ExcelinEd is a national nonprofit transforming K-12 education to ensure success for every child with student-centered, state-based policy solutions. The organization collaborates with partners and education leaders to research, develop and implement policies that prioritize early literacy, empower families with education choice, expand innovation, strengthen school performance and prepare students to transition from education to the workforce.
UK research shows that the gender of the teacher has no effect on how well boys achieve in school. Additionally if you look at teacher gender distribution by OECD country there is no correlation between teacher gender ratio and how well countries perform in PISA rankings. Further, research shows that teaching methodologies considered either 'boy friendly' or 'girl friendly' work equally well when applied to girls and boys. Although there may be some benefits for starting boys a year later at school, such benefits are also likely to apply to girls as well as boys. Economics is driving this. Wealthy parents often hold their children back a year before starting school. However such luxury cannot be afforded by the majority of parents who need to get their children into school ASAP so they can reclaim their work salaries. Just as flooding the teaching cadre with males is impractical, so is starting children later in school for most families. The elephant in the room here is that their was no education gender gap prior to the mid 1980s when the move from teacher-centred to child-centred education occurred.
As to your K-12 graph 23% male teachers is pretty close to most nations ratio including Asia where boys are producing some astounding results. Chinese boys are outperforming the rest of the world whether they be boys or girls. However, perversely, Chinese girls are doing even better than Chinese boys maintaining a gender gap, but way above the level of white working class students' results. This is down to physiological differences between girls and boys during puberty. Male puberty falls across most of the high school years unfortunately. During this time boys get a massive shot of testosterone which can make them aggressive, obstinate, self opinionated and generally difficult to teach. It shouldn't be a surprise then why so many boys are diagnosed as having ADHD which is just masking bad behaviour and would be better tackled with better discipline and co-operation of parents. Whereas girls tend to be more compliant and independent. The testosterone issue normally subsides by the time boys reach 16. However by this time the damage is already done and few boys manage to catch up. So what about the disparity between western/eastern results? Well anybody who has had Chinese/Indian students in their classes, as I have had over many years, will know the reason and it's blindingly obvious - it is due to parental engagement mainly. That is engagement with their children AND schools. Asian parents are 'supercharging' and 'hothousing' their children's learning whether they are wealthy or poor. I know after speaking with many Asian parents they have very high expectations and aspirations for their children usually and push them into doing hours of extra work every week. I have often had Asian students ask me for extra, harder homework. Compare this with white students where parent abuse of teachers is common and often homework not even attempted. Additionally Asian students are usually much more attentive during class. Interestingly, a British govt delegation went to China a few years back to visit schools to see what the secret of their success was. They were shown round groups of students usually of about 50 sitting in total silence with a teacher using a white board (not smart) with no other teaching aids (other than a white board pen). What a shock they got! So the secret is out - Asian children (particularly boys) are working far harder than their white western counterparts. Thankfully I had pushy, supportive parents 50 odd years ago as most parents of that era were, but not to the extent of modern Asian parents however. There was no gender gap in the UK up to the mid 1980s when the great liberalisation of education started and children started to take charge of their own learning (or lack of it). Boys quickly took advantage of this to take their feet off the gas, gone was the constraining discipline which was keeping them on the straight and narrow and successful generally. It was known at the time that there may be issues with discipline, but there was no Plan B as there was to be no difference in the way that boys and girls were to be taught ensuring equality of the sexes. Girls however have had a seamless transition to this new style of education because it suits their nature. Hence one might say that we have now found the reason for boys disengagement from learning - feminisation of education. but not in the same way as is commonly thought. The good news is this is not a zero sum situation as girls appear to thrive whatever the style of learning. Also gender inequality here is a myth as boys and girls have generally equal chances in the modern era. This is a gender gap. In summary we need to stop pandering to boys and get them to 'man up'. This pandering is just giving boys more reasons to disengage from education.
We need to remember that some dads are single and in some families there are two dads (same sex couples). In a truly free society individual would be respected and acknowledged regardless of their relationships with others.
I wonder what is the correlation of those affected by this social media virus and suffer from gender dysphoria, it is, consider themselves trans people.
I suppose I didn't have a lot of risk in my childhood in the 1970's. Much of my fond memories are tending the vegetable garden with my mother, and us watching The Young and the Restless together after we got done working. I had SOME play with my brother, but he was 9 years older than me, so I did watch a lot of TV, too. But it usually wasn't anything disturbing or violent, reruns of I dream of Jeannie or Gilligan's Island. I lived in the country, so almost never had any "play dates". I became a little more social in high school, especially when I got a car. Me and my friends would go to the mall, eat nachos and go to the record store and the pet store. I never got a thrill from risk. I hate adrenaline rushes. My mother "overprotective" according to most people at the time, but that was mainly because when she was growing up, the family at the farm next door got their son a dirt bike for his 15th birthday, and he rode it up and down the road, around the pasture, etc... and then wrecked it one day... and he didn't survive.
We have seen an 11 year who broke his hip. He’s a big tech kid and doesn’t engage in impact play. Bones need impact to grow stronger, that’s why old ladies get osteoporosis, because the bones need impact to stay strong. A loss of impact play makes kids physically weaker. Think about the head injuries in sports and how they are more severe in recent times?? Their skulls are actually thinner and weaker.
wrong. if you get injury at young age, it will stay with you for life. i use to do calisthenics at young age and ended up with permanent injuries. i get arm weaknesses from time to time because of the injury. the real problem is that humans are exploiting wildlife and forcing animals and plants to suffer in domestication where all organisms lack natural selection. i sympathize more for animals and plants than i do humans because humans are responsible for their problems. humans continue having kids despite all the exploitation and suffering thats been inflicted. plus humans have alot more freedom than animals and plants.
AMERICANS HATE TO PAY TAX. IN FACT THEY PRIDE THEMSELVES ON CHEATING AND NOT PAYONG TAXES. taxes are what pays for education roads police government hospitals social service. etc etc etc. then those same american complain their schools are shit, their government does not work and police and doormen are under paid . and this same Americans complain that whe they lose their job and they are on the street with no social benefits to save them what a sh]it country
I get his point, but I think it's a bit lame to blame instagram for suicides in 2012. Insta started in late 2010 and by 2012 it was nothing like it is today, not even DM's, no videos, less than 100M users AND the iPhone did not have a front facing camera until late 2017 with iPhone 4 which marked the explosion in selfies and social media as we know it today. Something else happened in 2012.
I was with him until the end. The way he painted the effects of social media on young liberal females is so simplistic as to make it a soundbite for misogynists to latch on. Social media has had the effect of amplifying the sexist pressures that have impacted mental health of women forever but that didn’t come about in a historical vacuum. Secular, liberals are more likely to acknowledge the real (albeit depressing) state of our society than religious people who have a story to tell themselves about injustice in the world and what that means for the afterlife.
There's another reason Gen Z is so anxious: they suffered the psychological trauma in their formative years of watching the catastrophe that struck the Twin Towers televised over and over and over and over and over day after day. Gen Z was traumatized to their core.
Great lecturer. Something I have been saying for a long time, but now it is also showen in statistics. I would have also like to see the family situation measured, that is divorce rates over the time, superimposed to the phone/internet graphic, and also how adults have been affected of this technology, and how this have then affected their adult relations and then their relations to their kids. I think besides the phone and no risk parents, also some kind of laziness is there from the parents, especially alone parents that just easily stuck an ipad in front of the child so it would be quit or sit still.
My 2yr old nephew spent a long car trip to visir family watching paw patrol on his moms phone. He could say paw patrol, but he couldnt say "aunt" or "auntie" in any way. Even "gramma" was a garbled version of the word that was barely understood. But he was loud, proud and clear when he said "PAW TROL" as soon as he got into his car seat. We used to have to sit and listen to the boring radio stations. We had to learn how to deal with long car rides. No longer
Back then, the West was a more homogenous society so it was a high trust society as a result. When you bring in mass migration of other countries to the West, the society becomes more polarized and less trusting. Its why I think we have become soft as parents in the West. And dont think what I am saying is racism, I am an immigrant to the West. This kind of parenting doesnt exist back home where I am from
Blaming social media is like blaming guns for mass shootings, it doesn't address the root cause. Also, claiming that watching TV wasn't as bad is just dishonnest. Children and teenagers who already suffer from mental health issues or from an unhealthy family environment use social media as an escapism, just like their parents used to watch TV for the same reasons. It's a shame coming from doctors who are supposed to be smart and are supposed to say the truth... Haidt claims that he doesn't support government interventionism but he pushes the same rhetoric that politicians use to ban TikTok.
look at where your food is coming from. over 99% of animals are factory farmed and most plants are genetically modified. humans are also forcing animals and plants to suffer in domesticated conditions where they have no reproductive rights. all organisms are lacking natural selection and i sympathize more for animals and plants because they have no freedom at all and are forced to suffer.
Not a rich man’s game. That’s a lie and an excuse. The problem is liberal dumbing down the expectations in order not to offend parents from nonwhite communities.
I don’t remember how I learned to read either. I just remember how much I loved going to the library because I couldn’t wait to be lost in all the stories that awaited me in the books. I also greatly enjoyed listening to the librarian read a story. I just loved Stephen Kellogg books. Especially the illustrations. My children also know how to read.
Computers are not boogeymen. They are tools, which like any other type, can be misused and abused. Computers are the best research and learning tool. You have an entire library at your fingertips. No one's fault but your own for lack of self-control. Ridiculous to blame computers for failed culture and parenting: Teens have to be shown that computers are extensions of human capacity, not a glorified boob tube.
I didn't ever hear him say that computers were evil and horrible. He says that childhood should be playbased and that laws need to change to force social media to enforce the age restrictions.
Schools should allow flip phones only. That way parents can still feel in contact, but all smartphone and smart watches distractions are unavailable at school.
Haidt skews his figures by restricting the scope of his presentation to figures that go back no further than the year 2000 to make it look as if there is a clear connection between smartphones and social media and the uptick reported depression and self-harm. In the 1980's and 1990's the recorded rates of reported youth depression and self-harm were actually higher at their peak than they are now. All of this long before modern social media and smartphones even existed. And if you go back even further than that you find other peaks that are almost as high but bear in mind some of them are likely to be even higher than the official figures because in the early 20th Century depression and self-harm rates for groups such as blacks or immigrants were very likely not much figured into those studies. As for suicide, Haidt never tells you that suicide rates remained stable or regressed in other first world countries with access to social media, or that US suicide rates are almost at any even level with those of the 1950s. Gee, that whole "we are living in a time of unprecedented teen depression and self-harm" claim of Jonathan Haidt's is suddenly not looking so unprecedented now, is it?
By the way theres another element about being outside. I dont let my kids outside for a VERY specific reason. The suburban paradigm has made roads so insanely dangerous that the number one thing that is likely to kill my kids is a flippin SUV. With speeding at an all time high, road widths broader than ever, and walkability at an all time low...omg no way am I letting my kids out in that environment. NO. Tablets are banned in our house. They do not have phones. They know how to use them. They do have gaming PCs I built for them but they have strict rules. No free to play games, no predatory heavily monetized games, no online games unless they're cooperative with family only. So almost all the games they play are single player games built around a narrative or objective, or some kind of tactics or strategy game. We also play a lot of games tabletop-wise. Board games, card games, RPGs, wargames, etc.
It is shocking that very few people are addressing this problem. NO, the mental health of our population does not come after your ROI, what's the point of making money in a collapsing system. No, the mental health of our children is not to be sold to the highest bidder! We HAVE to as a society step up and solve this epidemic of a degrading civilization that is cannabilizing itself out of existence in a reckless pursuit of profit. I personally am trying to do my part, I worked on developing an app that serves as the "Digital portal back into real life". This motivates people to get out of their comfort zone and find someone new to meet face-to-face within 5 minutes and try to socialize and work on their social skills. It's very hard to go against the norm and to fight a bad trend. But we will keep working hard on the project and hope to make a difference.
You have to take into account that starting boys later in real school increases the cost of child care. For the families that might need it most this might not be an option.
My daughter is now 20, and beginning the healing journey of so much pain caused by the phone. She almost didn’t make it, but that’s another story… I saw so many of these things happening in my tiny world, and nobody really being able to articulate or acknowledge just how deep the damage was going and how out of control it all got so quickly. Reading your book, especially the closing comments, brought me to tears. As much as I have enjoyed the new chapter in our life, this was unhealed trauma for me. These tears were related to how helpless I felt as a father and how thankful I am for your work. Thank you so much Jonathan and team!
Thank you for sharing. If you could go back to say, 12yo, is there anything other than delaying access to social media that you would have done differently? I have an almost 6yo and this stuff scares me silly (mainly at how uninformed I am!!)
I bieve that riskless play is directly corelated to decline in definition of gender - especially in young boys that start identifying as girls during or just before puberty. When you have boys that dont get excited scared in dangerous situations boys that dont fight each other THERE IS NO NEED FOR KIDS BRAIN TO TRIHGER ENDOCRINE SYSTEMS IN CHARGE OF SECRETION OF MALE HORMONES. Basicaly we are mentaly castrating young boys.
