Teach Secondary 13.7

Is it time for a reset? Alex Standish ponders whether schools might need a reset if they’re to accommodate the needs of what some have dubbed the ‘Anxious Generation’... T he rapid decline in teenage mental health over the past 15 years is the subject of the latest book by American psychologist Jonathan Haidt. In The Anxious Generation, Haidt argues that rates of depression, anxiety, self- harm, loneliness and suicide have grown exponentially in Anglosphere countries (USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand and Australia) due to a ‘rewiring’ of childhood. Working in teacher education in London, it’s been impossible not to notice an increase in the incidence of mental health issues that young people bring with them, or experience as they’re training to teach in schools. Anxiety, in particular, rather than being accepted as part of learning how to do a challenging job, is now cited by some in talk around ‘ Needing to work on my mental health. ’ Ageneration inhibited Haidt makes a direct link between the rise inmental health problems and growth of smartphone usage among teens from 2010 onwards. His book has thus become something of a launchpad for phone-free schools over the summer. However, the book is about muchmore than just the effects of smartphones and social media; it also points towards wider cultural changes that have been inhibiting the social and intellectual development of Generation Z (roughly speaking, those born after 1995). Haidt’s thesis is that teens are over-protected in the real-world and under- protected online, hence their childhood having been rewired. He describes a growing culture of ‘safety- ism’, whereby adults are reluctant to ‘let go’ of children, challenge them and let them fail. Increasingly, he argues, adults mollycoddle children, denying them freedom and space to roam, take risks, make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. He also includes graphs to illustrate a long-term decline in unstructured social time spent by teens with friends outside of school – a trend Haidt traces back to the 1980s when people first began expanding the use of concepts like ‘addiction’, ‘trauma’, ‘abuse’ and ‘safety’ into new areas (‘emotional safety’, rather than simply ‘physical safety’, for example). Among the texts Haidt cites is the 2010 book Paranoid Parenting by British sociologist Frank Furedi, which traced changes to parenting practices in the 1990s – such as not letting children walk or cycle to school independently – to declines in adult solidarity and trust within communities. Foundational harms It was around this time that the term ‘helicopter parents’ (describing hyper-attentive, borderline controlling elders) started to ‘take off’. Teachers who have been around a bit may recall schools cancelling field trips, competitive sport fixtures and even games of conkers because they were perceived by some teachers and parents as being ‘too risky’ for pupils. Against this backdrop of increasing safety-ism, however, teens have been presented with a largely unregulated online world via home computers, and latterly smartphones and tablets. In his book, Haidt includes an account by a 14-year-old girl hailing fromRhode Island, who shares the story of how she first encountered online porn age at the age of 10, before it then became regular viewing for her and a friend: “ Where was my mother? In the next room, making sure I was eating nine differently coloured fruits and vegetables on the daily. ” Haidt holds smartphones as being responsible for four ‘foundational harms’ currently affecting young people: the inhibiting of their social development; their increased exposure to sleep deprivation; constant interruptions disrupting their ability to maintain attention and focus; and the fostering of addictive behaviours, stemming from how smartphones and apps are intentionally designed. Across two chapters exploring how internet usage and smartphones affect girls and boys differently, Haidt finds that girls make more extensive use of social media, while boys typically withdrawmore into online gaming. He concludes that social media is more harmful to girls – in part because they naturally leanmore towards visual social comparisons and the managing of friendship groups. Gaming meanwhile takes boys away from meeting up with friends, but also away from the risk- taking and delinquency that this can sometimes entail. “Against abackdropof increasing ‘safety-ism’, teens have been presentedwitha largely unregulatedonlineworld” 12 teachwire.net/secondary