Wales’ new school curriculum places wellbeing and emotional intelligence at the heart of education. It’s a big challenge, but Buddhist perspectives are helping
Weekend Word, BBC Radio Wales 26th August 2020
GCSE results are out, and before long it will be a new school year. In Wales this year is special because it sees the launch of the Curriculum for Wales that every school will follow. Designed from scratch and trialled over several years, it’s a radical rethink that gives schools greater autonomy and focuses less on exams and more on how pupils are progressing.
The Curriculum identifies six key Areas of Learning and Experience, most covering the familiar subjects. But I’ve been involved with an entirely new component – the Health and Wellbeing Area. Schools are being asked to foster young people’s physical, emotional, psychological and social skills, training them – quote – to ‘use their self-awareness to appreciate the complexity of their emotions and apply strategies to self-regulate them.’
This is a radical departure from traditional schooling and its a challenge for teachers: it isn’t like teaching Maths or French. Every teacher I meet knows that there are more mental health problems among young people than ever, and the pandemic has made things worse. Official statistics bear that out. But teachers aren’t therapists and, with colleagues, I’ve been exploring with schools in Wales how they can support the wellbeing of staff and students.
My connection is that Buddhism teaches that the mind is fundamental to everything we experience. It also offers practices, of which meditation is the best known, that let us get to know our minds and influence them for the better. Mindfulness practices, for example, build on our capacity to develop the intuitive and emotional aspects of our minds, not just our intellectual skills.
Really supporting young people’s wellbeing isn’t straightforward. Mindfulness means standing back and becoming aware of what’s happening, and not everyone wants to do that. Meditation is part of it, but children can find meditation boring, especially if it’s taught by people who aren’t experienced meditators themselves.
So, while there are some ready-made solutions, we’re still experimenting. We know that teachers’ own wellbeing makes a big difference to their pupils, children need to buy in to the approaches they’re offered, exercise helps and relationships are crucial.
Above all, I think, one thing is certain. As the Curriculum for Wales recognises, in the modern world understanding our minds and paying attention to wellbeing is an essential life skill.
