The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

 Shirley J.   Adult Non-Fiction      Three things being taught in today's education system that are toxic

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt    352 pages

The authors state that 3 things are being taught in the education sector that are setting future generations up for a big fall.   They are:  what doesn't kill us makes us weaker;  always trust your feelings and life is a battle between good and evil people.   They call these the 3 Great Untruths.   They say society has come to a psychological push for safetyism.   By over controlling and making worriers out of the younger generations who tend to fear way more than their predecessors did it is in fact making it harder for people to grow up into confident competent adults.   There is a higher stress and anxiety factor now than there eve has been and young adults are not prepared to take on the troubles that come in life.     It starts in childhood with fearful parents who no longer push for unsupervised play, monitoring their children and instilling in them fear of predators, a there are people out to get me feel they instill in their children as they grow up and become teenagers and young adults furthering the social distance from their peers by spending more time in social media than in actual contact with other human beings.   This polarization due to technology is creating a generation of young adults who when in social situations become defiant and shout down those with differing opinions essentially shutting out new ideas and/or exploration of old ideas from educators creating an atmosphere of people who are afraid to speak out honestly.   They bring up a number of fascinating points with examples and real life actions that have taken place.   Information is being strangled because educators are trying to please all sides without taking any initiative to take a stand.   Interesting book.  I recommend this book to adults because I think young adults and kids would just blow it off and the gist of what the authors are saying would come to pass.