From the Pastoral Coordinators’ Corner

As educators, parents and carers, the happiness of our children often weighs heavily on our minds. At times, it feels like we are desperate to ensure they avoid life’s challenges and disappointments, to prevent the sadness and disappointments we may have experienced. But is this really in their best interest? In a recent article by Linda Stade, What’s More Important Than a Happy Childhood?, we are challenged to question are we, in fact, unwittingly sabotaging our children by prioritising their immediate happiness and comfort over the development of resilience, grit, and meaningful struggle. Interviewing Keil Brown (a provisional psychologist at Wesley College in Perth), Stade discusses whether children can have too much of a good thing and the importance of learning to self-regulate, self-soothe and experience disappointment and autonomy.

Below is an overview of her article, which is a great informative read and available at https://lindastade.com/happy-childhood/ Brown states, “Happiness is an important part of the goal for our kids, but it doesn’t have to be the goal.” What does ‘happy’ really mean? Happiness is more complicated than it seems. When discussing happiness, Brown uses the analogy of an umbrella. It only functions if all of its parts work together. “I think of happiness as like the canopy of an umbrella. It’s a functional covering, and it looks great. However, it only works when all of the other components of the umbrella combine effectively. They need things like social connection, emotional stability, physical health, varied interests and a sense of holistic wellbeing”. Often, we chase happiness for ourselves and our kids. We try to have as many different experiences as possible. We schedule soccer, then scouts, then gymnastics, and as many playdates as possible. And yes, exploration is important. However, Mr Brown warns, “Packing too many things into a week can pass a tipping point. We can end up just making our kids stressed instead of happy.” Kids can have too much of a good thing. Sometimes what we all need for wellbeing is calm experiences that allow us to evoke and feel intense emotions of sadness, fear, disappointment, anxiety, guilt and shame. Without these uncomfortable emotions, happiness, joy, and all the positive feelings are only shallow and often manufactured. For Stade’s 10 Steps to guide children to find their sense of wellbeing, head to https://lindastade.com/happy-childhood/

Bullying - No Way! In a week of promotion, action and support against bullying from August 11-15, K-12 classes will be extending their knowledge regarding anti-bullying through classroom activities and participating in a college-wide competition. Each class will design posters with clear anti-bullying slogans, then take a creative picture advertising these posters. The class deemed to have undertaken this task to the fullest will be awarded a pizza lunch as a prize.

Mrs Ryan & Ms Roche