An Important book marred by false "balance"

This is a very important book, describing in clear terms how the last 40 years of over protective parenting combined with social media to create a toxic brew that has led to Stepford students conducting witch hunts, destroying academic integrity and making themselves (and everybody else) miserable in the process.
The book explicitly outlines 3 untruths core to the problem, whatever doesn't kill you makes you weaker, always trust your feelings and the world is divided into good and evil people.
The problem is that the authors political bias (they are on the left) stop them from seeing this as it is, a predominantly left wing phenomena and they engage in ever more desperate mental gymnastics to suggest that this problem afflicts both sides of the political divide equally. This isn't to say that the right doesn't have its problems but this isn't one of them. It really comes down to the old adage that the right thinks the left are wrong but the left thinks the right are evil. This distinction means that, for those on the left, one of the untruths is always a given, unfortunately, helicopter parenting and social media to put the other 2 in place to take us to where we are now..

22 people found this helpful

Tries to put equal blame on left and right

Sorry but you cannot put equal blame on left and right for the situation in the US (and other) education systems when the educational establishment is almost 100% left wing. Hairy asks "Where did students learn to think this way?" Well Jonathan if you can't work that one out I fear for you, it certainly wasn't Donald Trump (who you seem to want to draw into every explanation)

7 people found this helpful

Leabhar do gach guine

Bh maith liom an leabhar. Cheap mé go raibh an t-údar tuisceanach agus cliste. Creidim go bhfuil leabhar tábhactach do thuismitheoirí

5 people found this helpful

Utterly brilliant!

An interesting, informative, educational and entertaining listen from the first to the last word. I will be recommending this book to everyone, especially those involved in education and those with children.

5 people found this helpful

An absolutely essential book.

A must read for everyone interested in the world, the possible future and the current political situation.

Though focusing on education and the university (the forge for future citizens and politicians) this book highlights some of the bad ideas and pitfalls that undermine its purpose and ill-serve its students and society at large there-after. This book is packed with useful studies, insights and analysis. Clearly written, one feels every student and teacher should read this. The fundamentals of a well functioning society are debated here, strand by strand, in one of the clearest and most succinct books i've ever read on the subject (one can see the authors pedagogic roots - and the book is all the better for it!) - essential reading!

Get ready to make notes, as the ideas are insightful, beautifully and fluidly written (and too many are worth noting down).

4 people found this helpful

best book on communication I have read

Wisdom on honest communication. Something I feel I have always used, but now I under the process better.

4 people found this helpful

Enthralling piece of work

I really like it when the actual author of the book is doing the reading. Adds an authenticity to it.

3 people found this helpful

Could have been a quarter of the length

The narration is okay, however the problem is the content. Put simply, it's boring - same point fleshed out time and time again. Feels like the author didn't have more to offer but felt that they should write a longer book, which is a shame because the basic premise is good. I would have liked to see a more difference between the chapters and some more creativity with the topic.

1 person found this helpful

Another great Haidt book

I’m not sure if I’m getting old but as someone who sometimes supports students, I seem to have noticed that many seem to be a little bit less resilient and more fragile than perhaps I was in my day. I have recently changed my style so that I can offer students the options of answering a question when I ask it or going away and thinking about it and then replying to me. Personally I find this a hopeless way of learning as I can’t really find out what student already knows and am able to give them an answer and help them think things through. Along with the fact that almost anything Jonathan Haidt writes is almost always an amazing book and certainly ‘the happiness hypothesis’ and ‘the righteous mind’ have been two of my favourite books of the last decade, and that is why I chose this book. It’s a much narrower subject but I also thought it would have a lot to offer and it certainly does. The book begins with dismantling several untruths such as what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker, always trust your feelings and people can be divided into good people and bad people. I believe all the three statements are nonsense to me but I do see others taking them on board to be true. However, we know that bones will break if we don’t put pressure on them and become stronger when we do, babies are stronger to the pressure delivered by natural birth rather than Caesarean and babies who are born in a germ free environment are much weaker than those exposed to germs. So the main message in this book is that we need to accept some pressure and stress to help make us more functional and stronger human beings in both college and the work place. Perhaps his book is not as strong as the other two Haidt books I have read but it certainly gives me plenty of food for thought. I personally found the chapter on what Internet he is doing to us on our phones alongside social media fascinating and thought-provoking. And I loved the last bit of how to do CBT which I’m going to employ and trial on one of my colleagues to see if it will help with their anxiety. There is a summary of what to do at the end, it might be of benefit. This is a fascinating book and well worth reading alongside Alex Beard’s ‘natural born learners’ which I read at the same time.

1 person found this helpful

Phenomenal book!

A must for all parents, teachers, anyone who works in education, universities and basically all adults who live in the western world.

Extremely well written and researched.