Experience Matters with Steve Shapiro Steve Shapiro

Exquisite Compassion with Father Greg Boyle
Father Greg Boyle has spent most of his adult years helping transform the lives of former gang members at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. In this conversation he applies his many lessons learned to how we can increase joy and reduce loneliness in schools through kinship, mercy, and meaning.


We cover a lot of territory, including: 
2:21 Greg’s childhood on Norton Avenue
4:23 How Bolivia turned Greg inside out
9:00 How Homeboy Industries came to be
12:26 Building a powerful culture
16:50 A powerful message from a Homie to teachers
19:02 The cultural problem in American schools (the power of relationships)
21:23 The powerful story of Lencho and true belonging
25:30 Exquisite compassion and merciful community
30:09 How Father Greg’s school addressed the most difficult students
31:02 Steve seeks counsel on the youth mental health crisis
33:13 The recipe for sadness and the recipe for joy and wholeness
36:57 How schools are rising to meet the challenge
40:06 Father Greg tells a story you won’t want to miss



Learn more about Father Greg and Homeboy Industries
Homeboy Industries’ powerful 30-year anniversary short video
Father Greg’s commencement address at Pepperdine University
Mike Wallace’s 1992 60 Minutes story on Father Greg

Michelle Pledger confronted the internalized oppression from her experiences as a Black girl in a predominately white school; then she converted her newfound wisdom into a commitment to promote culturally relevant teaching practices that honor and support the lived experiences of all students. Her story is essential listening for anyone committed to true equity in schools.
 
We cover a lot territory, including:
4:00 Black in a White school
7:42 Michelle’s awakening
10:58 The personal cost of assimilation
15:05 Michelle’s challenge to you
18:08 Personal filters and blind spots
19:50 Decolonizing our schools
21:43 Liberating the curriculum
24:16 The startling impact of non-representation
26:44 Individualistic vs. collectivist cultures
29:48 Liberating classroom communication
35:20 Deficit thinking: our subconscious biases about intelligence
39:31 Ability grouping’s harmful effects
43:11 What’s stopping us from being culturally responsive?
48:35 Michelle’s call to action
 
Michelle Pledger’s personal website
Michelle’s about page at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education
Purchase Liberate! Pocket-Sized Paradigms for Liberatory Learning
 
About Experience Matters
Experience Matters with Steve Shapiro invites guests to reflect on the most profound learning experiences of their youth and to consider how we can reform American schools. Each episode provides clues about how parents and educators alike can engage young people in powerful, sometimes transformational experiential learning. Education can take many forms, but whatever form it takes- experience matters. 

Humans, young and old, share a basic need to have some authorship in our own lives. Dr. Russell Quaglia has built his entire career around how to bring students’ voices into focus in classrooms and schools across the world. The result is happier students who learn more.
We cover a lot of territory, including:
2:55 The difference between hockey and school
7:40 Our basic human need 
8:50 Russ’s definition of voice
11:21 The (often missing) factor needed for voice to thrive
14:50 Why surveys often fail (or worse)
17:30 Can kids really know what’s best for them?
22:24 The students we often overlook
26:24 A sense of belonging
28:25 The link between voice and learning
30:25 The link between voice and democratic citizenship
31:57 What’s stopping us?
33:49 Reflect on our purpose and renew our passion
 
Link to the Quaglia Institute for Voice and Aspirations
Link to Steve’s short video reflecting on what has really mattered in his career

About Experience Matters
Experience Matters with Steve Shapiro invites guests to reflect on the most profound learning experiences of their youth and to consider how we can reform American schools. Each episode provides clues about how parents and educators alike can engage young people in powerful, sometimes transformational experiential learning. Education can take many forms, but whatever form it takes- experience matters. 



 

Episode 19: The Achievement Culture Cure with Dr. Stuart Slavin
When Dr. Stuart Slavin received disturbing data about the dismal mental health of students at St. Louis University School of Medicine, he broke into action. The changes that Dr. Slavin and his faculty made transformed the mental health of their students…AND improved their learning outcomes! This is a MUST LISTEN episode.
 
