Many of our communities are in trouble.
Families want to live in communities or locations where they can
raise their children to have a quality education and give their family the best opportunities they can to experience fulfillment, love and connection.
We all want to live and have our children learn in safe supportive and inclusive
environments.
Unfortunately in many communities families are really struggling and so are educators and children.
According to many reports, students and educators are more stressed than ever and are facing more and more challenges, and many families don’t know where to turn in terms of how to support their kids and themselves to be balanced and fulfilled in life.
Wherever we turn we see increased reports of violence and bullying in our communities, and we know mental illness statistics are at an all time high.
And the reality is that once young people reach High School it can be very challenging to treat or reverse the effects of poor self esteem, and young people can easily begin to self harm, or start to exhibit bullying behaviour, or be on the receiving end of this behaviour. Problems manifested by this stage are incredibly challenging to turn around.
Over the last few years we have been speaking to many teachers and families and like us, no adult or parent we have spoken to ever learned specific social and emotional skills or mental wellbeing skills when they are at School, so most families are unsure how to teach these essential skills to their children or worse still, many might not even be aware that these skills are needed.
We hear a lot of educators say that the answer lies in educating parents, and many parents tell us that they don't have the time or energy and that children need to learn these things at School.
So what is the answer? How do communities learn how to turn this around? And what role do Schools play?
If you have been following our work at Positive Living Skills, then you know that we believe that children MUST start learning habitual skills for mental wellbeing starting as young as 3 (or younger) and as education is the central location for where children learn then Early Learning Centres and Primary Schools are the places to start.
Having said that, we know that teachers can’t be expected to add any more to their stretched workload, nor can they be solely responsible for teaching their students how to look after mental wellbeing on top of all their demands.
What is needed is a whole of community approach. An approach where everyone 'sings the same song' using common sense concepts and universal language.
This is why we created the Positive Living Skills initiative, to support educators, children and families. We'd love you to join our movement by telling your friends about what we're up to, and if you're an educator, Primary School teacher, School Principal, Wellbeing Coordinator or School counsellor you can find out about our upcoming free online information session HERE.
We'd love to hear what you think. Comment here or send us an email to team@positivelivingksills.com to share your thoughts.
Until next time,
The PLS team