#EIE19 Keynote - Dr. Jonathan Haidt

but thank you so much thank you Chris what an incredible honor to have the chance to be here with you today to talk but this very large room full of people who all share a sense of the importance of education and the difficulty of getting a real education systems to work with all the political pressures with all the difficulties and then suddenly in the last few years let me guess it's gotten harder right that's we're gonna talk about today what is happening why is it getting harder what is this what is happening as gens D comes in and the Millennials have left now whenever anyone starts to talk with what's going wrong with those young people what's going wrong with this generation used to be a little bit skeptical because people have been asking this question for thousands of years what's wrong with that so the Roman poet Horace wrote worse than our grandpa worse than our grandparents generations our parents been produced us even worse and there's still more still no children so there's always been a sense that our the next generation is miserable failures but it usually actually morals again and that's not usually with James Dean we don't think that James Dean is morally bad it's pumping out raise your hand if you have noticed beginnings don't have between 2010 and 2015 great great if you've noticed arise the depression anxiety fragility have you seen that intensity that's our starting for it's pitiful though I need to convince you that what's going on now is not just the usual misunderstanding of each generation for the one captain I need to tell you as a social scientist that there really is something very serious acting which has enormous implications for everybody in education and then as this generation lives out for everybody in oh I don't know business politics and every other institution we can find so let's begin what is going on what are the facts adolescents in America began changing a number of years ago this is nationally representative data from 12th graders showing how they use their what this does is the percentage of 12th graders through 2016 the percent who have a driver's license now when I graduated from high school and I'm screening 81 we all got our driver's license on our 5th 16th birthday unless it was a Sunday and then could wait until Monday but you would never wait pills booze but now many students are just not even bothering to get into this place now granted there's over and things like that but it's also part that they don't really need to drive because they're not going out very much the percentage who have ever gone out drinking the percentage who have ever gone out on a date the perspective could ever work for paying its plummeting these are some of the main landmarks that we affect as adolescents develop move away from their parents paper risks to find their identity we kinda the best at universities we kind of it's best that the freshmen coming in have done all these things and that's not true anymore now you might just say ok fine they're different they're just spending a lot more time on their beds looking at their devices what's wrong with that well that's not the only difference so when the Millennials were data from American college students looking at first year freshman and what we see is that when the Millennials were the student levels of learning disabilities other problems were you know three to five percent and as the lenders leave and jimsy comes in the foot rises its overwhelming these psychological disorders that it's skyrocketed just ended a couple of years women have the changing of the generations now it's not all psychological disorders with blooded five students coming in only for depression and anxiety that's all that's rising so when Millennials this is now not college dudes this is all American spoon and and the Millennials with its teenagers these those events that linger depression for boys and Emperor and for girls those rates average at puberty girls have higher rates of depression and anxiety beginning of today but look what happens when GM Dean comes into the day despair the boys go up the girls go away looking at college student data same pattern when the Millennials were the students those race were stable when Gen Z comes into the picture the boys go up the girls go way now it's not just depression is also anxiety was been a lot of discussion over the last five years what is happening what is happening to our kids and there have been some people who quite reasonably expressed skepticism like dr. Richards breathes in writing the New York Times with Bell nothing's happening all that's happening is that James beef is really comfortable talking about depression anxiety that's a good thing there's no underlying problem he's dead they're very reasonable hypothesis I believe it's wrong for three reasons first bit is data from what students report why did they go to the student health center and as you see it's only depression anxiety that arising nothing else is rising so it's not that they're hypochondriac it's not that they're happy to talk about everything the Pacific change just depression anxiety and note they don't even claim to be more stressed the difference is that tensley has no more stress than the Millennial did but we never gave them the chance to learn how to deal with ordinary way you also here's the second reason I think frequently broke you've also stated behavior so this is the number out of a hundred thousand American teenage girl girls of various ages were admitted to hospital each year because they're harmed themselves most big cutting them stuff and their parents was something brought into hospital until 2009 there's no real trend in this data look what happens after 2009 the rate for the older teen girls goes up 52 percent in just a few years this is not self report not changing diagnostic criteria limited look what happens to the youngest girl preteen girls that he didn't use to cut themselves and now they do their rape has nearly tripled in just a few years now significantly the oldest group of women here the young women here these are Millennials even in the latest agencies are Millennials they don't go up and that I think is very revealing something happened to James Dean that made them vulnerable fragile images and spell Carmen we also Stephen Lewis body the suicide rate for boys the pliers and girls because boys they make fewer attempt but they tend to use gun and all buildings they used irreversible things so boys have a higher rate but look at the training when he comes into the grade of death