We asked and you answered!
We currently have over 160 parents across our system committed to reading Jonathan Haidt’s important book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, this fall. And we would love even more of you to join us. If you missed my first email, here’s the gist…
The book is making waves (in a good way) because it addresses an important issue that seems to be affecting everyone – our kids’ mental health. Haidt is a non-Christian (but faith-friendly) social psychologist so he relies on an evolutionary understanding of humanity and, though I disagree with some of his methodology, I agree with many of his conclusions. As parents (and educators), this is research that cannot be ignored. Honestly, every parent should read this book.
Over the summer we asked Christian Academy employees to consider voluntarily reading it and over 60 took us up on that with more starting since then. Now it’s your turn. I am looking for as many parents as possible to join me in reading The Anxious Generation this fall. It really is that important! There will be no small groups, no Zoom discussions and you will need to purchase the book on your own. We are asking for one commitment – that you attend a town hall meeting on your campus in December to discuss your thoughts on the book and how the information affects Christian Academy culture. CAL will meet on Monday, December 2, and CAI on Tuesday, December 3. I will occasionally share with you via your supplied email supplemental resources as I come across them.
If you’re in, please let me know here.
I’ve included the following links to a podcast featuring Jonathan Haidt (there are many) along with a very recent sermon by Tyler McKenzie (Christian Academy parent) that I think you will find interesting.
This may be one of the most important conversations we have about your child’s mental health, social connections and spiritual formation.
Thank you so much for considering!