Google’s philanthropic arm has announced a $1 million grant to the Oakland-based Hidden Genius Project, which trains and mentors black male youth in technology creation, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills.
Google.org explained that the award is just one part of a much larger effort to increase diversity in technology. noting that Hidden Genius Project does a wonderful job of helping young black males become role models in technology development that, in turn, will spur others to follow suit.
“One reason behind a lack of representation is perception,” the company wrote in a blog post on the topic. “According to our research with Gallup, students are five times more likely to take an interest in computer science if they often see people who look like them in that field. As we often say, ‘you have to see it to be it.'”
The Hidden Genius Project is not new to Google. The company first recognized the group in 2015 as a finalist (and subsequent winner) of the Google Impact Challenge, which included a $500,000 grant.
Since that time, the organization has reached more than 1,700 Oakland area students through a variety of workshops, events, and an entrepreneur bootcamp program.
Google has granted tens of millions to clubs and organizations focused on increasing diversity in technology with women, minorities and others. There is also an economic benefit to these efforts, since the technology sector increasingly faces a deficit in qualified applicants.
The Hidden Genius Project was launched in 2012 by five black male entrepreneurs and technologists who recognized the immense chasm that existed between sky high unemployment levels with black male youth and the Bay Area’s historically strong employment opportunities in the technology sector.
In response, “the founders established a program to connect young black males with the skills, mentors, and experiences that they need to become high-performing entrepreneurs and technologists in a 21st century, global economy.”
Go outside and play! Most of us who came of age in the pre-digital era recall that particular command from mom or dad. In neighborhoods across America, kids were forced out into the sunlight and told to entertain themselves. And we did – until, that is, came another parental call, “Dinner!” (or “Lunch!” if it was summer break).
Today, with epidemics in childhood obesity, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and addictions to digital gadgets, it may be time to resurrect those old practices. Turns out, mom and dad were right, and there are numerous students and surveys demonstrating that being outdoors on a regular basis is very, very good for kids.
How good? Read on.
Stronger Eyesight
Across the globe there is growing concern about children’s eyesight, with some studies suggesting kids’ eyesight is worse than it was a generation ago. In some areas of China, for example, a whopping 90% of high school students suffer from shortsightedness (myopia). And similar trends are occurring in Europe, the Mideast, and elsewhere. Common sense tells us that too many kids are spending too much time indoors staring at digital screens, right? But the good news is that spending time outside can reduce rates of myopia by as much as 23%. A study published by the American Academy of Opthalmology found that for every hour per week a child spent outdoors, his or her chances of developing myopia dropped an additional two percent.
Improved Eating Habits
It’s a challenge as old as time itself: getting kids to eat healthy food when tastier, less healthy alternatives are available. How to reverse this habit? By pushing your kids outside and planting them (pun intended) in a garden. By teaching your kids how to plant, cultivate, and harvest their own vegetables and fruits, you make it more likely they will eat foods that are healthy for them. For more on the benefits of gardening with your child, check out this article from PBS.
Calming Influence
Just about all of us know one or more kids diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). But did you know being outdoors has been shown to have a calming influence on kids and even to help reduce ADHD symptoms? And we’re not just talking about hyperactivity here. With kids’ increasingly glued to digital devices and social media, rates of anxiety and depression are skyrocketing. Get your kids to turn off the devices, leave them in the house, and head outside, which studies suggest has a soothing effect on jangled nerves.
Improved Health
You thought we’d start with this one, right? It’s obvious for a reason – kids racing about playing tag, romping on a playground, or exploring a forest gets the heart beating, the lungs breathing, and endorphins rushing. Vitamin D deficiencies are on the rise, so soaking up some sun every day can help. Outside play also improves agility, stamina, strength and muscle coordination.
Thinking Creatively
Passive consumption of media tends to dull the senses and do little to nothing for neurological development. Playing outside – or even just taking a simple walk/hike – does wonders for a child’s creative capacities. One study involving four separate experiments found that walking alone increases ‘ideation’ during and after the walk. Author Richard Louv says kids today suffer from ‘nature deficit disorder,’ meaning they spend far too much time being entertained (inside, usually) than being forced to think creatively in order to entertain themselves. So the next time your kids complain about being bored, send them outside and tell them what our parents told us: entertain yourselves.
We’ve barely touched on the myriad benefits of being outside (for kids and adults). One thing is certain, however: many of the ills facing our children can be overcome by simply requiring them to spend a brief period of time outdoors every day, rain or shine.
