Lars Og Pål

On this episode I talk to Chris Balme, the author of the book Finding the Magic in Middle School (2022) and the founder of the Millennium School, an alternative middle school in San Francisco.  We talk about what makes people enter the strange and confusing world of alternative education, and what sort of lessons Chris has learned from working with adolescents in an alternative education setting. How come we at the same time have both too low and too high expectations of adolescents, and how do we talk to parents and kids about these expectations? We cover a wide range of topics, from overworked teachers in alternative and progressive education; good books about parenting and learning (Tom Hodgkinson, Alison Gopnik, Judith Rich Harris, Blake Boles); the three stages of adolescence that Chris describe in his book: belonging, achievement and authenticity; friendship; age-mixing; learning about emotions, Lisa Feldman Barrett’s book How Emotions Are Made; how social media and smartphones are not all bad for teena