We cover a lot of territory, including:
0:54 Great news and a warning
4:29 Stuart in denial
6:12 Stuart confronts the dismal truth with a heroic response
8:20 Identifying the 3 main stressors and attacking them
9:50 Understanding the crisis as an environmental context issue
11:25 Stuart makes specific teaching and learning changes
13:09 Wait this is insane! The Yerkes-Dodson Curve
14:37 Creating space for powerful self-directed learning experiences
16:53 Cutting back content to focus on the essentials
18:26 Undoing problematic mindsets through cognitive restructuring
22:14 Surprising survey results on sleep and study time
22:51 Why wellness programs often backfire
23:51 STUNNING improvements in mental health and learning
26:25 High school might be harder than med school
28:15 Steve surprises Stuart with a new perspective on his work
29:41 The mistake high schools make when considering mental health
30:40 Achievement culture and racism both have institutional factors
32:35 The simple first step high schools can take
34:25 Where to focus: well-being or satisfaction?
37:30 A new learning value in a rapidly changing world
38:42 What about teachers’ mental health?
41:24 Stuart’s passionate plea to educators and parents- WE CAN DO THIS!
 
Dr. Slavin’s 2014 article in the journal Academic Medicine: Medical Student Mental Health 3.0: Improving Student Wellness Through Curricular Changes Dr. Slavin’s 2019 Journal of Academic Medicine article: Reflections on a Decade Leading a Medical Student Well-Being Initiative

Steve’s blog post about impermanent learning: The Uncomfortable Truth About School


Steve’s conversation with Emmy Huefner about her encouneters with achievement culture stress as a student.


Steve’s conversation with Dr. William Stixrud about the impact chronic achievement culture stress has on the adolescent brain.

This is Your Brain on Achievement Culture with Dr. William Stixrud
We are in the midst of a youth mental health crisis, especially among kids in “high achieving” schools. Neuropsychologist William Stixrud has a front row-seat to the crisis, with unique insight into emerging research on the impact that “achievement-culture” related chronic stress and anxiety have on the adolescent brain. 
We cover a lot of territory, including:
4:20 How the Beatles shaped Bill’s brain
7:46 The difference between rich and poor kids’ mental health 
8:58 The mental health status of “high achieving kids”
10:51 Detailing the adolescent mental health CRISIS
13:19 The cruel untruths we tell teens
16:52 How stress “sculpts” the adolescent brain
18:39 The relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala 
21:41 A crazy story about fearing a kid in Iowa
23:17 How depression “scars” kids’ brains
24:27 The most important indicator of a successful childhood
26:58 How fear fuels the problem
29:00 The most stressful thing in the universe
30:47 Teenagers’ experience of learned helplessness
32:53 School policy strips kids of autonomy
34:53 Teachers need autonomy too!
38:11 The startling paradox of “good schools”
 
Here’s a link to my conversation with Emmy Huefner about her experiences with achievement culture stress.

In our race to cover state content standards and prepare students for high-stakes tests, many educators are overlooking a powerful strategy for transforming students’ futures and making serious strides toward equity. Policy analyst and author Julia Freeland Fisher preaches the game-changing impact of expanding students’ social networks.
Julia Freeland Fisher is the director of education research at the Clayton Christensen Institute. Her team educates policymakers and community leaders on the power of disruptive innovation, aiming to transform monolithic, factory-model education systems into student-centered designs that enable each student to realize his or her fullest potential. Julia is also the author of Who You Know: Unlocking Innovations That Expand Students’ Networks, along with a great collection of blog posts and this AMAZING PLAYBOOK for implementing the ideas we discuss in the episode. 
We cover a lot of territory including:
2:54 How Bear McCreary became one of the top composers of our time
5:20 Young Julia’s 1st-hand experience with “opportunity gaps”
6:53 Two types of social capital: getting by vs. getting ahead
9:01 WHAT you know vs. WHO you know
10:25 Breaking out of the school’s embryonic community
11:28 The inequity of inherited social networks
13:13 How “enrichment spending” exacerbates inequity
14:18 Research on the link between social capital and economic mobility
15:25 How schools can tap into community capital
18:23 Existing models for schools to engage networks
21:32 Overcoming “Byzantine” school schedules
24:54 How schools can track and systemize social capital
26:15 What gets measured gets done
27:38 A challenge to affluent people who care about equity
29:30 Whose job is this?
30:44 A simple first step for school leaders
31:52 The “low-hanging fruit”- Internship programs
33:20 Models/programs for school-wide implementation
34:51 Connecting with our WHY and overcoming teacher burnout
 
Here are some programs and tools Julia discusses in the interview:
Big Picture Learning Network
ImBlaze
Educurious
CommunityShare
The Forest School
Social Capital Builders
Connected Futures
Career Launch