Publicado: 20 septiembre 2020 a las 3:00 pm
Categorías: Entrevistas
By Dana Gee
Beach and Neufeld Strijack suggest kids are having a tough time managing their emotions due to a lack of emotional awareness.
With their new book, Reclaiming Our Students, Nanaimo’s Hannah Beach and Tamara Neufeld Strijack of Lake Cowichan hope to help teachers and parents improve the emotional health of the children in their lives.
As school is back and kids are trying to navigate a new norm, we asked the authors and educators a few questions about what can be done to help kids feel better:
Question: You were working on the book before COVID-19, but, that said, how does it play into the new-world-order of schools this fall?
Answer: NeufeldStrijack:
Children were already struggling with increased anxiety and teachers were already seeing an increase in troubling behaviour that made classrooms difficult to manage. Children were already not feeling safe and were often disconnected from the adults in their world who could support them. Emotions like alarm and frustration were stirred up, with no safe place to process, and caring feelings were shutting down. Enter COVID-19 and alarm has skyrocketed with all of the uncertainty. Our changing environment is also leading to huge frustration as we lose even more control of our world. And we are only going to see more anxiety and aggression, as well as even further loss of caring feelings as a result.
Q: Your book’s subhead says children are more anxious, aggressive and shut down than they have been in the past. What has changed?A: Beach:Simply put, our culture is no longer taking care of our emotional health in the ways that it used to. Firstly, we have replaced play with entertainment. There is nothing wrong with entertainment, but it is not the same thing as play. Entertainment is like an in-breath and play is like an out-breath. Many children are breathing in and in and in. Play is nature’s way of providing children a place to digest and release their emotions and the loss of it will show up in a child’s behaviour.
Secondly, in our busy, economically competitive and technological culture, we have less human connection than ever. Technology is often dividing children rather than bringing them to the connections they need in order to feel safe and emotionally rested.
Finally, children are looking less and less to adults for guidance and more and more to one another. This also means that they don’t have the shield of a caring adult to protect them from the wounding that happens between children. As children become more wounded and shut down, they bring with them the challenging behaviours that make it hard to build a relationship with them, which is the very thing they need.
Q: What is the first thing that needs to be done to change that situation?
A:NeufeldStrijack:
Our children need to feel connected to the caring adults in their world and they need places to digest and release their emotions. Seeing what they need is the first step. From there we can start to be intentional about creating those connections and providing children with a sense of safety in our presence, as well as finding ways to preserve natural places and spaces for emotional expression through play, nature, music, storytelling and other arts.
Q: The book seems very geared toward helping teachers. But obviously kids go home at the end of the school day so what can parents take from this book and use at home?
A:Beach:
Although geared to teachers, our book is a great resource for parents as well. If there was ever a time for parents and teachers to be on the same side as one another, it is now. There is so much parents can do to help their children to feel safe at school and at home. Our book helps parents with ways to help their child feel connected to their teacher. It also provides parents with insights and strategies for emotional release and support at home.
Q: What are some of the most common stressors for kids under age 12 when they head back to school? What about teens?
A:Beach:
Going back to school can be both exciting and alarming. Kids can feel unsettled with the unknown. What will their new routine look like? Will their teacher like them? Will they have friends? With COVID there are even more unknowns and uncertainty for children as they head back to school. We can support children by prioritizing relationship over rigour and quickly establishing routines and rhythms to their day, to provide a sense of familiarity and security.
For teens, their emotional world can be even more intense and we are less likely to provide outlets for expression and release for this age group. And we need to recognize that even though teens may seem a bit more prickly, they still need us.
Q: What are some warning signs that adults should be keeping an eye out for as the kids settle into school?
A:Neufeld Strijack:
As long as we see signs of emotional expression, we know our children’s feelings are alive and that they feel comfortable enough to share their internal world with us. It can be distressing to see our children crying or upset, but when we see their emotions spilling out this way, we can rest knowing that our children’s emotions are moving, which is what is meant to happen when they are upset. Where we should get more concerned is when we see our children shut down and not expressing anything.
Q: We talk about junk food and the need for exercise but often the emotional health of kids is an afterthought that is only addressed if there have been some behaviour issues. How do we change that? How do we get proactive with the emotional health of kids?
A:Neufeld Strijack:
I think it begins with the adults understanding how much our children need to be connected to us and that emotions are a driving force underlying the behaviours we see. Whenever we see a challenging behaviour, we can be curious as to what emotion is behind it so that we can begin the process of creating lasting change, not simply managing symptoms. This in itself will change how we respond to the children in our care and start to shift things emotionally for them.
Q: We often hear people say or we say ourselves, “In my day things were different … ” Is that true? Were things that different say a generation ago? Did kids have more fun? Were they happier?
A:Beach:
There have always been struggles and challenges in every generation. That is not new.
What is different now is that kids have fewer places to safely digest the emotions stirred up by those struggles. This has led to the epidemic of anxiety and emotional problems we see today.
Source: https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/authors-say-students-need-more-emotional-connections-with-guiding-adults/wcm/1291a326-a596-483e-9761-5d508e8b81d9/
source of the image:https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/authors-say-students-need-more-emotional-connections-with-guiding-adults/wcm/1291a326-a596-483e-9761-5d508e8b81d9/
Deja un comentario