Youth Mental Health
Youth Mental Health
Year 3, Week 46 (148 total reports)
01.03.2023-07.03.2023
REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Awe and Kindness (asombro y amabilidad), how do we put that at the heart of what we teach? Doing so makes less self-centered, more joyful (Menos egocéntrico, más alegre) humans.
This Week’s Top Links
14.03.2023
One Powerful Way to Help Young People Be Less Self-Focused
Apparently curricula that focuses on testing and SAT’s leads to students who are self-focused. Healthy children come to us full of wonder—that is their primary investment. Our true role should be to return that investment (ROI). When young people graduate they shouldn’t be saying, “I’m so glad that is over,” but, “There is so much more to learn!” Designing a curricula based on wonder (and awe) also leads young people to be less self-focused.
13.03.2023
2,000 Years of Kindness
https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/03/12/kindness/
Last week, I spoke glowingly about this magazine, The Marginalian. Let me add to that praise by encouraging you to review this essay about kindness. Our work with children should lead to helping them deepen their wonder and become kinder people. That is exactly what the world needs today, not more opinionated psuedo-experts like Ron DeSantis, Rupert Murdoch and Tucker Carlson. Intelligence and wealth are not bettering our world. DeSantis is an Ivy League trained lawyer and is creating a fascist state that he wants to become a model for the way he would lead America as a President.
12.09.2023
We’re Missing a Key Driver of Teen Anxiety
https://apple.news/A3ezW_OhTSAiloPg6dEUuvw
In our rush to “make up” for lost time during COVID, we are doubling down on STEM learning with our children. This doubling down is leading to increased teen anxiety from increased adult pressure. As mentioned above, STEM curricula has not led to an exceptional economic or democratic world. To drive down stress in our young people’s lives, research indicates that we need to increase teaching methods that lead to wonder and kindness. Every subject can lead to wonder, but that needs to become the goal, not a byproduct. “How can I make my students more interested in learning?” That should be the primary question of every school.
11.03.2023
All Work, No Independent Play Cause of Children’s Declining Mental Health
https://neurosciencenews.com/child-psychology-play-22750/
Looking at this week’s links, you might think I was cherry-picking articles that featured the stress we are creating in young people’s lives by doubling down on tests and curriculum. But I’m not, these articles—based upon strong research—are bounteous in any review of adolescent literature. Often, what is taught in our schools is slow to respond to research, but this is critical and time-sensitive. No generation of children has reported higher stress than the current generation.
10.03.2023
How to Respond When Your Kid Shuts You Out
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-respond-when-your-kid-shuts-you-out-1850202747
Children don’t shut us out because they hate us, they shut us out because they’re overwhelmed. Research on police officers under pressure reveal the same behaviors. The more stress we experience, the narrower our viewpoint and the less empathic we become. The list in this article offers many insights and strategies to why children shut us out and how we can respond.
09.03.2023
How to Help Teenagers Stay Motivated at School
https://time.com/6260825/teenagers-motivation-school/
In one of my open conversations with a teen this week, he (a very bright young man) told me how bored he was at school and spoke about how his friends and he are learning to “hack” the system. His responses have been genius, in the real world he would be commended and he’d be a great member of any work team. There was no way I could reprimand him when his responses were truly initiated by the lack of innovation from his teachers. Having worked in many school systems, I have seen that many teachers are hog-tied by administrations that focus myopically on test results and not student development beyond academics. This is also a result of political and parental pressure. We can be more involved in our children’s education—in a healthy way. But that also means being well-informed about human development, socially, emotionally and cognitively, not just academically. Unfortunately, many of the issues being focused on by parents at school board meetings across the United States are driven by the fears of the religious fundamentalism rife within the political system. One of the articles worth reading below, “2600 Leaked Anti-trans Lobbyist Emails Show Fundamentalism, Not Evidence, Is How First Anti-Trans Bills Were Drafted,” speaks to the lack of evidence-based research in some of the policies driving school decisions today. It is alarming, read the article below about how one Texan lawmaker wants to draft legislation that would put a bounty on Transgender people “If You’re a Drag Performer in Texas, You Could Soon Have a Bounty on Your Head.”
