Love in the Time of Cholera, AKA Empathy over Grammar in the Classroom.

While schools are slowly getting onboard with the ‘soft skills’ movement and preparing students for the future, often the rock star skills with the flashy names take priority; “Yes we're REALLY pushing metacognition this year”. However the most overlooked skill could end up being the most vital to our future.

Nobody is surprised to read the media stories that are emerging about the surge in mental health issues as a result of the global pandemic. Suicide rates have skyrocketed, helplines have been inundated with calls addressing everything from domestic abuse trauma, fear of reemergence into society, general anxiety about the unknown, home office high stress, mourning, regressing children… and the list goes on. We are not surprised because during this time every one of us has been forced to reckon with the existential, whether fleetingly or in depth. To paraphrase Nietzsche, we have all been made to gaze into the abyss and the abyss has gazed back at us, some more keenly than others.

The fact that helplines still exist in our age of app-for-every-occasion and robot healthcare consultants is testimony to the necessity of real communication (with anyone!). When times are tough, we need to speak to others and share the weight of our worries. Sadly those heart to hearts over a pint or cup of tea have become a diminishing trend over the last decade, and of course altogether disappeared the last months. As our lives become more reliant on the technological, as children spend more time engrossed in devices, we isolate ourselves more and more to each other, to our communities and as a result our ability to open to others and share ideas and feelings meaningfully has all but dried up - in the times when we need them the most! Studies have shown the implications of neglecting the development of communication skills, whereby poor social skills have a direct negative impact on mental health. In view of these worrying factors, is it not our social responsibility as educators to counter this? Is it not down to us to facilitate the home-growing of those helplines?

Learning to understand the emotions of others vicariously is a vital socialization skill. As we develop this competency as a toddler we learn to navigate around conflict, we learn to share and do things not just for our own good but see the boon of helping others. At a professional level the more empathetic learn to understand their clients better, understand the dynamics of their teams more effectively and read into the subtexts of meetings to bring about successful conclusions, be it harmony or a shared understanding of success. At a personal level we can not only maintain relationships but promote them to flourish and at some point, some of us learn that we have the us power to not only recognize suffering in ourselves and others but also to heal that suffering.

Sometimes all we need to let go and feel better is to hear the words “I understand what you've been going through”.

Schools continue to choose to pursue attainment in English, Maths and Science solely. We forget about emotional development and important social skills as children leave the early years phase. Careers and futures are built and destroyed over the ability of teachers to make children perform on standardized tests (and let's be honest about it, how much real world validity and credit do those results have?) Now, institutions can't be blamed for failing to prepare our society for COVID-19 but what about those childhood and teenage anxiety rates that have been rising annually for the last few decades? What about the everyday non-media worthy human trials that people experience each day? Why aren't we equipping our next generation with the means to respond positively to ANY emotional challenge? Is that really less worthy than lighting bulbs on electrical circuits and highlighting prepositional phrases? When will schools learn that our social responsibilities are of a far greater importance than our core curriculum?

So, rather than just lighting the fire I want to consider how to help it spread. How can schools practically tackle this? Well first, is to trash those dry PSHE schemes of work. When we silo the tremendous message and worth of understanding and helping others into what usually ends up as the leftover time between core subjects, we directly undermine its importance. Community and positive interaction needs to be addressed in every aspect of the curriculum. When we embark on a topic or project we must make links and explicitly investigate how this learning can positively impact our world, from the local to the global level and we should examine these links on a daily basis.

Where space is concerned, primary aged children tend to spend more time in their classroom than the average inmate spends in his cell at one of her majesty's institutions. A great deal should be learned outside of the classroom out in the community. We can't prepare our children for the outside world by shutting them away from it for 8 hours a day. How can we involve the spaces in our locale better? How can we interact with the people there more meaningfully? How can we make the environment and relationships better for all? Perhaps this will be a way we can avoid those spending time in those poorly ventilated classrooms in the coming reopening of schools.

A final point and perhaps the most vital is empowering the student. We should endeavor to prove that every single person has the ability to make positive change. From my own experience far too many students underestimate their own ability to bring about positive gains either for themselves and others. I don't necessarily mean at a Greta Thunberg level, small gestures are no less powerful or meaningful. Perhaps during the unit on letter writing it's an act as small as writing a letter to a lonely care home resident. And if the teacher has to check it for spelling and punctuation beforehand then so be it... I mean even when I consider this deeper, I have to ask what is the most important real-world aspect of this act? Would it be more important for the letter to have perfect grammar or for a child to have the idea of writing to someone dearly in need for contact with others?

As the world finally begins to poke its head out of its shell in the next weeks and months, it will become painfully obvious just how much suffering has grown wildly behind the locked-down doors of our community. I argue that from a young age we need to learn to develop empathy, to value it and to encourage and train its development throughout our schools. We are in a time when billions of people are in a state of catharsis and for years we have been asking students to memorise terms like “subordinate clause” when really they should have been memorizing “How can I help you?”.

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I am indebted to a certain Christian Long for sewing the seeds of this important message in what has come to be one of the most poignant workshops of my career - many, many thanks. Please look up his work.