Keeping an Open Mind

I like the concept of student well-being! I know its not new, but the emphasis on it has changed and now we are really looking at the cause-effects and offering possible solutions. Unfortunately, not all parents and educators see well-being and positive education as a good or even welcome addition to a school program. But the benefits in individual and collective creativity, grades and life-long learning seem to suggest that it is! I think there is a confusion that it is really an add-on or window dressing and not really a central theme of the curriculum of any school.


I was sitting in on a meeting about life-long learning and heard a wonderful message. I paraphrase it to be "Your worth is symbolised by your value to others in your community". However, this statement goes against all of the self-promotion ideas and strategies promoted by much of our current society. Some would see this as an idealistic or even trite comment, but if we really value the personal growth and self-actualisation of our children as a real goal, then we can clearly see that it goes right to the heart of the matter. I think that in many ways this has been lost in the rush to self-promote and "push our own barrow" more often than not at the expense of others.  I think that this is a really important lesson for both ourselves and our children.

I find it interesting that major well known curriculum documents like the International Baccalaureate highlight the need for development in this area. Most of the parents I talk to at parent teacher events have a major interest in this document as grades gained from it are a very important factor in their child's education! Little do they realise that it also contains a portrait of what a successful IB student "looks like" as detailed in this learner profile. But are we missing the point the IB wanted to clearly recognise in its documentation?

Perhaps a misconception that goes with the concept of positive education is that we must spend time meditating. We picture our children sitting around chanting mantras, like "om". But before you dismiss the idea, might I point out that "om" could quiet easily signify "open mindedness"? I think that the International Baccalaureate pretty well sums it up in their documents. So open-minded refers to not only addressing and adopting different points of view and learning from others in our community, but actively seeking them out. Surely this would constitute and an important character trait that we would like instilled in our children!

I have included three other learner profile attributed found in the documentation. If we consider all of them, I think we would see them as a central theme for any well-being or positive education program. And this makes me think that if the process and needs were "sold to school communities" in a different way, then the acceptance would be higher. I also think that we can see why it would be advantageous to a child's education for schools to incorporate, employ and embrace aspects of positive education. And I suppose this is why I get back to the idea of open-minded, not only for children but also for the rest of us.

The demands made upon us have increased with our changing society, but they will in all probability be greater on our children than they have been on us. So why do we resist the attempts to give them strategies that will allow them to survive and even thrive? I really see the idea of positive education and the emphasis on well-being as a major step in the right direction.