Welcome back to School. The optimistic energy that surged through the school on Wednesday is such a treasure. The opportunity to be working in a community dedicated to providing for children in a deep and meaningful way should continually be acknowledged, appreciated and relished.
The theme of my address at the State of School dinner was the need for parents and teachers to form a partnership that will help all children develop the capacity for sustained effort, perseverance, resilience in the face of difficulty, and the skill to engage and organize complex learning tasks.
These character traits and habits of mind have always been known to be important and valuable. In the past, however, the unexamined assumption was that they were in-born and more or less fixed. You either had them or you didn’t. In the 21st century they are even more important than ever. The complex learning tasks that confront us as adults require these behaviors. More and more we must prepare ourselves to engage in tasks and challenges that we know we are not prepared for, but that we are confident we can learn to accomplish. Jobs, professions and adult responsibilities all require complex problem solving, organizational skills, executive functioning, and overcoming difficulties and frustrations.
Therefore, it is simply NOT acceptable for some of our students to show perseverance and flexible problem solving skills and others to lack those behaviors. All students need them. Gratefully, newly developed brain science confirms that these character traits and behaviors are not inborn and fixed. They can be learned. Therefore, our school should take on the challenge of learning how to teach them to our students.
Here are some of our initial thoughts about how we can help students learn and practice these essential habits of mind.
- Explicitly embrace difficult challenges. Acknowledge and affirm searching for and accepting feedback and criticism, adopt incessant revision as a way of life. Encourage and participate in inventiveness, trying a new way, experimentation.
- See failure and mistakes as wonderful. “Mistakes are expected, respected and inspected.”
- Exercise regularly and frequently. Research has demonstrated that exercise increases attention, focus, and promotes neuron growth.
- Spend time in natural settings with trees and plants. Research has shown that time in natural settings boosts immune function, lowers blood pressure, and decreases cortisol (the stress hormone.)
- Learn and practice behaviors that reduce stress and promote the growth mindset: disciplined breathing, moments of silence and inner awareness. Identify and recognize anxiety when it appears; use self-talk to normalize anxiety, “Anxiety is normal; many of us have it, I am not alone.”
So take a break, eat chocolate, and re-visit the children’s classic, “The Little Engine That Could.”
