Jonathan Haidt: How Colleges Are Failing Kids

While college campuses portray themselves as centers of academic achievement and innovative endeavors, Jonathan Haidt, best-selling author of The Righteous Mind, argues they are better characterized by their anxiety-inducing and depressive nature. In addition to worsening mental health, a culture of censorship and overwhelming sensitivity causes professors and students to fear speaking honestly. Haidt believes this toxic system is a product of excessive coddling reinforced by an arsenal of trigger warnings and microaggressions. 

In his new book, The Coddling of the American Mind, Haidt articulates the social trends that have come together to produce this conflicting environment and its impact on posterity. Contextualizing campus conflicts with intense political polarization, ubiquitous social media and rising hate crimes, he demonstrates why people have been subscribing to a system that aims to protect its young people. Come listen to a discussion about the negative ramifications of a well-intentioned movement.

Speakers
Image - Haidt

Jonathan Haidt

Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, Stern School of Business at New York University; Co-Author, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure; Twitter @JonHaidt

In Conversation with Quentin Hardy

Head of Editorial, Google Cloud