Parents who are struggling with how much digital screen time to allow their kids would be wise to consider that the titans of those same technologies limit their own children’s access to the devices.
That’s right, the makers of smartphones and tablets, of social media channels and game boxes, restrict and, in some cases, altogether forbid their kids from using these same technologies.
It’s a bit like smoking – you can be sure that tobacco execs didn’t (and don’t) let their kids anywhere near the very same product they actively promote to the world. Now, we’re not saying the use of digital tech is the same as a 3-pack-a-day smoking habit. But there’s ample evidence to suggest the risks of addiction are just as great.
And that’s what parents should take away from tech leaders’ reluctance to let their own kids spend much time with digital technology: they’re aware of those risks and their ramifications for young minds and lives.
In an interview not long before his death, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs confessed to a New York Times reporter that when it came to digital technology including his own company’s shiny new iPad, he and his wife “limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
In their book on education and digital screens, authors Joe Clement and Matt Miles pointed to the irony “that in a modern public school where kids are being required to use electronic devices like iPads, Steve Jobs’s kids would be some of the only kids opted out.”
And Jobs wasn’t alone. Bill and Melinda Gates placed significant restrictions on their children’s access to digital technologies, and across Silicon Valley, similar stories can be heard about the children of other tech titans.
Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired magazine and CEO of 3D Robotics, told that same Times reporter that his kids “accuse me and my wife of being fascists and overly concerned about tech, and they say that none of their friends have the same rules. That’s because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I’ve seen it in myself, I don’t want to see that happen to my kids.”
Even at ultra-brilliant learning institutions likes MIT, the instructors and higher ups ensure that their children’s access to digital tech is limited. “Here I am at MIT, surrounded by super techies,” writes MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle. Their kids are being taught at Montessori schools and they have “rules about no computers at the dinner table, no computers at breakfast, no computers here, no computers there, no computers in the classroom.”
The tech titans, adds Turkle, know what the rest of us don’t: that digital technology presents very real risks to young minds. And what are some of those risks?
Addiction – There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that digital technologies and social media are highly addictive – a kind of ‘digital heroin‘ that stimulates many of the brain’s same pleasure centers as actual drugs. “Kids have basically been carrying around a portable dopamine pump for the past 10 years,” says David Greenfield, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction.
Anxiety & Depression – Today’s digitally-connected children are “on the brink of the worst mental health crisis in decades,” writes Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego University and author of Generation Me and iGen.
Stupidity – Harsh, yes, but then there’s growing evidence to suggest that merely having a smartphone lying nearby can make us dumber (meaning, we suppose, that the only ‘smart’ thing in that equation is the phone itself?).
Shorter Attention Spans – Digital devices are contributing to increasingly short attention spans, say educators and other child development experts. How bad is it? Well, Microsoft Corp. and others estimate goldfish have longer attention spans than us humans.
Increased Isolation – An irony often pointed out about smartphones and other digital devices is that despite kids enjoying instantaneous forms of connection between others, a growing number of kids report feeling isolated and alone. Consider that between 2000 and 2015, the frequency with which teens got together with their friends dropped 40%.
Technology isn’t all bad, of course, and many educators and child development experts point out that smartphones, the Internet, even social media, can deliver benefits to kids. But the key for parents is to recognize that limits must be set, and they need look no farther than the titans of tech to serve as role models in establishing those limits.
By most measures, the number of qualified, sanctioned referees is falling across the county, and this shortage is impacting youth sports at all levels, leading coaches and commissioners alike to ask, where are all the referees?
In Kansas, for example, the numbered of registered basketball referees has dropped from 2,027 in 2013 to 1,887 in 2015. A small decrease, you might think, until you realize how many games those missing 140 officials could work in a given year.
The numbers are similar across the country. In Tennessee, the number of high school football game officials declined 17 percent over the past year; Colorado officials say every year they’re recruiting fewer and fewer officials; in Montana there is such a shortage that school officials are anticipating draconian changes to game schedules.
Dating as far back as 2002, 90 percent of high school officials surveyed said there not only is a growing shortage of game officials, but that those who are still officiating are getting grayer (in many states, more than half of officials are 50 or older).
The nationwide drop in the number of game officials has resulted in contests being delayed, postponed, or shifted to different days. In Virginia, some schools have agreed to move their Friday night home football games to Thursday. But this can have an impact on gate receipts, since fewer students and parents are willing to attend a game on a school/work night.
