Less school, more play.

While doing research a for lab report, I stumbled across this article. I couldn't use it for the paper I was writing, but I was caught by the title, and e-mailed it to myself to read at another time.

We would like to think of history as progress, but if progress is measured in the mental health and happiness of young people, then we have been going backward at least since the early 1950s. The question I want to address here is why.

In the article, entitled "The Dramatic Rise of Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents: Is It Connected to the Decline in Play and Rise in Schooling?", Boston College professor of psychology Peter Gray argues that our society's shift toward an external locus of control and extrinsic goals has been caused by an increased emphasis on adult-directed learning and activities and has resulted in higher rates of depression and anxiety among adolescents. The article was very interesting, and made a convincing argument for substantial educational reform. After all, can we really say that we as a society have progressed if our young people are unhappier now than ever?