Mind the Gap: Making Education Work Across the Globe

Disengaged Children and How Schools Can Win Them Back with Jenny Anderson, Mind the Gap, Ep.98 (S5,E14)

21 snips

May 23, 2025

Jenny Anderson, an author and former New York Times journalist, shares insights from her book The Disengaged Teen. She discusses the alarming engagement crisis in education, linking mental health struggles and societal shifts like the pandemic to declining interest among students. Anderson introduces her framework of four engagement modes—Passenger, Achiever, Resistor, and Explorer—highlighting how these identities impact learning. The conversation emphasizes the importance of innovative educational approaches and parental involvement in revitalizing student motivation.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Root Causes of Teen Disengagement

Many teens are disengaged from education but parents often feel helpless and unsure how to support.
Smartphones exacerbate but aren't the root cause; the overall youth experience needs more care.

INSIGHT

Disengagement Tied to Mental Health

Teen disengagement today reflects both worsening mental health and concern about education's real-world relevance.
This cognitive churn causes anxiety and makes learning feel less meaningful to teens.

ADVICE

Teach Adaptability and Resilience

Adapt education to today's world by teaching adaptability, flexibility, and resilience.
Support kids in trying, failing, and relearning as essential lifelong learning skills.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

On this episode of Mind the Gap, Jon Hutchinson is joined by journalist and author Jenny Anderson to discuss her acclaimed new book The Disengaged Teen—a powerful exploration of why so many young people are tuning out of school and what we can do about it. Drawing on extensive research, real-world stories, and her own experience as both a parent and reporter, Jenny introduces her framework of four learner modes—passenger, achiever, resistor, and explorer—and explains how these shifting states shape young people's engagement. Together, Jon and Jenny delve into the mental health crisis, the limitations of hyper-achievement, and why motivation and agency matter more than ever in the age of AI. Jenny argues that school systems must evolve to reflect the world students are entering, without sacrificing depth or rigour. “How you feel about learning,” she says, “is inseparable from how well you learn.” This conversation is both a wake-up call and a hopeful invitation—for educators, parents, and policymakers alike—to reimagine what it means to truly engage today’s children and young people.

Jenny Anderson is an author and an award-winning journalist who spent over a decade at The New York Times before pioneering coverage on the science of learning at Quartz. She contributes to TIME, The New York Times and The Atlantic, among other publications. Most recently, she has written The Disengaged Teen, which you can find at https://www.thedisengagedteen.com/. You can find Jenny on LinkedIn here.

Jon Hutchinson is a former assistant headteacher of Reach Academy Feltham and is now a Director at the Reach Foundation. He has taught across primary and secondary and HE. In his spare time, Jon runs ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.meno.acacdemy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, a platform with free videos to support primary teachers to build their subject knowledge. Follow Jon on X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@jon_hutchinson_⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or Bluesky ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@jonhutchinson.bksy.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This podcast is produced by Haringey Education Partnership. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://haringeyeducationpartnership.co.uk/