School, play, and depression

The Dramatic Rise of Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents: Is It Connected to the Decline in Play and Rise in Schooling?

The above article is actually from 2010, but I think it's still relevant today.  However, I don't really agree that it is so much a decline in play and a rise in schooling that is cause for the rise of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents.

I was in elementary school in the 60s, and I don't really remember that we went to school all that much less than kids do now.  In fact, I went to school more than most, because I was enrolled in an after school school.  It also seems like we had more homework then, although that could just be how it seemed at the time.  I do know, though, that expectations were much higher in school than they are now.  Some people actually did fail; some people were actually held back a grade.

I think the difference is that now kids don't really learn the stuff that we used to be required to learn.  We had to do math longhand because there weren't calculators.  Now, teachers require the use of calculators so that students don't fall behind in using technology.  I ask, how long does it really take to use a calculator?  It takes a long time to learn how to do arithmetic.  And I think the process of learning to do arithmetic longhand teaches a thought process.  It enables people to think mathematically, whereas using a calculator just teaches kids to push buttons.

I also think the increasing emphasis on group projects is another source of anxiety or depression.  It seems to me that often kids will just rely on the rest of the group, or even on just one person, to do the bulk of the work.  Consequently, there really is no sense of accomplishment for many of the group members.  It could also be that the few who are doing the work feel like they're working for the benefit of everybody else, rather than for their own benefit.

Another thing that I've written about in the past is grade inflation; it results in a lessening of the perceived difference between those who excel and those who merely aim to get by.

Finally, when someone actually doesn't do well, they should be told that there really isn't a good reason for failure, because usually, there isn't.  Instead, it seems like educators want to avoid hurting kids' feelings... like they think that the pain of failure might cause permanent damage to the kids' psyche or something.  But, maybe it works more like this: my teacher tells me that I suck, which hurts.  To avoid that pain in the future, I work harder so I don't suck next time.  Instead, educators seem to spend a lot of time and energy trying to make kids feel okay about their failures, even thinking of excuses for why the kid might have failed.  In the end, I think this approach may actually result in worse outcomes because now the kid has a "reason" for their failure, and one that they can do little if anything about.

As far as play goes, I do agree with what the author of the linked article says.  Play is important.  But kids these days spend more of their play time just talking on the phone, or watching television, or playing video games.  Talking on the phone was strictly limited when I was a kid.  So was watching television.  And there were no video games back then.  So, we spent a lot of time playing sports, or interacting directly with our friends.  I think there is a huge fundamental difference between face-to-face interaction with your friends and texting.  I think physical activity is of primary importance to a healthy outlook.  I think the prevalence today of kids not playing away from adults is not a problem with adults; I actually don't think kids would participate as much in physical play if there weren't adults organizing and supervising it.

And finally, there are video games.  I actually don't mind if the kids want to play video games because playing those games can help kids learn to problem solve as well as speeding reaction times, that sort of thing.  But, kids don't want to try to solve the problems presented in video games themselves; they go on the internet in search of web sites that tell them exactly what buttons to push and when to push them.  They watch other kids play games to see how to beat the next level with minimal effort.  In short, the kids themselves are destroying the only good things that can come out of playing video games and turning them into a massive waste of time.

With basically no reason to feel any sense of accomplishment left, I think it's not really surprising that depression appears to be a growing problem among children and adolescents, and I think we owe it to them to try to change things for them.  That doesn't mean, though, to just hand over whatever it is that will give them the instant gratification they think they want; instead we need to instill the greater, long-term sense of self-worth that is being denied them.