Launch week: The Disengaged Teen is out in the world
If it takes a village to raise a kid, it takes a small city to launch a book
It’s been a hell of a week. We launched the book in New York. Drew Barrymore called it “an absolute must-read.” Gayle King grilled us on our data (in person: her notes were written across four full legal pad pages). I met my Instagram hero Big Time Adulting, as well as Stephanie Ruhle, Huma Abedin and Adriana Diaz, among other NYC media luminaries. THE DISENGAGED TEEN hit number one in Hot New Releases for parenting on Amazon and today has 37 five-star reviews, and counting.
SheKnows hosted an animated fireside chat with us and then brought on a teen panel to share their experiences with learning at a standing-room only event overlooking the New York Public Library. Dr. Pamela Cantor, whose work we so admire and who features prominently in the book, threw us a small book party and gave a toast that made me cry.
Kristin Lemkau interviewed us at JP Morgan where more than 1500 people listened to us talk about our book and the auditorium audience jumped in with so many wonderful, engaged questions. We went on Christiane Amanpour.
We then hightailed it to Washington DC where I moderated a panel on Chronic Absenteeism at Brookings with heavy-hitters including Dr Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Schools, Jenee Henry Wood, chief learning officer at Transcend, Nat Malkus, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Rebecca (my co-author who is also the director of the Center for Universal Education).
From there we went straight to Politics and Prose Union Market to talk to another standing-room only audience about why kids hate learning so much and what parents and educators can do to help. A lot of my family turned up which made me really happy (special kudos to my 85-year-old mom and 93-year-old aunt!)
It was awesome. And humbling. And, it must be said, the product of a lot of work. People have been so generous with their time and networks. We feel blessed.
A launch like this doesn’t just happen. This book has been my life for three years, and the launch plans have been my full time job for at least three months. Rebecca and I have hustled, mined our networks, and hired people to help us. We are supremely grateful both for the fact that we have the ability to do that, and for the myriad ways people have shown up.
Putting this book and ourselves out into the world required a lot of bravery. We left it on the field for this project, never knowing how it would go. We relied on so many people: teens to share their lives with us, parents who okayed that and participated, experts, researchers, teachers, friends, family. Thank you to all those who made this possible including those who believed in this when we didn’t. Our families and the teens who were our guinea pigs put up with a lot.
A few of the things that published this week:
A summary of the book in Oprah Daily
Our op-ed about agency in the New York Times
What Fresh Hell, Laughing in the Face of Motherhood - a podcast with @Margaret Ables
The Brookings-Transcend Report (embargoed until Jan 6)
This Is So Awkward (podcast)
Totally Booked with Zibby (podcast)
Always Learning (podcast)
The Future Learning Design Podcast
A word on the LA fires. During this busy, celebratory time on one coast, we also saw with horror what was happening on the other. This week, we made the very obvious decision to cancel the LA leg of our book tour amidst the devastation of the most destructive fires in US history. We have been heartbroken by the widespread destruction and loss, from homes and schools to family photographs and entire neighborhoods. Our friends Cara Natterson, MD and Vanessa Kroll Bennett from This is So Awkward shared a useful resource guide "Where to Start After a Devastating Fire.” I'm also sharing a piece by Zibby Owens about the fires, her loss, and the story of how she came to build the bookstore we were meant to speak at. We are sending love (and support) to all those who have been affected and we can’t wait to come back when the time is right.
Just finished chapter 1 and these sentences are resonating: "[b]oredom is more than a lack of stimulation. It's also a crisis of agency. . . . The problem is not nothing-to-do; it's feeling helpless to change things." Especially in light of article I just posted about patriotism. Thinking about my role as a history teacher to show students they do have agency in creating "a more perfect Union."
Congratulations on the launch, and on participating in so many events and podcasts in one week! I'm glad the messages of the book are resonating with audiences so that they can spread the word.