Where Are the Referees?
All of which begs the question, why the shortage? In a word, R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Across the country, respect for officials – from parents, coaches, and players – seems to be at an all-time low. In our win-at-all-costs culture, officials are seen as biased against a team – both teams, in fact – depending on which side of the venue you are seated.
“Unsporting behavior continues to be the main reason that people get out of officiating,” says Barry Mano, founder of the National Association of Sports. Mano, who spent 23 years as a college basketball referee, said officials increasingly are worried about their personal safety – a ridiculous notion given they are paid roughly $50 to officiate a game.
Those safety concerns aren’t without justification. Angry players have struck and killed officials. In a well-known case, two high school football players blindsided a referee and were expelled, the referee eventually filing suit against the boys, the team, and the school.
The lack of referees and game officials is also cause for concern with youth groups already suffering from a decline in youth participation.
So what are schools and youth groups doing to mitigate the shortage? For starters, many regions are waiving registration fees, offering increased payment, and even throwing in cash bonuses for qualified officials.
But to many officials, the cure is much simpler: to put in place measures that ensure parents, coaches, players and fans cheer for their teams instead of against game officials. After all, without those officials, says Don Boss, a 47-year veteran of officiating, “these kids wouldn’t be able to play.”
When adults feel that they or their loved ones are threatened, they often resort to buying a gun or applying for a permit to carry one. Probably why we shouldn’t be surprised that many kids behave pretty much the same way?
How might kids feel threatened? Bullying, of course. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), authors of a new study found that of 15,000 high school students surveyed, 20% (or 3,000) reported being targets of bullying during the previous year.
More worrisome was the fact that 4% of all students confessed to bringing a weapon to school during the previous month, with 200,000 victims of bullying admitting to carrying a knife or gun in school.
Published in the journal, Pediatrics, the study shows that the number of kids bringing a weapon to school skyrockets to a staggering 46% when a child faces the following three contributing factors:
Involvement in a physical fight at school
Skipping school because the child feels unsafe
Previous threats made by classmates
“We wanted to look at those who are bringing weapons into what is supposed to be a safe space,” said study co-author Dr. Andrew Adesman, a professor of pediatrics at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine.
Adesman and his colleagues acknowledged that while all victims of bullying don’t resort to bringing a weapon to school, their research demonstrated a “striking cascade of risk that is proportional to those three simple questions.”
The study’s authors also found a gender gap. While girls are more likely to report being victims of bullying, bullied boys were three times more likely to bring a weapon to school with them.
What’s a parent to do? For starters, talk to your kids and ensure you’re on the same page with your child. Numerous nonprofit organizations offer a variety of resources on the topic of bullying, including how to handle a bully, what to do if/when a child is bullied, what to look for in your own children (both in terms of being a perpetrator or victim of bullying), and more. Below are a handful of such resources.
We approach any talk of smart cars, delivery vans, and tractor trailers with, at best, idle curiosity. But what if the driverless vehicle in question was responsible for transporting your child to and from school every day? Are parents ready for smart buses?
That’s the vision of Seattle-based design company, Teague, which is working on a new smart bus concept that would replace the nation’s aged, iconic yellow school bus fleet for the first time in decades. (At nearly 500,000 vehicles, school buses constitute the nation’s largest form of public transit.)
Project-named Hannah, the smart bus would represent a radical departure not just for the bus itself, but also in the ways in which it carries out its duties.
Rather than kids migrating toward a centralized bus stop, for example, the smart bus would do pick up and drop off from the child’s front door. This elimination of the traditional hub-and-spoke system, coupled with doors on both sides of the bus, would eliminate one of the most dangerous aspects of school transport: crossing busy commuter streets.
Teague also envisions these vehicles being much smaller – carrying 6 children at most – and the passengers would face each other much the way they do in the school cafeteria (a design focused in part on eliminating the teasing and bullying allowed by kids seated behind each other).
In other ways Hannah would operate like other smart vehicles. Facial recognition software would be used both to allow a child access to the bus as well as to confirm and communicate the child’s whereabout from home to school and back. Artificial intelligence applications also would be used to monitor traffic conditions and re-route the bus as needed.
Of particular interest to parents of younger children is Teague’s idea of connecting the buses directly with parents. Imagine if mom is running 15 minutes late on her return commute: she could ping the bus via an app and the bus could re-route to drop off other kids first, thereby delaying its arrival until mom gets home.
