Lessons in Adolescence

Lessons on Ways Adults Can Help Adolescents Live, Learn & Thrive with Stephanie Malia Krauss

• Youth-Nex: Remaking Middle School • Season 4 • Episode 39

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This episode features a conversation with Stephanie Malia Krauss, author of the youth development-focused books Making It and her most recent release Whole Child, Whole Life. Stephanie has broad experience as an educator, school leader, youth worker, researcher, writer, and advocate. Having had a challenging educational experience herself as a young person, including dropping out of school after the eighth grade, Stephanie works to help adults who educate, develop and care for adolescents to better understand the array of factors that drive their growth and behavior so that adults can best prepare and support them along their developmental journey.

In part one of our conversation, Stephanie and Jason talk about her motivations for writing her book, her approach to capturing and translating the volumes of research on adolescent learning and development in an accessible way for all readers while keeping true to the rigor of the research, and how youth are nestled within demographic and determinant profiles that help define who they are and can help adults best understand and support them.

In part two, they talk about the meat of the book, namely the ten practices that adults do for kids to help them thrive, importantly starting with mental health, and including such factors as embracing culture and identities, nurturing social health through relationships and nudging social wealth through community support. They also talk about the centrality of belonging and what thriving actually looks like when you see it. And we learn about what Stephanie is doing now to get this knowledge out to those who need it.

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