Full article from the Term 3 No 1 2007 Newsletter 

Resilience and School Curriculum

THE term resilience refers to the ability to bounce back, to try again. It is a term used often these days in reference to helping children to acquire skills in giving things a go, taking risks, developing skills in adapting to new situations, dealing with disappointments and to continuing to try rather than give up.
Resilience has become popular with many schools and there are several programs that provide opportunities for children to learn about and practise the skills of resiliency. Phrases such as "bounce back, you can do it" are used within these programs.

It is interesting to reflect upon the notion of, and development of, resilience. Resiliency involves a set of skills and strategies, attitudes and perspectives that are more easily acquired through daily practice and experience than simply having a program or lesson at school. In fact, there is some belief that for very young children in their early primary years there is limited advantage in undertaking a resilience program. Rather, resiliency is best acquired through ordinary experiences.

The family home, the playground and the classroom provide daily experiences where children learn about their feelings, responses to others, not always having what they want, knowing how to work alongside others (even if you don't always like everyone) and how to respond to disappointments such as, "she doesn't want to be my friend any more".

The reality in life is that there will always be times of challenge, disappointment, anger, frustration, sadness. There will be things we can do easily and things that are difficult to achieve. Learning how to deal with these experiences, and understanding that sometimes some things are not fixable, is an important part of life.

At home, resilience is fostered by the very ordinary aspects of family life: arguing about what TV program to watch between siblings, the tensions of love and hate between siblings, sharing parental attention and time, not always having what you want when you want. These are all part of learning about dealing with frustrations. As adults, we need to be careful that we don't set up our children
to have limited experiences of resiliency. For example, don't place a TV in each child's room. Ensure children and parents spend time together. Even arguing around the dinner table helps children learn how to speak out, express opinions, assert a view.

We often underestimate the power of ordinary life experiences. Providing time for children to play with other children, not always buying into their arguments or fixing everything, helping them to solve problems themselves, encouraging them to take risks and have a go - all these can assist children in avoiding the opposite of resilience, which is learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness is about believing that you can't do anything, that you can't improve, that you become afraid to try new things for fear of failure. One of the most important aspects of successful learning is to try, to believe in yourself and to have skills and attitudes that will promote confidence and the belief that "I can try this". Many schools have programs to assist with resiliency. Schools recognise the importance of helping children learn how to learn, to find out, to not give up, to express ideas and to keep trying. However, resiliency is part of a life-long process.

As parents and educators, we need to ensure we don't just talk about becoming resilient. We must set up home and school learning environments where children practise the skills of problem solving, thinking creatively and laterally and not just locking children into predetermined outcomes in which every child is expected to think, act, learn and behave the same.

Being able to be oneself and feeling confident are a major part of becoming resilient.
 

Kathy Walker

Article first appeared in Education Age 27/8/07