George Packer in The Atlantic with what it’s like to to be a kid these days. “The grown-ups around you fret incessantly about your ‘mental-health issues’ and ‘social-emotional learning,’ which only makes your anxiety and depression worse. You’re also the nonvoting, perhaps unwitting, subject of adults’ latest pedagogical experiments: either relentless test prep or test abolition; quasi-religious instruction in identity-based virtue and sin; a flood of state laws to keep various books out of your hands and ideas out of your head. Your parents, looking over your shoulder at your education and not liking what they see, have started showing up at school-board meetings in a mortifying state of rage. If you live in Virginia, your governor has set up a hotline where they can rat out your teachers to the government. If you live in Florida, your governor wants your parents to sue your school if it ever makes you feel ‘discomfort’ about who you are. Adults keep telling you the pandemic will never end, your education is being destroyed by ideologues, digital technology is poisoning your soul, democracy is collapsing, and the planet is dying—but they’re counting on you to fix everything when you grow up.” The Grown-Ups Are Losing It. (Thank god my kids don’t listen to me…)

+ And nowhere are the adults more out of control than in Florida (surprise, surprise). A new measure “prohibits trainings that cause someone to feel guilty or ashamed about the past collective actions of their race or sex … After two days of emotional debate on a proposal that remains clouded by considerable confusion, the Senate passed the framework for the so-called ‘Stop Woke Act’ 24 to 15, in a party-line vote. DeSantis initially proposed the bill in December, arguing he wanted Florida to become a bulwark against corporate trainings and school lessons that make people uncomfortable about the actions of their ancestors.” WaPo: Florida Legislature passes bill that limits how schools and workplaces teach about race and identity. (Ban books, prevent accurate teaching of history, stir up fears based on fake cultural wars. American politicians know how to play the game of WYSIWYG, too…)