Summer 2025 Book Club: 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People
Learn more and register for the Association for Academic Leaders’ Summer Book Club.
Book Review by Denny Gonzalez, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Barrie School (MD) and Founder & Principal Consultant for DG Strategies
David Yeager’s 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People takes a research-informed look at how young people between—you guessed it—the ages of 10 and 25 shape their identities, interact with adults, and perceive the world around them. For academic leaders of all kinds, not just in independent schools, Yeager’s insights apply not only to students but also to early-career educators. Both of these groups navigate complex developmental stages within our schools and need guidance from leaders like us.
Reading this book both reaffirmed and recalibrated my thinking on how best to work with and for young people. Yeager doesn’t offer easy prescriptions, but he does provide a useful framework that helps me understand more clearly what motivates and what frustrates the future leaders we are working so hard to raise—including the teachers who are just beginning their careers.
I’ve also used 10 to 25 in my own classroom while teaching students about the foundational theories and practices of leadership. Rather than summarize the research for them, I shared excerpts from the book and asked my students what they thought of Yeager’s research and whether it held any water for them. They immediately recognized the accuracy of what he describes throughout 10 to 25. We even paired the reading with selections from Rob Evans’ The Human Side of School Change, and the connections between the two helped inform and transform students’ perspectives on school (both the institution itself and the people therein), autonomy and agency, and their own sense of leadership.
The book avoids reducing young people to labels like “students,” and emphasizes how much capacity they have to make a difference in their communities, be they schools, neighborhoods, or even just their families. That language shift alone challenged me to reconsider how I frame both teaching and mentoring. In faculty settings, 10 to 25 is a summer reading option for our faculty, particularly for individuals interested in reflecting on how best to support students transitioning from our Montessori Lower School into our middle school program. Yeager’s developmental framing can help create more intentional alignment across grade levels.
What has stayed with me most, though, is how Yeager’s research connects to the experiences of early-career educators. The first few years in the profession determine whether new teachers stay or leave. 10 to 25 invited me to think more carefully about how we instill both competence and confidence in our new faculty. It’s rare to find a book that speaks meaningfully to both students and teachers, but this one does. I’m looking forward to learning from others who’ve read 10 to 25 and seeing how it shapes our conversations and strategies going forward.
