19 minute read
Healthy rites of passage and safeguarding the wellbeing of students at Pymble
Dr Arne Rubinstein Rites of Passage Institute The Rites of Passage Institute has been working with Pymble since 2020 to implement programs that safeguard the wellbeing of students and supports each student through a Continuum of Care.
THERE ARE TWO KEY AIMS OF THIS PARTNERSHIP:
1. To build strong healthy communities at the College that include parents and staff, as well as students
2. To find ways to celebrate and support students as they go through key transitional times at the College
There is an increasing concern around the rise of mental health issues, especially amongst teenage girls. Beyond Blue (2021) reports that almost one-fifth of all young people aged 11 to 17 years, experience high or very high levels of psychological distress. Additionally, 19.9 per cent of all young people (11 to 17 years) had high or very high levels of psychological distress in the previous 12 months, however, for females aged 16 to 17 years and young people with major depressive disorder, this was significantly higher (36.2 per cent and 80.7 per cent respectively). Furthermore, research from the Black Dog Institute (2021) outlines that more than 40 per cent of Year 12 students report symptoms of anxiety and depression higher than the normal range for their age group. The burden of serious mental health illness is borne more heavily by young females than males. Furthermore, this research shows that students at greater risk of mental health issues are more likely to seek help from the internet than from parents and health care professionals.
The work we are doing together aims to address these key issues and give the students long term benefits by: • Creating a strong sense of belonging • Teaching key 21st century life skills • Providing a safe environment, physically and emotionally • Helping students become aware of their gifts and talents, their genius and spirit.
Open invitation
We would like to offer an open invitation to Illuminate readers to enjoy free access to our best selling six-part online program: A Journey Into Rites of Passage if you would like to deepen your understanding of the work. Please use the following coupon code: PYMBLE_ACCESS when you register so that there is no charge. Research from the National University of Singapore, the Future Ready Report (2017) shows that final academic outcomes are not the sole major determinant of a student’s future success. 21st Century life skills including resilience, a growth mindset, emotional intelligence and having a purpose beyond self are increasingly relevant. With the rapidly increasing impact of technology and artificial intelligence, human qualities are what will differentiate those who can truly thrive in the future.
In this article, we are going to discuss why healthy rites of passage processes are critical in addressing these growing concerns for our girls. We will also provide an outline of the research into the roles that educational institutions and school communities play in supporting these processes, as well as research backed context on the therapeutic benefits of vulnerable story sharing.
A PARTNERSHIP OF CARE
Pymble Ladies’ College and the Rites of Passage Institute have been working together to implement key practices into the College culture. The purpose behind this partnership, and integrating these practices into the everyday setting, is to allow for a gradual and sustainable shift towards building a deeper sense of community among staff, students and parents, and creating a truly safe space for the students to deeply thrive. With this shift, the environment creates a sense of belonging and trust for the students, helps them access their unique gifts and talents, and teaches them key 21st century life skills to equip them for life after school. Part of the process involves creating opportunities for students to review their personal narratives and identify parts that are no longer appropriate, such as behaviours that no longer serve them. Another key outcome is to provide safe, accessible opportunities for students to seek help in times of need.
During 2021, the theme has been ‘Sharing our Stories, and Golden Checkins’. By threading the Rites of Passage framework into the existing wellbeing curriculum and creating opportunities to highlight some key milestone moments in students’ journeys, we are able to go deeper into supporting the students to strengthen their sense of self, discover their potential, build resilience and create healthy relationships. This theme will continue to be built upon as the various practices across the College become embedded and embodied.
RITES OF PASSAGE
Rites of passage are designed to celebrate and support key transition moments in a person’s life. They consist of three key stages: • Separation from day-to-day life • Transformation through personal growth • Integration back into the community.
SEPARATION
School camps are ideal for students to have time out from normal activities and to create Rites of Passage. The purchase of Vision Valley has given the College a perfect venue for this work and creates multiple, exciting opportunities.
The staff and teachers have been looking for creative ways to build the framework into an online setting and have been focusing more deeply on the story telling component for 2021. Heads of Schools are exploring ways to mark key transition moments, such as moving from one sub-school to the next, welcoming in new joiners or Boarders, transitioning students into leadership years and honouring birthdays. What would have been created in the camp setting, is also being created within the everyday school setting. As the world shifts towards a post-COVID environment, we aim to create many more in-person events, where we can experientially design Rites of Passage opportunities in which students and families can engage.
