Real Fear, Real Hope: Social Media, Mental Health, and Our Children | Part II
I have two fears in sharing this second in a series of posts with you…
I have two fears in sharing this second in a series of posts with you…
“I think there’s really no question what this data is telling us,” said Dr. Kathleen Ethier, head of the CDC’s adolescent and school health program. “Young people are telling us that they are in crisis.”
Most of us miss the first part of DeCartes’ most famous axiom. He actually said, “dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum,” which translates, roughly, to “I doubt, therefore I think, I think therefore I am.”
Turns out that the first part is super important. To doubt is to ask questions that pressure-test assumptions and choices.
Most of the time, when a parent mentions that some undesirable behavior is going on with their young child, it has something to do with one of the child’s three basic physical needs, and if they are met and stable, or not. These are sleeping, eating, and eliminating – and chief among them is sleep.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s prediction that 65 percent of our children’s careers haven’t been invented yet seems even more relevant today: What will the world be like when our children step into it as adults?
A few years before his cancer diagnosis, we had a birthday party to celebrate Perry, my dad. I had a moment of awe and admiration for the joyful, fulfilling life he had created and reached. I raised a glass and said to him, “Here’s to you, Pop. Congratulations on making your dreams into reality.” Without missing a beat as he raised his glass to his lips, he said, “Better to make your reality your dreams.”
We’re all scientists before we’re science students. When their natural curiosity is not cultivated, though, they can lose interest in the scientific principles that allow them to see their world differently.
It’s not their fault, of course.
Storytelling is in our DNA. As human beings, we evolved to tell stories as a way to convey emotion and share information. Storytelling is how we educate and entertain. It’s how we learn about our world and find meaning in it. More than anything, storytelling is how we connect with one another.
Like many aspects of our society, education is in a time of transformation. On my mind specifically are six urgent questions about the future of schools in our society. Though the answers to each aren’t always obvious, understanding the context and specifics of the questions is an important first step for us all…
We know things in relation to other things – we know tall in comparison to short, clean in comparison to messy. So why wouldn’t we compare what our children know to some standard of what they should be learning? After all, we worry they’re falling behind or, on the flip side, take pride in their ability to achieve beyond expectations. Comparison to a standard makes almost unimpugnable sense.