Checked-out and stressed-out: helping disengaged teens reconnect

Ask most third graders if they like school and there’s a good chance they will give you an enthusiastic “yes!” Fast forward to high school and most students will tell you that school “sucks!” Children are built for learning, yet the more time they spend in a classroom, the more likely they will check out, feeling bored or overwhelmed — or both.

Our guests this week, Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop, interviewed students, parents and teachers to understand why this is happening. While technology and the pandemic have played a part in this crisis, teens wonder why they have to learn the Pythagorean theorem when the world is falling apart. That’s from their new book, The Disengaged Teen. Anderson is a journalist who covers the science of learning and Winthrop is an education researcher