381: Jessica Lahey - The Gift of Failure, Motivation, Parenting, Resilience, Writing & More

Leigh Martinuzzi

Jessica Lahey is a teacher, writer, and mom. She writes about education, parenting, and child welfare for The Atlantic, Vermont Public Radio, and the New York Times and is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. What's the best way to motivate students to own their education, learn deeply and durably, and develop resilience? Research has shown that the key to all these things is intrinsic motivation, or motivation that comes from within. Jessica discusses autonomy-supportive parenting and teaching, competence versus confidence, rewards, praise, and failure. How parents and educators can give children the support, love, connection and encouragement they need in order to stay motivated over the long term. We also discuss the practice of writing. Many of the insights relate across disciplines and habits that will improve the quality of what we do and our life. A very insightful conversation.