TRANSFORMATION CHALLENGES
The Transformation stage of a Rite of Passage has four key elements: • Storytelling • Appropriate Challenges • Creating a Vision • Honouring and recognising each individual for their gifts and talents.
THE POWER OF STORIES
Many teenagers don’t appreciate being lectured at, told how to act, what to do or how to think. Storytelling is an alternative means for communicating wisdom, teachings and lessons that offers teenagers an opportunity to learn without the adult coming across as dogmatic, preachy or controlling.
Stories are storehouses of information with many layers of learning and messages that sit within them. Stories allow for multiple interpretations, offering participants the freedom to choose what they take away from the story. We need to create the right environment for students to explore and understand more about their own personal narratives so that they have agency into the future. Otherwise, the risk is that their lives will be impacted by incorrect beliefs that not only stop them from reaching their potential, but also cause them to make unhealthy life choices with long term consequences. Participant sharing allows people to identify shared values, experiences and commonalities, which cultivates empathy in the listener – ultimately strengthening relationships and a sense of belonging within the group. Creating healthy and safe opportunities for challenges are a great way for students to try new things. They can push boundaries, build resilience and a sense of self-efficacy and confidence, they can learn resilience, find courage and work together with other people. Young people want and need challenges, and even if they struggle and don’t appear to be enjoying it at the time, the sense of achievement and satisfaction afterwards is very important. Every student is different and the challenge for the facilitator is to make sure that each student completes the challenge safely and gets the most out of it. However, the actual challenge is just the beginning. It’s what the students learn about themselves and are able to take into their future lives that is the really valuable opportunity.
CREATING A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Making the space to create a vision for the future is a powerful way for students to consciously think about how they want to be at the next stage of their lives. It is an opportunity for them to think about what they want to bring into their lives, what sort of things they want to be doing, and how they want to be in key life relationships with family, friends and future partners. It is also an opportunity for students to identify behaviours they have that they are ready to let go of, and which no longer serve them, as well as starting to identify what they are going to need to do in order to achieve the vision that they have created. This creates a healthy, positive mindset of how the student would like to move forward.
HONOURING
An honouring process is a way of recognising and acknowledging the unique gifts and talents of each student. It is a process whereby each girl is recognised by either parents, staff or peers and that gives her the opportunity to hear from others what they see in her, what they admire in her, what they are proud of about her and what they love about her. Honouring is a powerful tool that can have a life-changing effect.
Being deeply seen and appreciated is a core need of human beings, and when this is done well and with intentionality, the experience and energy has the ability to uplift the whole community. In today’s world of social media challenges and the modern pressures on our youth and families, the requirement to return to recognition and appreciation has never been more paramount. Through the Rites of Passage framework, we bring back this memory and practice, and elevate one another and the community in deeply meaningful ways.
RETURN AND INTEGRATION TO THE COMMUNITY
The Integration stage of a Rite of Passage can be the most difficult, but – in many ways – is the most important. Once the students have participated in an event such as a school camp or have taken part in a weekly or monthly practice within their peer or Compass Group, a key outcome to be realised is that they have not only learnt through the experience that they have had, but that they understand how to bring this learning and positive benefit back out into their lives moving forward. Throughout history, the use of circles and storytelling as a method of communicating respectfully and meaningfully has been utilised by many traditions and cultures. Until the beginning of recorded history, a mere 3,000 years ago, stories were shared exclusively via verbal means. In recent times, stories have moved from oral, to written and now into visual media, especially in Western culture.
We need to create the right environment for students to explore and understand more about their own stories or personal narratives so that they have agency into the future. Otherwise, the risk is that their lives will be impacted by incorrect beliefs that not only stop them from reaching their potential, but also cause them to make unhealthy life choices with long term consequences. In a study conducted by Ohlmann and Kwee (2014), participants connected through their shared stories, which normalised experiences that previously had been described as isolating. These stories were no longer characterised as vulnerable, but instead as an expressed source of felt wisdom and emotional strength. The transformation of narratives from vulnerability into a source of felt resilience was enabled in part through the bonds of trust established early on within the group. A common issue amongst teenagers is the stigma associated with emotions and vulnerability. A student may have been told that sharing emotions or vulnerability is a sign of weakness and, therefore, this student may be experiencing serious emotional challenges that they are not sharing with anyone. Despite an external appearance of everything being ok, this student may be at significant risk of a serious mental health issue or even self-harm. Emotional vulnerability is characterised as not only beneficial but fundamentally necessary to facilitate the opportunity for individuals to explore their multistoried lives (Fook, 2016).
