2025 In Review

2025 In Review

From The Integrated Schools Podcast by Andrew Lefkowits, Val Brown, Courtney Mykytyn

December 17, 2025 · 39 min · Season 12 · Episode 7

About this episode

The hosts reflect on the challenges and transitions of parenting in 2025, discussing personal experiences and broader societal issues.

As we come to the end of 2025, we wanted to pause together—to reflect on a year that has been emotionally heavy, nationally turbulent, and deeply personal for both of us. This year, our families have been in the midst of big transitions. We talk about what it’s been like to launch a child toward adulthood, to navigate new middle and high schools, and to sit with the uncertainty that comes with parenting when the stakes feel so high. We reflect on the school choices we’ve made—often outside the bounds of prestige or promise—and what it feels like, years later, to see our kids growing, learning, struggling, and coming out whole. We also hold the broader context of 2025. We name the ways the world feels like it’s unraveling: ICE raids disrupting communities and schools, cuts to public institutions, and the cumulative weight our young people are carrying after growing up through a pandemic and so much instability. This conversation doesn’t rush past the grief. We sit with it—and remind ourselves that survival, community, and care are not small things. They are strategies. Looking back on this season, we revisit conversations that shaped us—from Byron Sanders on identity and purpose…

People in this episode

Hosts: Andrew Lefkowits, Val Brown, Courtney Mykytyn

Topics covered

  • parenting
  • education
  • family transitions
  • emotional health
  • community support
  • school choices

Keywords

  • parenting
  • school choices
  • community
  • emotional health
  • 2025
  • family transitions
  • youth challenges

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