Chasing Childhood- Screening & Discussion of film

Attendees will receive a link to the film via email on Thursday, February 24, to watch from home prior to the discussion.

The post-film discussion will be held on March 3 over Zoom.

Chasing Childhood is a feature-length documentary that explores a phenomenon affecting kids from a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Free play and independence have all but disappeared, supplanted by relentless perfectionism and record high anxiety and depression. What’s lost goes well beyond our idyllic conceptions of childhood past. When kids don’t play unsupervised by adults, they don’t gain critical life skills: grit, independence, and resourcefulness. Though they may appear more accomplished on paper, by the time they get to college they are often falling apart, lacking the emotional tools to navigate young adulthood.

The film explores how we got here and how we might empower our kids. Potential solutions are offered by the leaders of this movement, including former Stanford Dean and author of How to Raise an Adult, Julie Lythcott-Haims, biological psychologist Peter Gray, and others.