A Teacher’s thoughts on why students should know their own strength
In the name of Allah , the most merciful, the most compassionate
A friend and sister sent me this article about attempts in the UK to reach the ideal education of children at schools:
Having always loved learning, I have always tried to do everything I could to cultivate a love of learning in my children. But by the time they were in their teens, I noticed that they were developing symptoms of stress and panic around learning to an alarming and debilitating degree. My children felt inadequate. They worried about failing so much that they could not study properly. They felt that life was simply not worth living. I went on to discover that my children were not alone. A lot of their friends felt the same. Self-harm is increasing along with referrals to mental health services. People started talking about the snowflake generation, and the need for developing resilience in our children.
So it was with interest that I read the article in TES about ‘Why students should know their own strength’ which cites work by Professor Claxton (Please refer to the whole article here) arguing in favour of character-building – saying that this, rather than grades, is what determines success in life. The brain is a muscle that needs to be developed. And a strong character should surely help children feel strong in the face of the onslaught of pressures that they face nowadays. As a Muslim, I recalled the advice to Imam Shafi from his mother, that he learn the manners of his teacher first, before learning any of his knowledge.
Character-building sounds quaintly old-fashioned, a return to the old values, like cold baths after sport and maintaining a stiff upper-lip. But its ancient roots stretch way past the Victorian age. Aristotle argued that a happy life was achieved through virtue, a happiness which he referred to as eudaemonia, and Plato had named the four cardinal virtues to be prudence, fortitude, temperance and justice. Resilience is surely just a repackaging of fortitude? I started to consider the qualities listed by Claxton:
Claxton lists ‘the seven C’s as confidence, curiosity, collaboration, communication, creativity, commitment and craftsmanship. Confidence, it seemed to me, was the key, being the main thing that my own children needed. They certainly had most of the other things on the list already, but they did not seem to help them cope with the fear of failure.
We are always encouraging children to “believe in themselves.” And by praising them for thigs which are not really achievements, hence the ubiquity of certificates in education. But can confidence be inculcated this way? And is there a danger in making the seat of children’s confidence lie in academic achievement and physical perfection, when we all know that no human being is without flaws. Should it not lie in something deeper, ultimately in their intrinsic worth as a human being? Yet in a society in which religious belief is declining, and many no longer believe that humans have an intrinsic worth, and our children are faced with images of unachievable perfection through social media and advertising. Perhaps we should concentrate on what children can do, on their qualities, rather than on their achievements in terms of exam grades?
Another aspect to confidence is trust that things will turn out for the best in the future. Children nowadays face an uncertain future. From infant school, where they learn about the terrible fate of polar bears swimming to their deaths , to high school, where they are told that nothing guarantees their future in a competitive and fast-changing world, and where fear of failure is used to motivate them, children learn to fear the future. Life feels like a game of musical chairs where too many people are competing for too few seats. We need to restore their confidence that they will be able to find a niche where they can flourish and be valued, and to deal with whatever life throws at them, whether they are drawing on internal reserves of strength or external support from others around them. We need to build up trust.
There is another issue with developing confidence, which is that unless it is tempered with modesty, belief in oneself can lead to arrogance and contempt for the less successful. I scanned Professor Claxton’s list for a quality that might correspond to modesty. At this point I realised that his list seems to lack an explicitly moral element – unless collaboration tacitly includes modesty – it would be hard for an arrogant person to work well in a team.
