LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

‘As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.’

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I found this quote quite interesting as it got me thinking how teaching is really about enabling the future through our children’s education and how the crisis in the early learning workforce is going to impact on the future of our children’s education.

Thrive By Five Action Plan

I am pretty sure most of you know of ‘Thrive by Five’. For those that don’t, I am posting this link to a letter that can be signed by you.

Hi there, 

I just sent an email to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers asking them to put the early learning workforce crisis at the top of their agenda for the upcoming jobs summit – and I’d love it if you could too!

It’s super easy to do using this tool Thrive by Five has created – click here to send an email now: https://thrivebyfive.org.au/actions/workforce-action-plan-parents/‘

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What Ginnie & Pinney offers

So why should I turn my attention from the teacher crisis to Ginnie & Pinney? Because all the books will help give the children life skills they will need to grow into high functioning adults, are easy for time poor teachers to apply supported by the teacher resource.

About Compassion, Empathy and Living a Happy Life

Each character struggles with the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ of their nature and the challenges of their friendships with each other. There is no real right or wrong but you as teachers are there to guide the children to make the best choices and decisions.

For example in a ‘Brand New Band’ was it kind for the friends to exclude Lulu? Did Lulu have to demonstrate something new for her to be accepted? What would have happened if she hadn’t? How could the friends behave better? By talking these issues through and guiding the children to think about Lulu’s feelings you are able to help develop empathy in your students.

This is underpinned in the book, ‘Compassion and Empathy in Educational Context‘ edited by Georgina Barton and Susanne Garvis who state that, ‘Compassion and empathy are key attributes to living a healthy and happy life,’ and how little there is written of these qualities that can be taught to children’ … and … ‘how teachers can model these traits in their teaching practice.’ (Compassion and Empathy in Educational Contexts, Georgina Barton • Susanne Garvis, Editors, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

Why Discuss ‘Sharing’ on this Blog

In ‘A Bedtime Story’ Ginnie says ‘it is good to share’ and that ‘good friends share’. But is it always good to share? Are there things you shouldn’t share? When we were trialling this story with a group of 3-5 year olds, one of the children said ‘you shouldn’t share your mummy.’ This can lead to a very interesting discussion. ‘What if you have a brother or sister? Are you sharing your mummy with them?’ When I wrote this story about sharing I was thinking about this leading to a discussion about not sharing your body. This is a sensitive topic but I think one worth exploring if you feel comfortable about this. On a lighter note, but also important given Covid, is about not sharing your food or water bottle with others… or at least not giving bites of your food to your friends.

What has the topic of ‘sharing’ got to do with Thrive by Five? Because if we want to enable the future we should share the Thrive By Five letter to our Prime Minister and Treasurer so something positive will come out of this. My hope, as I am sure it is yours, is that the Government listens and helps alleviate this critical issue.

ENABLE THE FUTURE!