Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
The Coddling of the American Mind
How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
Penguin Press, 2018
Aperçu
Academicians argue that parents weaken kids by overprotecting them, and now colleges coddle them, too.
Recommendation
Academicians Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt argue that parents and schools overprotect kids by trying to shield them from emotional distress. They find that colleges institutionalize intolerance by penalizing students, staff and faculty for speech someone deems offensive, even if the offense is inadvertent. The internet generation of students dominates today’s colleges, and the media sums them up as victims of overprotection and depression. These essays (written pre-pandemic) draw intriguing – if controversial – conclusions about stifling speech on campus and the hazards of overprotecting upcoming generations.
Summary
About the Authors
Greg Lukianoff is president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). He also wrote Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate and Freedom from Speech. Jonathan Haidt is Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Sloan School of Business. He also wrote The Righteous Mind and The Happiness Hypothesis.
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