Our learning strategy will help the mental well-being of young people who, experts say, are struggling more and more with mental health problems.
However, it would appear that if children are showing more signs of mental health issues, what you do is put a mental health specialist in every school. We feel this
is so wrong on quite a few counts.
Firstly, if the rise in these issues is indeed the case, then you should first look at the source of the problem. What is upsetting these children's mental
well-being. We would beg to suggest that there are in fact many reasons, some of which we could change and some of which have been around for years and just because we
never measured them, doesn't mean they weren't there.
Of course if that statement is true then actually mental health issues may not be rising, they may just have been identified, talked about, more. As a child
who had such issues, which he has carried on into adulthood, Richard would never suggest we should brush these under the carpet or tell children to toughen up and pull themselves
together. The issues exist. But are they mental health issues or coping-with-life issues?
Many will say that social media and the use of mobile phones is much of the problem. We would agree but banning mobiles in school while an admiral concept won't
really work. Children are only in school for about seven hours a day and a day has 24 hours in it. Social media will still be there when they are out of school. Probably the
only fool-proof answer is to ban the internet which would effectively remove social media. That, we know, will not happen but you can always try to
improve a situation. You can send medicines to treat sick children in deprived areas but until you remove their deprivation the problem will not be solved, only managed.
We believe, and the School of the Air seeks to do this, there is a different way. Instead of an impossible-to-impose ban, why not provide children with an alternative that
you can show them can be even more exciting than sitting glued to TikTok (other addictions are available) all evening. Alongside our aim of providing this material for home educators we also want to
encourage, or even excite, children to get outside, take a look at their world.
When we were at primary school we had lessons labelled as nature study and we did just that. Today, in a world built around modern technology we, and young people in particular,
are becoming far less a part of the nature that is us and is real and more a part of a machine that is created by us and has no soul, no feelings and definitely, apart from
how it was designed, no awe and wonder that we can admire and be thankful that we are a part of. People may say modern technology has gone too far and we can't stop it.
However just because something exists for us to use doesn't mean we must use it all the time but if we are part of something that has existed for millennia it is almost our duty
to make use of it, enjoy it and learn to protect it. Without a phone or tablet you can have a future; without the natural world you will not.
Sir Keir Starmer said that the skills children get taught must be those they will need in life. He mentioned building confidence and he also mentioned resilience
and creativity. On my very first meeting with Molly she spoke to me about her belief in helping children gain confidence and learn resilience. I don't remember if she mentioned
creativity but two out of three ain't bad.
Therefore, the answer must be to incorporate, from a very early age, a learning structure where children can learn resilience, allowing them to understand and cope
with problems; a learning structure that will give them confidence to understand and be proud of themselves and notice that others are different. If, through our resource,
we can get more children out into the wonderful world of nature we may well find we have, in a small way, reduced some of those mental health problems.
Our aim is to have a screen to green philosophy. We can get rid of the dependence on that man-made little screen and through our own enthusiasm and knowledge, show what there is
in the natural-made far larger world all around us.