Restoring Childhood - by Peter Gray (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

What if the cause of the youth mental health crisis wasn't actually social media at all?

When was the last time you actually saw a group of kids--without adults--playing on a playground? Fourty years ago, an American ten-year-old could expect to walk to school, bike to a friend's, or play pick-up games with other kids in the neighborhood. Today, our children are supervised and controlled at every opportunity.

As author, researcher, and psychology professor Peter Gray shows in Restoring Childhood, kids aren't depressed and anxious because of social media. They're retreating to social media because they lack agency and autonomy in the real world. Social media use is just a symptom of the larger problem: the disappearance of childhood as a stage of life solely for experimentation, play, and learning you can do things on your own. And if we continue to tighten the leash on our kids, no amount of screen-time restriction will reverse the alarming mental health crisis we see our kids enduring today.

Restoring Childhood is a radical examination of how certain societal trends--from round-the-clock news coverage, to increasing reliance on cars, to the introduction of Common Core, to growing wealth inequality--conspired to create a fundamentally anti-child environment. If we want to raise mentally healthy and resilient kids, Gray argues, we must restore childhood to children. We must, individually and collectively, prioritize adult-free play, and the time for it--in our schools, in our neighborhoods, and as parents.

About the Author

Dr. Peter Gray is a research professor of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College. He has conducted and published research in neuroendocrinology, developmental psychology, anthropology, and education. He did his undergraduate study at Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at Rockefeller University. His current research and writing focus primarily on children's natural ways of learning and the life-long value of play. He is a founding member of the nonprofit Alliance for Self-Directed Education and a founding board member of the nonprofit Let Grow. He is the author of an internationally acclaimed college introductory psychology textbook (Psychology, now in its 8th edition), which views all of psychology from an evolutionary perspective, and of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.