A crisis of mattering

A conversation with Angela Maiers

Before she was a keynote speaker, viral Ted-Talker, lecturer, and author, Angela Maiers was a classroom teacher. She found that her kindergartners needed to be recognized and valued before they could learn from her. They needed to know that they mattered to the adults around them, including their teachers. The lessons that she learned from her students prompted her to explore the importance of mattering.

She discovered that being valued is not a socioemotional or mental health issue. It is rooted in biology. “It’s our first instinct as infants,” she says. Newborn babies search for faces to show them they exist. “It’s called the mattering reflex.”