Learning Courage Podcasts

The Hidden Curriculum of All-Boys Schools with Adam Howard

Content note: this episode discusses sexual misconduct, violence between students, and pornography as a source of sex education for boys. The conversation names these as findings from research and does not describe incidents in detail.

Adam Howard has spent 28 years studying elite schools, and for the last eight he's been studying boys. When he set out to interview 127 recent graduates of all-boys schools, he handed the interviews to a team of young research assistants, because he doubted that 18 and 19 year old men would open up to someone in his fifties. What came back wasn't a story about a few bad actors, it was a story about what those schools teach without meaning to.

He calls it the hidden curriculum, the lessons that sit underneath the official one. In the interviews it showed up as a conviction that every interaction produces a winner and a loser, as near-universal cheating, and as a loyalty so complete that boys learned not to talk about what happened inside the school. Almost all of the young men he interviewed admitted to cheating, and the way they put it was that if you're not cheating, you're not trying.

He also found what schools could do instead, and none of it is a new assembly. Host Jamie Forbes asks him what school leaders, families, educators, and alumni networks would each have to change, why the sister-school partnerships that nearly every school in the study ran were described by students as disastrous, and why the strongest consent education is peer to peer rather than an adult at the front of the room.

This episode is for heads of school, trustees, deans of students, and anyone who teaches or raises boys.

ABOUT THE GUEST
Adam Howard is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Education and Chair of the Education Department at Colby College. His research covers social class in education, masculinity in education, elite schooling and affluent youth, and the sociology of education.

Adam Howard
https://profadamhoward.com/

Privileged Brotherhoods: Becoming Men at Elite All-Boys Schools
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1509571299

Educating Elites: Class Privilege and Educational Advantage
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607094584

Learning Privilege: Lessons of Power and Identity in Affluent Schooling
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0415960819

Dr. Adam's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sexedforguys

ABOUT THE SHOW
These podcasts capture a range of topics related to sexual misconduct and abuse. Our goal with them is to help listeners understand sexual misconduct, societal and cultural norms and factors that impact behaviors and discuss ways we can reduce incidents and minimize trauma when incidents occur. Our guests include professional practitioners and individuals who have experience and opinions that we believe are valuable.

If this conversation is useful, follow the Learning Courage Podcast wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone who works with boys.

Disclaimer: Learning Courage values a diversity of opinions, which sometimes means we have guests with perspectives and values that do not reflect those of our organization.

Get Help Now
Need Help? Call 800.656.HOPE (4673) (National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline)
Free. Confidential. 24/7

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Poetry and Healing: Gang Intervention Through Creative Expression with Chris Henrikson

Discover how poetry became a revolutionary tool for healing trauma and building community in one of America's most challenging environments. Chris Henrikson, founder of Street Poets, shares three decades of insights from his groundbreaking work in LA County juvenile detention facilities, where he discovered poetry's unique power to create safe spaces for vulnerability and transformation among gang-involved youth.

This episode explores the profound connection between childhood sexual abuse and gang involvement, revealing how creative expression can break through the hardest shells to reach places of deep healing. Chris shares practical wisdom about creating circles of trust, navigating institutional challenges, and the ripple effects that occur when young people find the courage to share their stories.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How poetry provides protective "cover" for sharing traumatic experiences
• Strategies for building authentic relationships in institutional settings
• The healing power of vulnerability and storytelling in community building
• Practical approaches to addressing childhood sexual abuse disclosure
• Methods for creating transformative partnerships between schools and outside organizations

Featured Guest: Chris Henrikson transformed his personal crisis as a Hollywood screenwriter into a 30-year calling serving gang-involved youth. His Street Poets organization has become a model for arts-based healing interventions, demonstrating how creative expression can break cycles of violence and trauma while building authentic community.

Visit Learning Courage: learningcourage.org

Connect with Chris Henrikson: Street Poets, Los Angeles

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Join us for Part 2 of our discussion about investigators of sexual misconduct in independent schools. Your host Jamie Forbes, the founder and CEO of Learning Courage, speaks with attorneys Mary Beth Hogan and Hailyn Chen who share their extensive experience with cases involving sexual abuse in schools. Find out what school leaders need to consider when facing allegations of past abuse, how schools and school boards can handle future allegations of abuse, and what has changed in recent years.

Topics covered:

- How transparent should schools be when disclosing historical sexual abuse and handling future cases?
 - What happens when school boards start investigations eager to uncover the truth when some members are reluctant or become reluctant as an investigation moves forward?
- Find out how independent school board leadership can engage with outside investigators, and fully understand what could happen during an investigation of sexual abuse.
- What impact can new laws, like the new New York Child Victims and Adult Survivors Act, have on investigations?
- What happens when school boards do not realize that investigating lawyers are not always there to protect the Board from lawsuits? 
- Why experienced attorneys say that an investigating law firm needs to be independent of the school being investigated.
- Find out what school boards and survivors of sexual abuse can do to reduce anxiety during an investigation, and how to maintain confidentiality throughout the process.

 Episode guests:

Attorney Hailyn Chen 
Hailyn Chen is a litigation partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.  Since 2019, Hailyn has served as one of two firmwide Managing Partners of MTO, which comprises around 200 lawyers, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.  Her practice focuses on complex litigation, internal and government investigations, and crisis management. 

Hailyn has extensive experience handling sexual misconduct and sexual abuse matters, including representing the University of California and other universities in internal investigations, government investigations, and litigation.  Hailyn was recently recognized for her work with The Thacher School, leading an investigation into decades of sexual abuse at the elite boarding school. Hailyn J. Chen (mto.com)

Attorney Mary Beth Hogan
Mary Beth Hogan is Co-Chair of Debevoise & Plimpton’s Litigation Department. She has a broad-gauged litigation and investigations practice that focuses on sensitive investigations for educational institutions, corporations and other organizations, including board-directed independent investigations of sexual abuse or harassment.