The big question we started with, however, remains: how comfortable would parents be in trusting their children to a driverless bus? Teague addresses the issue head-on:
“While it’s true that Hannah vehicles are driverless, Hannah actually delivers better supervision than today’s school buses. To understand this, consider whether it’s actually possible for a driver to supervise 50+ kids seated in rows of seats a dozen deep while simultaneously driving. The answer is most likely not.
“And yet we are conditioned by this illusion of supervision, so much so that a driverless school vehicle might feel like a non-starter to some. However, any fears will eventually be quelled, because the supervisory powers of Hannah’s connected vehicles far surpass the overtaxed pair of eyes and ears on today’s school buses.”
So how about it parents? Are you ready for a smart bus for your child?
Picture a youth sport where every participant is actively involved, where there is constant motion and the level of physical exercise outstanding, where kids get to play both offense and defense with ample opportunities to ‘touch’ the ball. The game, of course, is basketball, and these are just some of the reasons why basketball is #1 with kids.
According to ESPN and other sources, over the past decade basketball has risen in popularity with both boys and girls, and there are no signs that trend will change anytime soon. A key reason for its popularity: action.
“My favorite sport is basketball,” says 13-year-old Lamar, one of the better players on his local Northern Virginia travel team, “You never stop and there’s tons of chances to do something important.” That need for ‘action,’ says youth sports experts, is precisely why basketball is so popular with girls and boys alike.
Reason #1: Action and Lots of It
Compared to baseball, for example, where every play is channeled through the pitcher and a player may only bat once every three innings (less if he/she is substituted), basketball provides a never-ending opportunity to be engaged on every play.
Similarly, football involves heavy scripting of each player’s role on a particular play, with actual engagement with the ball involving at most two players on offense. For example, a ‘loose ball’ in football where every player has a shot at the ball is an exceedingly rare fumble; in basketball it’s a commonplace missed shot/rebound.
Reason #2: Playing Both Sides of the Contest
Even in sports with plentiful action that parallels basketball, such as lacrosse, soccer, or hockey, players are limited to playing either offense or defense. Only basketball requires kids to play both ends of the court. This results in kids learning to be far more nuanced in their understanding and approach to the game, since dribbling, passing, and shooting are coupled with defending, positioning, rebounding, blocking and stealing.
Reason #3: Exercise, Energy, Endorphins
Kids love exercise, especially when it’s ‘hidden’ within a competitive sport. Children’s bodies produce the same endorphins – the so-called ‘runner’s high’ – that adults come to crave from exercise, and as a result active kids are not just happier kids but also better students.
Reason #4: Ease of Play
While it’s true that basketball becomes more sophisticated with age, for young kids in particular the barriers to entry are minimal. Sneakers, a hoop and a ball are all that is needed, and most kids quickly pick up on the basic rules of play, foremost among them to put the ball through the hoop for instant gratification. Even in countries like Canada celebrated for its hockey, basketball has become the most popular youth sport, in large part because of its accessibility.
Reason #5: Parents’ Love of the Sport
While there are no statistics on the youth sports parents love most, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest parents are big fans of basketball as well. It is safer than football, more active (and much shorter in duration) than baseball, exclusively indoors (inclement weather is no problem), outstanding exercise for children in an era when childhood obesity is at epidemic levels, affordable (especially compared to football, hockey, lacrosse, etc.), and popular with their kids. And kids, of course, pick up on whatever makes their parents happy, making basketball a win-win. (It’s also one of the more affordable sports – unless you start traveling to out-of-state tournaments of course.)
Close your eyes for a moment and picture just about any youth sport. Now shift your gaze to the sidelines and scan for the coach. You’re imagining a man, right?
Don’t blame your imagination for being sexist, because statistically speaking, men are far more likely to be on the sidelines. Of the 6.5 million adults coaching youth teams up to age 14, only 27% are women.
Indeed, while it’s true most youth coaches are men, it turns out that in many ways (sorry guys), women make better coaches. In this post we’ll look at why women make great coaches as well as some of the impediments (real and imagined) that are standing in the way of more women picking up a whistle.
Women Coaches By the Numbers
First, the numbers. Despite our nation’s success in getting more girls involved in sports thanks to legislation like Title IX, the number of women participating as coaches remains stubbornly small and, in some cases, shrinking.
