What are your thoughts on homeschooling, and how to do it successfully?
My oldest child is about to go into kindergarten. It has come to my attention that in our district (and all nearby ones) all children are issued an iPad starting in Kindergarten. It seems there has been a huge shift towards doing all schoolwork and assignments on devices instead of pen and paper. I've also discovered (my husband is a software engineer) that the safety filters on these devices are weak, and many kids are watching porn and violent videos online during school hours. Alongside the extremely woke curriculum we are seeing here in Oregon, my husband and I are thinking seriously about homeschooling our children as the school district isn't willing to budge on either issue (we have reached out to them). It seems that the data shows that homeschoolers do quite well, much better than public school educated children on average. Do you have any thoughts on how we might be most successful, and any pitfalls to watch out for? Thank you.
Would you advise your high schooler to attend university?
Hypothetically if you had a highschooler who was about to graduate, would you still recommend that they attend university given the woke culture that has permeated the classes there? What would be your career advice to an 18 year old about to move out into the world on their own?
In Search of Wisdom from a Fellow Survivor
Dear Dr. Peterson, As an individual who’s been on the brink of death and found his way back to life, how do you manage internal expectations, an example being “this is my second chance at life and I have to make it worth something”, that can result from surviving near death experiences? I’m a cancer survivor in his mid-twenties (2-3) years in remission, and regardless of the successes and goals I accomplish, I feel like I’m not doing enough with my second chance. Given your own health experiences and the trials and adversities you’ve witnessed firsthand within your family, have you struggled with these thoughts of expectation and purpose/fear of unworthiness? Do you have any advice for one trying to live a life worthy of the blessing found in a second chance? — Thank you for your time and attention.
Consensus Wisdom
What's the relationship between the truth and broad consensus mentality, or the cultural zeitgeist? It's often tempting to conclude that most people are wrong about most things most of the time past a certain threshold of depth or resolution. Is this too cynical? Does the wisdom of the masses function as a course heuristic, and therefore somewhat useful as a guide, or can it become so detached from reality and even its own self interests so as to be completely dismissed? Take popular music for example. That which is most popular should offer something, however implicit, that is calling to the fascination and interest of most people and the cultural zeitgeist. But it seems very possible that what is calling out to people is often a kind of manipulative trick, like snake oil wrapped in a convincing package. I think of phone and social media culture as well. Is it possible for almost everyone as a society to be deeply off track of what they themselves as individuals really value? Or is consensus culture self correcting like aspects of market dynamics, and generally correct despite being slow and course?