Psychology Today: Students’ Emotional Fragility
Students are emotionally fragile.
Here is the most recent article from Dr. Peter Gray covering the phenomenon of heightened emotional fragility in college students.
There is no doubt that students are experiencing more pressure today than in the past. As you have heard on many of our podcasts and read in our columns, the climate of our current education system, from kindergarten through college, is fostering stress, emphasizing compliance, and restricting exploration. Students have been trained to believe that the only thing that is important is a high grade. The process of learning has changed.
Dr. Gray’s article does a very nice job of looking at this issue from various perspectives, including that of teachers, professors, employers, parents, and students. While there are many good points, there are two statements in particular that warrant further attention and discussion.
The first quote has to do with helicopter parenting. Dr. Gray wrote:
These results are at least consistent with the view that increased “helicopter parenting” is one of the causes of the decline in young adults’ resilience.
I have to say that I completely agree! The increasing prevalence of helicopter parenting has had a significant impact on the development of coping skills and adjustment in children and adolescents. Children, teens, and even young adults today cannot cope with stress because they have never had the opportunity to successfully experience and overcome stress independently. Helicopter parents believe that what they are doing is in their child’s best interest, but their approach really does more harm in the long run.
The second quote has to do with the “grittiness” of the younger generation. Dr. Gray wrote:
The problems that young people face and the distress they feel are not new, nor is the tendency of the older generation to see the younger generation as less gritty than themselves.
I have to say that I love this! Not because it is a novel idea, but because it needs to be said more often. Grit is an important attribute to develop, though – in my opinion – we are not giving our students enough opportunities to develop this skill. We have allowed our education system to evolve in such a way that learning is rote and success is expected. Students know the minimum expectations, and strive for little more. This is the culture of learning that we are developing. As long as you try, we will allow you to make it up and do better. Although I do not really have a problem with allowing students to correct their errors to find success, it has now become an expectation, as opposed to an opportunity. We cannot blame the students for having this view; after all, we are teaching them that this is how the system works.
I do encourage you to read Dr. Gray’s article. He did a very good job at bringing in various perspectives. However, to correct this problem, we need to do a lot more work to do.
Share your thoughts!
Read Dr. Gray’s full article here.
Dr. Berney administrator
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