There is a video currently going viral on Facebook showing a teacher psyching her kids up at the start of the school day.

I hadn’t heard of it until my wife told me after seeing her interviewed on the morning news.

She wanted to know, and quite rightly in my opinion, why all teachers didn’t do something like this as a matter of course?

Before I go any further I think you should watch the video and form your own opinions before I go forward.

Just in case you haven’t see it, here it is, and please do watch it before you read the rest of the post because it’s crucial if you want to understand my viewpoint, even if you disagree.

She has all the kids stood up and as she walks around the classroom asks them questions that they all reply to in unison.

What if you’re just too young?

And the kids reply. ‘That aint true’

‘What if you’re too black’

‘That aint true’

‘What if you’re just can’t do it?’

That aint true’

‘What if it’s too hard?’

“I’m going to push through

‘What if it’s too tough?’

‘I’m going to push through’

‘Why because?’

“I can do anything I put my mind to’

She then mentions names from black civil rights (kind of) like Barack Obama, Nelson Mandella, Rosa Parks etc and after each name the kids chant:

‘She pushed through’

And finally she ends with, ‘And if they can do it then..’

‘I can do it too’

Bravo Miss Wright

You have to hand it to this lady for trying to empower young kids.

In my opinion it is even more relevant in the light of recent events to raise the self esteem and belief of young African-Americans and any minority group.

A few years ago I wrote a post called ‘Self Development for Kids’ that has received a lot of traffic, probably because when anybody types that search term into Google it regularly pops up on the first page.

It has lead to numerous inquiries from parents wanting to know if I coach kids (I don’t) and people in the educational field wanting to talk about it.

As a nation we are horrible at teaching kids some critical life skills. But it seems we are fine with teaching them all sorts of bullshit that will have no discerning value in the real world.

We have ‘Google’ you don’t need to memorize the Presidents of the USA. And when was the last time you used a quadratic equation?

Yet, have you ever heard about a school teaching it’s pupils how to breathe correctly?

I doubt it, but most people breathe incorrectly i.e. shallowly from the upper chest and too quickly.

This is what we naturally do when we are anxious because the brain is trying to conserve energy and get oxygen into the blood system as quickly ias possible in case it has to fight or run away to live another day.

This feedback goes two ways. Yes we act like that under stress, but it is also true that breathing poorly can increase the likelihood of us feeling stressed.

The brain struggles to know what is what and just reacts to the cues it can focus on.

Meditation In Schools

Meditation is creeping into schools but at an irritatingly slow rate.

We know it improves overall health, concentration levels, lowers stress and in school studies has be proven to lower absenteeism and reduce bullying.

Not bad eh?

Most kids don’t run properly, but that’s never taught. I have knee and achilles problems because I used to run on the balls of my feet like most kids do.

I was in my mid-thirties before an astute and highly-skilled gym trainer spotted my problem and told me how to run properly.

Reframing changes the structure of our brains in a good way.

It can reduce negative feelings about events that haven’t turned out as expected and allow people to bounce back more quickly and thus develop more resilience.

I tell Life Coaches who I train, it may well be the single most important skill they master. Do we teach kids it? Not that I am aware.

So Miss Wright is somewhat of a trailblazer.

There’s a different approach though, and if I may be so bold having never been a teacher, let me offer the changes I’d make if I were in her position.

I’d look for the very few statements that aren’t globally true (by that I mean they are true in every instance) and eradicate them.

Even ‘What if you’re just can’t do it?’ is problematical because there are lots of things in life we encounter that we cannot do.

Trust me, I cannot perform a frontal lobotomy and if you don’t believe me give me a coat hanger, lie on my couch and try to relax.

‘What if you’re too young?’ is an example. There are occasions when kids of that age are too young, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

They cannot get married, join the army, drive a car, drink alcohol or (thankfully) vote for Donald Trump.

I understand the positive intention of trying to break down limiting beliefs, but if you want kids to take you literally with the other stuff, then they will do so with this. It’s just not useful.

Where To Find Unhappiness

Unhappiness lies in the gap between what we expect in life and what we receive.

That’s why depression is much higher with millennials than baby boomers.

The latter group had it drilled into them that you had to work hard and even then nothing was guaranteed in life, so their expectations were much lower. 

Now we have an entire generation who have been told over and over that they can be what they want to be and have what they want.

No they can’t, life isn’t like that. It’s time to grow up.

This’s why so many millennials switch not just jobs, but often careers frequently.

Many of them have a sense of entitlement and a belief, albeit it unconscious for the most part, that they are very special snowflakes about to rock the world and their uniqueness should be recognized and rewarded.

When inevitably it doesn’t happen they are left confused, bitter and resentful toward the older generation.

The Mindset

According to noted Psychologist Carol Dweck in her groundbreaking book ‘Mindset’ there are two types of people.

Those who have a ‘fixed mindset’ and those who have a ‘growth mindset’.

The former group think their IQ is fixed, that they cannot do new things and that their life is pretty much out of their control and down to where and when they were born.

The latter group forge their own path with a sense of determination and a ‘fuck you’ attitude to those laughing at their efforts.

Kids aren’t necessarily born with either mindset, they learn it. And they do so by what they are told and learn either implicitly or explicitly.

Complimenting a child for being gifted or intelligent encourages a fixed mindset.

They assume that their innate gifts are what determine their success. Then when those gifts aren’t enough their self esteem suffers and they can adopt learned helplessness.

However, if you tell a kid, ‘well done on that test, you worked really hard and you got the result your endeavor deserved’. Voila! You have encouraged a growth mindset because they realize that they are for the most part in control of their success or failure.

Miss Wright brilliantly taps into developing a growth mindset with her questions that require the kids to answer, ‘I’m going to push through’

We can’t always succeed but knowing we can push through is very liberating.

I also love the way she gets the kids to actually push their arms forward with the hands bent at right angle to symbolize pushing something because this helps the brain internalize the message.

She has to be commended for what she is doing because she is building self-esteem and belief.

Having said that, with a few tiny tweaks she could take something great into truly life changing for many kids.

She’s a hero, or heroine if you prefer, for stimulating this kind of debate and it’s a shame more teachers aren’t as committed as she is to questioning the norm.

By and large, the norm sucks.

I’d welcome your thoughts in the comments and please feel to disagree with me.