Twice a year, I blog about my favorite books.  I like writing about my reading life and sharing that part of my life with you.  It’s just a part of who I am.  

This time, instead of detailing and covering everything I read in the past 6 months, I’m going to challenge you - and hopefully everyone you work with - to read one book as an entire school community in 2024.

It’s gotten huge press, a ton of praise, and significant criticism.  If you can’t get your whole school to read it, you might have to start small and build momentum.  Agree with a few work friends read it and informally discuss it.  Ask your principal to read it.  Try to read it as an entire English department.  

We might not see eye-to-eye after you read it.  Your interpretation of what’s going on may be different than Haidt’s.  Irregardless of your perspective or my perspective or the perspective of the parents or administrators in your school, I think a few things hold true.  One, we should all read the book.  Two, we should all debate and discuss and argue about Haidt’s claims, using our shared knowledge of all having read the book together (to form a frame of reference for said discussion and debate).  And three we should use that knowledge from reading the book and from critically discussing it to inform cell phone policies at an individual school level.  

I fundamentally believe this conversation is that important.  I’ve rarely, if ever, promoted a book like this.  And I’m not asking you to take my position or my perspective.  Instead, I’m arguing you and your entire school community should read it, discuss it, and make decisions from there.  That’s it.