08.03.2023
How American Schools Manufacture Anxious Teens
If the goal is to raise anxious, self-focused adults, American Schools are doing a stellar job. If the goal is to raise a kinder, awe-inspired generation, American Schools are doing abysmal. The worst education is correlated with the Reddest States. Shutting down libraries and barring curricula that teaches accurate history, is dumbing down children, increasing their stress and making them incompetent for the workplace or leadership. Fortunately, many young people themselves, see the ineptitude in this and are gathering to push back. They realize we can’t protect their bodies, let alone their minds and they are calling us out for our hypocrisy. I tip my hat to those brave young people.
This Week’s Links
14.03.2023
One Powerful Way to Help Young People Be Less Self-Focused
The 5 Superpowers of Highly Sensitive People
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/the-5-superpowers-of-highly-sensitive-people.html
Designing Trauma-Sensitive Classroom Management Strategies
5 Must-Read Books for Anyone Fascinated by the Human Mind
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/5-must-read-books-anyone-fascinated-human-mind/40651/
If You’re a Drag Performer in Texas, You Could Soon Have a Bounty on Your Head
13.03.2023
2,000 Years of Kindness
https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/03/12/kindness/
Targeting LGBTQ rights: straight from authoritarian Germany and Russia
The COVID Question That Will Take Decades to Answer
https://apple.news/AgDLZFqsWSIKHDj9KVQ3E_A
12.09.2023
We’re Missing a Key Driver of Teen Anxiety
https://apple.news/A3ezW_OhTSAiloPg6dEUuvw
The Kinds of Loneliness No One Is Talking About
How to Bear Your Loneliness: Grounding Wisdom from the Great Buddhist Teacher Pema Chödrön
https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/03/11/pema-chodron-loneliness/
2600 Leaked Anti-trans Lobbyist Emails Show Fundamentalism, Not Evidence, Is How First Anti-Trans Bills Were Drafted
https://erininthemorn.substack.com/p/2600-leaked-anti-trans-lobbyist-emails
'I'm sick of schools not teaching my kids life lessons - science is pointless'
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/im-sick-schools-not-teaching-29425260
Harvard professor explains Bayes’ rule
https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/bayes-rule-375536/
11.03.2023
All Work, No Independent Play Cause of Children’s Declining Mental Health
https://neurosciencenews.com/child-psychology-play-22750/
The science and art of challenging assumptions
https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-022-00442-1
Groundbreaking study identifies the cause of ADHD
https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/3072023-groundbreaking-study-identifies-the-cause-of-adhd
These Actually-Nice Throw Blankets Are Weighted Blankets In Disguise
https://apple.news/A2GzFI2eBR_iZ0ZIEj0p6SQ
10.03.2023
How to Respond When Your Kid Shuts You Out
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-respond-when-your-kid-shuts-you-out-1850202747
Teachers, Try This: Help Your Students Embrace Boredom
09.03.2023
How to Help Teenagers Stay Motivated at School
https://time.com/6260825/teenagers-motivation-school/
The Remarkable Power of Kindness and Why It Matters
5 Best Breathing Exercises to Relieve Anxiety and Stress
https://www.cnet.com/health/mental/5-breathing-exercises-to-reduce-stress/
The fear and fury of these Florida parents
https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2023/03/08/florida-laws-parents/
The Danger of Raising Children Without Consequences
Social media addiction disrupts the sleep, moods and social activities of teens and young adults
08.03.2023
How American Schools Manufacture Anxious Teens
Educators’ View: What Teachers Need to Succeed and Stay in the Classroom
A Doctor with ADHD Shares How to Thrive With the Diagnosis
https://www.menshealth.com/health/a43084713/adhd-tools-diagnosis-sasha-hamdani/
The surprisingly simple parenting advice that almost always works, even when all else fails
https://www.upworthy.com/simple-parenting-advice-that-almost-always-works
This is why 'polycrisis' is a useful way of looking at the world right now
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/03/polycrisis-adam-tooze-historian-explains/
Stress may lead to lower cognitive function, study finds
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/07/health/high-stress-lower-cognition-study-wellness/
Florida teachers react to Gov. DeSantis State of the State: Students and educators deserve better