Better Than Ok: Helping Young People to Flourish at School and Beyond

By Independent Publishers Group

This is a book of up-to-date strategies for helping children—from their earliest years into adulthood—and is all about helping kids do more than just survive; these are strategies to help kids flourish. These solution-focused and easy-to-read essays are by 27 of the world's top experts in positive education. Learn to help children develop a lifelong love of learning with this practical and positive guide. Contributors include Michael Carr-Gregg, Maggie Dent, Andrew Fuller, and Tim Sharp.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781922089809

Book preview

Authors

INTRODUCTION

POSITIVE SCHOOLS, POSITIVE TALK

DR HELEN STREET

Wellbeing is the basis of flourishing, which is the ultimate expression of being well. This is a book about helping young people to flourish – at home, at school and in life.

Flourishing is a term that describes someone who is confident in their identity, assertive in their social interactions, loving towards themselves and others, resilient to life’s inevitable setbacks and engaged in activities that embrace their strengths and passions. Kids who flourish have the greatest potential of all because they have the potential to be happy. Kids who flourish are kids who experience wellbeing and apply that wellbeing to living their lives in a positive and healthy way.

Nearly all parents want, above all else, for their children to flourish in life, to be happy and live their lives accordingly. Still, there remains a wide difference of opinion about the role of the education system in supporting flourishing as a primary aim. Some educators embrace social and emotional learning; others suggest that while social and emotional competency may be important, education is primarily an academic pursuit. It seems to me that this debate is redundant in the light of a growing body of research telling us that academic potential is most successfully fulfilled in the presence of wellbeing. In fact, just about anything we do in life is done more successfully, more passionately and with greater love and commitment, when done in the presence of wellbeing.

Young people make healthier and more positive choices about their current and future learning when they are happy and well. And they are more likely to develop social competency when they have a firm foundation of wellbeing from which to launch themselves into a social world. As such, wellbeing is a vital beginning as much as it is an ultimate desire. Wellbeing is the basis of flourishing. Flourishing is the ultimate expression of being well.

The really good news about all this lies in the knowledge that every child and teen has the potential to flourish in life. No matter where an individual’s strengths lie or where they are placed among the social and academic milieu, they can flourish as people. Although it is indeed true that some of us are born with greater vulnerability or sensitivity than others, none of us is born anxious or depressed. None of us is born without hope or a desire to embrace life.

Not everyone will be deemed ‘good’ at what they do, or be made rich in consequence. Some of us are born into undeniable hardship, conflict and poverty. However, it is our connection with living that measures life success, not some absolute level of achievement. Some kids are born with a natural leaning towards academic pursuits, others with a passion for the arts or a love of sport or creative thinking. No-one is born without the potential to find passion and engagement in some aspect of life. In short, everyone is born with the potential to flourish, to be happy and live well, if only they are given the opportunity to do so.

It is time we stopped measuring the success of our children based upon their comparative performance against their peers or some arbitrary outcome. While only a few may excel in our material world, we all have the opportunity to engage in life.

Twenty-seven authors have contributed to the thirty-two chapters presented here, each exceptional in their own right as advocates for youth mental health and wellbeing. Each has also contributed in the Australian Positive Schools conferences, the source of inspiration for this book.

The Positive Schools conferences started in Western Australia (WA) in 2009. They came about after Neil Porter and I decided there was a real need to help teachers embrace well-researched concrete strategies to support wellbeing in their schools and colleges. We wanted a conference that eschewed graphs, psychobabble and statistics and focused instead on grounded, practical and sustainable solutions. Positive Schools was launched as a one-day event with the support of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Western Australia (UWA). This first conference featured an inspirational keynote address by burns specialist Professor Fiona Wood and contributions from inspirational speakers like George W. Burns. When all 250 places were taken up two months beforehand, we knew we were engaging in something important.

The following year, iconic leader in anti-racism Jane Elliott flew in from the US for our two-day event. The day she arrived, Neil and I met her for coffee. We brought cookies, our third child, still a baby, and our barely restrained excitement. Jane’s warmth, wit and intelligence made our conversation a joy. After two hours she asked about the purpose of our discussion, presuming we needed to talk about the practicalities of the next few days. ‘Oh, no,’ we exclaimed, ‘we simply wanted to meet you.’ Since that first coffee, Jane has been an ongoing advocate of Positive Schools. Her chapter ‘On Education’ describes the personal lesson she learnt from her historic ‘Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes’ exercise.

By 2011 our confidence had grown along with our reputation, and we welcomed a new member of the team, Richard Pengelley. We decided to present a conference in Brisbane, along with a three-day event in WA. The WA conference featured a day for parents in recognition of their investment in their children’s futures. Five presenters, including myself, gave talks to over 300 dedicated mums and dads.

