#25- "What are the 10 Challenges of High School?" Part 1

Laurie & Matt preview Matt's book, TRAJECTORY: The 10 Challenges of High School that Shape a Teenager's Future*, which is due out in early August 2020. In his first book, Matt details how high school is an intentionally designed Hero's Journey that all teenagers go through, with 10 challenges aimed at developing vital aspects of their character before heading out on their own into the wilderness of adulthood. Matt argues that high school represents the most important four years of a person's life. All that lies between a dweeby 8th grader and a soldier entering boot camp is high school, which should be evidence enough to make his case.

In this first of a two part series, Laurie & Matt discuss the first five challenges, giving a brief glimpse at the book's contents and structure. The first five challenges are:

1. Get Healthy
2. Grow Up
3. See the Future
4. Master the System
5. Embrace Criticism

Intended as a guidebook for parents and teachers of teenagers, TRAJECTORY provides insight into what teenagers face in high school, as well as providing specific actionable steps we can all take to help our teens on their quest to become capable, confident adults. All heroes require the assistance of a mentor on their journey, and that's the role parents and teachers play in their lives. It's exhausting, often thankless work, but it's crucial if our teens have a chance of finishing the journey successfully.

Laurie & Matt debuted a revised format this week. In the interest of sustainability and the increased workload of school looming, they've decided to focus the regular episodes on the essential question conversation, moving the "If I Were Principal" and "That's the Beauty of it All" segments into the bonus content episodes that post every other Thursday. Today's episode, however, features one last beauty, this one supplied by a former student, Blake Martin, titled "What Success Means to Me."

*About a week after publishing, Matt had the brilliant idea to change the title and cover of his book. The content remains the same. The new title is Helping Teens Succeed in High School & Life for Parents & Teachers. Catchy, huh? Listen to episode #32 for the full story.

Get your copy of Trajectory at amazon.com/author/mattsavesworld

To connect with Laurie & Matt and find out more:

Visit their website: TeacherSavesWorld.com
Email them: [email protected]
Twitter: twitter.com/teachrsaveswrld
Instagram: instagram.com/teachersavesworld/
Facebook: facebook.com/teachersavesworld/

Show music provided by Brian Karmelich of VirtualCampfire.net