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Couple of links I want to put together in a thread that relate to the question of what's going on with student anxiety and depression. It's not students being "snowflakes." It's not smartphones, and it's not "a culture of safetyism." It's school.
The number 1 concern of teens when looking at the people in their own community is anxiety and depression. It's not even close. pewsocialtrends.org/2019/02/20/mos… 
The concern over anxiety and depression extends across all income demographics. This is not a rich kid problem. There goes the theory of "safetyism" caused by helicopter parenting.
In a 2018 American College Health Association report, more than 8-10 college students had felt "overwhelmed by all they had to do" at least once in the past 12 months. That experience of school didn't start in college. acha.org/documents/ncha…
Back to the Pew report. More than 6 in 10 teens feel "a lot of pressure to get good grades." Why? They're worried about getting a job they'll enjoy.
In a nationally representative poll, 80% of Gen Z (16-21) categorized themselves as "worriers." Grades, jobs, happiness, finances are what they're worried about. willowresearch.com/gen-z/
In a great article @bradwolverton notes that campus counselors recognize that financial pressure is one of the things this generation is dealing with in numbers never seen before. nytimes.com/2019/02/21/edu…
My view is that students are being crushed by a culture of "scarcity and precarity." I make the argument in more detail in a review/essay response to The Coddling of the American Mind's argument on "safetyism." insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
We're looking at massive cultural and macroeconomic issues that are causing or at least exacerbating the problems of student mental health. To change that culture, to re-orient our economic systems so they aren't so punishing is a massive lift that we have to work on daily.
Issues like free college, student loan forgiveness, raising the minimum wage, access to health care and housing all directly impact student mental health. I believe all educators should fight for these issues on behalf of our students. But again, this is a long and heavy lift.
This is also why we need to keep building on the work of outfits like The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice (@hope4college) which makes immediate impacts on lives of students who need help while advocating for systemic change. hope4college.com
Closer to home, I believe our pedagogy can help address these issues. I talk about this in Why They Can't Write, challenging the problems of atmosphere, standardization, and surveillance in education that I believe contribute to mental health problems. amazon.com/Why-They-Cant-…
And in The Writer's Practice, I try to provide a framework that privileges student experience and agency in building their writing knowledge and skills. We can give students the tools to express themselves and impact their world. amazon.com/Writers-Practi…
Ultimately, though, pedagogy isn't going to be enough. It's a bigger problem. It's systemic, and the sooner we stop looking for easy solutions like "turn off your phone" or adopting the Chicago statement on campus speech, and address the underlying conditions, the better.
Student engagement with school drops every year between 5th and 11th grade. This is the metric we should be concerned with, not test scores. The obsession with test scores has helped precipitate the current mental health crisis.
How we approach our teaching can't solve the larger problems of the culture, but at the least we can stop heaping additional harm on students, and maybe even set them up so they see themselves as capable of making the kinds of changes they want to see in the world.
After writing this thread and advocating for things like a $15 min wage to help alleviate student anxiety and depression, what do I read this morning? "A living wage is an anti-depressant." nytimes.com/interactive/20…