the numbers go up for boys and girls but the percentage change for girls is again after an armful a hundred fifty percent increased if the suicide rate of preteen girls in just a few years so just repeat boys are boys have problem to a math thing was to just about for us but the genes in girls bloggers in 2011 or so it's much bigger than the change in voice not a third reason I think that this is real it's happening in the same form in Canada you can do the same thing boys they're up voice actors not really up on spell Karim girls the same pattern Canada I was in Australia New Zealand same thing foot with the delay I was in things happening not everywhere necessarily but in all the english-speaking countries pursue and why why would this be happening at the same time in multiple countries with bigger impact on girls and boys that was the biggest impact on treatment part 2 of my club I think the only thing that can explain that pattern exchanges in the rapid emergence of social media which transformed new lives between 2009 and so look at these data different the percentage of eighths 10th and 12th graders who are using social networking sites almost every day and white students walk it through in 2006 Facebook opens to all but various new 12 year olds or 13 year olds are on Facebook 2007 the iPhone comes out very few free teens have an iPhone it's expensive 2015 transition this is when Facebook ads the light button and Twitter copies it Twitter ads the relief button Facebook coffee when social media becomes really a gift here it becomes everybody's training everybody else but little tiny rewards and punishments and this is wearing American teens blood on so before 2009 they were much more likely to visit each other at home and play after school after 2011 into the blue dawn long now that that I showed you that here if we superimpose that on the depression graph it perfectly I've developer note I have an article in this month Atlantic pointing out that it was that changed those per media changes 2006 2009 to 2011 and 12 and the adaptation of the news media to those changes that I believe explains why American democracy is going haywire and not just American in many parts of the world we create an outrage machine the rush that we gave it to the Russians they started using in 2014 fast warming store even those per media also perfectly explained respects different girls news toaster media a lot more than boys boys are spending a lot of their screen time on games and game to not particularly harmful girls are much more affected by stuff for comparison employees noticed that please per for comparison of the buff body beauty limit dampers things like that girls are more affected by the fear of missing out their social life is based more on who's in who's out who knows who's bleep it's who's excluded for girls and boys were equally aggressive the Floyd the question has always been physical they would physically threaten each other and sometimes even arm each other once they all went online you can't do that you can't touch people online but girls the question is relational girls have always armed other girl by damaging their relationships or reputation as those the media makes it effortless they do it anonymously 24 hours of their so for all these reasons when social media teens bloody image transformed teams total lives girls mental health plummeted now I need to be clear as the social scientist this is not that is biased there are other researchers who disagree with me we say no there's no evidence but here's my read of the of the debate there are there are now 30 or 40 correlational studies I've found and they very consistently show that moderate used is not as though stated with problems but ever used appears but those correlational studies only explain a small portion of the barriers though the people that died are right on that point however experimental studies and there are a dress code that I found seven of the eight that I found Jewish go direct causal effects if you go off those the media your well-being and for something nobody talking about yet the network of that all studies the health effects by Nicholas Christakis if one person gains weight or take from smoking that makes their friends more likely football for their friends friends and also their friends band Brennan basic networking effects our theory which is likely for depression depression is much more contagious than happiness and Sparrow around 2011 when oral news got paper connected whenever we get a lot of depression among the girls so it all fit and there it is so but that's only part of the story of the media there's a lot more going on and a lot more with very direct relevant to k-12 education though cause number two we protected our kids and thereby arm death so I'm drawing here from work that I did with my friend Greg Luciana in the American mind I'm so pleased to learn that people got that when you register and the book is based around our grab nose thing originally the college students around 2015 started acting like they believed really really really bad ideas these three ideas and if you believe all three of these ideas I cannot guarantee that you will fail in life but you will generally be weak fragile and angry now let's let's take the first one obviously that's the direct opposite of what Friedrich Nietzsche said what doesn't kill me makes me stronger and what Nietzsche was getting at was a psychological principle known as antifragility now that word is a new word in the English language because Nassim Taleb the guy who wrote the blacks bond he needed a word to describe systems that we need challenge and shock and instability in order to get strong like the banking system he's one of the people Falls the financial crisis long before it happened and so he's looking for a word for the property of thumb symptoms and there isn't one so make up the word fan-type gradually opposite of practice the glasses practice so if you knock it over it'll break and nothing good happens so we give our kids it becomes because if the kid drops the sippy cup it doesn't break but it doesn't get better it does not improve from being drunk and so what is it what makes some things get better by being dropped so let's look a specialist the bones get stronger when they're banged around if you don't use them they get weak the immune system is the best example so most of us when we were kids we could bring peanut butter sandwiches peanut butter and jelly to school days many kids parents because peanut allergies are stoked I why are they so hard and why did they only go up