the coddling of the american mind the atlantic

Every person should engage in recognizing these in themselves. You may read those and think- those are ridiculous, I don’t actually operate from that mindset! But as you read from their research, experience, and psychological knowledge, we function from the Untruths a lot more than we realize! Jon and Greg include a list of distorted automatic thoughts people have that I thought was super helpful and eye-opening to the way I often perceive things I read or hear. Life is a battle between good people and evil people (us vs them) What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker (fragility),Īlways trust your feelings (emotional reasoning) They say, “We will show how well-intentioned overprotection-from peanut bans in elementary schools through speech codes on college campuses-may end up doing more harm than good.” The result is a culture of ‘safety.’

Finally, they wrap up with advice and action steps to correct our thinking and ways of engaging with others, in parenting and in our education systems.

They expose ways we react that are harmful and dangerous (physically and ideologically) and they trace six threads in an attempt to solve the mystery of how we got to where we are now. Greg and Jon discuss three underlying ‘Untruths’ found woven into the ways we think that influence how we interpret and react when faced with uncomfortable situations or opposing viewpoints. Greg, a First Amendment lawyer & fighter for academic freedom and freedom of speech on campus, and Jon, social psychologist, have teamed up together to develop and explore this statement: “Many university students are learning to think in distorted ways, and this increases their likelihood of becoming fragile, anxious, and easily hurt.” The premise is even more relevant now than it was then. This book, written in 2018, was an expansive follow-up to their 2015 article in The Atlantic. “Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child.” The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation For Failure

The coddling of the american mind the atlantic