Knowledge is Power

By ALICE O’BRIEN Churchview Psychotherapy, Millstreet

Alice O'Brien

How often do you apply Pythagorean Theorem in your daily life? When you are working out the measurements for your brown bread recipe maybe! Likewise, do you use the Modh coinniolach when you are writing your notes for work? The likely answer is no - you left those dreaded terms behind when you burned your books after the leaving cert - never to be used again.

We know that after school, we will not apply a lot of what we learned. But, there are people living among us- maybe even under our roofs, who worry about these terms, who go to bed at night wondering if they will need to know these things on a sunny June day. These people are our children, our exam students and their stress is very real.

So, how do we support those with looming exams?

• Try to be supportive. These concerns are very real for those going through the exams, so be careful not to minimise their experiences.

• Remove the emphasis on results; encourage effort, not scores.

• Keep a good routine in the home, encourage healthy eating, good sleep hygiene and reduce the stress levels in the household.

• Only give advice if asked for it. Students need time to process and accept their reality; they may not need your advice, or even want it. Let them know that you are there if they need advice when they ask.

• Allow room for disappointment. Sometimes results don’t go as planned, and they may be disappointed- and that’s okay.

• Try to reduce the phone use. Especially at night. Implement a rule for the whole family to allow healthy phone use to become a habit, keeping phones out of bedrooms is one idea.

We know that school days are the best days of our lives, but we only know that with hindsight, so our students do not have that view yet. So allow room for their stress and concerns.

In time they will see that Nelson Mandela was right; education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.