One study found that only 13.4% of youth soccer coaches are women, and that number falls to 5.9% for baseball (football and basketball fare even worse).
Why are women, who are so intimately involved in just about every other aspect of their children’s lives, such rarities in youth coaching ranks?
#1: Lack of Confidence
Because organized sport for women was far less commonplace (and often deemed less important) even a generation ago, many women feel ill-prepared to coach a sport, particularly one they may not have played. (Ironically, before Title IX 90% of girls’ coaches were women – today that figure is just 43% and falling.)
Some of this is attributed to the ‘confidence gap,’ a well-known habit of men to feel more self-confidence – deserved or not – than women. Women’s pro basketball star Monique Currie points out that the weakest player on an NBA roster often feels just as confident as the team’s best player. “For women, it’s not like that.”
But the truth for youth coaches – particularly with kids under the age of 9 – is that mastering the complexities of a sport is far less important than understanding how to be a good teammate, learning a sport’s fundamentals, working well with others, sportsmanship, etc.
Barb Keiser’s team won their league championship, but she was equally glad they lost a game along the way: “Kids need lessons in humility far more than in winning.”
“My goals have always been to focus on the basics, ensure the kids are actually developing a love for the sport, and put each player in a position where she can excel,” says Barb Keiser, whose youth soccer teams rack up win after win through intelligent, team-oriented ball. “It’s always about supporting and nurturing each other. As the saying goes, we’re only as strong as our weakest link. The confidence will come.”
As for learning (and teaching) those fundamentals? Many youth organizations (not to mention the Internet) offer a variety of support services and training materials for new coaches. And there are plenty of coaches – male and female – who are glad to help out newcomers.
Why Women Coaches Rock: Because women are naturally more inclusive in their decision making (and also may be nervous in that first season), they’re more likely to be bring a humble, open-mindedness to learning from others, ultimately making them better coaches.
#2. Intimidation
Coaching can be intense, especially with parents barking from the sidelines, complicated rulebooks, overzealous competing coaches, and a gaggle of kids looking to you for guidance in the heat of competition.
But the truth about youth sports is that everyone is a bit anxious or intimidated when they first get started – even those big, barking men who, you know, have big-barking-men reputations to uphold. Most women coaches happily discover that their young charges do quite well on the field or in the gym precisely because they are coached in values like teamwork, sportsmanship, and having fun.
We’re big admirers of Nishi Langhorne, who taught herself basketball and how to coach it.
“I was a bit nervous initially,” says Nishi Langhorne, who not only was new to coaching basketball, but had never played the sport. “But parents were generally appreciative that I was giving my time to coach their boys. And once they realized I was informed and organized, any anxiety they felt was relieved.”
Why Women Coaches Rock: Women want to win like the rest of us, but their priorities often are to ensure the kids are enjoying themselves, are learning the basics, and feel they are contributing to the team. And because women usually are more patient and lower-key than their male counterparts, their players are apt to feel more confident and less fearful of making mistakes.
#3. Sexism/Stereotyping
Ok, this one isn’t so much of an illusion. Unfortunately, sexism and stereotyping do still exist. Keiser recalls the time a competing coach strode over to her male assistant coach to congratulate him on their win. Only when her assistant pointed Keiser’s way and said, “She’s the head coach,” did the chagrined coach apologize and congratulate her as well.
So prevalent is this attitude and so often do coaches, game officials, and parents presume virtually any nearby male is coach, that a women’s coaching group created a t-shirt slogan for their members that reads, “This is what a coach looks like.”
The good news is that such stereotypes are starting to crumble, particularly as women coaches demonstrate just how good they can be. And while there no doubt are some Neanderthals out there who still believe women don’t belong on the sidelines, most parents in youth sports are open to women coaches.
It surprises many to learn that the late-Pat Summitt is the all-time winning basketball coach with 1,098 victories.
“I felt like my team parents were very supportive and the league did a great job of helping me,” said Keiser. “I’d tell any woman who is on the fence that it’s not as hard as it looks. Be as brave as you want your kids to be and get out there. You’ll love it!”
Indeed, many youth clubs are desperate for volunteers and are happy to accept anyone willing to coach, including rookie women coaches. Leagues often offer coaches’ clinics and other forms of training, and the Internet offers a treasure trove of videos and coaching resources. “I watched other coaches, instructional videos on YouTube, and also found that taping my own games and watching them after the fact was valuable,” said Langhorne.