in countries in which women are told to avoid peanuts when they're pregnant so some immunologists and researchers did a very simple study they recruited they recruited a women who'd just given birth making an app of them a supply of bomba which is an Israeli snack it's like a Cheeto it's like a puffed corn with and agreement old instance can can eat it and then they still get after them is the five that go home if your kids the bombuh in five years because still alive come tell us they monitor them carefully and they did all sorts of things but and then the other half follows standard advice no peanuts for you either because you know you the mother it approaches the pump for your milk so no peanuts for you so with standard advice what happens at the age of five seventeen percent of these kids have you know dollars for the rest of their lives they have to worry every time to go to a restaurant every time they eat that what happens to the kids who were given peanut Reaper spent we could essentially wipe out a neurologist by doing the opposite of what we've been doing we made the mistake of protecting his immune systems which makes them fragile so this is an example of our subtitle how good intentions and bad ideas are spending off the generations now let me run rerun the same attitude on the entire child gives our fragile let's protect them let's only be there for them we don't want them to fall down we don't them to get lost that would be very scary you will always be there for to help them out the problem is that you're always there for them they never learn to fend for themselves then you have to always be there for them even after they graduate from college I teach in the business school it cost a lot of business people and I mean out here of people who gave it a performance previewed the young employee and they heard from the employers mother I can prove you I can prove to you how much Americans childhood exchange with this simple demonstration I want you to all think for yourselves at what inch will you let out what image could you leave the house go girlfriends house the quarter-mile away you and your friends types we go to a stores to go play soccer what should we do I don't know at what age you have that freedom if it was first quickly they thick if it was not to kill you were in 11th billion base 16 so think of your number now I'm just gonna okay now only outrageous the raise your hand if you perform before 1982 is based you're damn high okay so you're all gen-f and babies just you just the older folks I'm gonna include me okay did I just buy progressed against you I'm sorry okay so just just the older after third of the room I meet my finger and just yell out your number just yell it out loud at what age okay so that worked absolutely perfectly pretty much everybody was sixteen right that was the norm that's what we used to do and it was during the prime ways remember older folks the gigantic crime wave in this country and it ended in the mid nineties it just disappeared in the mid nineties but we all went out and spraying these okay now do we have we probably of a beautiful few James days though here if you're born a night let's expand it even 1994 through four 1994 or later raise your hand okay we have about a dozen maybe a little more so you have to I'm going to ask you at what what's your number as far as ice cweam I think around but you have to call out real loud cause there's only about kind of you call it out okay so you here so what I find nationally now in this group we did have we did have a couple of aids and things like that going to show that if you let your kids out early those big bold things like join expel in air but I can tell you I've done this all over the country it's the same in Canada same in Britain it's even this thing this thing that was there a few weeks ago I've been a global thing in developed countries we have fewer kids were more afraid even though crime is down we lock them up and this I believe has had enormous things terrible at best Lenore's can easily wrote this wonderful book free-range kid he says we need to rewrite our children's stories for the image of safety is demand over protection we need books like oh the place that you won't go the play dates of Huckleberry Finn Harold in the purple stopa encyclopedia brown stars the work speed and Dora in the Ford Explorer on a more serious note all mammals playing a lot either need it to wire up their brains what happens when we do five is a brief play unsupervised agree flat what happens according to Peter gray these are all the things is learning played the essential skills for life in a democracy life in an office life with people these are the essential skills we cultivate them in play and when we deprive our kids to play we deprive them of these periods when I want a particular call to your attention as people involved in education risk perspective with perception is extremely risky handling extremely important alison gopnik developmental psychologist with his greatest pain and he noted that when we remove risk from kids lives it actually is by trying to remove your injure it actually like the peanut think it actually might weaken them and keep theirs in the same way by shielding children from every possible risk weaning lead them to reacted expand to read his peer dis relations afar whiskey at all and in so doing we inflate from the adult skills that they will one day half turn after so this I think is what we've done to our kids I think what we've done to James D that is bled to this is one of the potential causes has led to this surge of depression anxiety and fragility we didn't let them learn how to deal with challenges problems so I'm not saying we need to go back to this okay so Nietzsche but neither did not say what pill you need to control because that's just obviously not true so we don't want playground for kids and die but exactly right because on this kind of program you can get first and most of us who are older remember the monkey bars you can get hurt on the monkey bars and this do you thaw you have to work it out is you gonna get off and make me drop you got to work that out a lot of you're holding your bus right now right you remember that feeling but you learned you learned in the negotiation and this is crucial if you can get hurt on the playground then every day you're learning how to not get up but if you're raised on this kind of playground like my kids you don't get to learn how to not yet so the dictum the motto ar-ar-ar-ar slogan the d prepared a child for the road not the road for the child all right