Resilience rɪˈzɪlɪəns/
noun
1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties;
toughness.
Norman Garmezy, a developmental psychologist and clinician at the University of
Minnesota,
“But to be asked about children who were adaptive and good citizens in the school
and making it even though they had come out of very disturbed backgrounds—that
was a new sort of inquiry. That’s the way we began.”
First to label and research “resilience”.
In 1989 a developmental psychologist named Emmy Werner published the results of
a thirty-two-year longitudinal project. She had followed a group of six hundred and
ninety-eight children, in Kauai, Hawaii, from before birth through their third decade
of life. Monitoring stressful, difficult or factors which could be labelled “at risk”
including poverty, family issues etc.
Two thirds of the children came from basically stable, happy and succesful homes
Of the “at risk” third - Two-thirds of them “developed serious learning or behavior
problems by the age of ten, or had delinquency records, mental health problems, or
teen-age pregnancies by the age of eighteen.” But the remaining third developed
into “competent, confident, and caring young adults.” They had attained academic,
domestic, and social success—and they were always ready to capitalize on new
opportunities that arose.
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much
by the position that one has reached in life as by the
obstacles overcome while trying to succeed.”
African American educator Booker T. Washington
Internal and external factors
The common approach:
Lord it over, exercise authority, benefactors
The alternative:
Greatest like youngest, ruler like servant
“I am among you as one who serves”
How we handle privilege
>Give up rights to take on responsibilities
>Entitlement undermines resilience
The All Blacks model
What is true? Trumpism.
What is valuable?
How do we make decisions?
Greatest happiness?
Least pain!
“The great enemy of the
truth is not the lie;
deliberate, contrived and
dishonest. But the myth;
persistent persuasive and
unrealistic”
John F. Kennedy
Reward without Risk
Success without effort
Achievement without failure
Never fully present
Unresolved conflict
Unrealistic expectations
Unrealised creativity, quiet and reflection
Big Data
Growing up is taking longer – adolescence
now thought to last to 25
Significant issues around stress and health
Arrested and Accelerated Development
Most educated, least informed, most
sophisticated, most naïve.
Keep Mum 
Internal and external factors
Convictions
Character
Community
Calling
The ability to meet and overcome challenges in ways that
maintain or promote well-being plays an essential role in
how students learn to achieve academic and personal goals.
Resilient young people feel a sense of control over their own
destinies. They know they can reach out to others for support
when needed, and they readily take initiative to solve
problems. Teachers facilitate resilience by helping children
think about and consider various paths through adversity.
They also help by being resources, encouraging student
decision making and modeling resilient competencies.
Internal and external factors
Understanding Origins and Challenges
What was overcome?
Who helped meet the challenge?
What was learned?
How do we overcome obstacles in our lives?
The normal of meeting challenges.
Sharing personal examples
The Bible is great for this!
By exploring answers to the following questions, students can become more
aware of their strengths and what they look for in supportive relationships
with others.
 Write about a person who supported you during a particularly stressful
or traumatic time. How did they help you overcome this challenge? What
did you learn about yourself?
 Write about a friend you helped support as he/she went through a stressful
event. What did you do that most helped your friend? What did you learn
about yourself?
 Write about a time in your life when you had to cope with a difficult
situation. What helped and hindered you as you overcame this challenge?
What learning did you take away that will help you in the future?
Personal Journals can be very useful here as well as essays.
Why Parents Need to Let Their Children Fail published in The Atlantic,
middle school teacher Jessica Lahey touched on a topic that addressed
a difficult issue.
How do I teach students to learn and grow through failure and
setbacks when their parents are so intent on making them a shining
star?
The truth is that learning from failure is paramount to becoming a
resilient young person.
 Create a classroom culture where failure, setbacks, and
disappointment are an expected and honored part of learning.
 Establish and reinforce an atmosphere where students are praised
for their hard work, perseverance, and grit — not just grades and
easy successes.
 Hold students accountable for producing their own work, efforts from
which they feel ownership and internal reward.
 Educate and assure parents that supporting kids through failure
builds resilience—one of the best developmental outcomes they can
give their children.
“We feel like we have had an incredibly
tough road to get here. We have gone
through a lot of adversity with things
like the capsize and some tough races
here and there. One thing about this
team is they have dug super deep to get
us to this point and keep making the
boat go faster, while fixing the things we
have broken”
Peter Burling
Opportunities abound to connect resilience with personal success,
achievement, and positive social change. Expand discussions about
political leaders, scientists, literary figures, innovators, and inventors
beyond what they accomplished to the personal strengths they
possessed and the hardships they endured and overcame to reach
their goals. Help students learn to see themselves and their own
strengths through these success stories.
UNDIVIDED LIFE is one of our Core Values and Aims in TSCF
Special character is not an abstract idea it is embodied in community
Significant relationships build and reinforce faith
Encouragement through adversity and difficulty is remembered
Feeling understood and valued and helped to see a way forward
builds resilience
Resilience, faith, joy and hope are contagious when modelled well
It takes a village to raise a child.
Who has helped you to keep going? (Or me?)