Provide Significance!

Young people are searching for significance

At a recent conference Charles Leadbeater made the comment, “For too many people education is a force of insignificance”, this was said in the context that young people, especially, are searching for significance, yet all around them they are met by forces of insignificance, that belittle and humiliate them. 

One way of interpreting significance is that students seek to feel valued or genuinely cared for – “I matter to this other person”. 

As adults, we certainly provide this significance to some of the people in our lives, yet we may not provide it to all.  As teachers and leaders, we perform below our best if we do not strive to provide it for everyone for whom we have some responsibility. 

We know that when we feel valued we operate more in the blue zone than in the red.  In the blue zone, higher order learning can take place, in the red zone learning is limited 

There is a direct link between students feeling value, feeling significant to someone, and their learning. 

The education system that is emerging is one that will be a force of significance for young people. 

And for adults too. 

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.