so I told you there is the crisis I've shown you various name James Dean's in big trouble I explained to causes to the major causes there are others but I think these are the big spill what can we do what do we do I think we can educate for wisdom strengthen it depends of course we all want but you're all doing it in your own way but I'm going to give you some specific advice it's big specific suggestions that I think will work and will be powerful it's best if we do if we do them all together first I wanna make the general point that something really big has changed with enormous ramifications which is looking at this place does the river of information we coming into all of our eyes and ears and if we look at our kids think about the river of information coming in what's coming in what's coming billions device their data coming in now I if we go back to theta 1890s just pick any time let's divide up the river into three times three how much how much information is coming in that was created within a week within the last week that's 1/3 another stream is stuff that was between ten to fifty years ago by the parents or grandparents generating another stuff that was more than a hundred years old the Bible's gates beer the fastest now I have no idea what the numbers aren't what the ratios are I just threw those three lines as being equal in width that's arbitrary what we want to do is think how has it changed in the last 100 or so years well if we go to say the 1950s we have a technology revolution media revolution so Edie is going to bring a lot more new stuff in and there could be a drop in the older stuff but know that he was something that we often did as a family it's all burned up and so those of us growing up in the 50s and the 60s and 70s I feel like I kind of had a sense of like what life was like in the forties fifties and sixties from watching TV Spurs before this generation what happens narrow we go to the 20 parents what happens now the vast like respects the majority of everything coming in through their eyes and ears is less than a week old coming in from their friends we have hyper-connected NZ to themselves which leaves very little room for anybody else and if you see that older information is declining and very old information might be nearly gone well now yeah we're in a very interesting and I think perilous situation which is basically what from from what they've been birth here Edmund Burke writing about the French Revolution and the French and his beef hills were burned down the past and invent new thing Burke says we immediately British he says we are afraid to put Marion to live in training each on his own five it's back of reason because we suspect that the stock in each name is broad and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank in Africa but maintenance and wages but Burke was afraid of is that he could cut yourself off from the past you cannot make it you can't reinvent everything right away it just is not gonna work and I think Jenny might be the first generation in human history that is cut off from all that we've learned now if that is true if that is true now obviously they have access to all sorts of stuff and I'd always get their cut off but as a relative thing there's not much room left for what the interest paying for what the parents was there it's not much and if that's true and I think we only pertain for that how do we educate for wisdom and I would suggest two things first for God's face and devices during the day so having a smartphone is very valuable for getting to school and arranging hiccup I'm you know but there's got to be a way the curves are there most of are addicted to their device but their honor all the time a lot of them wish they weren't addicted hours seven hours a practice not being on their phone and if you don't sleep it away and put it in a locker they're gonna be expecting in the bathroom they're gonna be expecting between periods and they're not gonna play at recess but for God's sakes make that a clear rule now again there needs to be research on this I think this will work but I think we need to really start doing this and tech does it work second urge parents prepared to delay spoken TV until high school raise your hand personal raise your hand if you have kids under 15 raise your hand okay just those of you firmly view we want you're glad that you can suppose the meeting you're glad it was there invented you're glad you kids have it raise your hand one winery okay wide okay why did you let your kids get social media because everyone else has it mom right we're all trapped for all the facts in a game is the commons dilemma in which were trapped by what everyone else is doing and it feeds down my daughters with fifth grade all the girls that have left I have not a chance that's much better all the girls have Instagram because they make no effort to keep people off so what we have to do is that enormous individual parent principals school districts have to set a norm at least things parents please this is disrupting everything we do we are having trouble teaching your kids please don't let them lie and get an account when they're under 13 in fact don't let them get in the car while they're in high school please get this out of middle school already so hard to believe for the girls number three if you want to actually prevent them you've got to expose kids to multiple views don't run from them don't have to ask them from idea that somebody stairs our on state as Ruth Simmons the the first african-american president of an Ivy League school people she was wonderful about it and after there's protests and business because of brown she's dead learning is the antithesis of comfort the collision of views and ideologies is in the DNA of the academic enterprise the understood energy fragility the mind is their key fragile wisdom is auntie professional intelligence Byzantium and you have to be it's those two things you felt like you have to be exposed to things that challenge and try to disprove what you already believe Socrates called himself a gadfly or the Apple in many people's murder the best book ever written from on the value of you point diversity is on Liberty by John Stuart Mill's but it's kind of an acceptable remembers the name so I co-founded a group called heterodox Academy which is pushing to get more viewpoint diversity in the universities more viewpoint diversity among professors and we produced the beautiful Illustrated versions of just factor two of on Liberty reduced it by 50 percent it's much more readable so especially if you have