All young people (and people of all ages) have a narrative that determines their actions, beliefs and values. This narrative has been created as they have grown up from their experience in family, school, with friends and through cultural influences including technology and social media. Some of this narrative will be healthy but there will also be parts that are genuinely unhealthy, having arisen out of inappropriate experiences and will lead to inappropriate behaviours.
An example of a ‘healthy narrative’ may be that a student who learns through one of their parents that everything has a solution or a ‘silver lining’, goes on to see challenges in
THE POWER OF STORIES
DR ARNE RUBINSTEIN
a positive way, learns from them and is generally optimistic about life. This student has a critical 21st century life skill that will support their resilience as well as their ability to function in difficult and changing environments.
An example of an ‘unhealthy narrative’ may be that a student who, despite actually being highly capable, received a message when they were young from a parent, or teacher or even friends, that they always got things wrong. This student may have low self-esteem and extreme anxiety around doing new things, especially in front of others. They are at great risk of making choices that keep them from growing and their selfworth could become dangerously low during their teenage years and beyond.
When participating in a circle and storytelling scenario, people are able to identify shared values, experiences, and commonalities, which cultivates empathy in the listener ultimately strengthening relationships and a sense of belonging within the group. Storytelling and narrative practice creates the experience of witnessing one’s problems as external from oneself. The practice of externalising problems from people is not a therapeutic skill. Rather it is an ethical choice that ensures problems are firmly separated outside of individuals and instead placed in the realm of culture (Williams and Baumgartner, 2014). Circles create spaces where students are able to express their feelings, experiences and vulnerability, as well as listen attentively to others, thereby allowing their internal challenges to be received and held by the group.
Through the in-depth training that the Pymble staff have attended, the ability to set up and hold safe Circles is embedded within the College. As the students learnt to trust in the safe space, and learn from one another, the opportunity to genuinely support the students on their journey becomes more available to the staff. Additionally, as we transition into a post-COVID world, and we are able to connect more in person, opportunities for parents to participate in this ancient tradition will become available, and the integration of this tool into homes becomes easily accessible for all. The power, potency and magic of Circles and Storytelling can work its way through all layers of the community.
References
Fook, J. (2016), Social work: A critical approach to practice. Sage Publications: London. Ohlmann, C., Kwee, J., & Lees, R., (2014). Listening for the voices of resilience: A group of adolescents’ experiences with a suicide prevention education program. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies. 5. 24-46. Williams, B.D., & Baumgartner, B. (2014). Standing on the shoulders of giants: Narrative practices in support of frontline community work with homelessness. Mental health and substance use. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies 5(2), p. 240–257. If, on their return, nothing changes or nobody at home or school is aware of the shifts that may have taken place for them, and everyone goes on to treat them the same as they were, there is a danger that the student may slip back to where they were before and become demotivated and wonder about the point of the activity.
It is critical that the lessons and insights are integrated in order to truly gain the benefits on offer. Integration activities can range from organising a special welcome home dinner on the student’s return and setting up intentional time for them to share their stories and learnings. Perhaps the family can collectively create a vision together or write letters to their future self that are taken out a few weeks or months later? Perhaps a follow-up call or gathering to allow for the students to share their stories of what has been different for them since their experience? Or privileges and responsibilities shift in alignment with the growing young adult or child? Bringing intentionality to the students’ return and supporting them by meeting them in their growth phase and shifting the dynamic within the family or environment to honour the process, creates the right environment for the learnings to take deep root.
THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN EDUCATING STUDENTS IN KEY 21ST CENTURY LIFE SKILLS AND EMOTIONAL RESILIENCY
Research conducted with Pymble’s parent community by MMG Education showed that a focus on student wellbeing was just as important as the quality of teaching when it came to the reason parents chose the school.
Outside of the immediate environment and support offered to youth by families and home life, schools provide the primary source of environmental protective conditions available to youth (Henderson, 2012). Educational institutions are the primary space for acculturation experienced by youth as they shift towards utilising peers, rather than family, as the main source of social interaction (Lynch et. al., 2013). Therefore, the perceived health of the community within an academic environment has a direct impact on the success and wellbeing experienced by youth.
