Empathy & Privilege — How Might All Our “Help” Be Hurting Our Kids?
How are technology, the media, and, perhaps most importantly, our own efforts to support our teenagers squeezing out effective space for empathy and connection? This talk emphasizes how our students are moving further and further away from learning their connection to a larger community. Increasing academic pressure, a crammed schedule, conforming to expectations that are not their own, and a growing lack of real life experiences are just some of the concrete causes we witness. Adding to this is an increasing fear of taking risks or making mistakes, thus a lack of opportunity to learn from situations that do not turn out as planned. All of these facts are serving to create young people who feel too stressed out, competitive, and afraid to seek real connection. In this program we seek to identify concrete ways this growing reality can be altered.
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