any any stay over suggestions for especially high school seniors high school seniors could all leave after two of our liberties we make the free version available it's much more accessible I received check data we've also created a program called open mind because college is having such trouble talking across political lines race the lines other lines we created a program that teaches them how to do it that each of anybody how to had a start a conversation and still go to open mind platforms out org it's five modules takes the best two hours to do you can work it into the first semester of course people we're getting to a focus angle at that angle to our session we want people through what the problem is what's technology motivated reasoning people are stuck in their moral matrix and we give them practice to starting conversations so there's an open mind flat form it's free this suggestion it's far more free based on data but they most needed especially in the younger grades and give them far less supervision let them have conflicts that can work it out now bullying over multiple days at the different story but we have such constant creep my kids are have learned that if someone is bolts them that's bullying if someone if there's a conflict that's bullying no that's childhood which teacher view for adulthood they have to have those conflicts so much less supervision much more grief sometimes let grow I co-founded with Lenore screenings negative electrode which has a lot of suggestions for parents and schools really simple things water it's technically need a lot more research than we give them but if they have their devices they use their devices so it has to be recessed with no devices and the simplest thing of all if the playgrounds opened the foreign actress pool because that's the one place that overprotective parents will allow their kid let's play without without them vehicle so all kinds of suggestions all kinds of ways they can give the kids a lot more free playing time which is what they most and my final pedestrian cleaning whatever state you're in you know legislators there's anything in this anyway does the dress please pass the free range parenting law follow youth talk which did it at let grow we also have a pennies per device founders go Utah because putting all today's a lot of character like offered parents most parents don't want to be helicopter parents most parents want at least try letting could go out and run a little errand as they did but we hear stories it's not that common but it happens often enough to scare the heck out of us it an eight year old you know like an 8 year old was caught walking a dog and so the parents weren't actually arrested but the police showed up what's going on why is your kid outside if a kid goes I can't buy ice cream the little things it's called free range it's licensed so that if my if my son is stopped I just send them out at 8 today it'll stay you know New York State gives significant latitude to parents to decide what what's right with its crew and it's best if you still don't believe you please read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn then think about your own childhood and if you still think used to stop means and think oh my parents must be they have my permission but I wouldn't need to do this if New York State would just pass free-range parenting lost their parents have the right to decide what's right for their kids about independence so that's my talk for you I have said that we have a mental health crisis this is not a usual cross-generational misunderstanding this is a crisis which is affecting all of us I told you I've shown you evidence for two major causes and I've given you six specific suggestions for things you can do and look at this list yes take photos of it devices are good for that take photos of it and imagine if we did all fit it's not just nibbling at the edges it would be transformative for American childhood this would give us stronger wiser upper fist so thank you I'm now the chord to talking with mark [Applause] [Applause] Jonathan thank you and I'm excited to have a little time gasping follow-up questions special provocative stead of ideas you stared with us and I think I especially want to thank you for not just a nice type but fear your courage and articulating in the care with which you studied the questions the humanity you bring to this discussion that is hard for everyone here the humor you bring your meanness is hard for all of us to be able to laugh a little bit as we were going through it's so helpful you've got a really full activist policymakers the politicians to confront it every day you've got a room full of educated we confront it in the classroom you've got a roomful of parents as well and I want to start and I want to start with the parents maybe our most important common denominator in the room Mike those are of course perfect when I walk home the theme in the Sternberg house is that python has belfry till a that this green is is put away already and we linked to this Pete it's rather fabulous mysterious no seriously we almost gargle with it so I think we'd all like to hear a little bit more of your countable around screens and the first thing because we're not saying the dreams are the cause necessarily or do that I think yeah but so first let me be clear the internet does many wonderful things are many bad things and the wonderful stuff I think fastly outweighs the bad things it's not that the internet i phones devices iPads do many wonderful things this come isn't screen time first day except it's screen time as that that that is the problem the stupid problem is those the media that is personally in which this communication that is being judged and commented on and rated by others that's why Instagram Facebook those the media specifically I think I've come up with three simple rules I think with near IR to call them off to another one probably inspectable I can't debate with him even if he's on the other side of this we actually raised our kids the same way and we came up with three simple principles rule number one all screens all devices out of the bedroom by a fixed time every night that's just the rule there's no reason is especially teenagers to be having a device in their bedroom for so it's cutting over enemy and that's terrible to its place rule number two no social media high school as I said and rule three work at a time budget because from a distance can be this is a great thing that frenzy we are totally not in denial you talk about our thing though this was a serious problem and still