Agendas - preparing children for the future

As we grow older and have new experiences, we learn

As teachers, we pass on our learning to our students. We have accumulated a prodigious list of facts about the World, the Oceans and Continents (and everything that is in them and on them). We have a checklist of essential skills like Reading and Writing and modern skills like Critical Thinking, Collaboration etc.. In modern times we have added lessons about Well-being, Strengths, Mindset and others

Teachers are learning all the time and we pass on what we have learned to our ever-hungry students. Challenges such as Covid, Catastrophes and Conflicts bring us new knowledge and skills which we pass on. How many of us were trained to use virtual training spaces before Covid, for example?

There’s a similar learning process for our students. The difference is the time-shift of about 25 years. It’s like an Information Relay Race. We teachers are passing on our knowledge before we pass away. (That’s not a sad thought, by the way).

The Learning Journey

Learning takes us on a journey: between What we Know and What we don’t Know yet.

Coaching takes us deeper into the world of What we don’t Know yet.

The first step is usually the teacher - noticing challenging behaviour from the student - asks, “What’s going on?” The teacher asks because they don’t know what’s going on. They can guess, based on their own experience, but it’s better to ask.?

This often results in a discovery about the Student’s life. There could be something going on at home; or in their friendship group, or in the community where they live. Clearly, there’s something going on in the student’s head or heart that’s calling for attention, hence their behaviour.

The Front Door to Coaching

In this space, the student is allowing the teacher to look at a secret part of their lives. The teacher and student are building a working relationship, based on respect, trust, curiosity and non-judgement. All of which are prime coaching skills. Most teachers have those skills. We don’t use them much when we are telling students the names of the rivers on our continent. We do use them a little when we are encouraging reluctant students to “Have another go at Maths”, for example.

The Open Space of Coaching

The next step in the learning journey is when we, teachers, get out of our depth, trying to support a student who is also out of their depth, experiencing a life situation, or a choice, that we have never encountered. Both of us are in the land of What we don’t Know yet.

• Perhaps we encounter a learning difficulty in a student, but have never had learning problems ourselves. How can we help then? Do the answers always come from someone else?
• Perhaps the student’s life is going in a direction that we have never taken. Drugs, gangs, stealing all come to mind. If we have never had those problems ourselves. How can we help then? Do the answers always have to come from us?
• Perhaps the student is trying to decide between following what they want to do with their lives, and what their parents want them to do. Would we be right to offer them advice based on our life experience?

This is where life coaches and counsellors usually come in. As teachers, we pass on the responsibility of care to another professional. And yet. What if we learned to use those coaching skills ourselves? Could we be an extra coach or counsellor? Could we ease the transition from one professional to the next? Could we be their first coach or counsellor, like First Aid??

Freedom

The final stage of the learning journey is when we see our students self-teach, self-coach, find their own answers, freed from teachers and counsellors and life coaches.