Why Women Coaches Rock: Women who coach are teaching all kids – boys and girls – to accept women in such roles, helping to reverse and eradicate those outdated stereotypes. It’s difficult to think of a life lesson more important for young minds.
#4. R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Some women worry that players (and their parents) won’t respect them in the role of coach the same way they would a man.
But the reality is that most kids are accustomed to seeing all adults as authority figures, not just me. Meaning that a woman who steps onto the field or court with a clipboard, a whistle, and a will to coach will quickly earn the respect of her players.
Despite not being drawn to coaching, college hoops star Dawn Staley nevertheless went on to guide the University of South Carolina to a national title and subsequently was named head of the Team USA women’s Olympic squad.
“The kids definitely became more receptive to me the more I coached,” said Langhorne. By the time I coached my final season, kids were actually trying to get on my team because they’d heard I was a successful coach and that my teams had fun.”
And that’s a big pointer: at the end of the day, kids want to have fun (we call them ‘games’ for a reason). As for disrespectful parents? Keiser’s advice is to treat them the way any coach would: “tell them to butt out and let you do your job.” (Leagues also have rules for dealing with problem parents.)
“An ideal world would be where the parents stay out of it and just celebrate their kids for what they are doing rather than their mistakes or what the parents perceive as mistakes,” added Keiser. “One of the best things about coaching is watching these kids develop and discover their strengths – parents should celebrate that instead of always demanding more.”
Why Women Coaches Rock: Although still largely anecdotal, our own investigations into youth coaching find that women coaches end up being extremely popular with their players and parents alike, often being asked to return year after year to coach the same kids.
Women Coaches as Role Models
For millions of boys and girls, coaches often play an enormously important role in their lives. Meaning that women coaches have a chance to play an important role in our culture that ripples far beyond a playing field or gym floor.
By the age of 14, for example, girls begin abandoning sports at twice the rate of boys. And given all the risks we now know about kids who don’t play sports – higher rates of truancy, dropping out of school, drug abuse, pregnancy – many experts wonder whether that is in part because they see so few women in coaching roles.
Research done by Harvard Business School found that women managers (and, by extension, coaches) bring a “more participative, androgynous, and transformational leadership style.” Men, by contrast, “adopt a top-down, command and control style.” The result: girls coached by men are less likely to become coaches, thereby creating a cycle of male-only coaching.
But girls aren’t the only ones adversely affected by male-only coaches. As Tom Farrey, head of the Sports & Society Program at the Aspen Institute points out, women coaches are equally important for boys. Without women coaches, he says, “boys are denied the ability to see women operate in leadership roles that males most respect. This has deep implications for our society as boys grow into adulthood, work with, and decide whether to empower women.”
The X Factor
If being a positive female role model for girls and boys alike isn’t enough to get women off the fence and into coaching, what might? How about the fact it’s fun?
“Ultimately it was an incredibly positive experience and one that I will forever see as an instrumental connection with my sons,” says Langhorne.
Echoes Keiser, “There are so many rewards. I got into coaching because of my girls, but eventually you come to love every child on your team and the experience of helping them learn to love the game and their role in it.”
Or as Motherlode writer and coach, KJ Dell’Antonia adds: What the moms in the stands or even the team moms “may be missing is that coaching is fun.”
Since 2010 the number of teens (ages 13-18) who committed suicide increased a whopping 31%, and researchers are increasingly convinced that this increase is related to the use of smartphones.
Specifically, a new study demonstrates that the likelihood of suicide or suicide attempts correlates directly with the amount of smartphone usage – meaning, the more a teen uses the phone, the greater the risk of depression, anxiety, and self-harm.
Using data on adolescent thinking and behavior dating back to 1991, researchers from Florida State University (FSU) and San Diego State University (SDSU) found a remarkable increase in the number of teens reporting mental health issues during the same stretch of time that smartphones were becoming increasingly commonplace in their lives.
“After scouring several large surveys for clues, I found that all of the possibilities traced back to a major change in teens’ lives: the sudden ascendance of the smartphone,” wrote Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at SDSU and co-author of the study.
Smartphone Usage Tied to Mental Distress
Of particular note was the way smartphone usage was tied to mental health issues. Nearly half of teens (48%) who spent at least five hours per day on a digital device thought about or attempted suicide. That figure dropped to 28% for teens who spent an hour or less on screens.
