Episode 15: Teaching Kids to Think. A Conversation with Michael Strong.
KindlED
Encouraging Curiosity and Intellectual Engagement in Students
Tips and tools for adults to stimulate curiosity in children, including starting with less personal topics, understanding and engaging students intellectually, and using devices like immersion neuro for real-time measurement of psychological engagement.
In Episode 15 of The KindlED Podcast, hosts Kaity and Adriane are joined by Michael Strong. They discuss Michael’s pioneering work in the education world, specifically around the Socratic Method. The way we interact with kids matters deeply. Both research and experience show that using Socratic questioning encourages kids to learn how to think. In today’s modern world, helping kids develop analytical skills is key. Find out how you can bring the benefits of Socratic teaching to your family or educational setting in this episode of the Kindled podcast.
👤 ABOUT THE GUEST 👤
Michael Strong is one of the most experienced designers of innovative school programs in the United States. His projects include a public school program in which minority female students gained four years’ worth of critical thinking gains in four months (on the Watson-Glaser). He later went into Montessori secondary school program design at The Judson Montessori School (San Antonio), The Emerson School, and Hacienda School. He created The Winston Academy, where middle school students passed AP exams, making it the most academically advanced school in the country at the time.
Another of Michael’s projects, Moreno Valley High School, a Paideia charter high school, was ranked the 36th-best U.S. public high school by Newsweek. More recently, he co-founded KoSchool in Austin, Texas, which combined his high-performance approach to AP coursework and SAT score gains with a focus on entrepreneurial and creative projects. KoSchool, in turn, became the original model for The Academy of Thought and Industry, the high school model for the largest Montessori network in the United States.
Students from Michael’s schools have been admitted to Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, Smith, Bard, Bennington, McGill, UT-Austin, University of Colorado, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Parsons School of Design, Quest, St. John’s, and many dozens of other post-secondary institutions.
He is the author of The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice and the lead author of Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems.
🔗 RELEVANT LINKS 🔗
The Socratic Experience - https://socraticexperience.com/
Follow Michael on X - https://x.com/flowidealism?s=20
Subscribe to Michael Strong on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c
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About the podcast
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.
Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
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