We established ourselves at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle where we could accommodate our growing numbers. Our event featured the lovable Steve Biddulph along with the most passionate advocate for youth wellbeing I have met, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. Michael also spoke in Queensland at our special bullying themed Positive Schools, hosted by the ABC’s Tony Jones. Michael has since become a Positive Schools ambassador and a regular and highly valued member of the team. We were also graced by the wise words of Donna Cross and Toni Noble in 2011, and I am proud to say that both these highly respected women have become Positive Schools ambassadors since that time.

In 2012 we ran three events (in WA, Queensland and Victoria), all featuring a masterclass on sexuality. Along with our main conference day and multiple workshops, Sandra Sully from Australia’s Channel Ten hosted a full day of discussion that included contributions from Melinda Tankard Reist and Holly Brennan. Peak national bodies for wellbeing – KidsMatter, MindMatters and beyondblue – joined us as conference partners, as well as providing popular workshops. They remain key supporters to this day.

In 2013 the most successful and uplifting Positive Schools to date was again held in the three states. The ABC’s Kerry O’Brien hosted a masterclass on engaging students at school. I spent an incredible three weeks presenting alongside Michael Carr-Gregg, ‘Dr Happy’ aka Tim Sharp, Andrew Martin and Jason Clarke on the second day of each event. The entertaining and informed voices of Andrew Fuller and Maggie Dent welcomed a full house in all three states on day one of each event. In addition, Geelong Grammar School joined the team as a key conference partner and this was happily reflected in a clear focus on Positive Education.

In 2014 Neil and I are excited to be introducing the inaugural Sydney conference, so that Positive Schools will be represented in four states. We are partnering with Google along with the Alannah and Madeline Foundation and the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre to present a packed event embracing creativity and technology. In addition, our established partners, beyondblue, KidsMatter, MindMatters and Geelong Grammar School, all continue to offer their support and enthusiasm. In 2014 we feature a wide range of speakers including the warm and insightful Andrew Fiu.

In this book we travel from moving and uplifting stories to well-researched theories and back again. Each chapter stands distinct in terms of style and content. Yet all have unifying and inspiring themes in common, based on the belief that parents and teachers have the power and responsibility to help young people to flourish, and that flourishing is possible for all.

Andrew Fiu observes in our opening chapter that as adults we spend many thousands of hours caring for our kids. Time can sometimes seem endless, sometimes far too brief. It is always precious.

What can we do to help young people use their own time in a positive, passionate and meaningful way? How can we help them to flourish? To be better than OK?

ENGAGING WITH LIFE

KEEPING TIME WITH THE GATEKEEPERS

ANDREW FIU

Today is a challenging time no matter how you look at it and there is the rub. Time. You have several thousand hours to influence and inspire kids. How will you spend it?

According to the Australian Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), students receive an average of 7751 hours of instruction during their primary and lower secondary education, most of it compulsory. Around 51 per cent of those hours are spent learning reading, writing, literature and mathematics, taught primarily by teachers who are forty years of age or older in an average classroom size of 25 in a school system ill equipped to keep up with rapid technological advances.

In 1996, a research study by Joan Middendorf and Alan Kalish of Indiana University reported on students’ attention spans in classrooms and lectures. It seems the average mind shuts down after between six and twenty minutes – irrespective of the teacher, how interesting the subject matter is, the time of day or the environment the teaching is taking place in.

When we were growing up the teacher was the ‘gatekeeper’ to all knowledge and information. Today, search engines are progressively taking up that role. Anybody can learn calculus or how to build a tree house or design an app on the internet. We need to be more assertive, more creative, and we need to think differently because the traditional approach is not working in a world where students have smartphones and tablets, interact via social media and texting, and find answers by googling.

Technological advances are transforming the needs of the labour market and impacting on low-skilled workers who are increasingly finding their traditional jobs being automated. A tertiary education increases the likelihood of being employed, and the higher the educational achievement, the larger the pay packet. In New Zealand, a year after graduation, students who had majored in health and engineering received salaries that were on average 58 and 45 per cent more respectively than those who graduated in the creative arts (OECD, 2013). The question is, how to influence students to stay longer in school in a world where they don’t see that what they’re learning is relevant to what they’ll be doing when they start working, some of them in jobs that don’t even yet exist.

Since 2006, I have toured colleges and universities where I discuss creative writing and the evolution of finding one’s own creative groove. I have sat alongside students who have studied my book and spoken with teachers about why some techniques work and others do not when engaging students, particularly those from the lower socioeconomic groups.

