When my son was 2 years old, he fell and chipped his tooth on a metal lizard at the zoo. There was blood everywhere, and we rushed to the dentist, who assured us everything looked fine. Thirty minutes later, my phone rang. A speck on my son’s X-ray now concerned her—it could be a tooth chip embedded in his mouth tissue. She urged me to go straight to the emergency room and put my son under general anesthesia so they could investigate. It was a Friday, around 4 p.m.
I tell this story because the idea that when it comes to kids, we have gotten quicker to suggest interventions, and that as a culture, we have made even normal childhood challenges into a cause for concern, is the seed of truth that Abigail Shrier spins into her new book.
For those of you not up to date on the parenting culture wars, social-emotional learning has become the latest flashpoint. The idea behind SEL curricula, which started gaining traction in the past decade, is to cultivate interpersonal skills and self-awareness in children to help them succeed in school and beyond. A recent report from theshows evidence of SEL’s benefits, and personally, I’ve seen how it has helped my own kids learn healthy conflict resolution and how to apologize.