Ms. Hogan’s work in this area also includes advising boards of corporations, educational institutions, and nonprofits on #MeToo-related governance issues.
She is recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US and Benchmark Litigation, which has named her as one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation.” In 2015, Ms. Hogan was named “Lawyer of the Year for Private Practice” for gender diversity in the profession by Chambers & Partners.   Mary Beth Hogan | Professionals | Debevoise & Plimpton LLP 

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Part 1 of a two-part series exploring how independent schools and school boards have historically handled sexual abuse investigations, how investigations of independent schools have evolved over the past five years, and how transparent schools should be when disclosing sexual abuse. Your host Jamie Forbes, the founder and CEO of Learning Courage, will speak with two wonderful and very generous attorneys: Mary Beth Hogan and Hailyn Chen.

Topics covered:

- What does it mean for a society to expect that institutions will be transparent in releasing the findings of an investigation into historic sexual abuse or sexual misconduct?
- What happens when the school wants to be the one communicating the findings of an investigation?
- Find out what schools can do to restore the trust of survivors of sexual abuse.
- What happens when there is not full disclosure by schools?
- The challenges of historic abuse cases before the time of digital record keeping.
- When investigators talk with friends or relatives, how does a survivor decide whether to come forward or not.
- How law enforcement agencies and police departments across the country can adopt trauma-informed interviewing practices.
- How the relationships of the school board with respected teachers and administrators can impact investigations, and how everyone concerned should maintain confidentiality.

Episode guests:

Attorney Hailyn Chen 
Hailyn Chen is a litigation partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.  Since 2019, Hailyn has served as one of two firmwide Managing Partners of MTO, which comprises around 200 lawyers, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.  Her practice focuses on complex litigation, internal and government investigations, and crisis management. 

Hailyn has extensive experience handling sexual misconduct and sexual abuse matters, including representing the University of California and other universities in internal investigations, government investigations, and litigation. She has also represented companies in a broad range of industries in internal investigations and government investigations involving alleged fraud, corruption, and abuse. Hailyn was recently recognized for her work with The Thacher School, leading an investigation into decades of sexual abuse at the elite boarding school. Hailyn J. Chen (mto.com)

Attorney Mary Beth Hogan
Mary Beth Hogan is Co-Chair of Debevoise & Plimpton’s Litigation Department. She has a broad-gauged litigation and investigations practice that focuses on sensitive investigations for educational institutions, corporations and other organizations, including board-directed independent investigations of sexual abuse or harassment.

Ms. Hogan’s work in this area also includes advising boards of corporations, educational institutions, and nonprofits on #MeToo-related governance issues.
She is recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US and Benchmark Litigation, which has named her as one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation.” In 2015, Ms. Hogan was named “Lawyer of the Year for Private Practice” for gender diversity in the profession by Chambers & Partners.   Mary Beth Hogan | Professionals | Debevoise & Plimpton LLP 

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Learning Courage CEO Jamie Forbes joins Executive Director Amy Wheeler to discuss 6 Key Learnings for schools handling incidents of historic misconduct based on research and work with survivors. One perhaps surprising finding is that caring for survivors is not best only for the individuals who have been harmed, but it is also in the best interest of the institutions where the harm took place. Jamie and Amy draw on their personal experiences as survivors bringing to light the importance of compassion, commitment, and support in addition to the role and responsibility of the institution when dealing with incidents of abuse. While this episode is focused on historic misconduct, these key learnings also apply to how we can support survivors outside the school setting. For more information on the items discussed in this episode or to learn more about Learning Courage please check out the links below:

Website -  https://learningcourage.org   
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Cindy Pierce, a social sexuality educator, storyteller, speaker, and author, joins Learning Courage's Jamie Forbes to discuss how to support male survivors of sexual abuse. Pierce shares anecdotes from working with young men and provides insight and suggestions for families and schools on how to support healthy sexual relationships by engaging in conversations around how to support survivors. This episode explores how social-cultural norms impact our beliefs around masculinity and how we, as a society, can work to support males through changing the dialogue and expectations around sexuality. For more information on the items discussed in this episode or to learn more about our guest, check out the links below:

- Cindy Pierce: https://cindy-pierce.com/

- Emma Brown's To Raise A Boy: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/To-Raise-a-Boy/Emma-Brown/9781982128081

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World-renowned clinical psychologist, Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair joins Learning Courage’s Jamie Forbes and Amy Wheeler to discuss how the global pandemic impacted both mental health and dependence on technology among K-12 students. Dr. Steiner-Adair provides insight and specific suggestions for school leaders and teachers for how to support students as they return to school this fall.
 For more information on the items discussed in this episode or to learn more about our guest, check out the links below:
 - Catherine Steiner Adair -   Catherine Steiner-Adair Ed.D. | Clinical Psychologist, Consultant, Author, Speaker (csadair.com)
- Naomi Osaka Time Magazine Article - https://time.com/6077128/naomi-osaka-essay-tokyo-olympics/

- Authentic Connections - https://www.authconn.com/

- John Palfrey - Born Digital - https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/john-palfrey/born-digital/9780465053926/ or MacArthur Foundation Bio macfound.org/about/people/president

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World-renowned clinical psychologist and expert in adolescent youth, Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair joins Learning Courage’s Jamie Forbes and Amy Wheeler to discuss the importance of creating and maintaining safe spaces for students where they can feel comfortable discussing topics related to sexuality and identity  

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