational entrepreneurship wasn’t immediate. Like many educators, she entered the classroom with noble intentions, but what she discovered year after year shocked her to the core. Students entering her classroom carried years of academic skill gaps that the system had failed to address.
“Students who were expected to read by the 2nd grade would enter my class missing preschool skills in letter recognition or being able to count up and down,” she recalls. The pattern continued beyond elementary school. Middle schoolers arrived without knowing basic math facts or the months of the year, struggling with fundamental number logic.
The revelation came when she realized that traditional support systems were merely “bandaids on broken bones.” While 504 plans, Individualized Education Plans, and Response to Intervention programs offered help, they functioned as stepping stones rather than addressing root causes. “These services were never designed to tend to the root issues that lead to the child’s difficulties,” Janet explains. “Our schools’ traditional support structures do not grow a child’s potential, and they do not improve their relationship to learning.”
This understanding would become the cornerstone of her revolutionary approach to education.
THE CONNECTION REVOLUTION: MEETING CHILDREN WHERE THEY ARE
Janet’s methodology begins with a principle that sounds simple but requires profound depth: connection. However, her approach goes far beyond surface-level rapport building. “A teacher must be connected to themselves at a deeper level in order to be able to connect in equal measure with what their students need,” she emphasizes.
“We can only meet another to the degree of which we have met ourselves. Taking the time to understand my own way of functioning makes it possible for me to do so for another.”
This philosophy extends beyond the classroom. “We can only meet another to the degree of which we have met ourselves,” Janet explains, noting how this principle applies in any profession and even in intimate relationships with loved ones.
Her process involves gathering information to understand each child’s relationship to learning, assessing their academic level, and observing how they learn. While educators study Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Janet points out that traditional training never addresses the crucial dynamics of a child’s relationship with learning itself.
The results speak volumes. Students consistently raise their performance by 1-3 grade levels within just a few months through her methods. But the transformation goes far deeper than test scores.
HENRY’S STORY: WHEN BEHAVIOR MASKS BRILLIANCE
The story of Henry exemplifies Janet’s approach in action. This precious child arrived with complex challenges and ADHD-related behaviors that his local school blamed for his academic struggles. The school refused to provide academic interventions, claiming his “behaviors” were the primary impediment to learning.
“I told his parents that this did not match our data at all,” Janet recalls. “The behaviors were likely happening because the material and content had gotten to be too hard, and he simply needed the gaps filled in.”
Assessment revealed that Henry’s academic skill level was two years behind his peers, not because he couldn’t engage with grade-level work, but because it wasn’t easy for him. Janet’s team prioritized building rapport and relationship, creating scaffolded steps that matched his learning style.
The transformation was remarkable. “He showed much higher intelligence than the school had portrayed,” Janet notes. Henry increased various academic skills by two grade levels in one summer as his self-confidence grew. Most tellingly, the problematic behaviors disappeared entirely. “Guess what, we never saw ‘behaviors’,” Janet says with satisfaction.
THE MINDFUL CLASSROOM: TEACHING CHILDREN ABOUT THEMSELVES
Janet’s integration of mindfulness and conscious practices into education stems from a fundamental belief about human development. “If we are not mindful about who a child is, how they function, and how they learn, how will we ever truly meet what they need?”
She observes that schools spend enormous time teaching children about the external world but neglect teaching them about themselves. “If a child is able to mindfully and consciously relate to themselves, then they will be able to do so with another,” she explains.
This self-awareness creates ripple effects throughout the educational experience, improving classroom safety, reducing bullying, enhancing self-advocacy, building resilience, and fostering genuine engagement and inclusion. However, Janet emphasizes that only teachers who have done this level of personal work can authentically lead students in this way.
FROM SAVING TO EMPOWERING: THE ENTREPRENEURIAL EVOLUTION
The transition from teacher to entrepreneur required a fundamental shift in Janet’s own mindset and motivation. “I transitioned from wanting to ‘save’ students to wanting to empower them,” she reflects.
A mentor taught her that everyone operates under the same universal laws, the same laws of attraction, and the same ability to create based on beliefs. This understanding transformed her mission from rescue to empowerment. While teaching remained rewarding, reaching masses required an entrepreneurial approach focused on scaling and multiplying impact.
The early challenges were significant. “Structural and support challenges were absolutely the biggest obstacle on the front end,” Janet acknowledges. Limited mindset told her she didn’t have resources for additional teachers or support staff. Business coaches and mindset coaches helped her shift this perspective.
“It took time for me to understand the power of the mind and heart connection,” she explains. “My heart now creates the desire, and my mind decides it… the collaboration between the two is unmatched.”
BALANCING MOTHERHOOD AND MISSION
Building a business as a single mother required extraordinary determination and sacrifice. Janet worked two jobs during the day, handled administrative work in the morning, taught in the afterschool hours, and built her business at night.
“At the time, I was a single mom and balance was unfamiliar to me,” she admits. She sat her children down and explained that she would need to dedicate more time to working to build “an easier and funner future for us.” Her children supported her to the degree they could understand and helped at home.
Today, with staff handling most of the teaching, Janet still loves jumping in periodically to be playful with students. “For me, balance has come from incorporating play into everyday interactions and tasks,” she shares.
SYSTEMIC GAPS AND TRANSFORMATIONAL VISION
Janet identifies critical gaps in current education systems that align with her personal mission. Teacher training in human behavior tops the list, enabling educators to engage in internal reflection and share self-mastery gains with students.
Curriculum redesign represents another crucial need, focusing on building skills and teaching children how to learn rather than emphasizing content memorization. “Redefine frustration points as opportunities to grow, and prioritize child self-discovery and evolution over external content and concepts that are simply memorized,” she advocates.