When youth see their environments as safe and welcoming, they are inclined to invest within established norms of pro-social interaction. While in contrast, students who see their school environments as unwelcoming, or even dangerous, are more likely to disengage as a direct result of the weak social bonds (Lynch et. al., 2013). Cultivating a strong and close community within a school setting which is aligned with the work the school is embarking on to meet the needs of the whole child is a critical component of ensuring the students have a deep sense of belonging and trust within their worlds.
Schools that cultivate a positive social ecology consistently produce better academic and social outcomes (Henderson, 2012). Some of the key elements include feeling safe, having access to supportive relationships, meaningful membership within the school community, clear rules/ boundaries, and an inherent ethos of caring for one another. Through developing these qualities, Pymble can take intentional action toward ensuring their learning environments are genuinely safe spaces that enable the establishment of communal bonds.
Youth who perceive their teachers as supportive and respectful have been shown to have positive opinions of their overall school environment (Lynch et. al., 2013). The causal relationship between established social bonds and student participation further applies to the relationship established between students and faculty. Students experience better outcomes when they feel supported by school faculty. This is highlighted through the role teachers hold in fostering student resiliency. The establishment of caring relationships between faculty and students positively affects the holistic wellbeing experienced by an entire student population.
However, it has been illustrated that the benefits of these caring relationships are best maintained when schools make a conscious investment in the supportive roles teachers play in the lives of their students (Henderson, 2013). Pymble Ladies’ College has demonstrated its deep commitment to investing in the cultivation of these relationships by engaging the Rites of Passage Institute to assist in building the framework into the College’s Mind Body Spirit curriculum. Through the various trainings that have been experienced by all the staff and teachers, as well as a range of keynotes, tools and resources that are available to parents, Pymble is deepening into the integration of these practices and will be able to identify the benefits in due course.
This will continue to allow for the culture and community of Pymble to deepen, and to safeguard the wellbeing of our youth. Research has identified that outside of the family, teachers and coaches are often identified as the primary source of positive adult support (Theron & Engelbrecht, 2012) . Through investing in teacher-student relationships, schools take an active role in shaping the social ecosystems embedded within their institutions. The relationships cultivated within schools on an institutional level are of critical importance in the development of youth as they transition toward adulthood. By creating structured spaces such as Story Circles and camps at Vision Valley, Pymble is providing an opportunity to cultivate collective resiliency where students are empowered to build positive communal bonds. Structured peer interaction can facilitate the development of emotional growth, which contributes toward improved academic outcomes (Lynch et. al., 2013).
The importance of providing support for all forms of learning is reflected in current research on emotional intelligence and its correlation to overall academic outcomes (MacCann et. al., 2020). Research shows that students who are given the opportunity to develop attributes related to emotional intelligence, particularly emotional understanding, perform better academically. Creating a structured space for emotional and social growth supports the development of all forms of intelligence, however, most schools overwhelmingly support two well-known modes of intelligence, verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical, while comparatively neglecting the other modes of learning (Henderson 2012). Academic institutions are best situated to improve overall outcomes through the provision of not only the required academic framework, but also through the opportunity to create the space for emotional intelligence development. This can be achieved through the implementation of Circles where students can learn from one another by sharing their stories within the context of narrative practice.
CONCLUSION
Pymble Ladies’ College has proactively and boldly responded to the growing volatility that is the world that our children are growing up in. By engaging with the Rites of Passage Institute, and training the community on these simple and yet effective techniques and practices, the school is proactively responding to the importance of raising the whole child through the schooling journey. As the journey together continues to deepen over the coming years, and parents, staff and teachers come to understand their role in supporting this process more fully, the realisation of the benefits as outlined within this article will be experienced.
When done well, and done together, we can transform the lives of our youth, bringing back the meaning of community, belonging and impacting all future generations to come. We look forward to continuing this exciting journey together,
From the team at The Rites of Passage Institute
References
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Springer, New York, NY. 5. Lynch, A. D., Lerner, R. M., & Leventhal, T. (2013). Adolescent academic achievement and school engagement: An examination of the role of school-wide peer culture.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(1), 6-19.
6. Theron, L. C., & Engelbrecht, P. (2012).
Caring teachers: Teacher–youth transactions to promote resilience. In The social ecology of resilience (pp. 265-280).
Springer, New York, NY. 7. MacCann, C., Jiang, Y., Brown, L. E. R.,
Double, K. S., Bucich, M., & Minbashian,
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