I’ve spoken to a lot of schools lately who are in Struggle Town. So firstly, if your school has taken up digs in Struggle Town too – thank you for your struggle. I really appreciate your resilience and will to continue on behalf of your students.
Struggle Town’s population has rather ballooned lately. You’re not alone.
So then comes the inevitable question about how we escape Struggle Town and get back home.
The answer lies in the lowest investment activity you can choose that has the highest possible return. I’ve been searching frenetically for that lately – and I actually think I may have found it. Are you ready? Get your staff on a quest to thank and congratulate as many students as possible.
Flip the entire notion that the way to eliminate mobile phone use is to catch and punish those using their phones. It isn’t. It’s to notice the critical mass of students who are using their phones responsibly.
The way to have your students remove their hats when they walk into class isn’t to refuse to commence learning until they’ve all removed them. It’s to thank and recognise the students who did remove their hats as they arrived.
And the way to eliminate swearing isn’t to ban swear words, rank them by severity or to point frustratedly at the 29th element of your Student Code Of Conduct and shriek “we’ve spoken to you people about this before!”. It’s to congratulate and honour those who make the choice to speak well to us.
And plenty of students in your school are, despite the current struggles, doing the right thing. Make them famous.
There’s an understandable tendency for even professional adults to lurch into negativity when times are hard. We’re also inclined to huge agendas and miracle cures. Resist those urges.
The road out of Struggle Town is lined and lit with positivity. Just take the first steps, together.
Keep fighting that good fight,
PS. My obsession with low investment / high return strategy will be on display in 20 workshops that I’m running across the nation in June/July. You should come along and steal all those strategies I reckon. More info and registration deets here. Hint hint – time is running out!
PPS. If you’re looking for a starting point for your school when it comes to School Culture I’m running a FREE webinar on Tuesday 24th May at 2pm AEST on that very subject. Register for that one here.
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