Director Stacey Bobo sent an email to the parents of students at Ethical Culture Fieldston School, a private pre-K-12th elementary school in New York Citydetailing what school officials did to protect children from Election Day.
“Regardless of the election outcome,” Bobo wrote, the school “will create space to provide students with the support they need.”
To create a safe space for children, the school did not hand out homework on Election Day, the email said. Students will also not be counted if they choose not to go to school on Wednesday (or whatever day the results are announced).
Many people disagreed with the school’s decision, including comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who previously removed his youngest son from Fieldston due to his dissatisfaction with the school’s culture.
“This is why the kids hated it,” Seinfeld said told the New York Times. “What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think this is the right way to deal with young people? To encourage them to nod. This is the lesson they are teaching us, for ungodly amounts of money.”
The media was quick to mock the comedian, including Vanity Fair, who called the former sitcom star the “spokesman for the world’s grumpy old men” and said that “Seinfeld doesn’t understand why kids find this election disturbing.”
However, this last line is foolish and bad journalism.
Nowhere in his comments to the Gray Lady does Seinfeld say he can’t understand why people might be upset by the election results. He doesn’t suggest it either. In fact, his statement implies the opposite: that children should go to school even if they feel angry because their candidate lost.
The reality is that there will be a lot of people, children and adults, unhappy when the dust of Election Day settles.
People are deeply invested in this election, for better or for worse. Some high-profile people say they will consider leaving the country if former President Donald Trump wins, while others say red states should consider secession if Vice President Kamala Harris wins.
Many agree that these are extreme reactions to a presidential election. And it’s likely that they are the typical empty threats people make during election season.
That said, the data indicates that America is experiencing historic levels of election anxiety. A new study from the American Psychological Association found that 77% of respondents say they feel a “significant source of stress in their lives” about the future of the country.
“We are seeing the highest levels of election-related stress,” said Vaile Wright, senior director of the Office of Healthcare Innovation at the American Psychological Association, told NBC News.
The data shows that stress affects Democrats (79%), Republicans (80%), and independents (73%) about equally.
Bryan Sexton, a psychologist and director of the Duke Center for the Advancement of Well-Being Science, offered a simple explanation for the high numbers.
“Our brains are basically threat detectors,” he told NBC.
This means that a greater percentage of the country now sees the political opposition as a threatening force, which is undoubtedly why tens of millions of people will feel crushed when this election is over and they see that threatening force in power.
However, Seinfeld’s point wasn’t that people shouldn’t feel upset. His point was that we shouldn’t teach children to “cling on” when adversity strikes, or to stay home and wallow when they are upset.
This is no small matter. Learning to persevere even when we don’t feel like it is one of the keys to success in life.
Going to practice when you’re sick, going to the audition when you’re terrified, getting up and going to work when you’re tired or hungover, having the courage to have that difficult conversation you’re terrified of – this are the habits and choices that develop or destroy our mental strength, and by teaching children to stay home if “their” candidate loses, we teach them emotional vulnerability.
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It is a prime example of what psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls the culture of ‘safetyism’ that young people now suffer from. he defines as ‘an obsession with eliminating threats (both real and imagined) to the point where people are no longer willing to make the reasonable trade-offs demanded by other practical and moral problems.’
No matter who wins the presidency, there will be anger, tears and outrage. That’s unfortunate but inevitable in a country as divided as the US is in 2024. What we should try to avoid are the emotional breakdowns we see in the US. 2020 And 2016which resulted in widespread election denial, protests, riotAnd massive guidance for ‘traumatized’ students.
Jon Miltimore is a senior editor at the American Institute for Economic Research. Follow him on Substack.