Join us for these special programs examining issues of education, pedagogy, and youth as the schools, academies, colleges, and universities in our community open another academic year.
How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong
Sunday, August 20 at 5pm
There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this special, we investigate the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences — children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.
Can Ancient Wisdom Help Gen Z Unhappiness?
Sunday, August 20 at 6pm
Depression, stress, and anxiety are rising in Gen Z, with studies showing that the teens and twenties are now the most unhappy time of life. That wasn’t always the case. But there’s also a growing sense (with scientific data to back it up) that ancient wisdom offers strategies to help young adults find more joy, peace, and resilience. With a panel of experts, we explore the science behind when and how secular and spiritual practices can be adapted to help young adults (and really any of us) deal with the stresses and loneliness of modern life, whatever our beliefs (including none at all).
Guests: Dr. Laurie Santos is the Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She hosts The Happiness Lab Podcast and created the record-breaking courses “The Science of Wellbeing” (the most popular course at Yale) and “The Science of Wellbeing for Teens.” Greg M. Epstein serves as the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University and at MIT — a role in which he supports the ethical and communal lives of nonreligious students. He’s also the author of the New York Times bestseller Good Without God, and recently served as president of Harvard University's 40+ chaplains. tyler VanderWeele is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he directs the Human Flourishing Program. His work has been internationally recognized for illuminating the factors that underlie health and wellbeing in adolescents and adults.