you talk to kids they'll often be pretty reasonable at like yeah you're right that's maybe two hours a daring and Gubar it's what it is yeah so work at a time budget keeping in mind all the other things that degree is would be good for him already do have that discussion because how many of you otherwise you know it's like you walk into the kids room and you see the whole like that we need to find your first no mom I wasn't I you know and that's that constant struggle they're never intended in my house that that you gotta ask for three simple rules do it other parenting advice one thing I've learned is that this is nesting hard on mothers because they're the ones who were judged if the father is letting me to get out like oh you know he's popping her but mothers are really charged much more perfectly and so it's very hard to do this as an individual mother it really helps to have and so go to let grow or you'll find other people in your neighborhood if you have a group it can go play together they roll out on errands together then everyone's happy and you cannot hire therapists bass note Basel quickly enough to keep up with the demand that you haven't dated for there for these services Begley writes though I loved everything about that I think is maybe at this thing time to the people in this room and to your broader audience both both the other feeling I'm not the person so it's the same thing we see on campus exactly the things think we can't hire therapists fast enough that we could we have no buildings to put them there just the meat is too great if you have a doubling or tripling of demand in this place with just a few years what do you than I do and so I think and so what a lot of colleges are doing is they're giving wellness course but I don't think things like that but that you know that's kind of you know fix the problem afterwards be run what they don't do is try to help them become strong and it's hard to do this with college I spoke at my old high school Scarsdale and the principal said by the time we get my ninth grade is already too late if they've already indeed symphonies perfect so this needs was starting to pay sticks we face but kids are anti fragile and if we treat them as they're fragile all the ways through adolescence there's the possibility that they may be too scary for life okay so enemies brownie comers based in Paris maybe maybe you can talk a big way about why you wrote this book income well what did you start to see leave that article then the book name is people yeah so the whole idea came from Greg he's the one who first diagnosed if Greg's buffers from depression he nearly creates suicide in 2007 and when he was released in the hospital he learned in therapy which would learn to recognize cognitive distortions and he runs the foundation village for rice education they push for free speech rights for college students and all of a sudden out of nowhere in 2015 2014 he heard college students doing the exact same distortions that he had learned to stop doing without campus peoples so wait you mean like a conservative is coming to speak or as orator provocateurs somebody that's somebody object to and you don't have to go to the top and you're in danger what you need is they Ricky what does that even mean so we were all totally puzzled and so they can out of nowhere in 2014 clearer stuff and we are Greg thought somehow college the teaching students to do these distortions what are we doing wrong so we wrote this article he ramped it and then things got so much worse on campus things based this trigger warnings constant conflict over words not even ideas words individual words and so we decided to expand this book we did a lot more research and one thing we learned that we were wrong in thinking college was causing rather what happened so it turns out you know we're making it worse than a lot of ways but by the time they went to between quell it was already damn important aspect because I think there is absent there is relief whooping made from your argument about individuality at home who the dynamics that are playing out that's true that's just let me be clear the wave of protests that webcampus biz in 2015 a lot of the began has protests against racism various kinds of prejudice and I'm not anyway saying that is because the protesters were commas it's - it's definitely clear what's going on here is we have or and we places out in the book we have a rising culture war in the country left versus right we have at the same time the Provost Thor yet the universities are moving left and purifying so you now have sort of very firmly left leanings based on progress the campuses in which certain ideas become much more intense these are I certain ideas around around power privilege raised and so you have a whole set of ideas there's nothing to do with coddling whatever perfectionist and has a origins in certain political views and as has many institutions are polarized and becoming more political but right on the left it was more fertile ground for these more combative views and so it's only at the most progressive universities that you get these if they protest and meltdown my argument our argument is that the arguments that is a dangerous place that scale or Middlebury which is very progressive universes are dangerous threatened placements babbling whose right to last the last of white kids black kids of all races if they are already anxious and graduates so even though crime is going down racism is going down and most plays life is getting better certain exceptions to those trends in general life has been better but yeah it often seems to young people or immersed in only in social media we're immersed in constant evidence that they're in danger so the to introspect on great we we live now if I'm a moral payoff there was when you have an overarching culture when you have a dominant culture it gives the kind of order it comes like a Pax Romana and in the 20th century we've hired we had lost the culture was the dominant culture and as far as world culture go it was actually pretty open and welcoming so the jewish immigrant story is one like my parents I'm you know like they wanted to be like that and they could have joined the experiment country clubs but otherwise it was a wide open country my wife korean-american same thing and so when you had two dominant warder you have some sort of moral order and I'm just room for subcultures living part of what's happened I believe is Eric we've lost any sense of dominant culture and we now have social media we have complete moral chaos and we have constant combat