Raising Good Humans Resilience: What It Really Means & The “Ordinary Magic” It Takes to Build It w/ Professor Ann Masten
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Mar 6, 2026 Professor Ann Masten, leading resilience researcher and author of Ordinary Magic, explains resilience as systems adapting to serious challenges. She explores how caring relationships, schools, and communities combine to protect children. Short, practical conversations cover distinguishing trauma from growth-building challenges and why 'good enough' support across systems matters.
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Resilience Is A System Capacity
- Resilience is the capacity of a system to adapt successfully to challenges that could harm or destroy it.
- Ann Masten frames children as living systems embedded in families, schools, health systems and communities that jointly determine adaptation.
It Takes Multiple Systems Not Just One Parent
- Resilience requires multiple interacting systems working well, not just individual traits in the child.
- Masten highlights families, schools, government resources and safe environments as joint contributors to child adaptation.
Granddaughter Tuned Out Distance Learning
- Ann Masten describes her granddaughter tuning out kindergarten distance learning as an example of how young children struggled with COVID-era schooling.
- This anecdote illustrates cascading system effects: immune threat → home disruptions → strain on parents and education.
