Teaching Optimism to Children

 
The Ensemble seeks to connect and inform all people who are committed to ensemble music education for youth empowerment and social change.

Teaching Optimism to Children

04-20-2018

Optimism helps children deal well with difficulty, and we can teach it.

This simple claim by Lorea Martinez, a special education consultant with expertise in socio-emotional learning, is described in

the following article from Edutopia:

https://www.edutopia.org/article/optimism-learnable-skill

The article provides three primary strategies for teachers:

  • Increase students’ awareness that they have multiple choices in challenging situations
  • Help students become aware of their internal explanations for things, whether they are optimistic or pessimistic
  • Strengthen students’ abilities to re-frame pessimistic explanations with optimistic ones.

I’m sure we can all think of students in Sistema students who could benefit from these practices. Be sure to check out the article to learn more, and let us know if you incorporate any of these into your teaching!