within every institution for who gets to dominate and impose their moral order that's what happens at most progressive the universe beneath mammoth now is happening less progressive companies and even in some of the most progressive religious religion you have a move to put in a moral order which which is everything becomes apparent religion and that's pretty much with number three life is a battle between good people and evil people actually there's been good groups and dad and so let's go when activist Nick of gauge the state this is what Yale is Yale here is what's the premise the institution for example and if the president justice they farm no it's not the only evidence if gravity presidents bears okay I can't meet all of your demands but I'll meet as many as I can when the president VL does that then that becomes the dominant culture and then it's very hard to have an open each climates very hard to do the work the Academy so Ruth Simmons had the guts to say right wing dick in the nineties we didn't have because they know that's not what we do here they've been only three presidents we've done president ACOG oh there was a few presidents who have sort of academic values and spec know this is who we are so it's vital the leadership is viable and part of leadership is asserting a moral narrative front and center the fellows or purpose of your institution and your sacred pipes keep that cotton Spencer otherwise it's going to be swept away by well it turns out if that's not that heart because the few places where presidents have done it the protesters just go home when Marvin Chris Bob at Overlea when the students came in and gave him their ultimatum he said oh this is not available then my answer is no that's not the way we do things here come talk to me next week I'd be very happy to talk to me that is something that the president yell didn't do which is Christmas Day and you have attacked and criticized members of my staff that are doing their job and working hard to do their job this was inappropriate he stood up from members of his faculty at Beth Or attack and so all here to do so in the free case that there's no that I know of where President did that the protesters just went home talked a little bit in preparation for today's night shared with you that I have colleagues and friends we were teaching on campus including yours who are afraid who are a trained for I can be I can state I can speak my mind fairly well here because there is no mechanism by which you can report the First Amendment protects my right not be arrested and there are not spines in the bathroom telling you what to do if I offend you where the NYU as that many other university is that employee is not special here at many of the obstacles we have a Fire's responsible it's the way in which certain offices of universities encourage students to anonymously report each crimes and what should this do this means I don't say anything controversial when I change which in nature would argue makes but that much grow their ways when actual living that's great because again it's the commons problem is each individual professor campus or her national unless but if it's the norm if the leadership works day no this is what we're about and professor would be provocative and know if you're offended by something you know go talk to the person but we're not going to give you an anonymous recording vessel we already have that of course we have back for theft or harassment or racism we have we have reporting that they're losing or things that are against the law but but what's the finest response team is you prestige some of those buyers underbody report many other policymakers here maybe we are appropriators and architects prior conversation these please get out primary and secondary because though it looks migraine only with eight well what you know what is your council to do a middle school assistant principal and a high school so it seems like the world is going crazy and many people feel like they're walking on eggshells and things that are explosive you never know what's gonna blow up on social media but here's the encouraging thing the great majority of people are actually very reasonable great majority of students are very reasonable if you talk to people private you'll find that most Americans are very reasonable people the change in the media environment and the increase in the culture war means that the people on the extremes are the ones that we'd hear and see and there now is very powerful they're much more powerful they were ten years ago so we're all as great of us beautiful necklaces miss been conditioning that that held in the communist countries in waiting very few people thought employed is nonsense but they were afraid to speak honestly that's and when most people are not being honest about what they think about something then all kinds of bizarre things happen so it's very difficult to connect that is an individual but if you talk to people behind the scenes I think think public discussions are almost doomed to fail they're terrible things that we talked a behind the scenes need to build the five hardest instead of parents and educators who are concerned about this I think we are now schemes and we talked about disparate if there's them what's coming stir is called the Great Awakening happened in 2014 there's evidence that white people on the Left too gifted radically to the left in 2014 a lot of a lot of survey questions in the General Social Survey so in some ways you could say the Republicans shifted to the right in the 90s and the Fox News but I think the leaders affected many people on the Left they predicted far left just in the last few years in ways that President Obama has actually been talking about so there was recently I think when asked in his pants the beginnings of the counter awoken on the New York Times just put out a video parody of canceled culture from the 13th century and they're making fun of all the things from locusts and start the New York Times is putting that on George Packer wrote an amazing article in the Atlantic on on the when the culture comes to the kids so if icons of the left are now staying world is both missed this is making it impossible for us to educate kids to talk to each other there could be a counter or opening happen so to get back to your question I think it's now clear that most people start me stencil less than two right Spencer who are actually pretty reasonable and will be brought together draw a connection started with you between what is happening in our politics and the arguments with politics