Overcoming Challenges, Limitations, Stereotype Threats & Deficit Narratives So that ALL Children Can Thrive with Michael Phillips

In this episode, I have the pleasure to speak with Michael Phillips, Pastor, Education Advocate, Social Entrepreneur, founder of LifePrep, and Author of “Wrong Lanes Have Right Turns: A Pardoned Man’s Escape from the School-to-Prison Pipeline and What We Can Do to Dismantle it”. We discuss equal access and the basic right to quality education as an important tool for self-discovery and empowerment as well as a solution to many societal problems. Moreover, we consider the psychological and emotional impact and harm that deficit language, stereotypes, and prejudices cause within children and young adults. In addition, ingrained and implicit cultural drives like perfectionism and the pressure to perform should give way to fostering strengths, building confidence, empathy, and wisdom, and bringing forth and developing the unique gifts and blessings, the innate genius that’s within each of us, regardless of race, ethnicity, or social class.