Wellness Wednesday: 'The Anxious Generation'

For the past several years, there has been a lot of discussion about the impact of the pandemic on kids' social skills and mental health. In education circles, we have discussed the pandemic's effect on students' academic skills as well as their social development. As shutdowns, online learning, and daily mask protocols have drifted into distant memory, recent patterns fell into line with longer trends starting earlier than 2020. The increase in anxiety among adolescents began long before the pandemic, steadily increasing since the introduction of smartphones in 2007. Adolescents' decreased mental wellness and social confidence/competence have been steadily worsening since the decade prior, as the Millenial generation gave way to Gen Z in schools. 

Over the past year, these topics have moved into the cultural conversation more and more, thanks in no small part to Jonathan Haidt's popular book, The Anxious Generation. You may have heard of it and it may even be on your "To Read" list or on a shelf already. In the book, Haidt tracks the increase in anxiety & depression among Gen Z adolescents and the decline of social skills & free play among kids over the past few decades. He argues that these trends seriously worsened once smartphones came along, added front-facing "selfie" cameras, and social media apps exploded, exacerbating antisocial behavior. It is unsettling to read, but helpfully, Haidt's final section offers some hope by proposing clear, actionable solutions to help reverse some of the damage done. 

A handful of teachers read the book over the past few months and their discussions have really started a conversation at South*. We are launching a staff book club for more of us to read Haidt's book. There is a sense of urgency to develop a shared understanding of these issues, and then to consider what concrete steps we can take as a school to improve things for our students. We'll then look to design initiatives so we can better prepare students for success in school and life as they move through adolescence. 

Interested in learning more? A lot of Haidt's suggestions highlight the benefits of community solidarity, so the school and parents can work together toward the common goal, and so parents can support each other when their teens inevitably push back on limits and rules meant to help them with these issues. 
If you're interested in reading The Anxious Generation, you can try to check the book out from the library, or purchase it (when you see how long the waitlist is!):

• Amazon.com (50% the hardcover right now)
• Kindle
• Bookshop.org - support local bookshops while you're at it!
• Audiobook on Audible

I will also be offering a book club of sorts to support this Community Read, so we can get together and discuss Haidt's findings & arguments over the course of 3 evening meetings. Together, parents can consider solutions you can implement right away in your homes, in the school, & in the larger community. Hear what the faculty has been discussing and help influence the path of this work, too. We'll meet on Tuesday evenings in the South Media Center starting at 7pm: February 4, February 25, and March 18. 
The book easily divides into 3 sections: (1.) introduction + the decline of free-play in childhood over the 90's and 00's; (2.) the rise of the phone-based childhood over the 00's and 10's; (3.) suggestions to address the problems. 
Each breaks down into approximately 100 pages each, so I'm planning 3 weeks for each section so there's enough time to read it without feeling rushed. (Each chapter has a bulletpoint summary, which will help refresh your memory or "catch you up"if you didn't quite finish; I don't want any barriers keeping interested people from participating!) If you're an audiobook person, that's about 3½ hours readtime per section. 
If you're interested in joining, please fill out this Google Form: https://forms.gle/kCYKACH9tJdm5ey58. This is not a binding commitment, but just to help me plan the right amount of seats, etc. Drop-ins are always welcome! Even if you just come for the discussion, feel free to come on over. Also, please feel free to invite friends from other schools: the more that join, the better the conversation, and the better the results for all our kids! 
* As many of you know, this isn't the first time South staff have taken a serious look at our practices and chosen to take action for our students' social and developmental benefit. South first introduced recess to all grades in 2017 to provide social time and a physical break for students, and to help build social skills that we'd noticed were lacking among the "wired" generation carrying smartphones in our halls and classrooms. A number of middle school rites of passage had fallen by the wayside over the prior 20 years, and the South faculty worked hard to bring some of them back: middle school dances returned in 2018 with support from the PTO; the 8th grade Washington DC trip was steadily restored starting in 2016. More recently, South teachers have been carefully examining their instructional practices under the 1:1 chromebook digital device policy. This policy was a lifeline during the pandemic--ensuring every student had a device and a means to access curriculum, instruction, and coursework--but starting last year, a lot of teachers started actively working to reduce their students' screen time by carefully selecting which activities are supported by being online and which are better designed as hands-on work, group collaboration, etc. At South, we put an enormous emphasis on preparing kids for a rich, rewarding, in-person life!