This is particularly concerning given the enormous uptick in rates of depression and unhappiness in kids. The suicide rate for girls reached a 40-year high in 2015, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 15 million kids suffer from a “diagnosable mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder in a given year.”
“There is a concerning relationship between excessive screen time and risk for death by suicide, depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal attempts,” said FSU professor Thomas Joiner, one of the study’s authors. “All of those mental health issues are very serious. I think it’s something parents should ponder.”
Just as important, the study’s authors found that teens who spent time with friends, classmates, and family members or who were involved in sports and other extracurricular activities were far less likely to report being depressed.
Less Screen Time Equates to Happier Kids
The study represents further validation for the work of Twenge and others, many of whom have been warning about the dangerous influence of smartphones. Discussing her book on the same topic released in August, Twenge matter-of-factly stated that “it’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen [those born after 1995] as being on the brink of the worst mental health crisis in decades.”
The good news, says Twenge and other researchers, is that smartphones don’t necessarily need to be shunned or deemed unsafe to use. Instead, parents need to ensure their kids’ use of the devices is limited and that they are involved in other activities: art, camp, athletics, music. Recognize, too, that many tech leaders don’t even allow – or severely limit – their kids’ access to digital screens.
Equally important, these same experts remind us that kids need to engage in lots of face-to-face time with family and friends. Or better still, take the lead and get your kids involved in positive activities – sports, theatre, camp, art, etc. – where human engagement is at a premium and the use of digital devices is forbidden or strictly curbed.
“It’s totally unrealistic and probably not even good to think kids will stop using screens,” said FSU’s Joiner. “It comes down to moderation. Parents should try to make non-screen activities as attractive as possible because a lot of them are attractive. It is fun to hang out with your friends or play basketball. Just remind kids those things are available, and they’re just as fun as trading texts. That’s the bottom line.”
Despite multiple nationwide campaigns to weed out bullying in schools, too often we turn a blind eye to bullying in sports, particularly the kind applied by coaches, parents, and teammates. Why?
In a cellphone video circulated last year, a California football coach forces one of his players to place his hands over his head before punching him in the stomach. In a public mea culpa, a father laments the insane pressures he placed on his son, who eventually contemplated suicide. Even professional football players have suffered from bullying from teammates.
While these examples may seem extreme, studies demonstrate that as many as 2 million kids each year are emotionally and/or physically bullied by coaches, parents, and teammates.
Sports doesn’t build character unless the coach models it, nurtures it, teaches it.
Experts are divided on precisely why so many schools, clubs, coaches and even parents ignore the problem or, worse, approve it, particularly when it involves children.
In the case of the California coach, several parents downplayed the incident, some even defending his behavior as good for the kids. Nevertheless, the coach has been suspended and law enforcement is considering criminal charges.
No doubt many coaches and parents are simply mimicking the way they themselves were coached. Others believe – mistakenly – that harsh treatment of players builds character and leads to success.
All of which is particularly important at a time when more than 70% of kids abandon organized sports by the age of 13. A big part of the reason for this drop-off in sports participation: abusive coaches.
“The great myth in America today is that sports builds character,” says Joe Ehrmann, a former defensive lineman for the Baltimore Colts. But sports “doesn’t build character unless the coach models it, nurtures it, teaches it.”
Fortunately, a growing number of experts are recognizing the risks of bullying in sports and working to establish standards by which coaches, parents, and others conduct themselves when it comes to kids and sports.
The Positive Coaching Alliance, for example, has set up training courses and materials for coaches, parents, and others in how best to work with student-athletes. PCA salutes coaches who support its double-goal program, which focuses first and foremost on helping kids with life goals and secondly on winning.
And that’s what parents should take away from tech leaders’ reluctance to let their own kids spend much time with digital technology: they’re aware of those risks and their ramifications for young minds and lives.
Even at ultra-brilliant learning institutions likes MIT, the instructors and higher ups ensure that their children’s access to digital tech is limited. “Here I am at MIT, surrounded by super techies,” 
Rather than kids migrating toward a centralized bus stop, for example, the smart bus would do pick up and drop off from the child’s front door. This elimination of the traditional hub-and-spoke system, coupled with doors on both sides of the bus, would eliminate one of the most dangerous aspects of school transport: crossing busy commuter streets.
The big question we started with, however, remains: how comfortable would parents be in trusting their children to a driverless bus? Teague addresses the issue head-on:
