Shut Up I Am Listening to You

[Applause]

i know what you’re thinking

socially distanced auditorium

exponential graph

showing the uk the usa and sweden

right at the top you could be forgiven

in 2020

if you’re sitting there thinking he’s

going to talk about the disease right

well if we put our selective attention

bias to one side

you’d actually be half right but this

outbreak

did not start in the last 12 months

loneliness is not a new affliction

in fact many years before her death

mother teresa said

that loneliness was the most dangerous

of all human diseases

and whilst we must be careful to not

confuse loneliness

with aloneness as we can see here there

is a rapid rise

in the number of people who are going to

be living on their own

and therefore we could be expecting to

see

a new social epidemic appear on the

horizon

the data suggests we are not there yet

however

we should begin to prepare now for this

new challenge

connecting people and supporting those

who are either living alone

or who will no longer get their sense of

belonging

from their household unit we can’t rely

on governments

to provide this solution so we must as

members of the community

stand up and look for ways that we can

provide this

and where better to learn how to do this

than in our schools

now schools are a microcosm of the

society that they serve

however in one area they are coming up

short

whereas a well-functioning civil society

encourages us to stand up

speak out and take action schools have

often been guilty

of being one-way streets where the flow

of information ideas

and direction comes purely from the

teachers

to the students

so how do we address this well it wasn’t

actually always that way

back in 350 bc plato actually ensured

there was student representation in his

academy and he did this

through a rotating leadership of

students elected

by a secret ballot we can look to modern

education

john dewey the american philosopher in

1917

who wrote about the inclusion of

democracy in our schools

and many schools listened and i think

you’d agree that it’s hard to go to any

school

in europe america or international

schools

and not find a student council sitting

alongside

the adult equivalent so problem solved

right

wrong in a recent study of 66

000 students 40 percent still claimed

that they felt they had little or no

voice

and one-third of students said they felt

persistent painful feelings of

loneliness

so why is this well if we look at

student councils they actually suffer

the same practical problems that our

adult equivalents do

for example although the election and

the campaigning is really exciting

it often gets reduced to a beauty

pageant or a popularity contest

and as a result when the party’s over

students often complain that they’re no

longer given the time and space

not only to meet as a leadership

committee but to meet with their

constituents

to listen to new problems and bring

those up the chain

student leaders are rarely given the

training they need

and as a result if you attend a

student-led meeting they often struggle

to get past the first item on the agenda

and just descend into

long conversations about problems with

the school canteen

or inadequate toilet facilities

some students do say that they are

invited to discuss meteor

issues however again they sometimes feel

it is merely a

tick box exercise and they are just

there to rubber stamp

a decision that has already effectively

been decided

by those higher up as a result some

researchers say

that student councils may do more harm

than good

to uh to the students because it

actually reaffirms that authentic

student voice

remains out of reach now that’s not true

of all student councils and many of

those practical implications

could be addressed but there does remain

two

structural issues that are much harder

to escape

the first is a construction bias and by

this i mean

who was it that set up the design and

structure of your student council

was it the students that decided how

many representatives there would be

how you would be elected and what would

be your remit

very often the answer is no and this

leads to a second problem

a form of state capture or

self-fulfilling prophecy

as a result of this many students aren’t

interested in student councils

and those that are are those who are

already thriving

under the status quo and therefore have

a lot of their own social capital

already so this means that even in the

best schools with a fully functioning

student council there remains

representational blind spots

now it’s not just schools that report

this problem and ernesto cirelli in his

fantastic ted talk on sustainable

development

said that the smartest most passionate

local people

don’t go to community meetings

he was talking about student

entrepreneurs

and he his solution was to take to the

streets to find them

now i think that our solution looks

slightly different in schools

i picture this as the neurons in a brain

where only

part of the mind is firing and other

elements lay dark

and dormant and our solution is to

create new pathways for students

to engage in their school firing them up

and bringing the school to life

i believe there are three ways that we

can do this the first

is to encourage and foster student-led

social enterprises now

entrepreneurs by their very nature

always looking around for opportunities

to meet consumer demand and student

entrepreneurs

are uniquely placed to be able to listen

and understand the needs of their peers

and there is no better incentive than

profit and cash to be able to motivate

them

to meet this goal however

if we ask them to set their business up

