Dr Phil's failed mission
This article by Dr Piotr Wozniak is part of SuperMemo Guru series on memory, learning, creativity, and problem solving.
Dr Phil
Love him or hate him, Dr Phil McGraw has made an impact. However, he made a glaring omission in his pursuits. He failed to see the elephant in the room of mental health: compulsory schooling.
Two decades without enlightenment
Dr Phil has done a lot to raise the awareness of mental health issues.
His mission was noble:
Speak about things that matter to people who care
However, I am very disappointed to observe that on May 25, 2023, Dr Phil talk show ended its 21-year run without the crowning conclusion: schools destroy the mental health of society.
Social media explains the harm of schooling
I have noticed long ago that the psychology of learning is not Dr Phil's strong area of expertise (see: Dr Phil got no clue).
However, his generalization of the trouble with social media came pretty close to providing a hint on the root of all evil. When interviewed by Chris Wallace, while mimicking a scrolling gesture of child on a smartphone, Dr Phil observed correctly:
Children watch other people live their lives, instead of living their own
This observation explains a great deal of the toxic impact of social media. However, I keep explaining that social media are innocent. These are the changes in the brain that keep kids vulnerable (see: reward deprivation, screen limits, ban schools, etc.).
Dr Phil who hated school himself would need to make one tiny step in the right direction to understand what truly destroys the mental health of societies. He would need to notice that it is compulsory schooling that keeps training kids from their youngest ages to give up on their lives and live by instructions from others. Young brains are re-conditioned, and develop learned helplessness, which is a prelude to depression. This weakened resilience is what makes social media toxic to vulnerable brains.
Mental box of indoctrination
Dr Phil could not make this last microscopic step in the right direction of his reasoning. The truth hid outside his mental box. At school, Dr Phil was indoctrinated into believing that school is good, and without it humans would be "vegetables". The entire world community of unschoolers would disagree. Strongly.
Future of human brains
Coercive school trains kids to give up on their passions and interests. This robs children of their best creative instincts. See: 100 bad habits learned at school
Dr Phil declares, he will focus on new missions soon (incl. homelessness, drugs, etc.). Perhaps he will notice that those too are rooted in brain injuries that come from trauma, abuse, and limits on freedom in childhood.
Interestingly, education reform may not suffice as a social cure. In the era of artificial intelligence, we need to slowly reconcile with the fact that basic income may be necessary to assure healthy brain development. Today, creative problem solving is the best asset in creative economy (see: How to solve any problem). Freedom will maximize human creativity.