3 minute read
Developing a teenager’s emotional awareness
By Olha Madylus
Olha Madylus has been involved in English Language Teaching for over 30 years. She is now a freelance materials writer, consultant and teacher trainer.
ARE PUTTING MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION ON THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM “ “ 370SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND
DID YOU KNOW THAT SINCE 1993 CHILDREN AGED 6-16 YEARS OLD IN DENMARK HAVE HAD MANDATORY CLASSES IN EMPATHY? AND STATISTICS TELL US THAT THE DANES ARE A VERY HAPPY PEOPLE. DO YOU THINK SUCH BASIC HUMAN COMPETENCES NEED TO BE TAUGHT? DON’T WE HAVE SUCH EMOTIONAL SKILLS ALREADY?
It’s not just the Danes who are addressing emotions in schools. In March 2019 it was announced that 370 schools in England were putting mindfulness and meditation on the school curriculum. Research indicated that children as young as 6 suffer from stress and that many behaviour issues can be ameliorated by meditation. There is much in the media about the success of this innovation. Emotional skills are abilities such as managing our emotions, which mindfulness addresses, but it’s also identifying and understanding our emotions as well as recognising other people’s emotions and realising how we can affect those. These skills are inborn to some extent, but we all need to be aware of them and consciously develop them.
The modern world is putting new pressures on us all and I for one think it’s a great idea to address this at school, and help students of all ages find ways of coping and improving their mental health. When it comes to teenagers it’s not just the modern world that causes emotional strain, the natural development of the human brain ensures that teenagers in particular have always had emotional issues to contend with. The frontal cortex of the brain is the last part to finish 2828
developing (often not until we are in our early twenties). This part not only helps us keep our attention focussed and to plan future tasks, it also helps us control inappropriate behaviour. So, as this is beyond the control of the students, does this mean there is nothing that can be done to help the situation? To some extent maybe not, but I do believe there are strategies that particularly in the English language classroom can be adopted that may help. In 1978, Gertrude Moskowitz, a leading proponent of Humanistic Education said: ‘Dropouts don’t leave school because we don’t give them enough facts, but because they don’t find any meaning in them.’ And teenagers often don’t pay attention to the content of lessons as it doesn’t have any relevance to them. More and more coursebooks today have thought-provoking, interesting texts on topics like happiness, being an organised student, emotional intelligence and the dangers of the internet: subjects that allow students to consider positive behaviours and sensible ways of dealing with problems they may have in their lives.
Discussions in class about such issues are not always successful as teenagers, like many adults, don’t want to reveal too much about their innermost feelings in front of the entire class or even a small group, so I usually ask students to do role plays instead. Taking on a ‘pretend’ character, allows students to hide behind the façade of another person and voice different opinions and ideas without feeling exposed.
What about trying these with your teens:
At the start of the lesson, when there is often a sense of discord and inattention as students come into class noisily and are distracted by conversation and mobile phones. Start with a simple breathing exercise. Ask your students to stand up straight, close their eyes and breathe in slowly through the nose, hold the breath for a few seconds, exhale slowly through the mouth. Do this for a few minutes. It has a calming effect as well as helping mental focus. It’s great to discuss this technique with the students: talking about why it’s useful and what other ways they can relax and become lesson-ready. (Be prepared for them to think you are a little odd to ask them to do this initially.) A nice task for practising modals as well as considering the affect of our words and actions, is giving students a questionnaire with questions like:
• What would you do if you thought your best friend was depressed? • What would you do if someone offered you drugs at a party? Whatever we do, it’s important that we consider that our students are contending with emotional issues and we are in a position to help them in small ways to learn to deal with them.
