When The Best Way Ahead is Through

Earlier this week a colleague shared an article from The Sydney Morning Herald with me. The article was titled, in part: How Schools Have It Wrong on Kids’ Anxiety. It’s a provocative title. And for some, perhaps a provocative article.

The article outlines how some schools had taken what they now understand to be the wrong path in addressing childhood anxiety. “If an assembly felt overwhelming, the principal let her students sit out. If school camp seemed daunting, they stayed home.”

“Well-meaning adults had been removing obstacles in children’s path… “We were blissfully unaware of the negative impact that keeping them safe and removing barriers was having,” she said. “Their ability to cope with failure – both in learning and socially – had really dropped off.”

That has not been our approach at NBCS.

We cannot help our students get better at facing their fears, rational or irrational, by allowing them to avoid them. Instead, we can, with appropriate supports, enable them to face down and shrink those fears through exposure to them over time.

As the article goes on to say, “the instinct to shield children is inadvertently fuelling the problem. When adults “jump in to fix it”, says psychologist Michael Hawton, they rob kids of the opportunity to solve problems for themselves.”

“We’ve got to expose [children] to an acceptable level of risk,” said leading psychiatrist and former Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry. “That will strengthen them.”

A key part of our approach at NBCS is risk optimisation rather than risk minimisation.

We want there to be just the right level of risk that enables students to grow and to become good judges of risk. This must happen well before our students enter the adult world, well before the world of adolescence, independence, and driving.

“Experts warned that well-meaning “accommodation” strategies – where adults allow children to avoid stressful situations like assessments or public speaking – were entrenching the problem. This “cycle of avoidance” teaches the child’s brain that running away is the only effective strategy.”

“We’ve failed to give these kids opportunities to fall over and hurt themselves because we’ve cocooned them away,” said the Australian Catholic University’s Paul Kidson.

“McGorry attributes the rise in anxiety to a more “fragile and precarious” world…. However, he emphasises that anxiety can be “unlearned” if caught early.”

We recognise that things like camp and Student Opportunity Week do present challenges for our students. We know that this is true for schoolwork, assessments and presentations, too. But these are not challenges that are insurmountable. In a world that can be and feel daunting and scary, we want school to provide ample opportunity for our students to face their fears and develop the resourcefulness and understanding to overcome them.

We want them to know that the best way ahead is through – through their fears, through their problems, and into a bigger world beyond with more capacity and skill to face whatever comes next.

Tim Watson
Principal