TPP 431: Rebecca Winthrop & Jenny Anderson on Disengaged Teens
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
42 min
1 speaker
4 chapters
transcribed 15 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main focus of the episode and who are the guests?
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Mental health and engagement go together and it just depends which one starts which. So if you're deeply disengaged, kids are much more likely to have poor mental health. But also if something happens outside of school and they can engage less, you get less engaged. So they kind of coexist.
I'm Debbie Reber, and welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, supporting, and informing parents raising differently wired kids. Today's conversation feels both important and timely because we're tackling a challenge so many parents are facing. How to help disengaged teens reconnect with learning. My guests are Jenny Anderson, an award-winning journalist focused on. Learning and Parenting, and Rebecca Winthrop, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution specializing in education innovation. Together, they've been diving deep into the science of student engagement. And today they're sharing what they've learned about reigniting curiosity and motivation in kids who have checked out of school, as well as their excellent new book, The Disengaged Teen, helping kids learn better, feel better, and live better.
In our conversation, In the conversation, Jenny and Rebecca broke down why engagement isn't just about academics. It's an intricate mix of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors, often even more complex, as we know, for neurodivergent children. We discussed the connection between technology and disengagement, why traditional models of education often fail to meet kids where they are, and how parents can foster curiosity by modeling a love of learning. Jenny and Rebecca also walk us through the four modes of learning, which they define as resistor, passenger, achiever, or explorer mode. And they offer strategies for how we can help kids switch back and forth between those and ultimately spend as much time as possible in explorer mode, which is where kids learn best.
I think one of the most powerful takeaways from this discussion is the reminder that resistance and learning does not equal a lack of interest in learning. It's usually a signal that the context is just not working for the student. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop. Hey Jenny and Rebecca, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for helping us.
It's great to be here.
Happy to have you both here from different parts of the world. I love it when we get together for conversations like this. And I've already read your formal bios, but I love to start my show by asking my guests to talk a little bit about themselves in relation to their personal why. And since this is a collaboration I'd also like if you could share a little bit about the impetus or what brought you together to work on this project. So whoever wants to start, you guys just jump in. I
am happy to start. It's Rebecca. I have worked in education for many years. I keep saying 25, but it's getting closer to 30 as the years go on, and have always focused on the question of making sure every single kid, no matter where they are or who which family they're born into, gets the best quality education. And one of the things that really drove this collaboration is that during COVID I realized despite my education background, I did not correctly assess which of my kids were deeply engaged in their own learning at school. So my oldest child was bringing home strike grades. Straight A's, good grades. He was in sixth grade at the time. And I thought he'll be fine. I don't have to worry about him. And in reality, what happened is the minute we stayed home in the US and went past fail, he lost all motivation and he told me, Mom, if it's not counted, it doesn't matter.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main focus of the episode and who are the guests?
0:00–14:15
2
How did Rebecca’s personal experience with her children reveal hidden disengagement?
14:15–27:13
3
Why did Jenny and Rebecca decide to write *The Disengaged Teen* together?
27:13–39:34
4
How do the hosts define student disengagement and its relationship to mental health?
39:34–42:45
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids