Wyoming School Counseling Association – Book Study
Fall 2024
October/November Book Study: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
Author: Jonathan Haidt
Book Summary
From New York Times bestselling co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse in youth mental health—and a scientifically proven path to health and strength
There is no bigger public health story now than the collapse in youth mental health. The numbers are terrifying and dominate our headlines. There has been much debate over how we got here, and what to do next, and bestselling author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is at the white-hot center of that discourse. Haidt has spent his career speaking wisdom and truth into the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the perfect storm contributing to a public health emergency for Gen Z.
Author Bio
Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and then did post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago and in Orissa, India. He taught at the University of Virginia for 16 years before moving to NYU-Stern in 2011. He was named one of the "top global thinkers" by Foreign Policy magazine, and one of the "top world thinkers" by Prospect magazine.
His research focuses on morality - its emotional foundations, cultural variations, and developmental course. He began his career studying the negative moral emotions, such as disgust, shame, and vengeance, but then moved on to the understudied positive moral emotions, such as admiration, awe, and moral elevation. He is the co-developer of Moral Foundations theory, and of the research site YourMorals.org. He is a co-founder of HeterodoxAcademy.org, which advocates for viewpoint diversity in higher education. He uses his research to help people understand and respect the moral motives of their enemies (see CivilPolitics.org, and see his TED talks). He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom; The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion; and (with Greg Lukianoff) The Coddling of the American Mind: How good intentions and bad ideas are setting a generation up for failure. For more information see www.JonathanHaidt.com.
Intended Outcomes/Objectives
Participants will discuss the following questions:
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In what ways can we better prepare our students to wisely navigate the virtual world?
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In what ways can we better prepare our students to wisely navigate the real world?
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Would you want to grow up the way today’s students are growing up? Why or why not? What are some benefits of growing up today? What would you want to preserve/carry forward from your own upbringing?
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What actions can you take, alone or with allies, to lessen your students’ time spent in the virtual world and increase their opportunities for fun and responsibility in the physical world?
Anxious Generation Agenda
October 9, 2024 – No Meeting this week, just reading!
1.5 hours reading of the text on participants’ own time.
Please complete Part One for the first meeting.
October 16, 2024
1.5 hours reading of the text on participants’ own time.
1 hour of Book Study Meeting from 6:00-7:00 pm.
Please complete Part 2 for the next meeting.
October 23, 2024
1.5 hours reading of the text on participants’ own time.
1 hour of Book Study Meeting from 6:00-7:00 pm.
Please complete Part 3 for the next meeting.
October 30, 2024
1.5 hours reading of the text on participants’ own time.
1 hour of Book Study Meeting from 6:00-7:00 pm
Please complete Chapter 4 for the next meeting.
November 6, 2024
1.5 hours reading of the text on participants’ own time.
1 hour of Book Study Meeting from 6:00-7:00 pm.
Please complete Chapters 9-11 for the next meeting.
November 13, 2024
1.5 hours reading of the text on participants’ own time.
1 hour of Book Study Meeting from 6:00-7:00 pm.
Please complete Chapters 12 & 13 for the next meeting.
November 20, 2024
1 hour of Book Study Meeting from 6:00-7:00 pm
COLLECT READING LOGS & Make Up Papers
9 hours of reading (should total at least this on your logs)
6 hours of meeting and discussion = 15 HOURS TOTAL
You can receive 1 PTSB credit if you attend all weekly meetings
(or complete a summary with the questions below of your reading, if you have to miss).
MEETING MAKE-UP QUESTIONS
If you missed a day, please turn in a paper answering the following questions to get credit for the hour.
1 page per chapter minimum
(1) what is coming up for you/How what was talked about affected you/What do you relate to?
(2) what did you learn from the chapter?
(3) what do you want to know more about?
(4) how might you apply this in your role at school?