Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Spiritual, Social and Emotional Education.


Michael Gove



I am not promoting the GOVE style 
'exam factory' style of education.
I am with MLK.
These issues below, BBC Article, is about all the things I go on about in these pages and my work on the road.

In 1947, Dr Martin Luther King gave a lecture entitled The Purpose of Education in which he told his audience that the goal of true education was, "intelligence plus character".

This blog is part BBC and part me.


I don't like this 'backbone' stuff.
I believe we can learn how to be resilient.
How to become more emotional intelligent.
LEARN how to be articulate about emotions and manage life better.

SO

What's the point of school?


I call for this in different words::
I call it Spiritual, Social and Emotional Education.
As well as academic - of course.

School children generic
In 1947, Dr Martin Luther King gave a lecture entitled The Purpose of Education in which he told his audience that the goal of true education was, "intelligence plus character".For as long as there have been schools, people have been asking what is the point of them. Quite a lot of pupils have asked that question, of course. But some notable grown-ups have pondered the matter, too.
Now comes a report from the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on social mobility making a similar argument - that along with history and maths, teaching 'character and resilience' should be an essential part of every school's ambition.
The idea that schools should teach the skills to "take command" of yourself, as the American philosopher John Dewey put it, has a long history and still commands widespread support.
Even though our education system is designed and assessed upon its ability to get lots of children through state exams, very few people seriously argue that the fundamental point of schools is ensuring pupils pass tests.
We ascribe to schools a loftier ambition than academic success alone. We want them to prepare our children for adulthood and provide them with the skills to have the most fruitful and fulfilling life possible. Don't we?
Eton College
Eton aims for the "all-rounded person"
Well, according to the Character and Resilience Manifesto published by the APPG today, "while teachers felt that building character should be a central aspect of their role, they did not see this as a core element of their school's strategy."
"All too often the development of attributes associated with character and resilience - that is, the development of the pupil as a rounded individual - are neglected or, at best, given second billing," the report laments. "The very language used is illustrative - they are 'soft' skills developed through 'extra' - curricular activities."
There is, actually, a surprising amount of agreement on these ideas. Progressive educationalists tend to call it "emotional intelligence" or "emotional health", while conservatives prefer words like "character" and "backbone", but it amounts to pretty much the same thing.
At an event last year to launch the APPG's work on character and resilience, the headmaster of Eton, Tony Little, said his school's fundamental mission was to create the "all-rounded person", able to stand up for themselves. Building character was at the heart of the school's ethos, he said.
Britain's top public schools trade on their reputation for moulding self-confident and resilient individuals as much as exam results. And with good reason.
Last October, an LSE report, asking What Predicts a Successful Life, noted, "The most powerful childhood predictor of adult life-satisfaction is the child's emotional health. Next comes the child's conduct. The least powerful predictor is the child's intellectual development."
The APPG report wants the same ambition Eton has for creating the "all-rounded person" embedded in state schools. It recommends the introduction of an official 'School Leaving Certificate' that might "explicitly break down and reference particular character and resilience competencies".
The trouble with all this is a lack of hard evidence of what works in the classroom, or as the LSE work in this area puts it, "many well-intentioned programmes carried out with the best will in the world have been found to make no difference".
A scheme called "Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning" (SEAL) was introduced to most English primary and secondary schools in 2006. It had been sold as "a comprehensive, whole-school approach" to promoting social and emotional skills. Unfortunately, an evaluation concluded the programme "does not appear to have impacted upon any of the pupil level outcome measures".
The APPG report recognises the weakness in the UK evidence base but points to successful initiatives in Singapore and the United States. The American "Knowledge is Power Program' (KIPP) is cited as a model of what is possible.
Based partly on work by US psychologist Dr Martin Seligman, linking self-discipline with achievement at school, KIPP values character development as highly as academic preparation. It has had remarkable success with youngsters from some of America's most deprived neighbourhoods.
Based on seven "highly predictive" strengths - zest, self-control, gratitude, curiosity, optimism, grit and social intelligence - the KIPP model is now being adapted in some UK schools.
The Knowledge is Power Programme has even been lauded by England's Education Secretary Michael Gove - he said it had "dramatically narrowed the vast performance gap between black and white children" in New York.
There is no shortage of enthusiasm for the idea that schools should offer grit and zest along with maths and history. But somehow implementation tends to fall down. The failures of SEAL were partly put down to a lack of "will and skill", the evaluation concluded.

'Soft skills'
There is a call, too, for extra-curricular activities to be made a formal aspect of teachers' contracts of employment and for private schools to share with state schools professional expertise and facilities that promote character and resilience.
The report argues that a belief in one's ability to succeed, the perseverance to stick to a task and the ability to bounce back from life's set-backs are qualities that have a major impact on life chances, both during education and, later, in the labour market.
Speaking on behalf of the parliamentary group, Baroness Claire Tyler said they had seen "clear evidence that what are often misleadingly called 'soft skills' actually lead to hard results".
"However many GCSEs you have, where you are on the character scale will have a big impact on what you achieve in life," she said.
Damian Hinds, the chairman of the APPG on Social Mobility said self-belief, drive and perseverance were "key to achievement at school and at work".
"But they are not just inherent traits," he added, "they can be developed in young people.
"This report identifies specific policies that can help and, in doing so, improve social mobility in this country."

"As top heads and teachers already know, sports clubs, orchestras and choirs, school plays, cadets, debating competitions all help to build character and instil grit, to give children's talents an opportunity to grow and to allow them to discover new talents they never knew they had," he said.
Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said the report "tackles one of the most pressing questions currently facing our education system: how do we educate resilient young people that have a sense of moral purpose and character, as well as being passionate, reflective learners?"
Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers said education was "about skills and knowledge transmission, but also about personal development all round".
"It remains the case, however, that the present curriculum and high-stakes testing are far too rigid," she said.
"The personal development of pupils is very important. This will not be achieved unless the obsession with testing and targets ends."
THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT IN THE UK ARE QUOTED 
"Social and Emotional Education is ghastly "
Not talking about achieving a balance in academic and the 'so called' soft skills (essential skills it seems to me)

"What is clear is that this is about more than bolting on some music lessons or sports clubs to the school day.
"No, this is about learning from the rigorous academic discipline that is character education and implementing a holistic approach that goes beyond extra-curricular activities and into the classroom."
'Vulnerable and disadvantaged'
Mr Hunt wants teacher training colleges to include the teaching of resilience and character in their courses, and for schools to "use the curriculum freedoms at their disposal to embed character education and resilience across their curricula".
And he will argue that the teaching of these traits will have beneficial impacts on the country's economic success and social mobility, because young people will be taught how to bounce back from setbacks.
"Research clearly shows that vulnerable and disadvantaged young people are far more likely to deal with the consequences of failure and setbacks in a negative way," he will say.
I am a student of 'failure at school' and had to develop emotionally to be able to function and develop. Because I have worked with young offenders all my life I have learned that this is the way to capture their uniqueness for themselves and society. Enable them to burst the bubble to get outside outside a lifestyle that damages people that they come into contact with -AND also they can liberate themselves - new life for old.
"Character is not best taught through adversity: its study belongs in the supportive, dedicated and aspirational communities that the best schools provide."
It seems our schools need to find the self-confidence and determination to push ahead with an idea that goes back decades. They need to show a bit of "character and resilience".