Like a Sponge

Trailer: A sneak peek at season 3 of Like a Sponge Feb 24, 2022

In this season of Like a Sponge, we explore how high schools need to change. Learn how practices rooted in equity and rigor benefit all students. What does it mean for a school to become trauma-sensitive? Or anti-rascist? Or to help teens try a career path? See how these big ideas play out in real schools.

Radical rethink Dec 21, 2021

What does it take to turn around a high school with lagging attendance, low test scores, and few resources? Some educators might say, “baby steps.” Instead, North Edgecombe High School launched a radical rethink of the whole student experience, all guided by a design thinking process led by the students themselves.

Navigating the world Dec 07, 2021

In search of relevant learning, many traditional high schools are adding internship programs and capstone projects to their curriculum. This innovative Rhode Island high school built its entire curriculum around each individual child’s curiosity about the future. Listen in as one girl, who had lost her way in a traditional high school, found her North Star.

Banishing bias from school Nov 23, 2021

A charter school in Philadelphia rethinks their policies and practices to strip out bias. In Texas, one highly effective teacher transforms her students’ learning liabilities into super powers. In both schools, ordinary educators are finding extraordinary success in questioning old assumptions that leave some kids behind.

School culture makeover Nov 09, 2021

One Massachusetts’ charter school had a culture of high behavioral expectations to match their high academic expectations. The only problem? All those rules were actually getting in the way of learning. Learn how this school transformed their culture, policies, and practices by reframing the invisible forcefield that influenced it all: the mindset of the adults.

Sampling the future Oct 26, 2021

From the outset, Grayson High School, located just outside of Atlanta, GA, looks like a typical American high school: big football field, bigger pep rallies. But it also offers a program that enables kids to time travel into their imagined futures and sample dream careers. Grayson Tech has 12 pathway programs that teach everything from culinary arts to music tech. For students, it’s not just vocational training — it’s a path to finding their purpose.

Forget college prep. Start college now. Oct 13, 2021

No fancy campus. Few extracurriculars. No football stadium. This small early college high school defies a lot of the myths about what high school is supposed to be. Instead, they succeed at the very thing so many high schools claim is their primary goal: to help students get into college and succeed once they get there. Their secret to college prep? Start college now.

The problem with high school Sep 27, 2021

No matter whether you’re measuring by student satisfaction or test scores, most American high schools don’t have great outcomes. This has led some to declare that this centuries-old mass institution is broken. Actually, say experts, it’s working just the way it was designed to work. And that’s the problem.

In this season of Like a Sponge, we explore how high schools need to change, and the ways some educators are rethinking assumptions and remaking their schools to actually work for students.

Humility’s bad rap Jan 05, 2021

We want our kids to be confident learners. We tell them to “speak up in class” and “fake it till you make it.” What about that old-fashioned virtue, humility? New research suggests it may be the key to learning.

Gifted! Dec 08, 2020

We all want to give our children the best we can. To how much we care. But research suggests that a more lasting gift parents can give their children is the personal experience of giving back.

How about a little gratitude? Nov 17, 2020

Grateful kids are happier, more engaged in school, and more satisfied with their lives. Here’s why gratitude is such a game changer in our material-and-status-obsessed world. We talk to researchers, kids and a Somalian refugee about how gratitude goes beyond niceties and changes lives.

Liar, liar Oct 27, 2020

Today’s kids see celebrities, business moguls and politicians lie with impunity. Here’s how to teach kids the value of honesty and how they should apply it.

The power of purpose Oct 13, 2020

Research shows that a sense of purpose makes people happier, healthier, and more successful. Yet just 40% of adults say they feel a strong sense of purpose in their lives. We talked to researchers, parents and kids about how you can help your child begin a path toward a meaningful life.

The forgiveness cure Sep 29, 2020

Decades of research show that the ability to forgive is a life skill that helps us survive life’s misfortunes. In this episode, we tackle some of the biggest misconceptions about forgiveness head on, and explain how teaching kids to recover from everyday hurts now will make them resilient to life's bigger blows later.

How do kids know they’re loved? Sep 15, 2020

What can we learn from a former white supremacist about unconditional love? A lot, it turns out. The secret ingredient for thriving in our fractured society may not be civic lessons, but a feeling. We talked with researchers, kids, and a former nazi skinhead about how parents can make sure their kids get the message.

Season 2 Trailer Jan 24, 2020

How do you raise an honest child in a post-truth society? What are the mindsets that help protect kids from mental health problems and substance abuse? How do you help a child rebound from hurt and injustice? This season, Like a Sponge takes on how to raise caring, courageous, resilient kids—in short, kids who have what it takes to thrive in this mad world of ours.

Episode 6: Kindergarten Confidential Apr 26, 2018

What’s it like to tour 12 elementary schools in search of the best one for your child? Join us as we explore one of the most complicated milestones in modern American parenting.

Episode 5: Sky's the Limit? Jan 18, 2018

Nine out of ten parents expect their kids to go to college. Four in ten kids get there. Tune in to find out how parents from all backgrounds are moving heaven and earth to keep their kids college-bound.

Episode 4: The Wonder Years Sep 27, 2017

Tune in as Like a Sponge explores how parents can embrace early adolescence, one of the most radical stages of brain development in the human lifespan.

Episode 3: Their Own Devices Sep 06, 2017

In this episode of Like a Sponge, we take a hard look at what screens are doing to our kids’ brains—and what kind of role models we are.

Episode 2: This is Only a Test Jun 11, 2017

Standardized testing: Is it an irrelevant waste of class time? An essential tool for making sure kids don't slip through the cracks? Like a Sponge looks at the many angles of this debate.

Episode 1: The M-Word May 03, 2017

In the first episode of Like a Sponge, we explore why math fills so many Americans with fear and loathing, and what experts are doing to change the math story for your child.

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