Her vision for education’s evolution over the next decade centers on connection as currency in an increasingly digital world. With technological advances multiplying rapidly and short content dominating the internet, authentic human connection becomes priceless value.
“It will be individuals functioning through mindful interactions and conscious awareness that will tear down many of the paradigms that keep our classrooms running like conveyer belts of conditioned practices,” Janet predicts. Teachers leading with mindful and conscious practice will create holistic learning structures that build an empowered society valuing authenticity over replication.
THE HIGHLY VALUED TEACHER: DOUBLING IMPACT AND INCOME
Janet’s latest initiative, The Highly Valued Teacher, emerges from her personal journey of overcoming poverty mindset and low self-worth to create a six-figure income while teaching part-time and making significantly greater impact.
“When I first became a single mom and no longer had the support of a partner and second income, I found myself in a difficult situation of having to make ends meet while also needing to be a mom,” she recalls. The solution came from leveraging her core strength: being an outstanding teacher.
“I leveraged this skill to bring life changing results to my students and valued it beyond what a traditional school system could pay me,” Janet explains. The key insight: “When you truly know who you are, and what you have to offer, you will not waver, and you cannot be shaken.”
This initiative, both a book and program, teaches other educators how to achieve similar results. Janet emphasizes the win-win-win scenario: students benefit, families benefit, and teachers catalyze new trajectories for each child they work with.
MINDSET AS FOUNDATION
For teachers considering entrepreneurial transitions, Janet emphasizes getting clear on intentions. “When you understand your motives behind why you are doing it, it will happen with greater ease,” she advises. She also recommends getting support from others who have successfully made the transition.
The crucial mindset shift involves self-knowledge and belief. “If you know who you are, what qualities you have to offer, and have belief in self, then you will be able to thrive easily,” Janet states. Conversely, questioning oneself and minimizing qualifications seals fate in lack mindset.
Her philosophy extends to perception itself. While others see the glass as half full or half empty, Janet teaches that “the glass is ALWAYS full. It is full of whatever you think upon the most and whatever your predominant thoughts are.”
CREATIVITY AS CATALYST
Creativity plays a crucial role in Janet’s approach to academic and personal success. Children with strong creative relationships tend to be more open to possibilities, experience healthier mental well-being, have easier access to problem-solving, enjoy stronger self-expression, and demonstrate greater adaptability.
“These skills are hugely important in academic and personal success,” Janet notes, emphasizing creativity’s role in developing resilient, capable learners.
GLOBAL VISION: UNIVERSAL TRUTHS IN EDUCATION
Janet’s ultimate vision involves training teachers globally on universal educational truths. Three concepts form the foundation:
“Whenever you meet a child where they are, everything changes. Education starts with connection. To the degree and depth of where you meet yourself is the same depth where you will meet your students. Learning to trust your own internal compass will lead to the ultimate guidance for your students in skills, intervention, mindset building, and cultivating a love of learning.”
Her perspective on educational achievement has evolved significantly. “I am not as attached to the level of education our kids receive as I used to be,” she admits. “I used to think that the more degrees they got the better. Today, I value the idea of a child wanting to become a lifelong lover of learning over how many degrees or certifications they can achieve.”
IMPLEMENTING INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
For schools and institutions seeking to adopt mindful and conscious practices, Janet recommends starting with honoring the diversity of student thought, responses, and authenticity. “Children are so much more evolved than we give them credit for,” she observes.
Question-oriented dialogue and Socratic interactions can open children to reflect more deeply and examine where their thoughts originate. However, Janet emphasizes that teachers need practice in this form before being expected to lead authentically in the classroom.
THE DEEPER MOTIVATION
What keeps Janet pushing boundaries in education connects to her fundamental beliefs about human potential and societal transformation. “I truly believe we are here to break up with limitations and stories that keep us in pain as a human race,” she explains.
Her vision extends beyond traditional academic content. “I see that there is much more power in teaching a child that they are able to create their own story and reality if they choose to do so,” Janet emphasizes.
SUCCESS REDEFINED
Janet’s definition of success has evolved beyond external achievements to focus on internal mastery. “Self mastery has been and continues to be the greatest success I have come to know,” she reflects. “It is priceless and the journey to truly know myself has made my relationships, in all areas of life, so much more loving and stronger than simply pushing for the next win or next goal.”
This perspective shapes her entire approach to education, business, and life itself.
A LEGACY OF COURAGE AND LOVE
The legacy Janet hopes to leave in education centers on three powerful verbs: “The courage to look deeper, listen closer, and love wider for our students.”
She identifies a fundamental gap in educational systems built on teaching learners about everything outside themselves. “I feel that the gaps we see in their academic skills are a reflection of the gaps we leave unattended in our children’s self-perceptions,” Janet explains.
Her ultimate vision is transformational: “If generations of children grow up truly knowing and loving themselves, then we will transform education into a true catalyst for freedom and possibility.”
THE CONTINUING JOURNEY
From a struggling reader carrying shame and embarrassment to an educational innovator transforming thousands of lives, Janet Uribe Alexander’s journey demonstrates the profound power of turning personal pain into purposeful impact. Her work at Hearts and Minds Learning Center represents more than academic improvement; it embodies a fundamental reimagining of education’s role in human development.
Through conscious teaching practices, mindful connection, and unwavering belief in every child’s potential, Janet continues building an educational revolution that honors the whole child. Her legacy extends beyond test scores and grade levels to the immeasurable impact of children who grow up knowing and loving themselves, equipped to create their own stories and realities.
In a world increasingly dominated by technology and external validation, Janet’s approach returns to the fundamental truth that education begins with connection, and connection begins with knowing oneself. Her journey from struggling student to transformational educator proves that our deepest wounds can become our greatest gifts to the world.
