Dr. Jonathan Haidt — The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are ...

Discussion in 'Education' started by Durandal, Sep 5, 2018.

  1. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    SCIENCE SALON # 36
    Dr. Jonathan Haidt — The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure


    In this fascinating dialogue Dr. Haidt and Dr. Shermer discuss what has been going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising—on campus as well as nationally. How did this happen? In his new book Haidt has teamed up with First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff to show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being and ancient wisdom from many cultures. Embracing these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—interferes with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. It makes it harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of life. They explore changes in childhood such as the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised, child-directed play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. They examine changes on campus, including the corporatization of universities and the emergence of new ideas about identity and justice. They situate the conflicts on campus within the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization and dysfunction.

    Dr. Jonathan Haidt is Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He is a social psychologist whose field is moral psychology. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom and The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.

    Listen to Science Salon via iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Soundcloud.

    This remote Science Salon was recorded on August 27, 2018.



    https://www.skeptic.com/science-sal...tions-bad-ideas-set-up-generation-for-failure
     
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  2. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

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    I heard him interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition this week. He has good points. Makes me glad I raised my boys to be as self-sufficient as possible. The sad thing is that the groups in our society that probably most empower young people to think for themselves have been under attack and are weakening by the day. The Scouting movement consists of those groups. At least in terms of Boy Scouts, it's the only place that I could see in middle class American society that children were allowed to make major decisions for themselves. The ideal in BSA is scout-led troops, where the scouts make the majority of the big decisions. My oldest son at age 15 was essentially a project manager for a $2500 project, with his primary workers being 11-14 year old boys (and two parents, not scout leaders). This was his Eagle project, and he did a great job.

    https://www.npr.org/2018/09/04/6444...w-book-take-on-the-coddling-of-american-minds
     
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  3. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    It's a pickle, for sure. Might have been mentioned in this interview, not sure now, but I recall hearing a suggestion for young people to perform some mandatory public service, as is often done in other countries.

    For my part, I looked into the military more than once way back when, but was already too physically unfit for it :(
     
  4. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

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    IMHO, the problem is parenting, not the students themselves. The problem is it may be too late for many of them. I have two college student sons. In their college orientations, I am always amazed at some of the questions the parents ask. Basically speaking, the parents are doing everything, even the minor tasks, for their kids. There was a 20 minute discussion of buying books by the parents. My reaction (to my wife, not the helicopter parent mob) was "what the hell are they talking about? Books aren't our jobs to buy, it's the student's job. X (our oldest) has never discussed or asked about the ins and outs of book buying." Yes, he has given his brother advice, but that was between students.
     
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  5. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    I'll bet that modern communication (portable everywhere, available 24/7) is making things worse. I suppose modern parenting attitudes are also, though, as parents seek to help their kids rather than give them "tough love" to help get them out of the nest and functioning on their own.
     
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  6. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

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    Its a struggle. I know my wife and I often have had to reign in our impulses to assist. We just didn't want to cripple our sons by not letting them face adversity and to not be able to do things on their own.
     
  7. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    Rein in, just so you know. Common mistake, I know. Reigning is what sovereigns do, reining (in) is what knights and such do. :)

    Unfortunately, I can't speak as a parent and have little experience with how kids are being brought up these days. I can look to my nephews for some reference, though. One is definitely not being pushed to fend for himself and it's showing, whereas the other one kind of flew the coop on his own and is out working hard to make money, money, money. :lol: Funny how personalities differ. I personally see myself in the former nephew. Not pushed, not overly ambitious, not too concerned with going out and building a personal empire. Just getting by.
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2018
  8. OldManOnFire

    OldManOnFire Well-Known Member

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    A parent problem, or social media problem, etc. don't have any solutions. Therefore, they can't be problems. They are simply 'what is' and society needs to adjust. Regarding public education for example, why isn't society asking why we need brick & mortar schools? Why do we need books? And even if we can provide the perfect environment for learning, at least in the USA, the adults in the room can't even find consensus of what to teach.

    I think most of this stuff is humans being humans and our flaws and limitations in this process are showing big time...
     
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