Could COVID-19 set ‘bubble-wrap kids’ free?

If there’s one good outcome from the havoc the coronavirus pandemic has caused for our children, it’s that they may have learned some resilience along the way, writes Dr Paul Browning.

THE Year 12 class of 2020 could stake a claim to being the unluckiest cohort of seniors in Queensland’s modern schooling history.

They are the first Queensland class to face the ATAR system and now they are the first modern senior cohort to be impacted by a pandemic.

Some students have missed the opportunity to celebrate key school milestones and to share treasured cultural and sporting experiences. And don’t forget that this group didn’t get many opportunities to be leaders in primary school – they were bumped up to become the first intake of Year 7s at secondary school.

So, these students have every reason to see themselves as unlucky and unfortunate to be denied key opportunities.

But they have a choice. They could, in fact, see themselves as the class most likely to succeed. That’s because the Class of 2020 has had to learn resilience.

You only become the best person that you can be by overcoming setbacks and this Class has had plenty of them.

There is no doubt that parenting of school students has changed over the decades.

We hear about “helicopter parents” and “bubble-wrap kids” in which the aim is to prevent children from being harmed.

But parents who try to protect their children from adversity are doing them a great disservice. It’s no coincidence that the rise of the “bubble-wrap kids” has coincided with an increase in mental health challenges in our young people.

These parents don’t enable their children to learn how to deal with adversity. And that’s when they will develop the skills to succeed in life.

At St Paul’s, we build opportunities for failure into our curriculum. Our “Realms of Thinking” approach to education aims to develop creativity, entrepreneurialism, innovative thinking, and the capacity to make wise choices. Learning how to recover from failure and to cope with ambiguity are key parts of education.

During the last few months, everyone has had to learn to be resilient. We have all gone through different feelings as we grasped COVID-19 and the changes it brought to our lives. It’s been tremendously difficult for many but it’s also been an opportunity to develop life skills.

We learn more about who we are when we’re under pressure. We learn about our weaknesses. And we learn the importance of resilience. I am incredibly proud of how this Year 12 cohort have responded to all the challenges they have faced.

We surveyed our 160 Year 12 students when they returned to school to learn more about their COVID-19 experience.

We asked them which skills they improved during their online learning phase. The top answers: independent learning; self-discipline; organisational skills; and time management.

We also asked our students which character virtues they demonstrated. A total of 75 per cent said perseverance and patience.

So, we’re seeing already that the Class of 2020 is learning invaluable lessons that will make them more prepared than perhaps any previous graduating classes in Queensland for what comes next. They have developed resilience.

Schools should be aiming to prepare resilient citizens who are innovative thinkers, with a heart for servant leadership. You can’t measure that outcome by looking at the results of standardised tests alone. The proof is in the person they become.

Dr Paul Browning is the Headmaster of St Paul’s School at Bald Hills, the Australian School of the Year in 2019. He is the author of Principled: 10 leadership practices for building trust .