as social enterprises

and require them to give something back

then

not only does that create a bond with

their

with their school community but gives

them that sense of meaning

i’ll give you an example up here in this

picture

it’s quite blurry because i took it

while i was being pushed by a throng of

students

trying to get to the front of a sale of

house hoodies

before the stocks ran out now the

students at the heart of this

this was not their first business

venture and in fact their empire also

contained a bricks and mortar shop that

sold stationary and snacks

and a suite of smart vending machines

littered across the school

now what was interesting is at the heart

of this

were six students two generations of

final year students

one passing the leadership to the next

and only one of those six

was also a formal member of the school

prefect team

in fact three were also identified as

students of concern

at the start of their high school years

however through their engagement with

the community

by setting up these businesses while

they let by the time they left

they’re in a very different position and

that wasn’t just because of how

successful they were

at meeting consumer demand but it was

how thoughtful they were

in the ways they gave back to the senior

students

they had a free fruit bowl in the ib

common room every day

to junior school they sponsor remote

control cars for a stem project

and they even funded 16 hardwood

benches and chairs to create an outdoor

canteen space

as their legacy when they left a second

pathway for students

is to consider passing over

the running development and delivery

of community events from our staff

to an empowered student body now it’s

not new

to have a committee to set up the school

prom

but why stop there from discos

to the sports day the entire intramural

or house competition

would be better run by an empowered

student body

now the key to getting this right is to

ensuring it is as

close to 100 percent run by students

as possible now unfortunately this means

that

you will face the brunt and the pain and

stress

that comes with delivering a project on

time

and to budget but it is the students

that will soak up

all of those plaudits when they run a

successful event

and hopefully this fires them up to not

only deliver more at school

but when they leave finally the third

pathway

is for schools to not just allow but to

actively encourage

student activism in whichever form they

want it to appear

written solutions are the most authentic

feedback that we have

and not only empowers that student but

those around them

who may be suffering in silence one

student i know

set up a group called girl talk which

was a safe space

for students to attend to talk about

issues at school

now she insisted to have no advertising

except for word of mouth she felt that

was essential

so that those who may want to attend

understood that it was separate

from other official school committees

and organizations

within two months two members of the

lgbt community

approached her and asked how they could

set up their own space

six months later not only did they have

this

but they had secured funding from for

the student leaders to receive

counselling so they were better uh they

were better able to advise younger

students who are approaching them

with problems so what do schools do

if they want to foster this sort of

culture that is conducive

to this type of student agency i think

there are four things

the first is to set them the challenge

i think schools should consider writing

a second student mission statement

that sits alongside the schools but this

one

should put the students right at the

center and define you

as active change agents within it and

then you should be tasked

with becoming that change agent secondly

schools should just say yes say yes

and clear the path rather than dishing

out the red tape and putting out hurdles

for

students schools should make it a policy

to say yes to all student-led

initiatives

that they come up with and instead

reassign their administrators

for working out what roadblocks need to

be cleared

to give the students the best chance

success

thirdly why don’t we consider

repositioning

staff leaders to become consultants and

coaches for students

our schools are filled with adult

experts who can help with finance

marketing and organization

and they can act in the same way as

incubator organizations do for start-up

companies

and in doing so that student has a staff

champion

whenever they may need to call on it

now finally i believe that schools need

to be mindful

that success should not be judged by the

outcome

but by the process this is my final

point

but i think it should be the first words

that come out of the school’s mouth

business research shows that many firms

fail to harness the creativity

and entrepreneurial spirit of their

employees because they only

celebrate successful ideas after they’ve

become successful

the cost of failure is too big for many

to put up their hand

so schools need to be mindful of this we

need to celebrate

a new student idea as soon as it’s

initiated

and celebrate it again in the early

stages

not only should this motivate the

student to stay the course but it should

fire

up those around them to put their good

ideas into practice

as a result of following these four

steps i believe

we can create richer school communities

full of students

that have a greater sense of belonging

to their school

and are better equipped to find that

sense of belonging

in their wider communities and through

belonging

we can begin to cure loneliness thank

you