I admit it, I’m greatly concerned about our kids’ emotional and moral health. I’m flying tonight to San Francisco to keynote the American College Health Association about the college mental health crisis. And it is a crisis: one third of all college students report feeling so overwhelmed that they cannot function. Most disturbing is that the sharpest rise in suicide rates (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics) is among young girls. The report reveals that 150 girls between ten and fourteen years old committed suicide in 2014 along – a 200 percent increase in that age group since 1999. I see a direction correlation between the dip in our children’s moral and mental health. As empathy wanes, the lonely factor rises, and so too does stress, depression, anxiety, bullying, cheating racism. Sound familiar?
For the past decade I’ve studied children’s character development and empathy. I’ve flown the world to interview dozens of kids and top researchers about empathy. And I’ve also flown to five continents to gather top ways to turn this crisis around. It can be turned around. Those strategies to do so are in my latest book, UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World, that will premier on TODAY June 7. I’ll be posting dozens of articles in this blog about how to change our parenting styles and educational system to raise stronger, happier, more successful and more empathetic kids.
Here is my view in TIME magazine on why I’m convinced our children now – more than ever – need empathy. I hope you’ll join my campaign to raise empathy levels for the sake of our kids. The actual article is in the June 6, 2016 issue on stands now. (Apologies for the quality).
To raising UnSelfies – empathic kids who think WE not ME and can thrive in this brave new world!
Best!
Michele
UnSelfie: is in audio, e-book, and hardcopy June 7, 2016 after a decade of researching and writing. Yahoo! It has over 300 ways parents and educators can increase our children’s empathy capacities from toddler to teen, describes the latest science that proves we can make a difference and stories in my journey to find those answers. (Just a hint: the best ideas were ones children around the world shared with me. They were always simple, right on, and matched the science!) To UnSelfies!!!