I am not a teacher. I didn’t pursue higher education, not because I didn’t want to go to university but because after spending long bouts in hospital, I didn’t qualify. In the early 1980s, schooling in hospitals was almost non-existent for long-term patients of school age. But something happened that helped ignite a love of reading and learning – I heard the stories of elderly patients who shared my room. I was captivated by their tales of travels and adventures, of hopeful dreams in faraway lands and the disappointment of colourful mistakes. It didn’t matter that I was the only brown kid in a predominantly European ward or that I was the youngest at fourteen years old. It was my education, a series of daily events that were really discussions and conversations. It could be one to one or a group of four or five. Occasionally up to ten patients would cram a hallway to discuss everything from politics and world wars to gardening and farming techniques; the best way to cook a roast dinner, navigating the Atlantic by the stars or arguing the voice patterns of pre-1960 singers of Cole Porter songs.

It was only later I realised how important these moments were and how they had armed me with an understanding my peers knew nothing about. I didn’t have a highflying sixth form certificate and I didn’t possess a University Entrance Certificate, but I knew I had valuable knowledge. I asked different questions, my interests were wider than what was discussed at school. I had a different type of knowledge after spending almost two years in and out of hospital.

A teacher once asked me to define ‘knowledge’ when I was trying to describe my lacklustre interest in Shakespeare. Words failed me because I didn’t know how to structure a good response, and I was viewed as distinctly ignorant – the total opposite of knowledgeable. Inside I knew my elderly friends would have parodied the play, taken on the roles, and made me the lead character. They would have chastised me for not taking it seriously and helped me create a scene in the castles Shakespeare was so fond of. They would have roped in a passing orderly to play a guard and a nurse to play a cook, all the while explaining, questioning me, even beseeching me to respond as if I had been wronged by some crazy king. If I’d known what I know now, I would have said to the teacher that knowledge comes not just from reading a book but from instilling in me a desire to want to explore, to be open to learning. Because when I’m alone with my own thoughts, I’ll still be questioning, still be excited about the subject and wanting to learn more.

I love both teachers and parents for what they do. Theirs is an often thankless task: to nurture and mould young minds and prepare them with a solid base from which to launch themselves into a future, equipped to achieve their dreams and expectations. It is a herculean duty and the responsibility to influence one mind let alone hundreds over the years is immense. Today is a challenging time no matter how you look at it and there is the rub. Time. You have several thousand hours to influence and inspire kids. How will you spend it? With great duty comes great opportunity.

Middendorf, J. & Kalish, A. (1996). National Teaching & Learning Forum Journal, 5(2), pp. 1–12.

OECD (2013). Education at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing (www.dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2013-en).

Find out more about Andrew and his book Purple Heart by visiting his website (www.lifeafter6.com).

PERSONAL BEST GOALS AND STUDENT GROWTH

PROFESSOR ANDREW J. MARTIN

In an era of national testing, school league tables and competition, there are the beginnings of a shift towards greater recognition of students’ personal academic growth. Personal Best (PB) goals are an effective way in which to encourage young learners to aim higher.

In an era of national literacy and numeracy testing, school league tables, heightened performance pressure and classroom competition, there are the beginnings of a shift towards greater recognition of students’ personal academic growth. Increasingly, educators and researchers are growing uncomfortable with the excessive focus on comparisons and competition in the classroom. They fear it locks too many students out of opportunities for success, places too much pressure on students at all levels of ability in the classroom, and increases anxiety and fear of failure. This has led to calls for a focus on students’ personal academic growth alongside the more traditional comparative approaches, in the belief that it will give all young people greater access to success (in terms of personal improvement) and reduce anxiety and fear of failure.

Comparisons and competition are a reality of today’s world, and in this chapter I will show how you can complement these with personal best (PB) and growth approaches.

PB goals are an effective way to encourage young learners to aim higher by competing with themselves more than competing with other students. PB goals are specific, challenging and completely self-referenced. In setting a PB goal, you encourage a student to state exactly what they are aiming for, and set a goal which moves them forward and that competes primarily with previous bests rather than with other students.

Process and outcome goals

PB goals may be either process or outcome goals. Both should be encouraged.

Process goals

reading one more book for the present assignment than on the previous assignment

preparing for a test at the weekend when previously no study had been done at weekends

doing some homework that night when none had been done that week

aiming to be less anxious in the upcoming test than in the previous test

calling out in class fewer times today than yesterday

staying in one’s seat longer in the afternoon than in the morning

asking a teacher for help when previously the teacher was avoided

spending an extra hour doing homework than usual.

Outcome goals

spelling more words in this week’s spelling quiz than last week’s quiz

doing better on the term 2 science practical report than