Here are a couple things I’m thinking about this week in the
world of higher education, and the additional reading that goes with these
thoughts.
Mental Health and
Education
Yesterday, an impressive guest spoke to our juniors and
seniors about mental health and addiction.
Among many powerful themes, she touched on achievement pressure in private
schools. This is an increasingly anxious
generation of students. High-achieving
kids and affluent communities aren’t immune; in fact, they
suffer higher levels of anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. And it’s too easy to just blame
smart phones, or social media, or safe
spaces. Maybe it’s the way kids
are taught to “do school.” If there
are ways to improve the lives of our high school students, we should take them
seriously. And that needs to go beyond teaching
coping skills and symptom management. Shouldn’t
we examine our systems, structures, and educational models so that engagement
doesn’t so dramatically plummet over high school? These are timely questions considering our school-wide
theme of mental health this year. There’s
no magic bullet, but I especially like the work of Stanford’s Denise Pope and Madeline
Levine as a starting point for the conversation.
Behavioral Economics
and College Choice
People tend to discount
long-term satisfaction in favor of short-term happiness. We’re just not very good at
predicting what’s likely to bring us sustaining contentment and meaning,
which is something different than momentary, fleeting pleasure. Economist Tyler Cowen suggests
that it’s becoming easier and easier to choose the short-term dopamine burst over
the more meaningful long-term investment.
I’d extend his discussion to wonder if this impacts how students choose
colleges. If kids are more likely to choose
short-term pleasure in other parts of their lives, are they also more likely to
look for the most fun freshman year instead of an intellectually stimulating (and
more challenging, though perhaps more rewarding) four-year experience? Could that type of thinking correlate with the
debate
over college as a time of thoughtful growth and exploration (long-term
satisfaction via personal development) versus a return-producing investment
(short-term happiness via higher income)?
And in the end, is the highest return on your investment (with return measured
by future income, status, power, or some combination of those) really a recipe
for a life well-lived? Or, at least,
a satisfying and fulfilling life? Maybe
not. In short, what, if anything, does our
relatively poor ability to predict future happiness mean for college choice?
