“Have you heard of Brené Brown?” my wife asked at dinner.
I had never heard her name said out loud (Breh-nay), but I have seen her inspirational quotes mingling about the Internet. I said as much.
My wife continued:
“I saw this post where she talked about how the tech bros are really into the liberal arts. They don’t let their kids have iPads, even though they’re the ones marketing them to us. Thought you’d be interested.”
Oh ho ho! But I am.
I found the source material. From Brown’s appearance of Diary of CEO a month ago:
“I hear someone say, ‘Hey, tech billionaire, what should my kids study? I’m worried for my kids.’
‘Well, they should study coding, physics.’
Then five minutes later, as if that answer didn’t happen, someone will say, ‘To what do you attribute your success?’
‘My deep reading of philosophy in the stoics.’
And then I start to extrapolate from there and wonder if there is a thinking class that’s emerging, where they’re like, ‘We’re going to read philosophy, and we’re going to read the liberal arts, and we’re going to study history. And the rest of you just keep scrolling.’
She references Steve Jobs, who did not let his kids use iPads. No technology at dinner – just discussions about art, history, and the like.
Kind of makes you feel like a sheep.
Brown then talks about giving children future-proof mindsets, such as situational awareness and anticipatory thinking. These resources are readily available – all you need is a library card:
“I want them to read, I want them to understand history. I want them to develop pattern recognition skills, because these are the skills of the future. I want them to be able to hold the tension of nuance and paradox.
When everything in their brain is saying, ‘Pick one – pick one – reconcile. I’m uncomfortable. Pick one – reconcile. I’m uncomfortable.’ That’s neurobiology.”
I got chills on that last bit.
“Thank you, wife,” I said. “Great find.”
tl;dr: Read a book.
