Life Lessons
(File under Lord Immaculate’s Education Manifesto)
Staying on the subject of things potentially coached at school, there are many lessons to make life happier and less stressful for future generations. I learnt about empathy from one’s mum, and she did an excellent job of ingraining the ability to cast glances around from other peoples’ points of view. Going purely by the evidence visible within society that is a skill few parents and establishments are getting across to their children, though it is so important if we are to progress towards a sympathetic and non-violent condition.
Similarly the little lambs could be taught – with just one discussion recapped yearly – a talent I myself usually lack, namely looking on the bright side. An hour spent asking the kids to brainstorm positive reasons why someone may be eyeing them, whispering about them, teasing them (the most obvious explanation being a boost to anyone’s confidence); actively exploring their imaginations for scenarios in which a person ends up in a bad enough mood to snap at them, and why unpleasant behaviour might be out of character – the quality of giving others the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully sessions which encourage youthful intellects to postulate on unseen factors and mitigation would have the knock on effect of bestowing helpful habits, broadening the senses. The teacher would as well give examples wherein an individual happens to unwittingly give you a scowl (I dread to think how often I’ve shown innocent passers-by dirty faces while my mind was wandering…) or unintentionally transmit a smile (I’ve been lucky to avoid repercussions from a number of baffled thugs) and ask the class to provide more hypotheses in the same vein. This exercise, annually, ought to change umpteen budding adults’ outlook on life. Optimism, perspective, and constructive reactions can also be got across in the aforementioned style. These are a few of the keys to banishing needless self-doubt and negativity.
Unfortunately it seems we likewise need to instill the young with simple hygiene principles, since countless families patently don’t bother. Ofttimes we find ourselves in the presence of coughing, spluttering, sneezing commuters and customers who find the effort to cover their mouths too great. It’s no wonder colds and flus are so rife. These days there is forever a friend or relative with the lurgy, and it’s not hard to draw a link with the absence of grace highlighted by our less civilised fellow citizens. Surely it wasn’t always this way in modern Britain? Has the decline of practical politeness taken us back to an age of frequent ill-health? Good manners cost nothing, and they’d be easily illustrated by a tutor if not by a progenitor.
If a serious virus ever hits the UK we are all screwed. The rules of basic cleanliness are all but forgotten. Picture the retaliation if a carrier had walked the streets doling out bacteria so prodigiously in times of plague (supposing folk were aware then how airborne contagions spread). An idiot of those dimensions risked stoning to death by fearful locals. How difficult can it be to teach your sprogs to keep their spittle to themselves?
Be it tackling the mischief of paranoia and supplying the building blocks of a balanced attitude (rather than attempting to administer one without subtlety), or ensuring the continued wellbeing of parallel passengers, schools could and should arm students with such resources.