so one of the threads we talk about is the rise in crossed partisan country and it used to be as some people know well that when there's been election and you're spies Louis's use pay okay that's the rules of the game and you know in four years we'll try it again but there but as a booster be exposed as more and more people on both sides think that the other side is an existential threat to the country and I'm afraid then and angry at them now every election is a matter of life and death and if it's that serious than the ends justify the means and once we crossed over into the interest by the means that democracy is dead you can't have put into rule of law that people think it's okay to lie to keep whose violence threats and intimidation so we have a rise in polarization that has made everything more intense connect destroys our norms are normal American norms of Eastman stance mobility our ability to talk to people across party lines so I think that our politics are rising political polarization as I said in the Atlantic article which is greatly people fighters rise of social media especially Twitter Facebook so all these problems interconnected it's a very hard problem but my god if we don't fix the educational problem if we keep turning out for generation that is the interest has not learned the skills of democracy all the things that Alexis de Tocqueville phrased about Americans that we have these people first that Association is been gently doesn't have it the art of at those thinking they don't know how to work out a conflict without reporting it to the buyers response team so we've got I mean so the most important and a lot of ways but man we have to begin educating for democracy but my fear is that remaining members of James D but we all necked it up gen Z there's no blame for what's happened but we are now producing a generation that will find in order to but you you you founded a hopeful note a moment ago we've been a larger symphony of discourse discord intestine isn't yes but the you know this idea that there may be whatever a reaction yeah beginning that brings us back to the sender and we leave these folks endo and then their job to pass blog you spending your very first company it has gotten harder I think part of what really appreciate about your insight is to diagnose pain why but now you're predicting but actually the last chapter of the book you will see we did talk about some green suits there are some really encouraging trends and I'll give you one that I haven't mentioned just especially since the 2016 election and then the rise of actual Rothstein's a coup every public's feel like Nazis marching industry so we now do we have just like far-right white against Republicans a lot of intellectuals who are not right there are now writing from Spain whoa is old identity called victim that we're doing it has to change and and still there's no pay for them you know she was raving about this the Dalai Lama has been tweeting about this you could follow him so bigger get here's my point that there if there are most people are reasonable most people of every race and group are reasonable and end up beginning to stand up and so I think your job is to be part of that and the way you stand up is quietly li with incredible social skills build a coalition never accused people on the other spies in fact here's my here's my watch but here's my physic like my campaigner my slogan for the next 50 years we have a lot of social problems we can't stop them as long as we're moralizing them as long as we're locked into their good versus evil game can't solve them so it's good we need to do you moralize it and impe responsive so every companies are struggling with diversity and inclusion introduced nobody knows what to do there is no form of diversity training that has gone to work I think it's because it's been conducted in a realm of fairly Florida's guys hopes and dreams we need to actually pick up the morality not about good news just be a social psychologist we have complex local problems picked out the morality and then try things and collect data but work okay great idea it's hard to run large controlled experiments with individual but at the school district we can do it anybody raise your hand if you have any influence over school district okay so something as simple as hacked the schools at different levels have a no cell phone policy during the day and half not and then look if you can measure all kinds of measures of student engagement learning so you could do that many ways all schools are doing think about diversity inclusion like is the bias training which has the things don't go do the work so try other things do different diversity things in different schools and try the experiment is actually not actually maybe in the sense that I'm I'm putting together in the corporate world it's the big problem I'm actually working with some companies think about this a little bit okay you know we've talked about parent we talked about schools we talked about policymakers and now you're suggesting yeah there's what's next so just as in 2015 is problems flooding at us leaders had no idea what to do they really stood up Bulls they must be gave in well turns they just began graduating in May of 2018 they just entered the court report and we were going to put a cap in the book on cobbling at work but there wasn't enough evidence back in 2017 when we write them on now there is stock ticket optimistic given are they stay things like I mean it's bike rack post none of my new employees expect they come in looking for conflict or it's like these dear employees the polite Beaufort South they won't change they'll wait until someone tells them to change it and so in a variety of ways the elaborate problem Christina jmv are they going to the before 400 the other thing is it's like fall of our time that was bent because somebody's dead something it becomes a you know each week there's a blow-up and we spend so much time now on conference over somebody said something so you know at a university if there's these conflicts the university is not gonna fail company it will get full actually fail and so it's urgent that companies work out an approach to this so I think he might stay the coddling is bored of coming [Applause] you

Channel: ExcelinEd

Views: 29,639

Keywords: ExcelinEd, education conference, education reform, education policy, public education, k-12 education, innovation in education, emotional development, Jonathan Haidt

Id: 87_iQMiZ09g

Length: 61min 45sec (3705 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 21 2019